🔧 BUILD PJ’s bad idea - notch edition

General Information

Figured I might as will document this train wreck. I bought this car a long time ago as an unfinished project and parted it out. Sold the caged shell to a buddy who needed a replacement. He ended up getting out of racing and it sat for a few years. Well he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse… so it’s back

Intentions are to fix some things I don’t like, finish some things and make it a nice complete roller. At that point I will see if I can sell it quick for a little profit, otherwise I have an LS and th400 to put in it for the spring


Some details:
- Certified 25.3 chromoly cage (good for 6.50 in the 1/4 at 3600#)
- fiberglass front clip, doors, trunk
- TeamZ front suspension
- Strange brakes



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PJx5x

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2005
1,471
1,833
Villa Park
Waiting for the weekend so I can wire wheel the rearend in the driveway and not destroy my garage walls again lol. So I started more things…

Car has adjustable upper control arm mounts. However it’s one of the earlier designs, and now they come with doubler plates welded on to make them stronger. The manufacturer didn’t have any from this bolt pattern left so I had to reverse engineer it. I 3D printed some tests and ordered 4 cut from 1/8” steel

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Then the door X bars are insanely high. I’ve decided to lower the driver side ones only. I cut them out so I can’t change my mind

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I need to get a seat mounted so I can set the door X bar height and see what I want to do with the funny car cage halo
 

PJx5x

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2005
1,471
1,833
Villa Park
Fucked around with the car this weekend but didn’t get nearly enough done. Took forever to grind all the old tubes and welds out without butchering it up.

Teamz seat mount showed up. I also cut up the dash to get it to fit around the bars. Need to clearance a few more areas but it’s close enough for mock-up


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Planned out the new bar location with string. This allowed me to measure the length and angles so I could get all the notches correct

I left the one middle bar in place because I’ve always wanted to try and notch a tube on a car. Usually I do it in the vise

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Tube fit perfect. Got most of it welded in. Need to crawl under the car and weld the front part through the access hole in the floor. Not looking forward to that

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PJx5x

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2005
1,471
1,833
Villa Park
Finished welding in that bar. Finally got to use a bendy tungsten from BeerOrGasoline BeerOrGasoline to get in the corner

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Then my order from SendCutSend came in (Easy only laser cutting). First thing is the trunk dzus rails. I stole the idea from Racecraft and tweaked some things and drew it up

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I wanted the rivets for the springs to be recessed like on a normal dzus tab (shown below). So I made a die set, and hardened it with a torch and cup of water lol. Uses a pin to center both halves over the hole. Squeeze in vise. Worked pretty well for a hack

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strtcar

Regular
Oct 28, 2007
489
2,381
Finished welding in that bar. Finally got to use a bendy tungsten from BeerOrGasoline BeerOrGasoline to get in the corner

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Then my order from SendCutSend came in (Easy only laser cutting). First thing is the trunk dzus rails. I stole the idea from Racecraft and tweaked some things and drew it up

View attachment 140023


I wanted the rivets for the springs to be recessed like on a normal dzus tab (shown below). So I made a die set, and hardened it with a torch and cup of water lol. Uses a pin to center both halves over the hole. Squeeze in vise. Worked pretty well for a hack

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you're kinda a genius
 

PJx5x

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2005
1,471
1,833
Villa Park
So do they just require a dxf file?
Yea and the quotes are generated instantly. Can switch between materials/thickness. Shipping is included in price too

I’m sure there are better/cheaper options but I like trying out different designs, seeing the cost change and not having to bug people and wait for quotes

why not just countersink the rivet holes and use a countersink rivet
Cause that’s no where near as fun and I wanted to see if I could recreate the other style
 
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PJx5x

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2005
1,471
1,833
Villa Park
3D printed a couple jigs and embedded magnets in them. The step is the same thickness as the fiberglass trunk lid so the rail is held at the right height to tack in place. Did that and then stitch welded them in

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I have some dzus transfer punches I put in the rails. Laid the trunk on top, got it centered and tapped it down. It marked the hole locations on the bottom to drill out for the fasteners

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I installed the 17” strutless wing from Robert Carter. Pretty impressed with the quality from a guy making them by hand. I ran out of clecos doing it. Not looking forward to installing all the tiny screws when the time comes

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b00sted

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Oct 6, 2010
7,839
23,529
3D printed a couple jigs and embedded magnets in them. The step is the same thickness as the fiberglass trunk lid so the rail is held at the right height to tack in place. Did that and then stitch welded them in

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I have some dzus transfer punches I put in the rails. Laid the trunk on top, got it centered and tapped it down. It marked the hole locations on the bottom to drill out for the fasteners

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I installed the 17” strutless wing from Robert Carter. Pretty impressed with the quality from a guy making them by hand. I ran out of clecos doing it. Not looking forward to installing all the tiny screws when the time comes

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You make dzus fastener installs look easy. I don't even want to think about all the dumb methods we tried back in the day.
 
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PJx5x

TCG Elite Member
Sep 29, 2005
1,471
1,833
Villa Park
Final design of the new stock suspension read end brackets. Then they were sent off to my buddy’s plasma table

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Bolted the plates together and welded the doublers on. I then drilled out the holes to the right size - they were undersized on purpose cause the plasma isn’t perfect

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Started fitting them to the back brace. I need to make some decisions on the rear section of the roll cage so I know what width to install the coil over mounts at.

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