RX323 Project - Chassis Brackets

[MikeLMR]

well got quite a bit done today

Fabricated a base for the new tube bender and set it in concrete along with about a tonne of reinforcing ... don\'t want that pulling out the ground mid bend! Hopefully it will set square ... it\'s currently level to within 0.1degree using a digital inclinometer

Also ordered my roll cage tubing - Clubman 500 spec in 38x2.5mm (to match the existing cage otherwise I would have gone to 45mm)  25metres (this is in addition to the 6 point cage in the car

And made a start on my alternator bracket (it\'s going down the side of the engine) Just need a double pulley and some odd sized bolts to finish it off. (damn silly fine bolts on the engine!)

thats about it, tubing should arrive soon but can\'t bend anything till the concrete cures!

[MikeLMR]

LoL ... lots getting sorted today. Just ordered 8 removable roll cage joints for the X  door bars (want to keep front cage removable to take the dash out later on for spraying and finishing of the plumbing and fab work. They are for 40mm tube but nothing an hour or two of lathe work won\'t sort out

and ordered some stupid silly fine bolts for the engine (£2.50 EACH!) ouch

[MikeLMR]

Some Piccies from today bit more steel cut out, axle aligned a little better and some more laying out and thinking about the setup and how it\'s going to work



Been waiting for my roll cage tubing to turn up since Tuesday ... nothing bummer ... also waiting for door bar ends and rear brake calipers. The post is next to useless!

[Dominic]

Now THAT\'S a pipe bender....

Looking good Mike. That\'s a fearsome looking rear sus set-up. Liking the rollcage design too.

[yoeddynz]

Awesome- looking good. summers here- love it when I get spare time in summer- enjoy!!!

[MikeLMR]

cheers for the comments , steel is here now so I am happy and the 1st 1 metre chunk is welded in place. We\'ve also set the axle in the body ready for sorting out the suspension and welded it solidly in place so it can\'t move around on us (getting it aligned was quite a task!)

[DRAGON]

Mike, can you tell me more about the costs of pipe bender extras, and shipping etc? Also you didnt fancy the notcher as well then?

[MikeLMR]

Got a notcher already bought one from chester tools UK, nothing to it really, but cheaper to buy than make one off.

The pipe bender was best part £700 in the end I got it from a UK supplier (an off road place) not cheap but we will use it a fair bit between us.

http://www.straightforwardsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/shop.html

[MikeLMR]

Some photos from Friday. First bar welded in place, hopefully we can start to tidy up all the rough edges once the chassis is finalised. There is so much going on around different parts of the car it is going to be a lot of mocking up to work out where it all fits!

[bobster]

Just a little tip if you are having problems bending tight angles and kinking the pipe... If you stuff the pipe with sand then it stops the walls caving in on the pipe.

[MikeLMR]

tried that (check out photos with big ass bolts and nuts welded to end of pipe to pressurise the sand)

Bit of progress today ... ordered a new ECU. Going with a haltec E8 rather than the Weber Alpha (which I have Ebay\'ed)

[MikeLMR]

Well bit of an update

Chassis has been started and I\'ve decided to junk (well I will sell them once I have finished mocking up the suspension) the chassis engineering 4 link brackets and make our own to my own design  yank bits do not fit 323\'s no matter how  universal they claim they are :2Rolleyes

So today I have been measuring, swearing, swearing some more, kicking things swearing again, measuring some more and finally drilling some holes and then having to make a drill jig to finish off (try drilling two co-axial holes 38mm diameter through a 4"x2" box section that is 5mm thick and you will find out how tough it is to get spot on. Anyway should be OK now and will post some pics of the bodgery tomorrow.

Also had a few more bits turn up

Water Pump
Door Bar fittings
Rear Brake Calipers (HB 929 ones ... I reckon they are the same as Rx-7 ones or close enough
Lotus Elise Thermostat housing (Inline)
FD main pulley (thanks Chris)
FD Alt Pulley (Thanks Jitesh)

just waiting for some EFI bits in the post now (the Weber Alpha has been sold on Ebay) as mentioned above i\'ve gone for a Haltech E8

Here are the only piccies I have at the moment. Making the chassis is going to be a tricky job, hopefully it can be done over the weekend!

[MikeLMR]

well got a fair bit done today, first chassis rail has been bent and now needs notching and welding in place it\'s been a stress full day as none of us have done anything like this before    so lots of learning of lessons.

1st thing this morning finished off my jig for drilling co-axial holes in the chassis rails (part of tube notching jig fitting with a custom guide machined up on the lathe to suit) and it seems to have worked quite well and I "believe" the two holes are equal around the centreline by about 1.5mm which isn\'t too bad considering I am useless at marking out and it usually frustrates me to the point of swearing  :lol:

Next some measurements were made and the tubes needed drawn up and dimensions calculated for bending

Then a 90degree test bend to establish the offset of the bending die (all are slightly different) and a bit of practice.

After the practice we moved onto the real chassis rails ... I think it is pretty close to what we wanted and I\'ve just got make another identical one now!! (eeek) for the other side.

Hopefully we will get the matching one made and them notched tomorrow!

Fingers crossed for the main bit of the chassis to be done for Monday eve! lots of photos hope they are self explanatory.

[MikeLMR]

chassis rails are done and in the car for 1st fitting  :mmmm

they fit well enough and are pretty accurate although a little different to what I had 1st drawn (reworked along the way  :rollin )

Lots to do!! this is a big project but it\'s starting to take shape now.

[88GT-R]

Interesting, Mike!