Big Block Bantam

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Nice frame & rollbar tubing work. I hope the fiberglass seats will fit, I just think they are a good look for a street/strip Bantam. When you finish it be assured it will sell. [;)

Good down payment on a Southern winter spot :cool:

Keep up the great work & keep in mind, if you did it all correct the first time what would you have to do tomorrow?[S
 
Hey Bob, how does making the frame wider give you more room? Is it because the tub mounting surface is now farther outboard? ...trying to make sure I have it right in my head.
 
Hey Bob, how does making the frame wider give you more room? Is it because the tub mounting surface is now farther outboard? ...trying to make sure I have it right in my head.

Good question, Flpper. BTW welcome back. By moving the kick up in the frame back it allowed the seats to be moved back, creating more leg room. But it put the seats between the wheel wells. I moved the wheels out an inch per side and will put the new wheel tubs pretty close to the slicks, gaining 5" in hip and shoulder space.

Today was an "off" day so nothing accomplished.

To the UDS members that are waiting for this thing to run, it could happen....someday.
 
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The new wheel tubs are almost complete. Because I raised the back of the body a filler piece is needed between the body and frame. In the 3rd pic you can see some sheet metal clamped in the rear. That's tomorrow's project.
 

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Nice wheel tubs, Bob. Looking forward to seeing you & Dave seated in the new configuration. The whole area just looks bigger, more leg & shoulder
room.[;)[cl:)
 
Still picking away at it. I had a bunch of skin cancer spots frozen on my face and arms so I have been holding back to avoid infections in those spots. Nevertheless, I was able to modify most of the floor panels to fit the new configuration. Next is mounting the seats and on to the rest of the roll cage.
 

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Looking real nice Bob, as I said before looking forward to seeing seats in their new location. If needed to mount seats lower I have build lower seat mounts And plated below them to keep race tech happy. [;):D[cl
 
Not much progress to show for two days work. Tried in vain to fit the fiberglass buckets in there. Had to give it up and return to the home made seat frames which are quite a bit smaller. I trimmed all the brackets off from the previous attempts to install them and finally have an arrangement that will work. The third pic is the roadster pickup waiting for a brake bleed, a driveshaft and some final assembly. The throw together roadster body will sit til next year.
 

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Glad you tried the glass bucket seats so you know for sure that they would not work. :mad: Most say that with the frame & wheel tub modification the home made seats look like they provide quite a bit more leg & shoulder space. Now to see what it all looks like with the roll cage in place.[;) Keep up the good work, I'll be watching.[P[P[P
 
Probably not photo worthy but here it is anyway. Cut and fishmouthed the front-to-back tubes. Rough cut and fishmouthed the upper ends of the rear down tubes.
Now making shock mounts as the shocks have to be relocated.
 

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Ya Bob, like Dr C said, "Gotta love building roll cages in a door car". [;)[;)[;)
Looking good, keep up the fine work.[P[P[P
 
The cage isn't too hard to weld with the open roof, as Dr. C pointed out. I just can't make MIG welds look good on tubing joints. Not like TIG welding which I don't do. Today I tacked the shock brackets in place. The firewall has been dished for distributor clearance. Thank you for everyone who has commented.
 

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