New (proper) chassis rails

The old pathetic chassis rails removed and proper 75x50mm RHS welded in for new rails. You can also see the rear rails removed and replaced with 75x50mm RHS rails (so don't run up the arse of me or you will come off second best )
You can also see the flat boot floor.



You can also see the new flat firewall in this photo (yep, only one hole for the steering column and the rest covered over as the brake and clutch setup will all be inside the cabin):



The rails now protrude a bit into the cabin but should be ok still.

 

Is this all in the name of stiffness? Heaps of body mods in this project. I couldn't really tell what your overall plans were from the other thread but what are the plans?

 

The plan is make the body as smooth as possible

So all seams are getting welded up. Now that you can't have a roll cage inside the car (new laws) I wanted to make the chassis stiffer to make up for it.

I want the engine bay to be as empty and shiny as possible (my term for it is "the sucked lollipop look". Hence all the clutch master and brake master and booster will be changed over to a tilton floor mount pedal setup with all the master cylinders inside the cabin like in this catalog http://tiltonracing.com/sites/default/files/editor_uploads/files/Tilton2012%20-%20Pedal%20Assemblies.pdf

I always preferred the slicktop but also preferred the 2+2 so I'm making my own 2+2 slicktop.

I hate plastic car parts so as much as possible the plastic trim bits are getting removed and either smooth over or make from alloy.

I'm only 40km from willowbank raceway so it'll mainly be built for drag racing but also have fully adjustable suspension to setup for racing at Queensland Raceway.

 

Sounds awesome mate :zlove: Something different which is a breath of fresh air compared to some other projects.

 

if the drag car is fast enough, wont they send you home till you come back with a cage anyway??

 

It'd be nice to be told I was too fast

I'm not sure if they enforce the roll cage rule for under 11 sec cars on the Test 'n Tune nights at willowbank (been 7-8 years since I last ran there and it was a pretty casual affair). I might have to just do half track runs to keep over the 11s.

 

If you look on the Willowbank website cars With original monocque can run 10.5 and if you have factory all wheel disc brakes and airbag you can run 10 flat now without a cage.

 

that's good to know.

I certainly don't expect to get much under 11s (if at all) so should be right.

 

Now for the Hardtop (slicktop) >>>>

Building up the bracing across the top of the door:



Bracing boxed in completely now:



RHS bracing done:

 

NOW we're talking! Cool! Finally a worthwhile use of your ability

 

With the new chassis rails, is there a chance that the car can end up not being square on all four corners? How easy is it to make sure it ends up being precisely square? How much are you predicting it to improve over stock? Would be a great option for the convertible makeover.

 

I put a lot of bracing in around the door ways

and over the hatch to stop any movement whilst the chassis rails where removed. It's also on a rotisserie that helps keep the body in a fixed height above ground to make measurements to keep everything square. To be honest I have no idea how much stiffer this will make the car overall but with the 2mm chassis rails and bracing in the roof it should have near zero flex and hence more power to the wheels.

 

Cool. Is a modification like that able to be engineered for a road registered car? What were the weight differences between these new ones and the original ones?

 

Everything has been run by a compliance engineer

and his happy with all the mods and no mod plates required (in QLD). The only requirement I had was to retain the 20mm x 100mm bit of metal that had the VIN stamped into it on the firewall. As for weight differences it would be on par with the original weight because of the extra bits of metal I removed in the process.

 

Thanks mate. Have you looked at putting one of these in too or make something yourself that is similar?



PS: What did you use to remove all your sound deadening? Are you planning to put something like Dynamat in?

 

Bulk of deadening was removed using

a heat gun and paint scraper. Then hit it next with a wire wheel on a grinder. Then clean up the remaining bits with wax and grease remover.

I have some dynamat that I was thinking of using but it weights a tonne (lead lined rubber dynamat). I may not put sound deadening back on it and instead have it just painted. Undecided what to do with that yet.

 

Drivers side roof completed

The roof is coming along nicely:

 

I like this a lot, I do however think that driving with the targa's off is one of my more perferred aspects of Z ownership

 

middle section of roof >>>

 

so this car started life as a targa top by the looks of it right? any benefits to using a targa body and welding the roof shut as opposed to just using a slicktop?