Ulu

This week was kind of a bust. We had a storm that messed up the boatyard. I spent some time cleaning up, then I caught some stomach bug that spoiled my week. I did make an extension for my brake pushrod. I also made a floor for the battery tray, some small frame reinforcements, and a pedal stop, but none of that is welded yet. I got some better brake lines flared up. I still have to bend and install them. I won’t install the brake lines yet. I want to install the front axle at the same time, but there is bottom welding yet to do on the frame. I should paint the bottom first too. I took off the forward pivot clamp business for access to the brake lines, but it will be reinstalled soon.

I located those brackets and installed some brake lines. One turned out too short, so it’s off to the buggy shop for parts.

This is why I’m building the fiberglass 30’s “replikar”. Those Big Swoopy Fenders! Even in plastic, it’s just so swoopy!

If you wanna go down a rabbit hole about location, there’s a lot of philosophy to cover there. 😉 When I went to put these on, I realized I had no dimensions written down anywhere in my sketches. All I had was a photograph to go by and I had to find it. Here it is and you can see by the arrow where the little bracket and the brake line will be mounted. There is however now, a big steel box over that area, because I have boxed this entire section of the frame from approximately that bracket rearwards. There may be dimensions or a template in the construction manual. Time to go look. You can also see in my photograph that the brake line just kind of snuck out from the gap between the body and the frame. There was no grommet or any provisions for retention in that area.

It’s a flaw in my design, but I will live with it. Today I started to bend the front brake lines (before I install any more obstructions) and realized that I didn’t have any brackets worth using. Just these, which I cut off & cleaned up. Then I cut up some scrap parts for the straps, and re-made them. Now I have to locate the brackets.

I set this up with some “gage blocks” and I find both rails sucked in by over 1/4” each in 6 feet. At least the body won’t rub there.

I have finally come to grips with a situation I was fighting, and it is really a big relief. I was set on making the front compartment (“frunk”) watertight, but it just cannot be airtight. Not unless I seal around the batteries and gas tank, and vent them outside. Also, working on the master cylinder or fuel filter will be much easier if at least part of the floor panel is removable. I decided the battery area will have a solid structural floor, the floor under the master cylinder and fuel filter should be removable, and the fuel tank doesn’t need a floor. I might use this thick 5gal pressure tank. That’s enough fuel for this kart. lf you look closely you’ll see I did cut the two little rails, but the frame only popped back 3/16” Not the 3/8 to 1/2” I foolishly expected. The weld draw is 90% from the long seams. I will live with it. I had to get the steel lines out of my way. I cut the fuel line, installed the master cylinder and pedal assembly, and bent the rear brake line to fit. I cleaned up the pedal assembly 95% then had to fuss with cable ducts and control cables, and bend the tunnel out a bit with a slide hammer, to get it all working smoothly and without anything rubbing. The brake push rod is 2” too short, so I must make a longer one. Also I stuffed an aluminum shim in the pedal stop for temporary alignment. (See the red arrow?) It still needs a bit of welding.

This floor has already been trimmed so it’s too late bead roll it, unless I trim the flanges off all the way around and mount the floor on ledgers. because of my fuel tank issue and one other consideration, I’m probably going to change my design a little bit. I’m looking at making a steel fuel tank here, from a cylinder I already have, and it’s maybe gonna want some sort of a skid plate under it.

I’m having some other issues as well. I was measuring to order a fuel tank. You can’t buy a racing style tank in California. At least not from the vendors on Amazon. Even Speedway! The laws affecting power lawn equipment somehow cover this too. I didn’t want to make a fuel tank, but it seems maybe I will.

