Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT My Mini Garagemahal

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, I didn't get as much shop time as I wanted this weekend, but still got a little work done.

Pulled the fuel cell cage back out to start prepping for permanent install, first step was to weld a plate on the bottom so once it is permanently installed it will be able to be sealed from the outside. Then I wanted to drill all the holes for the lid to attached, there is no way I wanted to deal with that in the car! LOL

Marked out the bottom plate for some plug and stitch welds
by fouckhest, on Flickr

All burned in and smoothed out, I'll seam seal the edges once paint/undercoating time comes around
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Next up was laying out for the lid holes, I have to admit, this little tool is worth every penny!
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Mark, punch, drill, then more drilling....in a holding pattern now until nutserts arrive along with the final size drill bit
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Wrapped up the weekend by welding up the turns for the back of the z-pipe so the straight sections will fit nicely into the rear subframe.
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Hopefully keep plugging away this week.

 

[fouckhest]

Been chipping away at some less than glamorous work the past couple days, but its all good progress towards starting on the floor, tunnel and floor panels.

Yesterday my nutsert order showed up from mcmaster, I wanted to ensure these are good quality, so it was worth the wait. First I got out one of my favorite tools in the quiver

Astro pneumatic nutsert tool
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Ran a couple tests to make sure settings were dialed
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Check that off the list, my fasteners show up today, so other than paint and cutting the lid for the fill plate, its basically done
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


For the less than glamourous work, I finally decided to cut the old rear flat floor pan/plate out, this was welded in years ago to cover the old spare tire well, the shop that did the work years ago did an "okay" job, but it was full of bondo, it had holes from the old fuel cell and other things, so trying to fix that around bondo made the decision to cut it out simple....i hate bondo lol

So much room for activities!
by fouckhest, on Flickr

This also gives me the opportunity to access all the subframe mounting points, which means now I can tie those into the cage, which will be both functional and much better looking in my opinion
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Also spent some time cleaning up this area, which had some different shapes in it as it was the edge of where the rear seats would be, so it needed cleaned up so when the cell cage is mounted it will make building the floor much easier and cleaner
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Hope to start making some templates tonight, maybe start working on the subframe mounts, will see how I am feeling after work.

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good 4th, rather busy in our world, but managed to find some shop time here and there.

After cutting out the rear floor, I opened pandoras box and decided to tackle building a new mount for the rear subframe, which well, took WAY longer than I intended, but I decided to TIG it since it will be very visible in the back of the car.

Started off by making the attachment point(s)

Beefy washer and M14x 1.5 nut w/1-3/4 0.090 wall tubing to match the cage
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

secured for welding
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Burned together
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Repeat that 3x more times, then start cutting/fitting
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Made a couple tubes a few too many times, but I wanted good fit and welds
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Got a little time in before work and just got it finished up, its currently cooling so I can working on getting it final welded into the car, debating a removable panel over the diff using some push button quick disconnects, but still TBD on that.
by fouckhest, on Flickr
by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[fourmotioneer]

Curious why the subframe is necessary. Sure there is a reason, but what stands out is that you could mount diff directly to chassis and eliminate subframe, which is a design for manufacturing concession

 

[fouckhest]

Curious why the subframe is necessary. Sure there is a reason, but what stands out is that you could mount diff directly to chassis and eliminate subframe, which is a design for manufacturing concession

I assume you mean the "black subframe," that is where the control arms (upper & lower) connect, so in theory, that entire unit, the piece I just made and the black subframe, certainly could have been merged into one larger unit.
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

That was more of an undertaking than I was willing to do for right now. This was a way to upgrade/update the black subframe mounting points b/c the way it was attached previously was not my favorite, but it was a way to do the all wheel drive swap years ago, plus now I can tie the new piece into the cage.

A big part of this was to make a better mounting point and redo the floor in the back, not the best photo, but previously the fuel cell was mounted on top of the hatch floor, along with the air tanks. So there were lots of holes and that panel was full of bondo, so it was just easier to start over (in my mind lol).

 

[fourmotioneer]

Didn’t see the suspension mounting points! Makes sense

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, after being out of town for work last week, mine was filled with catching up on house chores and trying to find some shop time.

The wife got the accent panels stained for the gate, since they were done I got those installed followed by yard work in between rain, womp womp, but hurray!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

The rain is doing the lawn some good, and this was from Friday and its rained on/off every day since, so might get into the twice a week mowing sooner than later, womp.
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Been plugging away at the project car. I wanted to try and get the new rear subframe mount mocked up/get the old mount bar out of the way b/c it makes working in the back area of the car difficult while it "tidy" everything back up.

