Spaceframed SR20DET RWD Nova

[The Simps]

**** me, your going to need to make some huge arches for this

Certainly will be interesting! In the kinda side on shot above thats where I want the suspension arms sat at stationary. With the modified uprights that are yet to be added that will lower the body another 50mm yet so its gonna need the flares higher up the body too.

[lee303]

I spent the evening watching loads of youtube videos and although the sand can help it will still also the kink. The key seems to be either force it into a die the next size down that way it cannot expand outwards and flatten or some people have modified the dies for either a perfect fit or with a clamp to hold it in.

the key is packing the sand really really tightly, tamp it down every inch or so as you fill it, and seal the ends well, but yes also a proper fitting die is a must, if the dies you have aren’t a great fit a sheet of thin steel can be used as a packer

tbh though, without heat getting past a 60 or so degrees is very difficult without some deformation, and heating roll cage tubing isn’t such a great idea, if you need anything more than 60 degrees i think i would find somewhere with a proper sacrificial bender just for those bends

[The Simps]

Cheers for the input Lee. Will have a play around with a few mothods.

[lee303]

Cheers for the input Lee. Will have a play around with a few mothods.

no worries

[The Simps]

Had a play with the pipe bender again the other night. Same spec tube as i tried before except I used the die size down this time of which it doesn't actually fit into! The results (previous effort on the left)...




So far so good so decided to push it some more!...





Practically no distortion at all! Hopedully i can get same results with the tubing I'm using on the car which is larger OD but thinner walled. My new turret tops are now cut so i'm hoping to get up there sunday arvo and get them welded in! :D

[Benn]

That looks much much better.

[The Simps]

So been doing a lot of head scratching and measuring over the last week to work out why a certain part wasn't quite working out as planned! Turns out my a pillars are not square with each other and thus my bulkhead is not square. Its not by a lot but enough I noticed it! Its not something I can rectify at this stage but it also isn't going to effect anything else. When I put the main parts of the cage into the car it was before I had the current plans so not as much care was taken oh:

However! The box rails ARE square in the car/shell and line up square with the b pillars (so at least I put those in right! ). All it meant was that I had to do a bit of working out and measuring to figure out where the turrets needed to be sat etc as I couldn't take measurements off of my dash bar as originally intended. This did slow me up over the xmas break but there has finally been progress today....







After my next session up there I can hopefully remove the strut jig and thus get the engine back in!

:D

[The Simps]

Got a bit more done on the turrets today.


Started by removing the jig as no longer needed...







Then started building it up...









Made the template for the top plate...







With the wing in place (edges on wing still need tidying)...







Tied it into the A-pillar...








Ran out of gas at this point so had to call it a day sadly. Think I'm going to add another support in here just add a touch more strength...






Thanks for looking.

[BRoadGhost]

Would you not consider using a proper gauge steel for the turret tops & rethink the triangulation without the unnecessary tubing?

Remember if you're making from scratch you can put the struts as far back as you like within reason.

[The Simps]

Thanks for the reply. I have already moved the turrets back, around 2" iirc, by shifting the whole engine and subframe back. The castor I will be able to dial back in on the lower arms will then put the wheel back where it needs to be for wing clearance.

As for the strut top design, I spent a lot of time mulling over it and looking at plenty of other designs and projects. This is the route I've chosen as it makes the most sense to me. I agree the top plates are not the thickest gauge material but by the time I'm done it won't matter. Its certainly thicker than the std turrets thats for sure.