Lonnie's Mustang V6, "Steal with Both Hands", Locost

[Lonnie-S]

For a hold down. Saw the head off of a bolt, cut a slot in the end, about an inch deep. Then drill a hole at a right angle to the strap slot, with the strap inserted. Use a small screw or roll pin to lock in place. Use an elastic stop nut to adjust tension.

You always have such practical ideas, Dave. I like it.

I Googled "elastic nut" but only lock nuts came back as matches. I don't think that's what you meant. So, I'm not sure what it looks like.

It made me think of a possible hybrid solution too.

Thanks,

Lonnie

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Weld 5/16 x 2 rod to head of 5/16 x 2-1/2 bolt. Drill 5/16 hole in strap two inches from end and bend it around for spot welds.

[horchoha]

I Googled "elastic nut" but only lock nuts came back as matches.

That's what they are Lonnie, elastic nuts, nylok nuts, lock nuts, self locking nut, I am a nut, yada yada yada........

[Blackbird]

I need to experiment a bit. Welding a heavy hook to 20 gauge steel would be a challenge. Anyone see a simpler solution? I'm always open to suggestions.

Cheers

Hey Lonnie,

Great to see you're at it
Maybe I'm missing something, but is there any reason you don't want to just extend the straps all the way to the bottom pads, put a 90 angle in them, drill a hole through the strap and the pad and just put a bolt through?

Cheers!

[RTz]

Maybe I'm missing something, but is there any reason you don't want to just extend the straps all the way to the bottom pads, put a 90 angle in them, drill a hole through the strap and the pad and just put a bolt through?

^This. Does it need to be adjustable?

[Lonnie-S]

@MV8
Thanks for that idea. McMaster-Carr has really cool T-bolts, but zinc plated steel ones in 3/8" are ~$10 a piece. That would be $40 + shipping of ~$15-$20. That's a little too much for me to solve this problem. So, if I go T-bolt, I'll make them along the lines of your idea.

@horchoha
Funny, I've never heard that term applied to lock nuts before. Live and learn!

@Blackbird
That was my first idea, Moti. Make that bottom 90 out of 16 or 14 gauge sheet and pop rivet the metal bands to those. I thought that solution might make it too hard to get the gas tank out in future without removing the spare tire carrier and back body panel to get at the rear bolts. However, I think I may be wrong about that. I need to experiment and see if I could get the 20 gauge bands far enough out of the way to lift out the tank without removing the band bolts at bottom. I think I may be able to do that, but want to check with real material to be sure.

@RTz
If I use one band on each side of both valleys (4 "half bands" in all), I could use the pinch bolt idea MV8 mentioned a ways back with respect to one of his builds. That way the pinch bolt at top would provide the tightness in the overall band consisting of the two halves joined by the pinch bolt. So, in that case the bottom of the bands would not need to be adjustable.

Thanks for all the ideas, gentlemen;

[Blackbird]

Should be easy enough to tack weld something like an M6 bolt at the top side of the strap and just have 4 lock nuts on the bottom side that will allow access to remove things without the need to undo any panels.

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Agreed, but Lonnie was concerned about welding thick and thin with his current skill set.

[Blackbird]

I must've missed something along the way.
The straps shouldn't require any welding save a couple of tacks to hold the bolts, apologies in advance for whatever I missed

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Wow, I sound like a jerk! Delete!

[tibimakai]

How about bolting two half straps at the bottom(one on each side of the tank-front back) and make an L at the top, and bolt the two Ls together with a bolt and nut?

[Lonnie-S]

@tibimakai

That's a nice idea, Tibor. I did start on my 20 gauge steel band solution last night, however.

Cheers,

[tibimakai]

So, how you will access the bolts?

[Lonnie-S]

@tibimakai

Let me see if it works, Tibor and then I can answer the question. If it doesn't work - then on to version 2 [SMILE].

Cheers,

[Lonnie-S]

I think this posting will qualify as totally boring for the experienced builders. However, I think it's worth posting for the newer folks. This will actually be Part I of my post since I'm about half way through fabricating the gas tank hold down bands.

Building the chassis is the sexiest part of the build and it goes relatively quickly with very dramatic results. But a big part of these builds are all the ancillary things required to make an actual, fully functioning car. Then there is the Locost part of things too. You can buy ready made parts for a lot of stuff, but it's pretty expensive. So, if you buy and adapt everything you'll be way out of budget in short order. I could buy ready made bands and parts for around $250. I chose the Locost route instead.

I started with an off-cut scrap of 14 gauge plate. One lesson I have learned is to lay out, drill and cut on a larger piece, so it can be clamped, reamed, filed, etc., fairly easily. Little parts are much more difficult to work with.

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Almost all the holes you drill will require clean up and reaming/filing to remove flash from the drilling operation. Drills ten to make oval holes, not round ones, so cleaning them up is a good idea. It's a requirement for the 1/8" ones that will be receiving pop rivets.

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Once that's done, it's time to cut out the individual brackets. There are actually 4 of each type.

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That is really Phase I. Each cut edge has to be deburred with a file and the pointy corners have to be rounded off.

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I needed to make my metal bands next. I actually have a shear that will cut 30" wide sections of 20 gauge sheet, but the in-feed of it on its stand is 38" off the ground and I didn't have any way of working with a 24" x 48" half sheet all by myself. So, lacking any available help, I elected to use my electric shears to cut the bands.

It took a couple of cuts to get reacquainted with how the shears cut best again. You have to have just the right angle on the shear as it moves or it binds. I hadn't used them since I cut out my 16 gauge undertray a couple of years back. It took 6 tries to get 4 decent, but imperfect. half bands.

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Again, every cut edge has to be deburred by hand.

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I used a flap disc on a 4-1/2" angle grinder to true up the edges of the cut half bands by eye. It took some work, but I got 4 relativity nice half bands out of it.

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. . . To be continued . . .

Cheers,