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Spider Veloce from 1985 - 3 |
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Clic on the PICTURE for a 640*480 resolution |
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The restauration of the Spider Veloce from 1985 of Brock Brinkerhoff from Alabaster. |
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Since I have the rear end and the steel, I set out to work on the front suspension, engine compartment and the remaining cross members so that I could start building the frame. My plan is to run the 4" round to the front crossmember. I also plan on running a rack and pinion steering setup. Since this is the case, I needed to source the front spindles and brakes. The obvious choice was a late model Mustang GT. Since the Mustang uses struts I plan on using a conversion piece from FactoryFive Racing to run them with an upper a-arm. |
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| * I picked these up today - They're off of a '95 GT. * Then I started on removing the existing steering - It uses a combination of tie-rods and extra pivots. * I broke the tie-rods loose - This is the last time these will steer the Alfa. * While removing the steering, I also removed the pedal box - This will be going back in later. |
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| * Although blurry, this picture shows the inside of the pedal box. Its really a cool setup so I want to re-use it. * With the pedal box removed, its much easier to get to everything. * Back on the inside, I "removed" the steering wheel, the aluminum stalk with the switch gear. * Some of the pile from today. |
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| * Then it was on to the inside of the car. Since I am building a new chassis for the car, I need to remove the remaining cross-members. But since this is a unitized car, there is structure in those pieces, so before I remove them, I wanted to brace the car. I did this with 1" steel tubing (.125"). * Once I started welding, I wanted to make sure the welds were strong so I asked my wife to test them. * Now - Keep in mind this bracing is temporary, but here is an example of my welds (I take a little more time on finish stuff).. |
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| * An example of the cuts for this work (done with a hack saw by hand). * I stripped the surface of paint etc, then tacked the ends. * Then laid full beads on all sides (one of my more favorite pictures from this build so far). * And the final result was a VERY strong cross-section to keep everything intact. |
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| * Then I cut out the front cross-member and drops. * And then the rear (making sure the jackstands were on the right side of the cut). * ..... * And the doors still close perfectly and solidly. |
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Today, I've hit a milestone. I actually worked on building instead of taking apart. I am at the stage where I need to get the frame going. To do this, I needed to do all of the measuring and planning for the main frame rails. As I've mentioned previously, I plan on running a 4" A36 round tube for main rails, and tie these into the 4"x4" box rails that the door sills are made from. |
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| * I am at the stage where I need to get the frame going. To do this, I needed to do all of the measuring and planning for the main frame rails. As I've mentioned previously, I plan on running a 4" A36 round tube for main rails, and tie these into the 4"x4" box rails that the door sills are made from. In the front end, I had to finish-cut the firewall. * My plan has been to run the 4" to intersect with the most surface area of the front cross member. In doing this, I'll have about 18" between center rails. In order to clear the lower control arm, and to allow for room for future maintenance of the lower arm, I adjust the height by .5". * Along the front cross member were spot welded tabs and some very sub-par MIG welded brackets - These also need to be removed. * Once the firewall was done, I started working on the side rails. I had rough cut these previously, but since the new rails were going in, I wouldn't have much room to do this later. |
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| * In the rear on these rails you can see what is left of the old cross member. All of these needed to be cleaned up and made perfectly flat again. * Cutting through this section, I noticed that the sheetmetal wraps down and under - I had to be careful not to cut into the top rail while also not going too deep towards the lower edge of the body. * My picture for OSHA. * After cleaning the side rails. |
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| * After much work, the rail turned out very good. I hit it on the surface with the grinder to get rid of surface rust etc in preperation for welding. Also you can see where I left the factory lift point, albiet modified. I plan on tying this back in. * Then it was on to the passenger side. . |
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| * And then the fun began. My thoughts were to measure everything out and get the car in a position where it was locked down and level. Considering the amount of work ahead for fitment of the new frame rails to the existing cross-member, I wanted to construct something that would make it easy for me to move the rails around as I did the fitting work. I ended up settling on a 2 leg addition to the rails. One straight, and one “T”. This would allow me to move the rail back and forth, but have it at the exact right height. * .... * I then welded these to the first 4" tube and had my son Indy test my welds. * The height on the legs was within 1/32" - Surely more accurate then my garage floor. |
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| * From there, I slid the rail into place and began planning how I would make the very precise cut needed in order to get less then 1/16" gap to the cross-member for welding. * Giving the importance of this weld, I had set my standards pretty high - 1/16" gap is as much as I'd allow, so I started scratching my head how to get the exact right cut. I ended up using the equal length scribe trick (or whatever it's called ). I used a piece of rod 4" long, then went around the tube and marked the position about every .5". Then I pulled the tube back and (very) carefully scribed the exact line using a sharp center punch. From there, I used the plasma cutter to take some of the meat off (rough cut), then my jig saw and finished it with the grinder. |
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| * You can judge for yourself how it came out. * And no, the member is not flat, its about 3 different curves. To say I am happy with those tolerances is an understatement. |
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| * Here's what she looks like with the rail in place (not welded of course). |
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| * And here are both sections ready to go. As it turns out, he also had a spare cylinder of Argon. I brought this home with me so I'll be able to continue welding tomorrow. I hope to get more of the rear section of the frame done tomorrow - I've got more help tomorrow so it should go smooth |
