79 Cutlass Wagon G-machine build

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Finally my most anticipated new thing to learn- TIG welding. For practice with this we worked with steel butt welding with and without rod, vertical butt with rod, stainless, and aluminum. Although I thought it would be easier, aluminum turned out to be harder. Although it's softer and you'd think you would use less heat, aluminum absorbes and dissipates the heat so fast you actually have to use more voltage and ac rather than dc to get a good puddle going. The throttle is sensitive because it's real easy to get it too hot. Here are a couple of my butt welds after some practice. Top one got a little too hot and sank in a bit. Other two aren't too bad for my first time ever welding aluminum.

Now for the second half of the semester we'll have a lot of practice putting to work what we've learned so far. We each have to french a tail light and an antennae and then we each have to build a complete hot rod body for a pedal car chassis out of .063 sheet aluminum. This ought to be fun! ...

 

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Next item to get in place before I can start building the roll bar is the battery. It needed to move to the rear to clean up the engine bay and help a little with the weight bias. I want to keep as much room available in the back so I can still use it to haul stuff around, so tucking it was in order. Here's a couple shots of what I have to work with.

The whole blue rear floor unscrews and comes out to reveal another floor underneath on this car. Underneath the right side of the blue sheet metal is a support to help hold the upper floor up. The frame rail is directly below that.

After looking at a couple different options I decided that positioned right above the frame rail on the right would be best. That means moving some things around and removing the support.

I cut and relocated the right side floor edge that supports the spare tire door. The arrow shows where it used to be attached. Where it used to be it was shorter because of the angle at the top (see above photo) so it took a spacer welded in the middle to make it the new correct length. I also had to cut out the support metal underneath.

Notice also the space saver spare, I got it free from a guy I know that owns a couple Corvettes. Its a 155-70-17, lighter and skinnier than a full size, perfect for clearing the bigger F-body brakes, and is the same height as a 275-40-17.

Next I cut the door and reshaped it to fit in the recess.

The lower floor is contoured to fit the frame so if I set the battery in as it is it was raked down towards the front. To make a flat support for the batt to sit on I grabbed some scrap 1" square tube, cut it at a 45 deg angle and welded up an L shape.

I then welded it into the car on top of the inner floor...

... and here's the end result. The battery is sunk into the floor about 3" and it has a strong support to bolt the box to. Tomorrow I start making a battery box from .063 aluminum. Cost of the materials is about 6 bucks compared to paying $80+ for one already made.

 

[79loserbluebu]

Nice job it looks really clean. How deep down does it sit the battery in the floor? I bet that'd be a good place to put a nitrous bottle

 

[Longroof79]

Nice work, Ben.
You're having way too much fun... :lol: I'm envious..

 

[SRD art]

Nice job it looks really clean. How deep down does it sit the battery in the floor? I bet that'd be a good place to put a nitrous bottle

It's only about 3". You're right though, it'd work great with a cover over it. I'm all about hidden bottles!

Trust me, I am having fun!

 

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I was on date night with my wife last night and as we were getting into the car a guy pulled in next to us in an orange 2011 Caravan. I liked the shade a lot, similar to Vette Atomic orange. I've looked at lots of orange paint colors and I think I've narrowed it to one of these two paint codes. I'm not sure if the Vette is a 3 stage or not, I'd imagine the Caravan is two. Whichever fits the budget better wins this bout.

 

[Longroof79]

Ben,
Both colors seem to have a similar hue. I agree, go with what's more reasonable price wise. Either one is a good choice. Are you still considering a two tone?
I like the battery well concept.

 

[SRD art]

Thanks and yep, satin black and glossy orange. I'll have silver and carbon fiber as an accent colors here and there.

 

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Now on with the box and the well, sort of sounds like a Disney movie, lol!

Here's a shot of the pattern I used for my battery box. It will be cut and folded from .063 aluminum. I wanted a nice smooth look so the sides will fold around and meet in the middle of the back, having only one vertical weld rather than one at each corner. I've also provided flanges on the top and bottom of each side. The top will be folded completely over and create a smooth perimeter top while providing extra strength. On the bottom the flanges will mate to the floor of the box...

Still working on the box lid but you can see the box put together on the right of the next two shots. Jumping on to the tire well...

 

[SRD art]

Currently I run a single 3" exhaust that exits behind the passenger rear tire. I want to keep the single 3" but wanted to do something different- have it appear to be duals as folks will expect a performance car to have and exit somewhere else. In keeping with the overall design of the car I decided to run dual rectangle tips and have them exit below the center of the rear bumper. Only problem is that my gas tank and spare well are right in front of the bumper and there's no room to plumb exhaust. As you can see the spare tire takes up the whole well so some more mods are in order to create a passage way for the pipe to run through. See the beginnings of the battery box on the right...

So I marked out an area to remove, trimmed it out and prepped for welding.

Using the sheet metal brake I bent up a piece of 18ga steel, here tacked in place, to create a "shelf" for the spare to rest on.

Now the tire rests at an angle and although I removed a large chunk of the well I actually created better space management. Under the tire I now have storage room for a small tool kit, tow rope and jumper cables and the lid closes with room to spare. I also have created a large open area to run the exhaust pipe.

I recently picked up a pair of Flowmasters and tips from a friend that's changing the exhaust on his 91 Corvette. I'll save the mufflers for my son's Nova build that will start next year and the tips will go on my car. They're each about 7.5" wide and should look great nestled under the rear bumper. My car will be anti-chrome so the tips will be getting a makeover as well.