Projects Introducing the Roofus Special

You could mount them either way, just make yourself some "radius blocks" for the nuts to bear upon...............They will help you give the nut a surface, perpendicular, to the u-bolts, of which to bear upon, that transfer the clamp load to your cross member.

 

I would mount them perpendicular.
That way you would avoid shims etc.
I´ve always felt that "less is more", meaning lesser chance of stuff working loose and undoing itself.
Niels

 

What he said................................Eyeball it good, when you do so, as it will still be bearing upon a slight radius.................Ever so slight!!!

 

Would y'all recommend just hammering a localized area flat where the nut contacts the crossmember? ...Or cut/weld in a flat section?

 

Hmmmmmm......................Thinkin'......................

Howza' bout, 2 long bolts, 4 nuts, a nut on the upper and lower surfaces of the crossmember, everything smoked down tight, and heat the area red, enough to tweak the holes, (and surrounding "bearing" area), to the angle that you need....................Repeat for the other u-bolt area...............Then , those 2 adjacent holes, would be in the same "plane" with each other..........

 

I finally feel like digging in a getting some more work done. I'm getting over the whiplash pretty well. I'd say 90% gone.

I plan on going to dad's house next weekend come hell or high water. There should be new pictures soon!

 

Glad you are feeling more chipper. I know it will feel good to get back in there. Take it pretty easy on Sat. and see how you feel Sunday morning before getting too carried away! You undoubtedly have some muscles you haven't used for a while which will let you know how they feel about their Saturday experience......

 

Yeah, I haven't touched a sawsall or grinder in about 4 months. I'm still a little concearned about what saw blade hanging up will feel like to my neck/shoulders.....but going this long without "making stuff" has been hell.

 

I finally did something! I mounted my front spring.

After a whole lot of looking, I decided the spring belonged close to the front of the crossmember.



The fun started when I tried to figure out how to align the u-bolts. There isn't a straight line on my crossmember to use as a reference point.







Next issue was where the threads were on my bolts. I built a platform under the crossmember to have a nice flat surface to bolt to. The lovely seam down the middle is where I had to adjust the hole location on the platform. One chopsaw width was about perfect.









Now to remember exactly where I wanted to mount the crossmember.
Here...





...or here (pushed slightly forward)

 

To my eye, the spring should be as close to the apex of the frame curve as possible,
Like your first choice.
When you move the setup foward it centers the lower a arm more,
but the spring may look out of place.

Idealy I would have the sping X-member as in setup 1 and the A-arm in setup 2
But If I remember correctly that won't work with the rest of the suspension.

Jeff

 

The front section of the a-arm is going to be directly under the leaf spring.

 

Shouldn't there be crush tubes now for the U bolts under the saddles you made for them? Just thinking it is something you would do when bolting through a boxed ch***is, so why not here?

 

Still think this is way cool, but I gotta question ('cause I honestly don't know): With the spring sitting on top of the crossmember, won't the upward travel of the frame (in relation to the wheels) be limited?

 

Most of the flex in the spring takes place in the outer portions of the spring. If I guessed right, there shouldn't be a whole lot of movement where the spring p***es through the frame. The thinner parts of the spring will be outside of the frame and should allow for decent wheel travel (enough for a sports car/racer).

If I guessed wrong, I'll tweak something and make it work.

 

The bolt holes are real close to the verticle portions of the crossmember and saddle. I think they will be OK, but I will keep an eye on it.

 

LOL...I like that approach. We're ready for the next chapter in this build!

 

Just found this awesome thread today, Flipper. Have only made it halfway through so far, have some catching up to do.

Fan****ingtastic! Absolutely love it. Great work!

 

I'm seriously thinking about cutting the firewall and transmission tunnel out of of the donor jag and grafting it into this car to make the registration process a little more legitimate.

Anybody think having jag sheetmetal in the center of the car would be worth the effort?

 

Bag is packed. I'm heading to dad's after work today.

Don't know how long it will take to fillet a jag, but i'm sure it will be an ordeal. I will try and remember to take pics of the process.

I am going to save the jag roof too

 

Best of luck to you, I hope you are able to make the picture in your head a take shape in aluminum and steel.

 

It really didn't take long to harvest the jag pieces. A small generator and a sawsall helped.

another roof.

now for the floor and firewall

 

Guess what this was.




I had heard stories about it, but had never seen it.......



















it is a 1958 Jaguar XK150S that my dad parted out in 1962 ....and then pushed into a ditch and covered with dirt (trying to control errosion). Sometime since then, it was washed back out and moved about 100 ft from where it was planted.

 

This is what I want to graft into Roofus. The trans tunnel and the stock jag brake and clutch pedals.


Using the jag tunnel means the deep engine set-back is back. I cut out the tube that was under the bell housing.

It looks more racecar to me.


The jag firewall has a whole lot of ugly that needs to be trimmed off. The jag firewall is 56" wide as is. I only need the center 41" for roofus.


It will wait until another weekend. I had to go watch basketball (Go UK!)

 

What a project, I just found your thread. Engine choice of course is excellent, it really makes the car. My first car was a T boattail with a narrower body (34 inches I believe) employing a 4 inch staggered seat combo on a 104 inch wheelbase. She was comfortable on long trips with 2. Im pretty sure they are different but they may be the same, a set of MGTC knock offs are 17 inch in diameter and may slide right onto you jag hubs. On my boattail I made the mistake of placing the seat bottom too high, it was comfortable and you could see out just fine for driving and thats how I set it up. However after having driven a few thousand miles and dropping the seat down a couple inches, what a difference. I am starting a similar build myself although it will be a 20's fendered raceabout instead of a boattail. Im using a twin cam slant 4 bmw engine for power that will be reworked with period carbs and either a dist or mag.

 

Love the project, love the car, but it HURTS to see a Jag cut up! What the hell am I saying, I'm going to be dissecting a Daimler Princess limo in the next few weeks for the suspension......Travesty!!!

 

BTW-your oraginizational skills are rival to my own....

 

Glad to see you back at it.

 

Me too.

 

Amazing, Want to build my version of the silver arrow myself!

 

That was definetly a cool era for racecars.