Thread: Project Sebring GT Spyder

Tweet

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the kind words. Makes all the effort worth it.

Anyone that has built a car knows that plans sometimes change and the firewall project is no exception. I'm always reevaluating what I'm doing and looking for a way to build something that functions better, looks better or maybe is just easier. I had originally intended to use the fiberglass firewall that came with the car and add some metal bracing behind it.



I knew I was probably going to have to make a few alterations to the firewall, but as the potential mods to the fiberglass part added up, I decided it would look better and might even be easier (yea, right) to just fabricate an entirely new firewall out of metal. Going in this direction will allow me to make the foot wells both wider and longer. This is great for my big feet. Since this car was designed to accept a bunch of different engines, the engine compartment was made bigger at the expense of foot room. Since I've locked in on the LS engine, I could use all the room available. Tiny foot wells are kind of typical for most of the Brit cars I've driven though, so it may just be a carry over from the original Healeys. They were pretty limited in foot room, too.

The extra length on the passenger side wasn't really needed since my wife is shorter than me and I don't plan to be riding on that side very much. The plan is, right now, to install a false toe board and use the space behind it as a raceway for the heater and AC hoses.

The trans tunnel originally had some 1" square tubing braces that ran from the top of the tunnel, around the engine and angled down to the front frame rails. These had to removed to enlarge the foot wells, so I had to try and add that support back into the new setup. I made the lower half of the firewall out of 16 gauge steel to help with this, but I will most likely have add some more bracing. I'm still thinking about that and may have to wait until some more components are added to see where I have room.

The upper half of the firewall will be made from aluminum. It's lighter and a lot easier to work with. I'll be making it from several panels and these will be riveted together with aircraft type rivets. I like the look of these. I'm temporarily fastening panels as they are completed with a few aluminum pop rivets since they are easily drilled out. My supply of Clecos is limited and they get in the way if you don't really need the quick release ability.



The passenger side foot well was pretty easy. You can see where the new sections are welded in and the extra tunnel area I added to clear an automatic if I ever need one. This may not look like a lot of extra room, but it really makes a difference.

I started out welding the new steel parts in with my TIG machine, but the metal is so rusty and contaminated with whatever spray bomb coating the original builder used that I was having a tough time getting it clean enough to get a good weld. I was forced to drag out my ancient old MIG welder and was able to get some usable welds with ER70-6 wire. The -6 stuff has something in the mix that allows it to weld on dirtier metal. I had to argue with my MIG welder for quite a while before figuring out some settings that worked and had to replace a part inside the gun, but eventually got it to weld OK. I'm not real happy with the way the welds look, but they are sound and will be covered with Lizard Skin insulation in the end anyhow.

This is the reason the MIG welder was welding so poorly. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be melted like this. At some time in the past, some welding splatter must have fallen into the nozzle while I was welding overhead and shorted to this inner gas and wire guide. After it melted, I wasn't getting enough shielding gas.

I'm not a great fan of MIG because I like the precise control that TIG gives me and I don't like all the spatter you get with MIG, so this old machine rarely gets used. At 250 amps, my old Miller has plenty of welding power, but it's not a very sophisticated machine like the modern MIG welders. The new machines are simple to set, but this old machine has to be played with on scrap pieces to get it just right. I've tried the welding calculators that are available, but the voltage settings on my machine are pretty course and all the calculators do is get you in the ballpark. On smaller parts, most of the time, I can pick up my TIG torch and be finished with the job before I can get the old MIG welder set right. When you do take the time to get it set, it still does a pretty good job, though. I do use it on big jobs where I'm welding one thickness for most things. Once it's set, it's hard to beat the speed of MIG.

I did get part of the upper passenger side panel done. I'm rolling in a few beads just to stiffen them up and give a little decoration. These are made from .060 3003 aluminum. My bead roller seems to work pretty good on this thick material. I will say that this bead rolling stuff takes some practice. I'm learning, but have a long way to go before I'm doing some of the stuff you see on YouTube.



I noticed while I was fitting up this panel that access to the rear spark plug and header bolt on this side was going to be very tight and would probably require jacking up the engine to change. I solved this problem by cutting an access hole in that area and making a bolt on cover. This should make changing the plug easy.

Your rolling looks nice, I would like to get one of those. You are pretty much re-engineering this car, it's going to be nice.

Thanks V8. I wanted one for a long time before I got mine, too. Like most new fab tools, sometimes it takes a little while to retrain your brain to think in terms of what you can do. I'm slowly learning and You Tube videos have been a big help. At least they show what can be done with practice. Some of the purely art stuff may be outside of my talent. I seem to be better at "industrial" looking things.

