BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Angle looks dead nuts with the seat back, and if we know Donovan there's some added beef behind that mount. My only concerns then would be A: belt stretch from such a long run and 2: how high does Donovan sit in the seat compared to the seat back? I'm a little long waisted and have to run without the cushion in my Camaro, otherwise I'm higher than the harness holes and that would compress my spine in a wreck. I can actually feel it squish me down merely tightening the harnesses. I just don't see setups like this at the race track, so I wonder if I'm not missing anything. Donovan have you considered making a harness bar for the car? That would kill the possible belt stretch concern.
I agree the angle looks good. Somewhere between 10 and 20% downward is supposed to be ideal. Closer to 10 seems safer. The collapse in the seat i saw was from a very steep angle.
I too made the run to Lethbridge. I never thought to check in with you gents. I will next time out.
Not going to spend a lot of time addressing this here, as it is what it is. The harness mounting is a compromise, I knew that going in, but did the best I could with what I had to work with. Mike and I did our research regarding belt angles and placed them accordingly, there is no issue with their angles. Belt stretch is the only real concern IMO, but at this point there’s not really much I can do about it.
A harness bar isn’t a feasible option at this point due to the exhaust pipes exiting the body occupying the same real estate as where a harness bar would need to mount.
To be properly executed, the main hoop of the bar needs to mount to the top of the frame through the floor on a full frame vehicle inline with the B pillars behind the front seats. Exactly where the pipes are. And a main hoop/harness bar is useless without some supporting bars, which starts leading into a cage. And I don’t want to be crawling over a jungle gym every time I get into or out of the car.
The only possible work-around to this situation at this point I can think of would be to install just a straight bar tying the two B pillars together with heavy plate flanges on either end welded to the body sheet metal, but there wouldn’t be a single racing sanctioning body that would pass this in an inspection.
So, there you go, it is what it is, what I’ve done is a compromise that I’m fully aware of. I did try to make sure it’s as safe as possible though, there will definitely be some heavy duty reinforcement behind the rear firewall for the attaching points, it just has to wait until the body is on the rotisserie to get good access for strong welds. Also, the harness mounting points are double shear with high strength ARP fasteners. It’s as safe as I can make it.
How high are your shoulders in that seat? That's s something you can tweak, but it's important to get right. Bolt in harness bars for the Corvette bolt in where the factory shoulder belt goes up high for the larger horizontal bar. The bars that run vertically are only there to hold your weight in a rollover and those go into the rear seat bolts for the front seat.
Alright, update time again finally.
I’ve had an awful lot of irons in the fire lately, between having the aluminum cylinder heads finally show up, finding the swap meet intake, sorting out the whole gas tank vent situation and all it’s related parts, a lengthy side project for my dad, plus an as-of-yet-unrevealed secret project.
Oooof.
No wonder I don’t feel like any progress is being made, I need to start wrapping these things up one by one. So with that being said, good news. After changing my mind about 20 different times, a final decision was made, and the fuel tank vent situation has been completed.
I was originally going to run the vent line off the Aeromotive pickup to the rollover valve, and the factory pickup vent to a small K&N breather with the thought that pressure would be able to escape through the rollover vent, and vacuum would be negated by the K&N breather allowing air in, when I realized this was stupid. The tank would vent and draw in through the breather regardless of the rollover. So the rollover valve didn’t get used.
Instead what I came up with, was to tee the two vent lines together and run them both together to the K&N breather. I started by determining a location for it, then made a little mounting bracket out of 20 gauge sheetmetal.
Since the breather is just that, a breather and designed to push into a hose or grommet, I needed a way to affix it to the bracket. Now I could’ve just rammed a couple self piercing sheetmetal screws through the bracket into the bottom of the filter, but ehhhh, no.
That just ain’t my style.
Instead, I used the Nutsert setting tool I picked up off Amazon last year, and set two tiny little M3 inserts into the bottom of the filter:
A couple tiny little M3 screws I already had, and presto. One bracket mounted filter/breather.
With that accomplished, I had to drop the tank again to gain access to the factory pickup vent. Again, here I easily could’ve taken the easy way out and just slapped a hose with a clamp on it and called it a day, but no. Not my style.
