Thread: The Roofus Special

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Then I remembered I still need to trim the crossmember more so it sits lower. The rack needs to go up more to clear the inner frame rails at that height.







The rack is not really hidden under the crossmember. This is where I stopped to think if this is really what I want to do.

I did a little more fitting this past weekend. I still need to make nests and clamps to secure the rack.

Oh yeah, the crossmember is upside down in these pics.







room for boots

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.

Both ends mocked up.



Everything cleaned up



Bzzzzzzzzz...bzzzzzzzz.....bzzzzzzzzz

This what it will look like on the car (I still need to make clamps to hold it in the nest).

What model/year Toyota did the rack come from??

Originally Posted by bannedleader

What model/year Toyota did the rack come from??

1994 Tercel with manual steering.

It is the same turns lock to lock and distance traveled as the stock jag box, but a lot more compact.

When I started this thing, the idea was to knock it out and drive it to Bonneville for speed week 2010. That didn't quite happen.

...but I am still going to speed week....and (maybe) the H A M B drags .....and then Frog Follies. It will be a month until I get back to Roofus. Hopefully the heat won't be as bad then.

Actually mounting the steering rack was one of things that I somewhat dreaded doing.

The arched front crossmember looked cool, but was not a very friendly location for clamping down the rack. But it was something that had to be done. ...so I did it.

The plan was to mount it with two clamps. One clamp would control front to back and sis to side posioning. The other would just be front to back.

Once again, the raw materials were junk from the barn. I think this piece of heavy wall tubing used to be a physical therapy machine that dad bought cheap at an auction (for the metal).





I decided to use 7/16 bolts for mounting it. He I am checking to see if I have room for these nuts. I ended up welding the nuts to the underside of the mounting bracket.


Here it is welded to the saddle that the rack tube rests in.


Now the other side of the saddle is tied to the crossmember


Even though this was some pretty heavy material, I gusseted one of the sides.

Same thing on the other side.







Now to start fabbing up the straps.

I started on the end that I just made the bases.



The other end of the straps will be secured by nuts and bolts through the flange of the crossmember.


just connect the dots.




...and then gusset the hell out of it so that the bends in the straps stay where they are supposed to be.


Other clamp done. Guset was done differently (clamp on this side is farther outboard...less ground clearance), but should be plenty beefy.






Boots look like crap.




But they are necessary


The spring should block out most of the view


Oh yeah, the u-bolts I bought were too small. They won't work

Nice work. That rack isn't going anywhere! Will you be cushioning the brackets with rubber? If you wrap a piece of old inner tube around the areas where the clamps are, it will eliminate the possibility of squeaks.

You can probably remove about half of the leaves in that spring, too. I would estimate that this car will weigh about half (or less) of what the car that it came from weighs. Also, you have the engine, etc. sitting behind the axle instead of on top of it which lessens the load on the spring.

Really looking forward to seeing this one on wheels...

Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Nice work. That rack isn't going anywhere! Will you be cushioning the brackets with rubber? If you wrap a piece of old inner tube around the areas where the clamps are, it will eliminate the possibility of squeaks.

You can probably remove about half of the leaves in that spring, too. I would estimate that this car will weigh about half (or less) of what the car that it came from weighs. Also, you have the engine, etc. sitting behind the axle instead of on top of it which lessens the load on the spring.

Really looking forward to seeing this one on wheels...

The straps are pretty snug as is, but I will probably do a rubber strip during final assembly.

Yeah, I'd be real surprised if the spring pack works as is. I figured it would require some adjustment. It sure would be nice if it worked as is though. I think it is "pretty".

Originally Posted by Flipper_1938

... It sure would be nice if it worked as is though. I think it is "pretty".

I agree; a leaf spring can be a thing of beauty (to us car nuts)... Maybe if you remove every-other leaf it will maintain its nice tapered look. "Back in the day"... they used to clean and lightly grease the leaves, assemble them, and then wrap the entire spring with two or three layers of electrical tape. The purpose was to keep dirt and moisture out from between the leaves (especially on the dirt tracks) so they would work more smoothly.

Did you make it to the Frog Follies? I was there (as a spectator) and looked for your truck, but there were too many cars to see them all... The last time I was there was in 1980! It sure has grown.