Thread: The Roofus Special

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This is what I want to graft into Roofus. The trans tunnel and the stock jag brake and clutch pedals.





Using the jag tunnel means the deep engine set-back is back. I cut out the tube that was under the bell housing.



It looks more racecar to me.





The jag firewall has a whole lot of ugly that needs to be trimmed off.





It will wait until another weekend. I had to go watch basketball (Go UK!)

I started trying to put the jag firewall inside of my boattail. Jag was at least a foot wider. A sawsall can fix that.













kinda reminds me of beef in a meat packing plant




Trim some more








Jag heater still fits






No telling how many times I removed and installed the floor and/or engine this past weekend. I quit counting after 15 or so times.


The pile of parts kept getting bigger and the floor/firewall got smaller.


I decided I need to lower the motor to get the floor to fit better. First I had to install a crossmember unter the motor.


Chassis spaced up 1.5" = motor lowered 1.5"

Manifolds hit firewall now


...and the radiator and steering want to fight over the same spot


But the lower motor could allow a swoopier shape.






I just wasn't feeling it, so I cut off the cowl too.








Manifolds clear now


I got frustrated with the trans tunnel and moved to the front of the car. I needed more beef to weld the front crossmember to. 1.5 x 1.5 angle attached with a ton of rosette welds.




I got tired of drilling holes, so I attacked the other pieces with a grinder. Slots should function the same as holes.

Then I fitted the front crossmember better and welded it in.






The I dug into the stack of cop car roll bars again and cut out two bends.


and made a sleeve from another piece of rollbar (cut a section out and made a smaller tube)














Firewall is pretty beefy now.

Where I am now. I'm not 100% sure the jag tunnel will be used or not.

I was going to work on my car again this weekend, but......

.....mother nature gave me something else to do.

Great job, Flipper. Lots of thought going into this; I can see your reasoning behind the Jag tunnel now that I've seen pictures.

Yikes! Looks like a an oak of some sort! How bad was the roof damage?

While were were putting in an addition about 4 years ago, my neighbor had a tree that had been leaning over towards our house. I had asked him multiple times if he'd cut it down, but he said an arborist certified it safe. Th tree was a huge cyperus that had the top cut off about 20 years earlier to the point that every side limb became a new top! One snapped off two weeks after my new gutters went up, crushed a ten foot section of an 8 foot redwood fence, landed on top of our hot tub smashing it, broke two window panes and took out a new section of gutter on the roof. The neighbor, didn't want to go thru an insurance company, so I had to get everything individually bid for him, and eventually replaced. He did cut the tree down afterward! The damage was about 5k at the time, but the scary part was my wife and I had decided to go out to visit some friends that day, otherwise we'd be dead, since that was the time of day we used the hot tub! Hope no one got hurt when that monster came down!

Originally Posted by stovens

Yikes! Looks like a an oak of some sort! How bad was the roof damage?

It was actually a hardwood pine tree that was probably at least 50 years old (I'll find out when I cut into it). It fell around 1:30 in the morning and managed to not inflict much damage where it landed. ....I guess it is a good thing I haven't built a garage yet. It would have been squashed.

I was lucky on the roof too. I only had to replace about a dozen shingles.

Estimates are that we got hit with 90 mph winds....the whole neighborhood is a mess.

This tree is kicking my tail. ...but it is slowly making its way to the side of the road for the city to pick up.

I bought an electric chainsaw for the job. It works pretty good and is a whole lot quieter...but dragging an extension cord through the tree tops flat out sucks! Once the top is completely gone, the big limbs should go quickly.

I found new Rally pics. I think this thing is going to lean towards being Rally inspired ....again.

Anybody have an elegant idea for strong motor mounts? I am struggling with how to mount this heavy pig of a motor. Oh yeah, the steering shaft needs to run right through where the drivers side mount needs to be.

More than likely they will be tied into the currently non-existant inner frame rail truss.

These pics show the general area. I am not 100% set on using the stock jag motor mount pieces. If there is a better way, I will fab something.

I am a little concerned that if I run mounts that extend way inwards toward the motor that it will try and twist the frame.





I found this in my search for ideas to borrow. Something along the lines of this would be cool.





Something as simple as this could also work.

This was a response on another forum. Do you guys agree with the logic?

Originally Posted by Warren Nethercote

Flipper,

It looks like there might be room to run across-member under the engine below the motor mounts. The mounts could go to the cross member and the cross member would not put the same twisting loads on the frame rails as direct attachment of the motor mounts.

(Edit next day: Here is a sketch of what I mean: essentially link your fabricated mounts by a piece of RHS. This tube would reduce the torsional loads on the frame rails, and because the loads on the tube would be largely tension (bending too, but mostly tension I suspect) I think you could get away with 1 or 1 1/2 x whatever tubing. Thus, this cross member would not be as robust as the main suspension cross member)

I totally agree with what Warren Nethercote wrote. In this first picture the mount to the frame is twisting the frame. Of course the cross member right in front is taking care of that so I don't see any problem.



In this second picture, the cross member takes the engine load in bending so there is little torsion on the frame. And in this case, if he didn't put the cross member in to support the engine there would have been a lot of torsion on the frame because there is no other cross member in the vicinity to stiffen the frame.


So if your motor mounts are close to a cross member, torsion is less of an issue. The farther your motor mounts are from a cross member the more torsion you will put on your frame. I like the idea of making a cross member and mounting the engine to it.

By the way, I love your project and look forward to each installment.

Mark

I went to dad's house for the long weekend. It took me quite a while to clear out a path to get the 48 out and free up some work room. My dad is pretty darn productive for a 73 year old....he tore down the wooden deck that was on the back of his house and built this (brickwork, iron railings...all of it)!

The new deck is impressive, but he left a heck of a mess in the shop (it is his shop after all).

I finally got around to my project. I am a little baffled about how to make the transmission tailshaft mount area beefy enough yet still have room for seats. I stuck the seats from the Dodge WWII ambulance in for mock-up. I think these are the same seats as went in the airplanes.




Insert your favorite racecar noises here.
Actually, I was really trying to figure out steering column placement so that I could make motor mounts.



It was not nearly as perfect for the 6' 6" 15 year old.

I cut up another cop car roll bar for a dash support. Lots of stuff will be tied into this piece.

Here it is being mocked up.
straight up

angled forward



I figured out that I really needed to know what I was going to use for a steering shaft before I could do the motor mounts. I went to pull-a-part and found a shaft from a toyota four runner for the front u-joint and collapsible section and a 70's GM big car for some double D material.

The double D will go in the section next to the exhaust. Damn that is an ugly mock up!

In this picture, the motor is 1.5" too high.

The 2x4 got replaced by bailing wire once the dash support was welded in place


I have plenty of room below the shaft for a motor mount.


The barn was filled with racecar noises

I also dug out the cockpit mock-up pieces that I made a while back.