Instead, I found that the aftermarket actually makes some -5 AN fittings, including tube nuts and sleeves. Normal AN stuff is in even numbers, -6, -8, -10 etc, so to find -5 (5/16”) stuff was pretty cool. The factory vent is 5/16”, so I cut the bubble end off it, slid on the -5 tube nut and sleeve, and flared the end. Installed a -5 to -6 AN adapter, then connected my -6 AN (3/8”) hose end to it, and now both vent lines are the same size.
While the tank was still out, had to determine the best route for the hose. This seemed to be the best option and the most effective:
I was a little nervous that this routing of the hose would get it pinched between the top of the tank and the underside of the trunk floor, but once the tank was reinstalled, I found this was not the case. The hose still moves freely even with everything tightened down. Awesome.
Once the tank was back up in place, I spot welded the breather bracket to the angled section of the underside of the trunk kickup, then started connecting the dots with hoses. Here’s what I ended up with:
Pretty self explanatory, the two lines tee together, then run uphill to the breather. I was originally going to install a couple of loops in each length of vent hose before they entered the tee, for fuel slosh under hard braking, cornering etc, until Mike pointed out that if any fluid does indeed get in any of the vent lines, it’ll create a blockage and prevent air from passing through. So, my loop idea got nixxed which is fine, it made for a cleaner install anyways.
I feel the location of the breather and lines is in a good location, up high above the top of the tank, and fairly well protected from any potential damage from road debris. The tank venting situation is now fully addressed and completed.
So what now?
Start a completely new project of course!
I realized that before the body comes off the frame one last time, that there were still a couple of things to do. One of which was to make some rear inner wheelwell close out pieces. When I raised the front section of the trunk floor, I encountered some rot that required cutting away the damaged stuff, so in the interest of moving forward, I had just trimmed the damaged sections back and kept going.
This resulted in an unsightly gap in each wheelwell between the ‘well and the top of the frame. So late yesterday afternoon, Mike and I started making templates to close these areas back in:
These are going to be made out of some heavier 18 gauge material, as the inner wheelwells are only single thickness in most spots along here. I’ve already got the templates transferred onto the material, today I’ll be cutting them out and starting to fit them up into place.
That’s about all for now, I’ll continue to post as I make progress as always. Thanks for continuing to follow along gents.
D.
I’ve had an awful lot of irons in the fire lately, between having the aluminum cylinder heads finally show up, finding the swap meet intake, sorting out the whole gas tank vent situation and all it’s related parts, a lengthy side project for my dad, plus an as-of-yet-unrevealed secret project.
Oooof.
No wonder I don’t feel like any progress is being made, I need to start wrapping these things up one by one. So with that being said, good news. After changing my mind about 20 different times, a final decision was made, and the fuel tank vent situation has been completed.
I was originally going to run the vent line off the Aeromotive pickup to the rollover valve, and the factory pickup vent to a small K&N breather with the thought that pressure would be able to escape through the rollover vent, and vacuum would be negated by the K&N breather allowing air in, when I realized this was stupid. The tank would vent and draw in through the breather regardless of the rollover. So the rollover valve didn’t get used.
Instead what I came up with, was to tee the two vent lines together and run them both together to the K&N breather. I started by determining a location for it, then made a little mounting bracket out of 20 gauge sheetmetal.
Since the breather is just that, a breather and designed to push into a hose or grommet, I needed a way to affix it to the bracket. Now I could’ve just rammed a couple self piercing sheetmetal screws through the bracket into the bottom of the filter, but ehhhh, no.
That just ain’t my style.
Instead, I used the Nutsert setting tool I picked up off Amazon last year, and set two tiny little M3 inserts into the bottom of the filter:
A couple tiny little M3 screws I already had, and presto. One bracket mounted filter/breather.
With that accomplished, I had to drop the tank again to gain access to the factory pickup vent. Again, here I easily could’ve taken the easy way out and just slapped a hose with a clamp on it and called it a day, but no. Not my style.
