Jacob's goon build

[Laecaon]

Now get to work. This site has a depressing lack of 510 wagons.

Took a moment, go look at my house thread.

Anyways, Lets do some work. For the past week I have been working on the exhaust. Right now I am waiting on the hangers to come in, ordered Sunday and only shipped out today...

Now remember, this is all 304 Stainless Steel. I thought I couldnt weld it easily. But then I stumbled across a stainless flux core wire on Amazon. My plan is to only tack it together so I can mock it up, then take it to work for TIG welding goodness.




Here is the current state of things. The pipe coming from the right is the same pipe I have had in the car for like the last 2 years, so that part is old, but then you see 3 new pieces added on. Little straight pipe is angled. It makes a 11 degree angle. Then a nice 45 up, and another 45 over the axle.



Paper templates that you can just print are nice. This is a 5 degree angle (right side high if you couldnt tell).



From the back, the exhaust is hanging a tad low here.



And I ran out of steam today. But its just about perfect. Need to just make a couple more tweaks.

But here you can see where the muffler is going. From what is above, its straight into the muffler, then just a 45 down and out the back of the car.



What I think I like most about this, there is no bend greater than 45 degrees in the whole exhaust. And its all 2.5" mandrel bent.

[Laecaon]

Ok, I nearly finished the exhaust Saturday, but wanted to hold off until I actually had it done(ish).

So from the picture above, I perfected the angle on the straight piece into the muffler. As well as figured out how to hold the muffler into location.



And here it is all tacked together. I have 2 of the 3 mounts in, and its fully hanging by itself in the car.



Here you can see clearance for the muffler... and the Rivenuts I placed in the perfectly placed cross flange...



Here are the mounts that keep the rear located, the ugly weld... well its not fun welding under a car, its flux core, it kept welding to the bracket and not the pipe, and apparently this flux core wants the polarity backwards... which I didnt catch...



And tonight I was in the "just get it done" mood. So I busted out the last mount. Its kinda ugly. I didnt like the metal I had on hand. But meh. But now the muffler doesnt wiggle, which means the exhaust tip/end (Im not putting a "tip" on it) wont wiggle around. That always looks so awful on cars.



Out of the car, from the Downpipe Vband to the Muffler. Time to take it to work for full weld.



And loaded into the X5.



I do try and make my welders life easy, the biggest gap in all of the miter joints was this big.

[Laecaon]

2 Steps forward, 1 step back...

So I made an order. All laser cut parts I designed.





New cross member incoming.

[Laecaon]

To start things off, I found a tool on Youtube. If you are doing any metal fabrication, you need one of these things. Put nice even chamfers on parts, put heavy chamfers in for weld prep. Its tiny, and all over Amazon from $50 to $90.



It produces nice chamfers like this, look at the circles, but most of the edges have it.



The LCA fits so nicely. On my current crossmember you have to hammer the bolt through. This the bolt just glides through.



And then I had to assemble 1 engine mount. And holy crap look at this clearance. I know I designed it in CAD, but to see it fit exactly how I imagined...

[Laecaon]

Just a few quick photos. Im hoping to have it done Friday if I dont work.

I had to bolt these wing pieces in just to see. I really like them. This new design is considerably more compact. but less weight, idk...


Oh goodie, the old cross member works as a jig.(I happened to have drilled the holes in after welding it all together).


I bought a 4 pack of these quick clamps, so glad I did, so handy. And I really didnt have to try, the 2 sides where pretty aligned as is, but now its real straight.


More to come.

[flatcat19]

Are you building this as an alternative to the JB Coach works cross memeber?
Are you putting in a steering rack with it?

Looks sick, regardless.

[Laecaon]

I have had a rack in the car for a long time. But last year when I finally got it down on the ground, the rack moved. Laterally. Looked scary. But boy is it easy to turn even stopped. I did something right.

I should also say, I haven't changed any of the geometry from my previous setup. The problem here was the cross member was made pre the decision going to rack and pinion. So now I am simply integrating the rack into the cross member to make it simpler and stronger. And fix a few things, like I covered a sway bar bolt hole, and it would have been impossible to remove the rack on its own without lifting the motor or taking out the cross member, now it will be super easy.

I never liked how much the JB rack and pinion setup was. And I also just like building things.

[flatcat19]

Sweet.

[Laecaon]

Now its starting to look like a thing.


And here is the center section. And how the rack gets mounted. This is upside down.



And the top side. I really like this design, and if for some odd reason its not strong enough, Its pretty easy to gusset, or add some plate for more rigidity.



I made some alignment jigs before removing everything from the car. You can see them here holding the rack in location. This is basically what its going to look like from the bottom. Other than the clamps for the rack.



Tomorrow I will get the rack centered, and then everything tacked together. This whole thing is going together like planned, I am so glad I got most of this laser cut.

[Taterhead]

Looking good. I like the fact that you’re capable of doing this yourself and you’re going to have one of a kind parts when it’s done.

[HRH]

You know, this year is the year I finally got confident with my wire-feed welding skills. I've only had the welder for 10 years or so. At some point I need to save up for a MIG so I can weld aluminum or do more controlled work with steel. Seeing your stuff is quite impressive. I'm not to that level yet.

[Laecaon]

Thanks

MIG is amazing. Really wish I could do aluminum. But that is what I have friends and work for...

Well I disappeared for the weekend. And the axle in the garage takes up some space.

But I did manage to get the whole thing tacked together. Engine mounts will be tacked on once I have it in the car.

And the rack is actually bolted to the cross member here, Fits perfect. I need to find a home for the axle/clean the garage a bit.



Oh and I forgot one thing. Nowhere to center jack the car up from. That will be addressed.

[Laecaon]

I had to clean the garage a bit, the new axle was in my way...



Anyways I got the crossmember bolted into the car. I really like how it looks.


After this I removed the crossmember, and started to full weld it. Still kinda a work in progress, probably get it back in the car monday or tuesday.

[Laecaon]

Crossmember is back in the car, and I got the engine back to sitting on the crossmember!



Man those welds look bad in the photo. I definitely dont like welding on that radius. I may grind it down and lay a nicer bead later.

Next up, get the engine mounts tacked in. Reassemble the front suspension, and figure out a new mount for steering shaft stabilizer. Then I can start focusing on the oil pan again.

[Taterhead]

Looks good in there

[HRH]

Yeah, looks like you need a little more current. I've found my mig welder does really well on medium thick stuff, but anything super heavy it pays to heat it up with a torch first, then go for max amperage. It supposedly can do 3/16 or 1/4" or something, I long ago forgot the specs, but definitely some pre-heating will help.

Also, it is steering related, so if it's going less than stellar, you can always have a primo welder do it for you for some cash. There are a few things on the car that I could have welded myself, but I farmed out to the Datsun guru because I didn't want to have any worries about it. Not that I'm saying you should, just it's an option if your welder isn't liking working the thicker stuff.

[Laecaon]

I think this was more technique than anything. I still have more power on the welder to give it. Some spots it laid some beautiful welds. I think if I would have had the crossmember vertical, it would have been easier to weld. Its also a problem of welding on vertical surfaces vs horizontal. Ill definitely be addressing it in the future.

[BLUE]

Craftsmanship ? = check
Precision ? = check
Shotty work ? = never...

Well done chap , well done

[Laecaon]

Thanks David!

And for tonight, I managed to get the bracket for the steering shaft stabilizer done.




Once that piece is bolted on (its really freaking hot), I think that puts me back to where I was before I decided to remake the crossmember.

Next step is the oil pan and pickup tube. I really need to get that done...

[HRH]

No progress updates makes me a sad panda.