Started by lopping off the center section, leaving only these little ears and marked them up to noodle on how to cut them out...hole saw or grinder/flap wheel....
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Decided to try to hole saw them, so whipped up a makeshift drill bushing out of some scraps I had laying around
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Melted together and drilled for pilot hole bit size that is on the arbor
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Success!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Then went to fit the subframe mount and it was a touch narrow, so put that aside to keep focus on other tasks that are more important to drive to tunnel/floor fab. These areas on the side I noted on a couple posts above, make some tape templates, transferred them to metal, then used some wood blocks and clamps, with my knee to form them into shape
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Tacked in place
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Then burned them in and metal worked the edges/seams
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
by fouckhest, on Flickr

Next steps will be to plate off the area at the base of the main hoop for the cage, then move on to the hatch area to continue clean up on where I cut out the floor pan to make sure its ready for the subframe mount to get welded in and then start driving towards some sheet metal work.

 

[fouckhest]

Its been longer than normal since my last post, but kind of like @cccoltsicehockey after his little hiatus, I've been trying to not be so focused on doing a daily blog and more about substantial updates. My new job has been keeping me very busy, combined with normal house work and summer time yard work, well, its been a nice break to just keep up with everyone elses adventures!

However, I've grinding away, literally and figuratively....So here we are with project car updates.

Finalized capping off the last of the unibody areas so I have a good landing pad for the front of the fuel cell
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr



Kept on with cleaning up, smoothing out and welding up the remaining rear area, this was trimmed flush, then pulled it down to give a nice corner weld
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

All cleaned up
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Next up was to fix these areas, which are the OEM rear strut bracing/where the rear seats lean against. Had to do a lot of clean up around these areas due to when the car got AWD converted and we had to make provisions to mount the bags. Cleaned up and coated with weld through primer
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr



Lots to CAD and fitting later, capped off
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr



With that cleaned up, I bit the bullet and started working on mounting the new rear subframe mount/brace.

Quick fit/mock up
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Lots of trimming on these tubes to get them to fit, but I really like this concept, I think it ties things together really well. I need to figure out another tube to tie into the node where the chassis bar and the frame meet, but thats a future me problem
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr


Hopefully get back out there tonight for some more work, luckily I got yard work done last week b/c it looks like we might get some love from Bertha as she rolls across the southeast, which usually means shop time!

In other news, between some decent rain, consistent watering and fertilizers finally kicking in, the yard is looking okay. Also, thanks to @Cdubu52 for the suggestion on that herbicide, that stuff worked/(s) really well!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Glad to see an update and hear the project is still coming along well when you find time. The lawn looks fantastic. Even more so when you consider the conditions this summer. Mine has gone half dormant at this point with all the heat, even with watering, so I have stopped working on it as much.

 

[fouckhest]

Glad to see an update and hear the project is still coming along well when you find time. The lawn looks fantastic. Even more so when you consider the conditions this summer. Mine has gone half dormant at this point with all the heat, even with watering, so I have stopped working on it as much.

Thanks on both!

....keep in mind, my front yard is tiny, its much easier to water, I don't know how I'd deal with the amount you have

 

[OutlawDrifter]

In other news, between some decent rain, consistent watering and fertilizers finally kicking in, the yard is looking okay. Also, thanks to @Cdubu52 for the suggestion on that herbicide, that stuff worked/(s) really well!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Enjoying the fab work, but man...those straight lines in the yard make me happy

 

[fouckhest]

Enjoying the fab work, but man...those straight lines in the yard make me happy

Thanks, Marc! I always say, keep the grass looking nice to make up for/distract from the noisy hounds

 

[zmotorsports]

Enjoying the fab work, but man...those straight lines in the yard make me happy

^^I concur....

 

[Xti04]

Yard and VW looking good Mike!

 

[madison069]

Looking good Mike! Nice welds in that VW!

Yard is looking good too! I've put off any serious yard scaping until after the concrete work gets done, so it looks like it will be next spring before I do any serious yard work. What herbicide did you use?

 

[fouckhest]

Looking good Mike! Nice welds in that VW!

Yard is looking good too! I've put off any serious yard scaping until after the concrete work gets done, so it looks like it will be next spring before I do any serious yard work. What herbicide did you use?

Cody - I can related on waiting on, we have some pending projects to clean up the driveway and parking spots and I know that will snowball and likely encroach on my front lawn, but the silver lining is, maybe I'll use that as an excuse to do some irrigation so I can get out of the manual watering game

This is what @Cdubu52 recommended

This is the herbicide

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SBR4BBR?tag=atomicindus08-20

Along with this surfactant

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XDHRCE?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[madison069]

Cody - I can related on waiting on, we have some pending projects to clean up the driveway and parking spots and I know that will snowball and likely encroach on my front lawn, but the silver lining is, maybe I'll use that as an excuse to do some irrigation so I can get out of the manual watering game

This is what @Cdubu52 recommended

This is the herbicide

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09SBR4BBR?tag=atomicindus08-20

Along with this surfactant

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004XDHRCE?tag=atomicindus08-20

I added those to my amazon shopping list so I'll be sure to get it after yard scaping!

 

[Cdubu52]

Yard is looking good!

Im with triple c, my yard is barely hanging on. It stayed green until the last few weeks. I stopped watering and decided to let it go dormant and see what happens over the next month.

