More front end stiffening

Spent the weekend finishing off the seam welding. I also added a couple of strengthening gussets between the firewall and the shock towers(see pics) using some metal I had lying around(this is "HalfArsed" Racing remember!). These should help with some strengthening of the front end as my cage does not extend forward to the shock towers.

A couple of things I've found whilst doing this job:
1. trying to weld a join with seam sealer or paint in it sucks! I cleaned as much of the seam sealer out that I could using a fine screw driver tip to scrape it out, and also going over them with a wire wheel attachment to my 100mm angle grinder. It was virtually impossible to get it all.
2. My little 150amp hobby MIG is probably not the best unit for the job. Dont get me wrong its capable of doing a decent job - just fiddly to get the settings right using the 3 rocker switches, and the little disposable canister of sheilding gas does not last very long at all. I went through 3 canisters @ ~$30 a pop! I perservered and managed an acceptable job of it I think - but I dont think I'll win any beauty contests with my welding!

Next I have to hit all the exposed bare metal surfaces in the engine bay and interior(ie. cage) with etch primer and then sand back the painted surfaces in prep for getting the interior and engine bay painted.

Seam Welding

Started seam welding the front end over the weekend, got about half way through before I ran out of gas.

Note To Self: check regularly that there is gas coming out of the MIG hand piece! I was wondering why my welds started getting a bit crappy!?

Also some pics of the cage anchoring points(pics were taken "before" I attacked all the joins with a wire wheel to get them ready for paint.)

Caged! And some mail!

Cage is done! I picked the car up this morning before work from FabRAIcations. I'm very happy with it! With the double side intrusion bars and the deep bucket Cobra seat I'm going to need a quick release steering wheel kit to make it easier to get in and out of! Will take some more pics later when I get a chance and post back.

Also received some parts in the mail which I ordered last week, a pair of Cusco 35mm RCA's(2nd hand) and some braided brake lines.

Some ROP Progress

Got a call from Rai today to ask if I could pop in and check the seat positioning before finalising it. Managed to take a few pics of the progress so far. Hoping it will be ready by the end of the week! Because the seat is so big around the shoulder/head area, he couldnt fit a triangulation bar between the main hoop and the roof side bars - so instead he's done a diagonal in the roof. The side intrusion bars will have an extra upper bar which is not pictured here - its going to make a little more difficult to get in and out of but is still a good idea for extra rigidity and safety.

The rear legs are also still to be done.

What Rai? Delay?

Popped up to FabRAIcations at lunch time to see Rai and check how my cage was going - was expecting it to be almost done, but as you can see, not quite! Apparently his lead fabricator has been off sick for the last week with pneumonia! So it will be at least another week before its ready.



Rai does some great work from checking out the other cars he had there, I'm sure I'll be very happy with the result when its done. A great bloke too. There are couple of things he does which I really like, the extra triangulation bars at the top of the uprights are a nice touch. I'm also getting double side intrusion bars - the AE86 has a very large door gap so I figured extra strength here wouldn't go astray! I'll also be cutting the side intrusion panels out of the ADM AE86 doors to lighten them so am happy to have the extra side protection. Heres some pics of a KE70 he's building up as a rally car for himself, my cage will be similar I think but without the X section in the roof!



I have already arranged to get the interior/cage and engine bay painted, mates rates through a friend, when its ready. I like white on race cars! I especially like the Subaru white from my GC8 WRX, its a real clean stark white so will use that color I think. I'll seam weld the engine bay once I get it back and shoot it off for paint once thats all done. I'm not going to worry about the exterior just yet.