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Drift SS Ute

elless1

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Awesome. Whats your backround mate? i'm guessing some sort of fab
work? Do you wire everything up yourself?

Very impressive none the less.
 

Harris2

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Actually I did 4 years as a labourer and carpenter apprentice fresh out of school. Lost my license for a extended period so I quit my apprenticeship. Was actually starting to get the shits with it and was only continuing to just get my qualification but license killed that.

I now work at a timber importing/wholesale company. Started in the warehouse but now run the office etc etc.

Most of the fabrication was trial and error and just giving it a go between me and some mates. And my sparky mate did the majority of the wiring and also helped with some of the fabrication as he's building his own 4x4.

Thanks mate. Being my first build there's defiantly some rough sections and things I'd do differently next time.
 
H

harrop.senator

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I have half a chubby right now. This is way to rad dude you've done a great job. It makes me even more tempted to get the mrs supercharged manual vu out at prac night while the silvias still in pieces .
 

Harris2

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Thanks man, means a lot. =D And do it man, I can't wait to get back out. Haven't been drifting very long used to do a bit of street drifting before I wisened up and stopped being a idiot. lol...

Got busy today and gave the pipe bender a solid work out, basically done 95% of the rear tubing. All that's left is to do a few final welds and tidy some of them up as I'm still not very good at welding. Start building the infill panels tomorrow which will just be 100mm x 1.6mm plate with dimple die holes on the sides and just wrap around under the headlight then start the diffuser. Once that's done I can put the jack point in the correct spot.

I also need to get another tow strap or weld on a tow point on the rear. Going to bin that tailgate and instead of cutting a big square i'm going to hole saw holes in it in some form of pattern as the giant hole doesn't really do it for me. The second pipe in the middle is only there so that when I build the diffuser its not on such a huge angle. I thought about doing a infill panel with dimple dies but feel it'll look too 4x4 spec being the entire way around.

Also looking at doing some built in jack stand. put some box section with a slightly smaller box inside it. Drill holes and have a pin and have a flip plate on the bottom so it suits on angles. Just raise it up and down. Going to have a bolt that'll wind in and out so it doesn't move/rattle when i'm out drifting. Will make jacking the car up quicker and not have to carry stands around.

None of the bar work is mounted to the chassis so if it gets a knock I shouldn't need to worry about having to cut and replace the chassis. The front bar near the wheels with the bend in it isn't ideal as it'll probably just fold but couldn't get a neat hole to do the angle required. If I do bend that i'll have bigger issues to worry about like cracking rims and bending subrame etc.

Have to stitch weld the wheel arches and that should be it for bracing. Once the cage goes in, stitch weld the cab and tube the front it shouldn't be flexing anywhere. Cage will tie in with the front and rear tube work. The car is probably over built, but eh I like how it looks and serves a purpose.


Big thanks to my Room mate for giving me a hand all day.
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Harris2

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Had a few parts arrive during the week.

Turbosmart external Gate
Front wheel bearings
3inch Vband to T3 adaptor as it seemed easier then trying to make my own.

P.s. Do the adaptors look like mild steel??? cause they are supposed to be. Seem rather polished and even the holes in the T3 flange are polished inside. I test welded some steel to the flange and it seemed to weld alright and the weld didn't break when I smashed at it with a hammer. I don't exactly know how well stainless welds to mild steel but I always thought it didn't or didn't very well at least....

You can see how far I've cut my front chassis back in these photos and my manifolds look like cannons its hilarious.

Also that tube on the front isn't going to be like that, I bent the steel up when I first got my bender so I could use it for measurements and where to start my bends from for testing how tight the bend would be etc etc.

Turbo got back order for 3 weeks, Bit of a pain as I can't start the front without it and the intercooler is still on its way. Plenty of other stuff to do yet tho.

Few things I've noticed with commodores is that the car isn't built from factory parallel... Chassis rails are 2inchs off to the passenger side in the rear. They aren't straight in the engine bag. The motor is slightly off to the passenger side as well. The LS's exhaust ports aren't identical on both sides, passenger side sits about 1inch further back then the driver. So my new manifolds don't sit in the same spot.

I'll also need to reroute my brake lines as they are currently touching the manifolds.
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Bigfella237

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More cars than I've got space to park!
I reckon you should graft a new skin full of louvres into that tailgate, you can buy the skins already punched out (don't ask me how much), like this one from a Chevy S10...

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...or I guess some metal fab place should be able to do 'em custom for you if you can find someone 'old school' enough?

Yeah as you've discovered, most cars are not built symmetrically, but the reason the cylinder heads aren't level is that they're interchangeable left to right, and the pistons can't be in line with the opposite bank because the connecting rods need to sit side by side on the crank journal.

It kind of surprises me though that whoever built those manifolds didn't account for the difference and make one pipe slightly longer than the other? I think that would annoy me and I'd have to fix it, but seems a shame to have to re-weld such pretty pipes!

Then again that's just me, I have to have everything symmetrical or I'm not happy, if I was doing twin turbos I think I'd have to import a pair of mirror-image turbos just so everything looked 'right', but I think Nelson Race Engines are the only people that make 'em?

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When I used to build speedway cars back in the day, there were two schools of thought when it came to bar work. You could either build everything so it crumpled easily but was independent from the other bar work, so if one bit got bent it didn't bend anything else, or you could brace the **** out of everything so the car was built like a tank, that way the bar work was so strong that any impact pushed the car sideways rather than bending anything, but the second option did tend to turn out to be a bloody heavy car!

Andrew
 

Gaiter

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What's the point of all the piping? Just to give it rigidity?
 

Harris2

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Only thing I'd be concerned about with the louvers would be the amount of airflow it'd let out. I don't want the air getting restricted inside the tray. Something i'll defiantly look into tho also have to see how it'd look on my ute.

It is a little annoying with the pipes being different lengths al though its not a huge concern to me. Same with the turbos, I know Garrett also do reverse housing turbo's. Although for the turbos I want they are 2400 each... =( Were as the ones I've bought are basically the same (billet wheel, ball bearing) for about 1200 each.

I'm considering adding another bar in near the wheel just to beef that section up a bit as the unsupported bend that goes through the inner guard will fold fairly easily.

What's the point of all the piping? Just to give it rigidity?
Its to stiffen the car up, protect the rad and to take small to medium Knocks to try protect the body work a little. If I fold a corner in it'll be a nightmare to try fix up as I just don't have the tools/skills to do it. You'll find utes to be fairly flexible in the rear and tend to float around a little.
 

Bigfella237

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More cars than I've got space to park!
No idea how you'd test the airflow of louvres?

I guess you could draw something up in Solidworks (CAD) and flow-test it, but what would you compare it to? Obviously there would be more restriction than a just having a big hole, but how much is too much?

Anyhow, just an idea!

Andrew
 

Harris2

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No idea how you'd test the airflow of louvres?

I guess you could draw something up in Solidworks (CAD) and flow-test it, but what would you compare it to? Obviously there would be more restriction than a just having a big hole, but how much is too much?

Anyhow, just an idea!

Andrew

That's defiantly beyond my skill level haha. I'm just considering the size hole in the floor compared to the size of the louvers. If the size of the exit is smaller then the size of the entrance less air will come into the tray as it'll create a air pocket and reduce the cooling efficiency. Air will follow the path of least resistance so potentially start to go around the scoop more so then up and through it. Unless it starts to create a hi/low pressure zone and starts to force it through quicker but I wouldn't be sure.

Defiantly worth a thought tho, I'm still thinking of some sort of pattern to create. Maybe I mix louvers in with holes to create a word or something. Not to sure yet.
 
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