body strengthening

[240kconvertible]

He hasn't started on it yet as he has to get the engine fitted first before doing it. It will probably be done early next month, I'm not sure how it will be designed but if I can help you in any way with drawings or designs I will definitely send them to you.

I'll keep you updated as it goes along Nigel.

Andrew

[khughes]

what sort of shape is he making it out of? i would be interested in getting one made up at the same time if it is out of the flat type bar, with as much clearence from the engine as possible (ie. close to the bonnet, if i need to get measurements, i may need some time to put the engine back in etc..), anyways.. keep me in the loop

[khughes]

here is a better photo of the rails (without the paint), it looks like you are right, seems to be built that way to absorb an accident?

and yes.. after stripping the car, i found a lot more rust than i had hoped the worse being the drivers floorpan (as you can see), above the air con box, around the top of the front and rear wind frames, and both sides between the door frames and the wheel arches..

[aarc240]

Remember to stuff some 'mastic' type sealer in the holes after painting. That stops water travelling into the frame rails. You can paint over the mastic afterwards to tidy the appearance.

Don't use silicone - it won't remain stuck to the body and will eventually allow water to seep in. The same problem occurs with windows, windshields etc because silicone rubber (RTV) doesn't like staying stuck in areas that are flexing or vibrating.

[matt240K]

sorry i just noticed this thread now. I don;t come here much.

I have a 240K rally car, which has been strengthened exensively as follows:

1. strut towers. I have had the spot welds come apart before. I stitch them then plate the top with 3 mm plate.

2. chassis rails. stick to the fire wall. (dunno if it reallyhelps much TBH). But the biggest prob with the rails is crushing where the steering members bolt on. I plated both sides, and some cars need tubes welded into the rails. (some already have them)

3. strut brace. a peice of 6mm tongue welded to the reinforing plates on the strut towers. then bot a 30mmRHS tube assy on. why does it need to be adustable?

4.

[matt240K]

oops. shouldn't have used the quick reply for a long post :stupid:

4. roll cage. I have a fully integrated cage right through to the strut towers. it's tagged or welded in about 38 places. . its got cross members under the dash, triangulated door bars, rear diagonals, and rear floor cross members. that changes everything. depends on what you do with the car as to whether you want all that. I can guarantee you'll notice the difference in handling the day you put the door bars in though.

5. the wekest point of a K is not the body. its the rear suspension. I've plated the trailing arms, and also extensively re-inforced the rear cross member. the reason for this is that when they bottom out, the trailing arms y snap. once you strengthen them, the cross member starts flexing. when you build it all liek a fortress it stops breaking.

[240kconvertible]

Did you get your body dipped Kent? The floor looks nasty, like my sills were.

My vert still hasn't gone to the engineer (and no closer to getting a strut brace). He kept promising it would go in in the next fortnight until after 5 months I gave him the arse. Don't anyone ever go to Cobra Craft engineering Ken is full of $^!#.

I ended up booking it into Stewart wilkins motorsport following your lead for around the start of July. It will cost a bit more I think, but at least it should get done this year. I'm also glad to say that there is no more rust or rust holes left unwelded anywhere on the shell and it is all in primer with 2 coats of por 15 over everything.

[khughes]

Matt, some great info there, thanks for posting it! i would have loved to get the full cage done, but at the time it was too $$$ and would have caused issues for me in road registration.. there is always the option later on though

Hey Andrew,

to be honest i have done nothing on the car for a long while, since all that striping and poring i did a little while ago.. i have had other priorities unfortunately.. i have been meaning to get a hold of you though to borrow your body deadening spray gun to get down into the rails with the POR.. no hurry though..

time for me to start saving to get the rust spots + priming done professionally (then POR'ing again of course), then comes the painting, then comes putting everything back in(and hopefully it will all go back in!).

[240kconvertible]

If you'd like I can post the gun out to you or if your in Maroubra sometime you could come and pick it up and check out the vert.

The really good gun with the long snout was stuffed by me so I had to replace it with a $24 dorrra job from supercheap (china) auto. It works quite well though and I even ended up spraying primer out of it as I couldn't get the industrial boat high fill primer to go through my normal primer gun. It will spray up into all of the rails fine and can even be used to spray the marine clean and metal ready.

I used it and a garden hose to clean the rear rails out of dirt. Can't beat high pressure water.

Seems like we have both been slack for a while. I was hoping to have mine on the road by end of financial. Did you get your body dipped or do it all your self? I ended up getting all the panels except 1 guard dipped. Made it soooo much easier.

[khughes]

do you know what the thing was called? the only thing i could find remotely similar was an air attachment engine spray gun thingy.. is that what you have?

I ended up choosing the long and cheap path of using paint stripper, a scraper and a hell of a lot of effort, i then just painted it (after cleaning, metal readying etc.) with a paintbrush () and used a HPLV touch up gun to try and get into the inside of the doors etc..

i am hoping to get some time on saturdaty to finally pull the timing belt off the RB25 and fit a new water pump to it.. i have been meaning to do that for well over a year now..

[240kconvertible]

I think it was called a engine degreaser gun but can't be 100% sure. It's a cheapie but does the job.

http://www.wurth.com.au/MetalMar07SpecWeb.pdf check about one third of the way down the page. What you want is one like this but with the longer snout. I tried to extend one with tube but it didn't work at all. I found that you had to put it on it's smallest level of spray and then do a bit of each rail at a time to avoid pools building up.

Timing belts are so much fun, I just did the head on a cressida and put the front cam seals on backwards. I didn't notice until a drive out to picton to go skydiving, when we arrived smoke was coming from under the bonnet. The seals have since been put on the right way. I guess this is what happens when amatuers do a mechanics job

How much power at the wheels you aiming for Kent??

[khughes]

yeah i just hope i don't discover too many shoddy "repairs" when i goto try and start the car for it's first time

that is why i am not going to even touch the suspension or brakes on the car now.. an engine that does not start i can live with

not really aiming for anything in particular to start with, though long term with the help of a GT30R turbo and possibly an RB30 block.. 300kw? but first.. it has to get on the road!