 

[fouckhest]

Yard is looking good!

Im with triple c, my yard is barely hanging on. It stayed green until the last few weeks. I stopped watering and decided to let it go dormant and see what happens over the next month.

Maybe big Bertha will bring you NC guys with big yards some natural hydration!

 

[Cdubu52]

Maybe big Bertha will bring you NC guys with big yards some natural hydration!

We are getting dumped on right now.

 

[fouckhest]

We are getting dumped on right now.

Just started pouring here too!

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

We are getting dumped on right now.

According to my rain gauge, we have gotten 1.3in of rain so far today. I was really hoping for 2in+ over 48hrs from this storm. I unfortunately do not think we will hit it.

 

[fouckhest]

Hope everyone had a good weekend, rather productive in our world in spite of the hit/miss weather.

One looming side project has been some sun shades to park cars under and help with sap and things falling out of the tree in the front yard. Since the wife and I have both recently upgraded vehicles, I finally got a couple on order. The unit where she parks was a bit of a challenge due to not having any consistent lengths, custom made sails were rather pricey, so I opted to buy an equilateral 20ft triangular shaped shade and see how it would work....not the greatest, but should help...it was a bit of a struggle to get right, but finally got it up

Kind of hard to see, but it is there!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

The other was to go in between the privacy fence and the laundry room addition, went up much easier, unfortunately there is not enough fall to let the rain drain off b/c this one is water proof...so need to revisit mounting this one next weekend...womp womp. I am hoping I can drop down that front right corner and that will allow water to drain
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

 

[fouckhest]

With that done, the rest of Saturday was spent relaxing. Sunday we had plans in the afternoon with some friends to do a last pool hang day with a German friend that has been in SC for 2yrs working for BMW on a rotation, so he and his wife wanted one last pool day. Before that I found some garage time to get back on the project car.

I had made a template and drawn out a panel for the subframe mount last week, decided to transfer that to metal.

Template with my bead roll pattern, 20ga cold rolled sheet behind it, trusty 1x1 angle straight edge and a cut off wheel for nice cuts since I don't have a shear
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Got focused and forgot to snap a photo of transferring the pattern to the sheet....I cut the corners off the template, extended my straight lines to the sheet, connected the dots and re did the radii and was in business
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Pattern transferred
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

With that done and not feeling confident in my bead rolling skills, I whipped up a practice piece, drew out a similar pattern, looked up some tips/tricks on the tubes, which I am stoked I did b/c I realized I had the wrong tooling on the bead roller. I had a thin step tool on there, not the wide 1/4" step die, swapped that out, ran one small piece of scrap, then grabbed my practice piece, which I think came out pretty decent ...other than the shapes not being even, but it was for practice
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

With a little confidence built, it was go time! Its not perfect, but for something that will essentially be a floor pan, I am happy!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Once that was done I couldn't walk away and had ~30min before we needed to leave, so grabbed the welder and tacked it in place
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Hoping to get a little work in tonight, unfortunately have to travel this week for work, so loosing my Tues-Thurs shop time, hopefully back at it next weekend.

 

[Xti04]

Looks great !

 

[zmotorsports]

Nice work Mike.

 

[fouckhest]

Looks great !

Nice work Mike.

Thanks, gents!

 

[madison069]

With that done, the rest of Saturday was spent relaxing. Sunday we had plans in the afternoon with some friends to do a last pool hang day with a German friend that has been in SC for 2yrs working for BMW on a rotation, so he and his wife wanted one last pool day. Before that I found some garage time to get back on the project car.

I had made a template and drawn out a panel for the subframe mount last week, decided to transfer that to metal.

Template with my bead roll pattern, 20ga cold rolled sheet behind it, trusty 1x1 angle straight edge and a cut off wheel for nice cuts since I don't have a shear
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Got focused and forgot to snap a photo of transferring the pattern to the sheet....I cut the corners off the template, extended my straight lines to the sheet, connected the dots and re did the radii and was in business
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Pattern transferred
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

With that done and not feeling confident in my bead rolling skills, I whipped up a practice piece, drew out a similar pattern, looked up some tips/tricks on the tubes, which I am stoked I did b/c I realized I had the wrong tooling on the bead roller. I had a thin step tool on there, not the wide 1/4" step die, swapped that out, ran one small piece of scrap, then grabbed my practice piece, which I think came out pretty decent ...other than the shapes not being even, but it was for practice
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

With a little confidence built, it was go time! Its not perfect, but for something that will essentially be a floor pan, I am happy!
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Once that was done I couldn't walk away and had ~30min before we needed to leave, so grabbed the welder and tacked it in place
Untitled by fouckhest, on Flickr

Hoping to get a little work in tonight, unfortunately have to travel this week for work, so loosing my Tues-Thurs shop time, hopefully back at it next weekend.

I don't know what you're talking about, looks like a professional did that bead rolling to me!

 

[fouckhest]

I don't know what you're talking about, looks like a professional did that bead rolling to me!

hahah, thanks!