Well I got sidetracked, and suddenly one thing leads to another. I needed to cut those rails, but I didn’t want to get the tunnel full of crap. So, I decided to put the tunnel covers on. At that time I realized that I should put the clutch cable in first. Then I realized I hadn’t test-fit the pedal assembly, after welding in the new tunnel side where it fits. It did fit, with a little grinding and hammering, and some smacks from a slide hammer. But then I put the throttle cable on and it rubs the tunnel. So I bent the tunnel a bit and took the pedal assembly apart to bend the throttle lever a bit, so now it all clears. Of course, taking the pedal assembly apart meant I had to stop and clean it up. It had lumpy paint over grime, and corrosion, so another sidetrack. Finally, I did get the tunnel covers on, but it was too late to continue, so the battery box rails never did get cut.

That paint flakes right off. It is brittle and thin. It appears to be polyester. I will attempt a test weld today.

Did that come from the over-bored 396? I had a 368 with quadrajet that was really a de-bored 427 Cadillac.

I sure don’t like the flat floor. I’m telling myself to make another one, from a side that is embossed, rather than the flat front. I don’t even know how this metal will weld. It seems pretty soft. And it is thin enough.

These floor braces must also support the batteries. The gas tank gets its own brackets. They put lots of weld draw in the frame. Too much. These will get cut.

“….I cannot understand….” Surely you can, but are you willing? Too many have closed their minds, to the possibilities, on purpose. Guard against that, if you are able.

Whenever I keep something that other people would throw, out my wife always askes me the same question. “What are you going to do with that?” Then she reminds me for the next seven years when garbage pick up day is, so I can toss it out. OK maybe not seven years but this has been kicking around since our washing machine died a few years ago. Not having any kind of a box brake, I used the old time method of clamping it to a table with a piece of square tubing and smacking it with a mallet After lots of fussing and fitting I put a flange on all four sides, made corner notches, and made joggles to clear the big gussets on my frame. Now it almost fits. But it’s not ready to weld in yet. This floor will need reinforcements, and some get attached to the frame first.

We had our first fall rain and now it is starting to dry up. Time to grind. I still had to skip weld the bottoms of the floor ledgers, as they were still only tacked on 3 sides. It took about 50 really easy 3/4” to 1” long welds. Because they were on clean, new metal, flat position, Bench height, they all came out nice. Now I do need to clean up some corner welds, where I blew it trying to weld vertical. I will grind them out, roll the frame down, and re-weld a few short welds. I still need to make gussets.

That was just the argon solenoid clicking on and off. Right now I am still catching up the misc floor welding.

I can mass produce something nobody wants? I don’t need money that bad.

2 bottles of argon later, I have the tunnel done, all the front closures, gussets, plug welds, and such are complete. The mid-crossmember is welded in. It has 3 little gussets. Needs a fourth. 26 of 34 welds on the small angle iron crossmembers are done. A few welds remain to do on the rear closures. Then the main frame elements will all be welded.

Please don’t start any ugly contests. 🤪 Well I burned through the rest of my Argon today. I got the floor plug welded in six places where it was still needed, and I made some little gussets & tacked them in on the frame rails. I welded the top of the tunnel to the crossmember, and now I need to roll the frame twice, so I can continue welding the vertical part in a flat position. I’m gonna take tomorrow off & avoid welding. Then Monday, it’s back to the welding shop for more gas.

I got all of the frame rails fully seamed, top and bottom now. I did this with dozens of skip welds, so there are lots of stops and starts. There’s some pretty ugly ones right there, but the rails will be very solid. I also got the rest of the floor ledgers welded to the crossmember. Before I roll it again, I need to weld on the tunnel, and partially weld the tunnel to the crossmember. The floor still needs work in the corners There’s still lots of welding to do on the big square gussets in the photo above, On the crossmember to frame connections, and the forward frame closures.

Do you guys watch Preston Tucker’s Speed Shop on youtube?

I rolled the frame back and forth today, to get all the floor ledger welds. I put on 50 welds there, plus another dozen on the pan patches and frame closures. I wedged 10 extra legs under the frame for my safety.

Seats will fit ok. Gusseting in these corners will be a pain.