The Fake Jaguar Thread

Ulu · Oct 5, 2024

Indian Summer is finally here.

I did not work on the car today, but I give you instead, Legendary rust, Live!

It was 101F on the patio, but I could no longer ignore this rust. I knew that one small quake might be the end of my patio aquarium. I had a new stand (kit) delivered from Petco, by DoorDash in a Prius.

It was on sale too, so $98 plus $25 for the Prius owner.

Really, I did this just in time. It was so far gone that I didn’t need a wrench to take this apart. Bare handed, I ripped the connections asunder.

OK, it practically fell apart . . . It was so bad. ;(

Still it took from 9am to 6 pm to set up a temporary tank on the concrete, move fish, & drain everything.

Then I had to clean the tank & gravel, disassemble the old stand, build the new stand (assembling it around the plumbing which all goes through it) drill holes, add the braces, level it all, refill it, and put my fish back.

Kevin B · Oct 5, 2024

For you it's Indian Summer. In Florida it's Hotumn.

Da Gas Man · Oct 5, 2024

High of 70 here on Long Island. I'll take it. Favorite time of year. 100? Crazy hot any time of year.
Hang in there man. I'm sending you a cool breeze. Should get there in a couple hours.

Oldbiscuit · Oct 5, 2024

Here in southeast Nebraska today it is 99 deg and 35 mph winds. It’s so dry and all around us the farmers are cutting corn and beans. Today there are fields on fire everywhere around us. I think every fire dept in a 15 county area and some from south of us in Kansas are fighting it. I’m glad on days like this that I retired from our dept, but I still feel a little guilty watching these guys going out.

Ulu · Oct 5, 2024

Today it is 100° here in the valley and I took it easy. It was calm and just a little bit humid; but no disasters, nothing is leaking, and my fish are all happy.

I spent some time yesterday cleaning up the garage and the welding area in my boat yard, before the aquarium work started. Anyhow I was tired today & my foot is sore from being out on the concrete for so many hours.

I was supposed to go get some routine blood work done, and I go to the doctor in a week, but I have been putting that off. If I’m not hurting too bad, I really don’t want to know what’s wrong with me.

Ulu · Oct 6, 2024

Da Gas Man said:
High of 70 here on Long Island. I'll take it. Favorite time of year. 100? Crazy hot any time of year.
Hang in there man. I'm sending you a cool breeze. Should get there in a couple hours.
View attachment 280993

I just have to walk indoors. My wife keeps the A/C on like a freakin meat locker.
My power bill is like 5x the rent I paid back in 1975.

Ulu · Oct 6, 2024

I started welding the pan edges in. I did one, plus got the doubler under the hook and welded it in.

(Doubler isn’t in that pic)

I was about to do the driver side, when my wife came to me with tales of a leak.

My outdoor sump was leaking.

I had to go buy a new one and swap it out, which really spoiled our afternoon.

Ulu · Oct 8, 2024

I got the driver side patch on yesterday.

Also the little pan doubler, and the hook is welded both sides.

Now I get to trim the patches off, to fit my gussets.

Ulu · Oct 9, 2024

The frame closures are tacked on, the pan patches are trimmed & gussets tacked in place.

Also I drilled the subframe hangers, fitted them a bit more, and tack welded them in.

The setup and fitting was a big pain, but it’s getting done.

Ulu · Oct 13, 2024

Good morning guys.
I’ve been thinking about this for a couple days, and I have finally built something that will work, without much effort.

This big clamp-on pivot will let me flip the frame over.

It took two days of hunting through parts and deciding what to build.

But it only took 15 minutes with saw and drill and ratchet wrenches.

I know it doesn’t look too substantial, but it is stronger than me, and I can lift the front of the fame by hand. It is 3x heavier on the other end.

Kevin B · Oct 13, 2024

Ulu said:
Good morning guys.
I’ve been thinking about this for a couple days, and I have finally built something that will work, without much effort.

This big clamp-on pivot will let me flip the frame over.
View attachment 281821
It took two days of hunting through parts and deciding what to build.

But it only took 15 minutes with saw and drill and ratchet wrenches.
View attachment 281822
I know it doesn’t look too substantial, but it is stronger than me, and I can lift the front of the fame by hand. It is 3x heavier on the other end.

A rotisserie?

Ulu · Oct 13, 2024

Of sorts. I did this by hanging the front frame from a chain, before. This will work the same.

But it might require some balance adjustments for easy rotation.

It wasn’t balanced last time either, but it’s not that heavy. Also, I made this clamp to reverse, which displaces the hinge point a foot. One way or the other will require less balance weights, but I might not need any.

By “reverse” I mean it will invert in this view:

I must remove part of the jig for that to happen, but first there is more welding to do.

Ulu · Oct 14, 2024

It was too breezy to do any more welding, and I decided I would put some “speed holes” in, to lighten my huge gussets.

There were two unnecessary slots in one gusset, and this would make them match.

I was just starting the second one when my hole saw decided to croak. I sharpened it, but that was wasted effort.

It has lost temper and is useless for cutting even this mild steel.

I should have done this on the drill press before welding. I could cut the welds and use my flycutter, but I decided to do it the hard way.

Drilling a hundred little holes, bust it loose, then grind smooth.

I want to do this to the two subframe hangers, but not without a better hole saw.

Ulu · Oct 14, 2024

Busting it loose with a pry bar.

Using the saw as a gauge, I slowly grind it out round.

I’m using a low rpm drill motor rather than the 20,000 rpm die grinder, because these stones shatter easily.

I don’t like industrial tattoos.

Ulu · Oct 15, 2024

I did a lot of cleaning, grinding and welding today. All the brackets and hangers are on solid now.

I started welding up the rails, until I ran out of argon. Then it was off to Fresno Oxy for a bottle of gas.

All of the welds are ok and some of them look better than I have done before.

Ulu · Oct 18, 2024

I have nearly completed seam welding the bottom of the frame. I was just going to skip-weld, but I’m having too much fun. I’ve filled in the skips.

Most of the welds are looking like this:

Not perfect, but nice enough.

But a few times I did this:

Welded the electrode right to the steel. This resulted in drilling and grinding and brushing, but fortunately I made about 15 feet of seam welding (in 1” to 1.5” skips) and only screwed up about 3 times.

That was the worst one, looking like Hunga-Tonga going off in the Pacific.

Ulu · Oct 19, 2024

I’ve completely welded the bottom of the frame rails and now it’s time to flip the frame over.

I have started removing the jig in preparation to do that, but it must come out in pieces.

I have developed about 5/16 inch of positive camber in this frame from weld draw. I’m going to lose some of that, when I flip it over and weld the other side. But I definitely want to maintain a little positive camber in the frame, where it used to have a nice crooked sag from all the rust and shoddy repair work.

Kevin B · Oct 20, 2024

So the original frames are a stamped pan like these?

I always thought the kit cars just bolted onto that. I wonder how many people bought the kits new not realizing extensive frame buildup was required?

Ulu · Oct 20, 2024

Kevin B said:
So the original frames are a stamped pan like these?
View attachment 282173
…

Yes, except left hand drive.

It does just ”bolt together”, but it’s really not a sound design.

Nor was my original chassis sound. Lots of poor repairs.

So put those two together and you have a real complex mess.

Ulu · Oct 20, 2024

I did have to invert my big clamp to get things on center. It’s still wrong in this pic.

But now I finally have the frame flipped back right-side-up.

I’ve never seen it in this position before, with the frame rails and firewall crossmember attached.

This is indeed a project milestone.

The Fake Jaguar Thread

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