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PostPosted: August 23, 2017, 4:05 pm 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Hi, I'm Terry and I'm a car addict.

I plan to satrt my project here in November 2017. It will be a tube chassis built around my current poject car. A Subaru Forester. My Forester is a turbo AWD i swapped myself and puts down about 450whp. But i have a problem, the vehicles stock body and chassis is rotting away in PA. So being bored and frustrated with the current situation, i have decided to build a brand new chassis around my drivetrain. The catch is that it needs to be PA street legal. This means, fenders, safety glass type windshield, wipers, lights etc..

What I have going for me is that I have a complete running donor vehicle with a stupid amount of horsepower. I also built, wired and tuned it myself. And even better, I work at a steel fabrication facility with welders, benders, press brakes, saws, 2 HD plasma tables and any other tool anyone could ever think of. I do project management and material purchasing. So i have plenty of contacts in the steel, aluminum and stainless departments and have a good knowledge of different materials like A500 ERW tube vs DOM tube, A36 plate vs A572 plate etc.. At home i have a MIG and TIG machine, air and a garage full of basic tools. I love projects, need to have on at all times really and I always wanted a tube chassis car.

From the donor car I'll be using:
Intercooler
Radiator
Engine w/turbo (may leave it off for enhanced inspection)
transmission
driveshaft
rear differential
engine front suspension cradle
rear suspension cradle
control arms
spindles
brakes
springs/shocks (but in coilover form)
axles
steering rack
steering wheel
wiper/turn signal controls
gauge cluster
ecu
body harness for lighting
bucket seats
fuel tank

What I'm stumped on:
Windshield choice, it needs to be laminated safety glass like a standard vehicle, and it needs wipers.
If i want chassis mounted fenders or spindle mounted fenders
If i should try and use my forester firewall, cowl, wipers and windshield, or just do all new

more to follow, but it will be slow to start until after my trip in October. Cars still fun to drive and all until end of season..

Image

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Last edited by terryjr on February 12, 2020, 9:00 am, edited 4 times in total.

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PostPosted: August 25, 2017, 11:03 am 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Going to the drag strip tonight, if i break the trans again. We'll be getting started much sooner.

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PostPosted: August 25, 2017, 9:34 pm 
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Location: Sarasota
The problem with your power plant and 4wd is that the engine sits in front of the front wheels giving you really bad weight distribution especially considering the power. My advice is to make it Mid engine rear wheel drive. There is a Midlana build on here that is Mid engine you might want to check that out.

I would build the chassis all new around the parts you have, taking heavy parts form the original vehicle make the car heavier and typically weaker do to the awkwardness of connecting them to a tube frame chassis. For the Windscreen you really want to use an OEM one as custom glass is very expensive.

Brows around the various build threads on here. Lots of people have street registered vehicles with all kinds of add ons.

Good luck with the build.

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PostPosted: August 29, 2017, 8:07 pm 
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Location: Oregon, usually
+1 what he ^ said, except...
wrightcomputing wrote:
For the Windscreen you really want to use an OEM one as custom glass is very expensive.
Design for a flat windshield and it's a piece of cake...and a cheap piece of cake at that. Most auto glaziers will cut one for you; get your windshield frame fabbed and fitted, make a cardboard template to fit the frame, take a hundred bucks with you when you go to the glazier, and say "I want a piece of AS1 safety glass that looks like this cardboard, only transparent."

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PostPosted: August 30, 2017, 12:10 pm 
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wrightcomputing wrote:
The problem with your power plant and 4wd is that the engine sits in front of the front wheels giving you really bad weight distribution especially considering the power. My advice is to make it Mid engine rear wheel drive. There is a Midlana build on here that is Mid engine you might want to check that out.


Along the same lines, you might also want to consider a Factory 5 818, which uses a Subaru drivetrain in a mid-engine configuration.

https://www.factoryfive.com/818/

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PostPosted: August 30, 2017, 12:18 pm 
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Location: Idaho Falls, ID
wrightcomputing wrote:
The problem with your power plant and 4wd is that the engine sits in front of the front wheels giving you really bad weight distribution especially considering the power. My advice is to make it Mid engine rear wheel drive. There is a Midlana build on here that is Mid engine you might want to check that out.
Good luck with the build.


If you do decide to go rear engine, talk to the guys building the Factory Five 818 kit cars. They are using the Subaru engine and trans in a rear engine configuration. In fact, they are using the whole car as a donor car for their build! https://www.factoryfive.com/818/


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PostPosted: August 30, 2017, 2:21 pm 
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Location: Under the weather. (Seattle)
Personally, I think the biggest problem is going to be aesthetic. Bodywork would be a considerable challenge, far beyond just finding a windshield. But without a tallish traditional car body, the overhung engine simply tends to look a bit awkward and ungainly, in my humble opinion.

From surferjohnhawaii's build log:

Image


However, functionally I don't see any real reason not to do it. I actually believe that with some thinking ahead, the forward weigh distribution combined with the AWD shouldn't necessarily be as big of an issue one might expect.

