Exterior and Interior are done…
Well ok, the exterior is not entirely done haha. I still have to mount the front and back windshields and cut out holes for cooling air to the radiator and brakes. However, the body is solidly mounted and trimmed, and the rocker panels are in place and level with the chassis. In this picture you can just make out two black tubes running from the upper corners of the grey chassis forward toward the bumper. These, along with lower tubes that are pinned in place allow the entire nose to be adjusted up or down to the desired ride height. You can also see a cutout in the rocker to allow the jack to get under the car. At race height the body will be between 3-4” off the ground, so the jack wouldn’t fit otherwise!
The interior sheet metal is truly finished! I used 0.049” aluminum sheet that comes pre painted and covered with a plastic film on one side. Its easy to cut with hand shears, and bends easily. Craig does have an entry level harbor freight style 3 in 1 bender, but some of these panels are long enough they needed to be bent by clamping them to the bench over a piece of tubing and manually pushing down. I don’t like how most older late models have dash panels very far forward, so I made my come farther towards the driver as it would in a street car. The panel is removable with bolts and rivet nuts to allow easy installation of gauges and switches.
The rear section takes some patience as there are five panels that all have to work together. A bead roller makes those nice looking beads that give the metal some ability to resist sounding like thunder as the car drives. Check out the hinged access panel to get at the oil tank that lives underneath. On dry sump cars you check oil level in the tank with the car running so you want to have plenty of access to that tank. You can also see the aluminum panel at the top of the rear window opening with adjustable braces to the roll cage. That nice aluminum piece comes from AR with the body kit and really stiffens up the windshield opening and roof!
Meanwhile, a splitter starts taking shape. The parts are simple and cheap: a sheet of 3/8” thick ABS plastic, some aluminum square tubing, aluminum angle, and a pile of rivets, rivet nuts, and countersunk head screws. The only annoying part of cutting the basic shape is the ABS has a tendency to melt back onto itself when the cutting blade has passed. It took me several frustrating attempts to get the speed of the saw and blade to work well. A little sanding cleanup after cutting and the base is pretty good.
Here is the splitter mounted and the car doing its best imitation of Pinhead. The design of the splitter is very basic, due to the rules; a flat surface with specified dimensions. It has a couple of square tubes to give it rigidity, and then is mounted with a couple of vertical tubes up to the bumper bar mount and along the nose as you can see with rivets.
A few more details and I’ll be able to start wrapping the body and getting on with re-assembly of the mechanical stuff. Race 1 is only a month and a half away!!