More great work! When I built my Corvette, I made the passenger foot well area extended. I used steel for the lower and aluminum for the upper too. That was all great until I needed room to put a 2nd turbo on and that foot well area is now where a big turbo sits. The passengers have a tight ride. Haha I like the access hole. That's good thinking!

I've found that bead rolling can make you go through a lot of material if you get distracted. I had a bead roller but loaned it to a friend and never got it back. His wife sold it and all of his tools when she caught him cheating on her. That was just another reason to not loan things out anymore.

I know what you mean on mig welders. When I upgraded mine, I made a poor decision to buy one off my Matco guy because I was in a hurry. It is a Nutech and has 2 ground options. I didn't fully read the owner's manual but soon found out that one ground is for thinner metals, and the other is for thicker. If you use the incorrect one, it splatters horrid no matter what settings you change. The lay out charts don't work on it either. It's trial and error. I have notes written down to try and save time for when I need to weld different things. It sure makes me regret not getting another blue machine. My next one will be a tig that can do at least 1/4" aluminum. That will be a bit before I have that coin laying around. Haha

I have a friend who works at a welding supply and he can weld really nice looking beads with a mig, even on thin metal. I feel like stuff happens too fast and I just don't have complete control. I guess that's why I like tig because you can move slower, but a lot of things are just easier to weld with the mig.

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I had a bead roller but loaned it to a friend and never got it back. His wife sold it and all of his tools when she caught him cheating on her. That was just another reason to not loan things out anymore.

The last thing I ever loaned out was a Cherry Picker. The guy never brought it back and wouldn't answer his phone, so I drove around to his house. My picker was sitting out front of his house in the rain. I loaded it into my pickup and never, ever loaned anything to anybody again.
.

At least you got it back. Out in the rain, no respect at all. I remembered earlier, that my old boss still has my millermatic 185. Maybe someday I'll get some work out of him......

My ex-wife had a loser friend who asked if I had a a jig saw she needed for an arts and crafts project. She is very opinionated and self entitled. She had one way "her way", and turned any request into the thing a good person would do. I have a pretty nice jig saw I use for wood working projects, that is pretty sophisticated for what it is, and being porter cable, has brand specific blades. This same individual trashed me on my face book page implying because I owned guns, that I was insensitive to the Ct. mass shooting. She wouldn't stop with her postings until I de-friended her on Facebook, then she tried to "friend me" as her husband. My EX wife became anti 2nd amendment after meeting her(that was the beginning to the end of our marriage) anyway after all of her crap she wanted to borrow my jig saw. I told her that I don't loan tools to people for all of the above reasons mentioned, and because I personally didn't like her, and didn't appreciate pot shots with her extreme liberal friends when ever I was attending a party with my wife where she was also present. She then decided that I really must be a dick because I wouldn't lend her my tools. I pointed out the expense of the saw, and the blades and suggested she either rent on, or buy a cheap one from Harbor Freight, but that I would not lend my tools to anyone. Especially a non wood worker, for the potential of them breaking. At this point she started attacking my character, trying to guilt me into getting her way. I walked away from her, then she came at me thru my wife, with why won't you lend her your stuff. I pointed out to her that her friend borrowed stuff including my wife's truck all the time, and that the truck basically was so old the insurance agent said itf it got more than a 1000 dollars in damage that they would total it out. My wife said so what, I replied your friend doesn't have the money to fix or replace things. If she gets in an accident we lose our truck. She still didn't get it.
I refused to allow her to use anything of mine, and when my divorce did eventually come, I explained to my wife when she values her friends(with little or no person character) more than her family their is nothing left to maintain a marriage. I think she finally got it
The point is even people with the best intent can ruin a tool, which if they borrowed is probably something they can't afford. The more they borrow the worst they situation gets. Secondly people who don't own tools, probably lack the skill and knowledge to use them in a safe manner, or handle them properly with out breaking them, like when your wife borrows a screw driver to use as a pry bar and breaks it, or grabs a framing hammer to nail a picture hanger into a 150 year old plaster wall. You can't fix stupid, but you can protect your tools!
Lastly borrowing causes amnesia!

Originally Posted by stovens

Lastly borrowing causes amnesia!

You surely dribbled a bib-full there!

That is extremely quotable and worth remembering!

Don't you just love liberals? Most of them don't have enough common sense to come in out of the rain or pour piss out of a boot.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

Don't you just love liberals? Most of them don't have enough common sense to come in out of the rain or pour piss out of a boot.

With the instructions written on the heel.

Fixed it for you.

Steve been there. Hang tough, stay strong, stand your ground, don't back down.