FYI: this car will be used for all forms of racing, lapping days on the road course, drag racing, rally (all forms) autocross, and MAYBE a few top speed open road runs (maxton mile, silver state challange)

well, its time to start hacking the front end off my 240sx project, everything ahead of the firewall it getting plasma cut off, and im building new frame rails and then stacking a cage on top of that. im also going to build a new front crossmember and toss the old suspension in the garbage

this is the general setup im going with, except the upper rails will run through the firewall and butt up to the dashbar, aand the unibody will be gusseted to the roll cage in numerous places all the way around the doors, rear window, and front windsheild

and the front suspension will be converted from strut to dual a arm in the process

this is the DS front frame rail at the firewall, front bumper is to the right, steering column hole is visable in the center of the pic, all of the framerail in this section needs replacing on my car



top rail, same side, my upper bar will pass thru the firewall just inside of the stock upper frame rail area, right next to the clutch rez seen here



overall view, my frame will have tabs for the stock (or recreated stock) front reinforcement to bolt to. i will also have to build some sort of radiator / headlight support. my fenders will most likely bolt to some sort of small tubing so they dont flop around on me




heres how MY car looks right now:

This is great stuff but would be better in a Project Journal. With more updates!

looks cool!

Just for giggles look at this..From the locost book//If you are going Dble A-arm this is a good pic of one of those..Steve Smith Autosports has some analytical software that allows one to analyze the front end for bump steer and roll centers camber change and all that goos stuff...Might be worth the investment for that..Nice layout in the pics tho and Struts can work just fine..

Sam

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If it don't work it ain't pretty!!!!

the pictures i posted arent of my car, but are the direction im going with my car

a while back i had downloaded SusProg3D and used it to "build" an unequal length dual a arm setup, based on the corvette c5 example that comes with the software

been a while since i did it, but i do know that i had caster / camber / toe / antidive and all very close to ideal, and since all the pivot points are given in x/y/z format, ill be able to redraw everything in CAD, design the actual parts around that, then build them ... including (hopefully) fully fabricated spindles

just have to decide if i want everything to be carbon, chro-mo, or alum

So you won't be using struts and won't need the buckets for them

My personal opinion:
Aluminum is often heavier and weaker then a properly fabricated steel structure. It sure does look nice tho. Chrome-Moly often isn't worth the hassle/cost if you aren't going to post weld heat treat (PWHT) it.

What do you have for manufacturing facilities?

yea, i wont have struts, so my upper bars will be lower when i fab them. like i said, the chassis i posted isnt my car, but its a good general idea of the direction im going

as for the facilities i have, i work for a structural steel fab shop, the basic list off the top of my head is:
a pair of cinci press brakes, one of which is CNC
hard way roll
4 point plate roll (10'x1" capable on carbon steel)
3 point slip roll (10" x 3/8 capable iirc)
iron worker (7/8" dia x1" thick capable on the punch)
couple drill presses of different sizes
threading machine
mag drills
plate beveler (can do a 45* on stuff over an inch thick)
2 band saws
one automatic column style cold saw - with cnc back gauge accurate to . 004"
one manual column style cold saw
one small manual cold saw- pivot style, 10 inch blade max iirc

Migs set up for carbon, alum and stainless (spoolgun on the alum machine)
miller syncrowave tig, with standard and pencil style torches, and a water cooler outfit
oxy-propane and oxy-acetylene torch outfits

two 7 ton bridge cranes

shop prices on laser / oxy / plasma / waterjet cutting through any of our suppliers, and the same goes for materials from any of the metal warehouses we order through on a regular basis, and i can have stuff delivered with any of the shops orders, saving delivery costs in the process ....

Sounds like you are waay ahead of most of us in facilities..Like it was said I like the carbon steel unless I have a real weight issue then it is the 4130 and then I call a bud to weld it who has a tig and knows how..

Sam

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If it don't work it ain't pretty!!!!

yea, the facilities are nice, finding time to use them is something else. since the shops only open first shift its not like i can stick around during 2nd shift to do my own stuff, so i either have to do my stuff 630-7 or 12-1230, and fridays after 12 or after 2, depending on what time we get kicked out

we also have an electric over hydraulic tubing bender with the right shoes for doing a cage .... thats gonna come in real handy

please help with those pivot points sizes. i am building a firenza canam with a c5 front suspension a arm setup. We do have drawings of a lambo kit car frame with all sizes, but do not show the up right axle center lines. This make it not possible to have exact off sets from top view. Did download ''susprog3d'' but cant found the c5 setup. help needed