Instead, I found that the aftermarket actually makes some -5 AN fittings, including tube nuts and sleeves. Normal AN stuff is in even numbers, -6, -8, -10 etc, so to find -5 (5/16”) stuff was pretty cool. The factory vent is 5/16”, so I cut the bubble end off it, slid on the -5 tube nut and sleeve, and flared the end. Installed a -5 to -6 AN adapter, then connected my -6 AN (3/8”) hose end to it, and now both vent lines are the same size.
While the tank was still out, had to determine the best route for the hose. This seemed to be the best option and the most effective:
I was a little nervous that this routing of the hose would get it pinched between the top of the tank and the underside of the trunk floor, but once the tank was reinstalled, I found this was not the case. The hose still moves freely even with everything tightened down. Awesome.
Once the tank was back up in place, I spot welded the breather bracket to the angled section of the underside of the trunk kickup, then started connecting the dots with hoses. Here’s what I ended up with:
Pretty self explanatory, the two lines tee together, then run uphill to the breather. I was originally going to install a couple of loops in each length of vent hose before they entered the tee, for fuel slosh under hard braking, cornering etc, until Mike pointed out that if any fluid does indeed get in any of the vent lines, it’ll create a blockage and prevent air from passing through. So, my loop idea got nixxed which is fine, it made for a cleaner install anyways.
I feel the location of the breather and lines is in a good location, up high above the top of the tank, and fairly well protected from any potential damage from road debris. The tank venting situation is now fully addressed and completed.
So what now?
Start a completely new project of course!
I realized that before the body comes off the frame one last time, that there were still a couple of things to do. One of which was to make some rear inner wheelwell close out pieces. When I raised the front section of the trunk floor, I encountered some rot that required cutting away the damaged stuff, so in the interest of moving forward, I had just trimmed the damaged sections back and kept going.
This resulted in an unsightly gap in each wheelwell between the ‘well and the top of the frame. So late yesterday afternoon, Mike and I started making templates to close these areas back in:
These are going to be made out of some heavier 18 gauge material, as the inner wheelwells are only single thickness in most spots along here. I’ve already got the templates transferred onto the material, today I’ll be cutting them out and starting to fit them up into place.
That’s about all for now, I’ll continue to post as I make progress as always. Thanks for continuing to follow along gents.
D.
Nice set up for the vent, Donovan, looks good!
I did the same repair to my car in the rear wheel houses and used a heavier gage metal too. The rest of the car will rot away before my patch panels go. 😉
I did the same repair to my car in the rear wheel houses and used a heavier gage metal too. The rest of the car will rot away before my patch panels go. 😉
Good job on vent location and for not looping any lines. I was going to mention that (maybe I did) as that is definitely a no no. Keep up the progress.
Ahhh yes, the joys of any rear wheelwell work - stripping off decades of old dealership applied undercoating and top coats. And of course, nature’s naturally occurring undercoating, burnt rubber.
😏
Hello darkness my old friend…
And just because I don’t half-azz anything anymore, I’ll be stripping both inner tubs down to bare metal, right up to the outer tub seam.
The outer tubs will get addressed at a later date, when I get to the planned quarter panel mods. I’ve done this before on Olds Cool, it doesn’t get any less pleasant, but it’s gotta be done.
Ooof, looks like I’ve got a little rebuilding to do here before I can proceed with the tub close-out pieces.
An FYI, just because you buried the rust pitting underneath undercoating, doesn’t mean it goes away. Way to go dumbass “20 something” year old Rktpwrd. Time to break out the spot blaster and rust converter, and DIRTT. Do it right this time.
🫤
😏
Hello darkness my old friend…
And just because I don’t half-azz anything anymore, I’ll be stripping both inner tubs down to bare metal, right up to the outer tub seam.
The outer tubs will get addressed at a later date, when I get to the planned quarter panel mods. I’ve done this before on Olds Cool, it doesn’t get any less pleasant, but it’s gotta be done.
Ooof, looks like I’ve got a little rebuilding to do here before I can proceed with the tub close-out pieces.
An FYI, just because you buried the rust pitting underneath undercoating, doesn’t mean it goes away. Way to go dumbass “20 something” year old Rktpwrd. Time to break out the spot blaster and rust converter, and DIRTT. Do it right this time.
🫤