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PostPosted: September 1, 2017, 9:34 am 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Thanks guys. I found onedayglass.com which makes laminated safety glass to any size or shape with holes too. I have to see if they do AS1. I want to try and stay with AWD, im a subaru guy and the awd part is more important to the track part. It will probably never see the track. I just want it to be a toy i can play with and modify over the years. Like upgraded crossmembers, suspension etc. For the chassis, its going to look a lot like an Exocet. I like the curved lines and its a macpherson type setup. I can roll the pipe here and sheet metal is no issue since this is a sheet metal facility and my father is the shop foreman and has 35 years of sheet metal experience.

The donor vehicle trapped 119mph at the track the other day and goes to the dyno tomorrow. Yesterday i spent the day cleaning out the garage and slapping together some old parts to get the basic dimensions i need for floor space and table size. My garage is rather "tight"

Image

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PostPosted: September 4, 2017, 9:52 am 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Got my dyno slip which im going to consider closer as far as my Forester goes. If anything it should make a little more power in the tube car. Cooler engine bay temps and new larger fuel lines, along with a larger diameter and much shorter turbo back exhaust, it could ptentially pick up 50whp.

Might get started in October now. One of the head aches im not looking forward to is repurposing the body harness.

http://photos.smugmug.com/Forester-St/i-FVdqXps/0/6b852f1b/X3/20170902_151759-1504386777108-X3.jpg

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Last edited by terryjr on September 8, 2017, 8:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: September 7, 2017, 1:20 pm 
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Location: Pittsburgh, PA
its a long way from complete but gives me ideas to start with

[img]nixed[/img]

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Last edited by terryjr on January 15, 2018, 9:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: September 7, 2017, 2:30 pm 
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Location: Denver Co
Cool,

I was going to suggest Horizonjob's Car9 design. That may work well here
https://sites.google.com/site/car9buildit/

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PostPosted: September 8, 2017, 8:05 am 
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I tested a weld on a peice of 1 1/4" A500 GrB/C ERW last night. (Future note, i'll be using "pipe" so 1.66"OD for 1 1/4") I wanted to see which one of my welders would get the better penetration. We have the $90 Harbor Frieght 90amp Fluxcore, against the Harbor Fright 160amp Tig. So i coped the pipe with a grinder, real PITA, and welded them together, flux one side, tig the other. For tig i was using 1/16 filler and got some under cut that i think i can solve with bigger filler rod and a little less heat. Flux, well its pretty simple but makes a mess, no matter how much anti-spatter i use, i still have to grind bb's off everything. I brought the sample into work this morning and cut it in half to check the penetration and then showed it to our CWI. He says they're both about the same but the flux wins becasue of the undercut with the tig.

Image

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PostPosted: September 8, 2017, 8:10 am 
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If you are having that much of a mess with the flux core, are you sure your polarity is correct? Check the wire mfg. recommendations. Easy to forget or overlook.

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PostPosted: September 8, 2017, 8:17 am 
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Dismantalus wrote:
If you are having that much of a mess with the flux core, are you sure your polarity is correct? Check the wire mfg. recommendations. Easy to forget or overlook.


I'm using .030 Lincoln Inner Shield NR-211 if i rememeber correctly. The welder itself, has a Min and a Max setting. 60amp vs 120amp i think. And then theres a wire feed knob. Thats about it.

I'd like to practice more with the tig. I think i can get it dialed in better, and i still pretty new at it. Havent even finished my first bottle of argon yet.

I went through my draing yesterday and added up all my pipe. Then got a quote for it through work. I think i had (6) 1 1/4" x 20', (4) 1" x 21' and (2) 3/4" x 21' and it came out to $340. As for plate, well i just draw those up and nest them into drops while were cutting plate for projects. So thats like $0.04/lb if work wants to charge me the scrap value for it lol.

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PostPosted: September 8, 2017, 8:29 am 
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terryjr wrote:
Dismantalus wrote:
If you are having that much of a mess with the flux core, are you sure your polarity is correct? Check the wire mfg. recommendations. Easy to forget or overlook.


I'm using .030 Lincoln Inner Shield NR-211 if i rememeber correctly. The welder itself, has a Min and a Max setting. 60amp vs 120amp i think. And then theres a wire feed knob. Thats about it.

I'd like to practice more with the tig. I think i can get it dialed in better, and i still pretty new at it. Havent even finished my first bottle of argon yet.

I went through my draing yesterday and added up all my pipe. Then got a quote for it through work. I think i had (6) 1 1/4" x 20', (4) 1" x 21' and (2) 3/4" x 21' and it came out to $340. As for plate, well i just draw those up and nest them into drops while were cutting plate for projects. So thats like $0.04/lb if work wants to charge me the scrap value for it lol.



The Innershield NR-211 is run on DC- (Electrode Negative, also known as "Straight" polarity). Double check where your connectors are.
Here is a reference from Lincoln: http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/g ... c32400.pdf

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