Fiat, Second Time Around

[42chevy]

I can't hardly believe you made those tabs without fancy toools. You sir are my hero. I love to see things done like this, I think I could do that and I would never have thought so till I saw yours. Very great tech, thanks for sharing.

 

[rainman]

You could make you some plastic side skirts to give the apperance of it being lower (like a circle track car). Looks great as is though.

 

[BigIrish]

I like the stance alot. Looking real good, I'll be keeping an eye on this one [dr

 

[ratdog]

Looks great already,should be very cool when its done.

 

[Gregster]

any more to report ?

 

[bob w]

Gregster, since you asked...I spent the morning knocking dents out of the Plymouth truck box (different build thread). When I got tired of that, I moved over to the Fiat and made tabs for the upper coilover mounts on the front end. Started making tabs for the lower a-arms. The lower A-arms are designed for stock Mustang II coils and the existing tabs are intended for shock mounting only. Need something more substantial to hold the weight of the front of the car.

 

[bob w]

Well, the brackets shown above didn't work. Neither did the second attempt. Finally I got the coilovers mounted to the home brew IFS for the Fiat.

 

[bob w]

There's some welding remaining. The rack & pinion steering won't be mounted until the chassis is built and the engine is in place. Then I can "aim" it away from any obstructions. Monday I ordered a die set so I can bend 1-5/8" tubing. It arrived Thursday. Great service from JD Squared in Tenessee.

 

[rainman]

I may have missed something but how are you going to get you're camber adjustment? looks really good.

 

[bob w]

Got a 4 by 8 sheet of plywood today and made a "frame table". The body is sitting at ride height. Being a race body, it is far from square. The plan is to make the chassis square and true and let the body fall where it may.
I bent the main roll bar hoop and it had "tucks" along the outer edge of the bend. So I measured the material and it is 1 1/4" pipe, not 1 5/8" tubing. It is just enough larger in diameter that it doesn't fit the die set properly.
Yesterday I bought some 1 5/8" DOM and it bent perfectly. Even got the hoop width right.[cl

 

[bob w]

I ran a string down the centerline of the outside tubes. Everything will be lined up and squared to the centerline string.
rainman, regarding camber and caster; I have built that in as I tacked the upper a-arms in position. Ran the a-arms through the full length of travel and the camber at the rotor stays within 1 1/2degrees of vertical. It is 0 degrees at ride height. You'll notice the upper a-arm tabs are just tacked, in case I have to "adjust" after I get the chassis built.

 

[bob w]

The wood block under the front crossmember wasn't stable enough (shown in Frame 31 above) so I welded some 2" by 4" legs on it and blocked it in with furring strips so it would stay in place. Welded in some braces to tie the inner frame rails together.

 

[bob w]

Of course, the main hoop wasn't quite the right width. I used a Porta-Power to spread the legs a bit.

 

[bob w]

The outer frame rails pick up the roll cage. The body will mount to them too. I notched the tubing with an angle grinder with a thin cut off wheel and finished off with a die grinder. A bit slow but very accurate.
More roll cage work tomorrow. It's very slow work because I hate turning expensive tubing into scrap. Also, with the car being so small it is important to tuck the cage out of the way as much as possible.

 

[CORPO]

bob, it looks great!

 

[bob w]

More tubes. Got the halo bar around the roofline in. Also the dash bar and the upright pipes that run down the A pillars.

 

[bob w]

The upper tubes from the a-arm mounts to the dash bar are installed. Motor mounts are installed. Just need gussets. Next will be diagonals to stiffen up the front. Need to leave room for headers though.

 

[bob w]

I have to take a pic of the whole thing now and then to keep my enthusiasm up. Cutting and notching pipe all day isn't too much fun.

 

[wendle]

Cutting and notching pipe all day isn't too much fun.

Grab yourself a cheap holesaw tube notcher. Harbor Freight do a cheap one in your hemisphere which works well.
I use them for full tube rockcrawler chassis, realistically it takes about a minute to clamp the tube in, notch it, and remove it.

 

[bob w]

I used a notcher when I built my dragster chassis a couple years ago. I intended to borrow it for this project. Then, I decided to do just a little building on it while waiting for parts for my truck project to get sandblasted. So I cut a couple notches with a 4 1/2" angle grinder with a thin cut off wheel. And finished the notches off with a die grinder. Once I got started I couldn't quit. Now, the truck project is waiting while I keep building this chassis. It is just too much fun building this chassis and I've become pretty skilled using the primative notching technique.