Thread: The Roofus Special

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Ditto! It's a cool unique build.

I put a vacation day request in for this Friday. I'm gonna work on it again this weekend.

The pieces are finally falling into place. Hopefully I will have motor mounts after this trip.

You are doing a great job of stuffing and fitting... lol.
The car is coming together and I am diggin on your imagination.
Your daughter will be driving before you know it and she is going to look great in it, going down the road.

The 6'5" boy doesn't fit quite as well as my daughter did, but nobody can resist the chance to make racecar noises.







The goal for the weekend was motor mounts.

First I needed to figure out what the motor would attach to. Before I could do that, I needed to figure out exactly where the steering would be....

I started with a brace from the firewall cop car brace to the front crossmember.





then thought about going from that diagonal to the front framerail swoop




I buzzed in the diagonal and added a brace to that


The steering crosses from the outside (at the column) to the inside (at the rack). I neede to figure out where the middle shft is going to be.







I cut apart a Toyota four runner steering sector (partially to see how it was put together)




I made an adapter bushing to match up the splined section I needed to the crush section







The bushing started out as a 1.25" collar that I ground down to 1"


trial fit before welding



bzzzzzzz


I have steering!

still a lot of decisions to be made on how the whole underhood bracing will tie together.....

Started on the other side


not a whole lotta room next to the oil filter


I didn't get around to motor mounts...too much basketball watching.

I'm not real sure if I'm happy with angling the front braces out to the outer frame rail like this:

I kinda think they need to go to a radiator hoop or something.

After studying the pictures for a few days....I really don't like the look of having a horizontal piece going from the diagonal to the arch of the front framerail. Also the motor mount attachment point needs to be lower on the frame.

I took a second swing at motor mounts this weekend. trying to use the factory jag mounting scheme wasn't working for me. I think the mounts need to be lower.

Inside the frame rail, just behind the x-brace is where I'm thinking for the frame pad.


more posterboard




couldn't tell crap with posterbaord. I needed metal.

more recycled WWII dodge 4x4 ambulance turned hunting buggy. This was a rear fender.


set free with fire


found something round to add shape


first look


second look (bolted down)


other side






My plan was to tie the two sides together with a brace that would run under the oil pan. The top section looks like it will be flimsy no mater what.

Add gussets to the outside too? (mounting bolt would go down through the gold colored tube)




Not really sure these parts will be used either.

The small tube gusset wasn't cutting it. I needed to do something more substantial, but not super heavy. I also decided the mounts needed upper biscuits.

I wanted a flange to go around the buscuit, but didn't have the right size tube...so I made my own. ...from cop car kick panels.

I started by making a strip of flat stock.


wrapped around a piece of roll bar tube


it worked!


Now that I had a better idea what I was making, I cleaned up the end




time for sheetmetal gussets






the top bolt hole was the hard part to figure out. I sleeved it and then cut the sleeve down.





I welded the circles first (welds under the big gusset)


and added speed holes


socket fits great on the top bolt


with a rubber


Now the other side.

The passenger side mount is shorter due to the engine offset (more foot room for me). I had to cram things closer to get it all to fit. hammer time!










Now to give it something to bolt to






trimmed to sit on the X-brace




test fit






did the same thing for the other side


I now have a mounted motor!

Now to test out my idea for using the Ford leafspring. I have no idea what sort of spring rate this car actually needs.

I bolted it to the crossmember and let the ends rest on the control arms




too high and this thing was solid as shit! The weight of the jag and my fat ass on the crossmember didn't hardly budge it!

pull out a bunch of leaves


better


but still not much movement. you think the rust has any thing to do with that? ...duh!



I cleaned up the leaves and greased everything up (and pulled one more leaf). ...lots better!




I added some of the removed leaves to the bottom of the pack to raise the pack (lower the car)






close enough until the car gets more weight. I'm sure I will have to fine tune it some more.

After bouncing the car on the front spring, it sure was hard to not set it on the ground and bounce it on both ends.

Before I get too carried away, I need to flip it over and weld the bottom sides of a lot of the joints.

Evolution at work.

Somebody on another site questioned my test of the spring rate. Do y'all have any input on the subject?

If i'm not misunderstanding your proposed suspension, the control arms will have a leveraging effect on the spring, and the strength of spring will have to be greater than what your trial setup indicates.

Dave Cameron

I think that would depend greatly on where you mount the lower control arms. The farther under the better leverage??????

Originally Posted by cffisher

I think that would depend greatly on where you mount the lower control arms. The farther under the better leverage??????

I had planned for them to be mounted on the side of the "inner framerails", under the leafspring

The front spring rate had to be tested. The only way to be sure that it would work with a-arms was to mount the a-arms....

I made tabs from a piece of 2x3


Bushings in the arms








And a video of dad making stuff move. Springs are just sliding on greased a-arms.