Thread: The Roofus Special

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That car looks like it's going to be a blast to drive. I had an 87 XJ6 and was suprised how much power it had for an inline six. You're doing a great job, Flipper.

I played with the front end some more. I thought I wanted a t-bucket type spring perch to mount the front srping and a seperate crossmember down low to mount the rack and pinion. I was planning on making a splash apron below the the spring crossmember to hide the rack.







The piece pictured was 2x4. It seeme too bulky so I grabbed a piece of 2x3 and trimmed it to fit between the frame rails. I didn't bother taking pics. It just looked wrong. The straight line going across the front of the car did not play well fith the swoop shapes.

So I scrounged around the various junk piles and pulled out a 4x4 transfercase crossmember out of a WW2 era Dodge ambulance (everybody has one of those right?). It kinda looked like a model T rear spring perch, but was way bigger. I cut a piece out of the middle and tried it on for size.

It is going to span between the lower a-arms and the spring will be mounted above the crossmember.

Here it is mocked up, centered under the spring.

I also tried it slid forward and rearward to see what grabbed me. (The gray piece in the pic is the 2x3 crossmember I tried. I tried it mound on top of the upper frame rails and also from the bottom side of the upper frame rails...it just looked wrong)

Forward




Rearward




I liked it best slid to the rear.

So now that I had an idea of how the spring was going to be attached, I neede to sort out where everything else was going to be.

The radiator is a pretty important piece...so I threw it into the mock-up.









Just adding the radiator made it look more like a car.

...But the radiator that far back just didn't look right.

I assume you would make that out of 10 or 12 gauge steel? I think that would be plenty strong enough.

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

I assume you would make that out of 10 or 12 gauge steel? I think that would be plenty strong enough.

I was thinking 3/16"

Overkill?

Overkill?? Maybe a little, but you'll never have to worry about it stress-cracking. 10 gauge is 1/8" thick; 3/16" is 50% thicker and at least 50% stronger. Go for it.

If anybody has any great ideas on how to mount the rack or how to make the bulkhead look cooler/be stronger, please tell me your ideas today.

In the morning, I plan on cutting some steel and welding this thing up solid according to my latest sketch (maybe with belled lightening holes. I have to try the technique suggested by one of the guys on RRT first).

I must say that I really enjoy reading this thread, truly inspiring work! Keep the reports coming!!

Regards from the Arctic Cirle,
/Rikard

Originally Posted by rikard454

I must say that I really enjoy reading this thread, truly inspiring work! Keep the reports coming!!

Regards from the Arctic Cirle,
/Rikard

I'm glad you like it.

I could sure use a blast of artic air right now. It is too hot to play in an un-airconditioned shop. Project is on hold until cooler weather is back.

Well, up here it is only around 45 F right now but last week it was only half of that and I even saw a few snow flakes falling...

But I really like the project, both the style of the car and the fact that you used parts from an old Cadillac body :-)

Cheers!
/Rikard, North of Sweden

Nice job, Flip. It's coming along great! It's blazin hot here, too; can't hardly stand the garage right now, even with the big shop fan going.

Got a chance to put in a few more hours this weekend (after I cut dad's grass).

Worked on mounting the rack to the crossmember. I had to come up with nests to hold the rack in the proper location.

more cop car roll bar to the rescue.







a whole lot of grinding and hand filing

mocked up to the crossmember



little piece used for the other end. had to tighten up the radius to fit the rack tube.