Projects Bonneville Banger Update number II

Had a few days this past weekend to get some work done on the Bonneville Banger... thought you guys would like to see an update.

I got the rear ladder bars hung... decided not to screw around with using old Wishbones or making ladder bars... so I bought some from Jeggy. They'll work great. Don't know what kind of link I'm going to use to keep it centered, but we'll figure something out.





Timmy got going on the axle brackets... the Banjo housing is tapered, and the brackets come for a 3" axle housing... so, lotta filing went down... Tim just loves to file!

Showing my boy Nate the finer points of axle locationing.








One side DONE!

 

While they were working on locating the rear axle via bracket filefornaficationing... I plugged away on making the front crossmember. I had to make a deeeeeep channel on this one, as I want the front end to sit low AND I want to retain the front frame horns... so, I came up with this:

A channel custom bent by our buddy Ron at Modesto Steel. (thanks Steve)



It's got a 10 degree rake in it for the caster of the axle/spring:


I then made some brackets and welded them to the inner part of the frame:




And then whittled the channel down so it would cap the ends of the frame rails and sit under the brackets.



I whacked the front part off... I didn't really intend to in the beginning... but then decided this would be a great way to be able to bolt and unbolt the front frame horns so we can get the car on the trailer.


Welded on:



And the grille will get whacked off on the bottom and sit flat with the top of the frame rails with a filler piece in between the frame rails...

It will all sit inside the grille shell and the shell will sit back another inch and get notched real noce for spring clearance.



Couple more things... I have the spring plate designed in my head, but yet to build it... it took some figgern' to figure it out. And also... the tie ron and drag link will be ABOVE the frame rails... with a notch in the hood for them to pass by...

more to come!

Sam

 

nice and clean work . simple and effective . totally dig you showing your boy the ropes. great work. 10-10

 

Looking Good Sam!!!!

 

Fantastic work. I could look at your welds all day....

 

Thanks guys!

Sam

 

Nice work! You guys are pretty lucky to fab up whatever you can dream up.

 

"filefornaficationing.." NICE ADJECTIVE..hahahaha Looks killer. can't wait to see more.

 

Yep Kevin... seating is going to be tight for sure. The body will have a tonnau (sp?) cover on it... so the cage at the belt line can be about three inches higher than the belt line itself and still remain under the tonnau. This will allow me to recline the seat and have my knees higher... which means my head will be lower! The direction it will be cramped in is between the drive shaft and the side of the cage. I have a drive shaft out of a '56 T-bird that is pretty small in diameter... so that is going to buy me some room!

Jeffry James wrote "Nice work! You guys are pretty lucky to fab up whatever you can dream up."

Like Ryan says... I didn't always do stuff like this... it's been a learning process all along the way. and the more you do, the better you get. I learned to TIG when I did the BFD. But my welds were inconsistent. They are still inconsistent and nowhere near what guys like BASS, Jimmy White, my buddy Steve or other pros can do... but at least now I don't have to hunt around for a good weld to take a picture of!

I mean... I can't stress it enough... you do get better with practice... and the position you are in really does matter. The more comfortable you are, the nicer they will turn out!

The second thing is fitting the pieces... takign the time to bevel parts and fit them nicely pays off big time!

More to come...

Sam

 

Great work, any side profile pics of the frame?

 

Building the frame:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=305273

Doing the belly pan:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=306570

Sam

 

You said your gonna run Frame Horns.. How are they gonna attach with the spring there? Or am i getting ahead ..

Very nice work Sam...

 

They'll attach to a plate that is going to bolt to the lip hanging over the front with the four holes that are there. It will basically mimmick the back side, only bolt on and off. It will hold the front two frame horns... and then there will be a piece of steel over the top of them (between the two)... the grill shell will be cut off and appear to be sitting on them... I know it may sound cofusing, but it should look pretty good if it comes out looking like the picture in my head!

Sam

 

Sam, this is FUN. Thanks for taking us on the ride......

 

Great to see the progress, especially everyone getting involved.

Not that you need inspiration or direction, figuired it couldn't hurt....(appologies if its staining your build thread, PM me if you want me to remove etc)

Here's a few old photo's of my friends old banger powered roadster...







Keep building,

Drewfus

 

You know, the coolest thing about your build is the fact that your sharing the experience with your son!!!!!

 

perfection. keep on rolling.

 

Super Job!!!!!

 

I'm liking it a lot Sam! Look forward to seeing it run. You are dead on; it's practice, practice, practice!

Charlie

 

Bitchen, gonna be an awesome race car.
chuck

 

Drewfus! Thanks for the pics man! Inspiration, for sure! He's out there doing it... and he's got a hot looking car.

Sam

 

nice clean work..looks great.........

 

Awesome I can't wait to see more. makes me want to work on my back burner banger

 

Looks nice Sam. Keep us posted.

 

Sam, I have said it once and I will say it again. You are one of my hot rod heroes!! You build killer stuff, you also strive to improve your skills and it really shows! I am paying attention to this one, it is going to be good!!
Jimmy White
P.s. I cant wait till my little guy is old enough to help me at the shop!

 

Sam.
You blow me away with all of he cool stuff that you do. Can't wait to see this one done. It will of course be top notch! You not only teach kids in your classes,you teach us Old Kids on the HAMB=.

 

Very inspiring, and innovative - love the front crossmember - simple but "thinking out of the box" as it were. Can't wait to see more