The Project Pad

Slowly coming along. I have acquired some tools. Tube bender for $150, drill press for $80, tube notcher, chop saw and inherited an air compressor.

Practicing welding.

Can’t say I’m not practicing. Not the best looking welds but but will hold. Been practicing vertical thick to thin most recently. I was starting from bottom to top but kept burning through the thin material. So I started from top to bottom and that seemed to work better. Still not consistently good but getting there.

Race before I’m 50. Cut out some material for the main hoop base plates. Still pretty rough. I’ve ben adhering to the SCCA ITB GCR . Gonna get in touch with local safety steward to make sure I’m on the right path. Thanks for looking! Any positive input is appreciated.

Howdy. I need to install a tube between the rear shock towers. I was wondering how much support the rear bulk head offers to the shock towers??? It would make life a little easier if I could remove the portion that the rear seat use to attach to so I can reinforce the towers to install a tube. Gas tank is out. I would obviously put something back in its place. In one of the pics below a fellow has done something along the lines I want to do. You cane see the whole rear bulk head has been replaced. Thanks for the input.

That flimsy bulk head doesn’t support anything but it’s self! I strung some yarn in between to see if it would sag or get tighter and it stayed the same.

I’m planning to take that rear firewall out , too, in one of my B2 projects .
If you look at pictures of what the Audi sport guys did back in the rally cars , they made a simple sheet metal piece .
Due to all the pressed shapes in the factory one a flat piece would not have the same 3-dimensional strength . but you could add something with a Bead rolled or rivet on like below

Sweet! Thanks for sharing that.

mrdeye wrote:Sweet! Thanks for sharing that.

I’ll be doing a similar build soon I hope on an urq , and I wanted to do a lot of stuff like the Audi sport works cars of back in the day. So I’ve been looking through these pictures , to get ideas , not sure if you’ve seen it.
Since it’s relevant to your project check it out. http://www.mat.fi/projects/65

BTW nice work ok the cage , I’ve been working on one for the last week and it’s not fun to say the least and quite challenging with all the notching

Afterthought wrote:

mrdeye wrote:Sweet! Thanks for sharing that.

Since it’s relevant to your project check it out. http://www.mat.fi/projects/65

BTW nice work ok the cage , I’ve been working on one for the last week and it’s not fun to say the least and quite challenging with all the notching

Yes!!! I’ve seen that restoration in a late night inner web session! A lot of eye candy there!! Thanks for the link. And thanks for the compliment on the work. It’s still a little rough. I need to get some tighter fits on base plates. For me I find it fun and challenging. But very time consuming! Especially when you have someone saying “Dad I’m bored!”. And yes...I’m a little jealous of your work space.

Oh crap! Found this under the coupe today. Yeah I use water with water wetter when at the track. Before starting the roll cage the car sat for awhile with no coolant in it. So I put water in it, started the car and let it run for awhile. Blew out the radiator/block with compressed air and then put it under vacuum for awhile with air compressor running. Guess it wasn’t enough. Hopefully nothing cracked. I understand the “freeze plugs” are more for casting purposes hopefully they hold up to their name. Anyone have experience with this situation? Fingers crossed.

They are designed for just that. Not casting.
I understand the reasons for only running water and water wetter on a track car, but if you are going to have the car standing for a while, flush it with a water/antifreeze. This will prevent freezing from happening again and it keeps the motor from rusting and the radiator from corroding. You can always flushing it back out before the next track season. Better to be safe than sorry. Always used distilled water.


Greg W.

Thanks for the reply Greg. I’ll do better on the winterizing end! I always use distilled water. I’m just worried about internal damage. Working on getting a freeze plug. How do you guys feel about the freeze plug in the pic or stick with OE??

I would use those as temporary replacements, only because I have seen them blow out over time.

OEM frost plugs aren't expensive.

Pretty sure I got one with a coolant nipple from Issam for under $10.

OE. Using those rubber ones, you will feel you have to crank down on it, making it too tight. I would only use these if down the road, the hole for the freeze plug gets oversized or out of round.

Just my 2 cents.

Greg W.

Ok, thanks for the input. Kinda like the coolant nipple idea. 034 sells them for $33.00. PRY4SNO.....you and this Issam fella seem pretty tight?? How about you buy one for less $10 and sell it to me for $10???

Ok, so.....PRY4SNO did come through with the $10 freeze plug , but I got it done and we’re moving on. Not the prettiest welds, need to clean a few up. I made the rear bulk head/fire wall, reinforced rear strut towers, made some slight changes to main hoop base plates and bent my main hoop.

Bulkhead/fire wall

Fostering some puppies during quarantine

Main hoop

Main hoop

Main hoop plates

That’s where I’m at. I’m going with a halo hoop. Unfortunately my tube bender can’t bend to 90’ so I had to source that out. The reason for a halo hoop is that I think I would have an easier time bending the A pillar down tubes. My mind could change. Trying to get those down tubes as close to the A pillar as possible. I have bent one down tube and I think it could be too short already. Getting a little ahead of myself with out the halo hoop.
Thanks for looking.

Something like this when done.