Mid-Engine Sandrail build

[zmotorsports]

Well here goes. I have started building a sandrail. I have wanted one for over 15 years now and the wife finally gave me the go ahead. I bought a wrecked/damaged car that had some nice parts on it and then started cutting it up and fabricating the new one. Attached are some pictures of the progress. Thanks for looking, Mike.

The first pic is from the rear with most of the car cut away and the new upper and lower side rails.

This is one of my welds.

This is the view from the side.

 

[zmotorsports]

Yeah, the seats finally showed up. Now I can make sure they fit between the rails and start the seat brackets.

Fabricated the seat brackets. Now just need to tack them in place.

This is the upper crossbar. It resided just behind the seats and will be the attachment point for the new Crow 5-point 5-way harnesses as well as the upper radiator mount.

This is one of the welds on the fuel tank mounting brackets.

This is the fuel tank mount tacked in place. Now I just need to test fit the fuel tank and make sure there is enough room between the seats and the radiator.

 

[JC23]

Looking great! Keep 'em coming!

 

[Stinger]

I bought a wrecked/damaged car that had some nice parts on it and then started cutting it up and fabricating the new one.

More details about the donor car please

 

[Boost Creep]

what brand of frame is that? or are you making your own?

 

[zmotorsports]

I don't know much about the donor car other than it had some nice polished aluminum parts on it as well as Neal pedals, Neal dual piston brake calipers and drilled/vented rotors. The original car had a bench seat that was too small for me so I decided to go the suspension seat route while I was building a new chassis.

There is very little of the original car that I am using. Part of the front suspension mounting points as well as the rear shock mounts and engine mounts are all of the original car that I am using. The remainder is all my own design/build.

The hardest part was to create a wider chassis in the passenger compartment while trying to keep the sleek flowing lines that I like. Overall I am very happy with the way it is turning out.

Here are a few pictures from last night's work.

The first picture is of the 'B' pillar that I bent up, fishmouthed and tacked into place.

This picture is of the 'A' pillar bent, fishmouthed and tacked into place along with the support bars between the 'A' and 'B' pillars.

This is a front side view.

This is a side view and I threw a tire into the picture for perspective.

 

[Boost Creep]

very cool. i wish i had the capabilities to build my own stuff like that. looks like you have the same rear wheels i have on mine. dwt's?

 

[zmotorsports]

very cool. i wish i had the capabilities to build my own stuff like that. looks like you have the same rear wheels i have on mine. dwt's?

Correct. I am running 13.50 X 15 Extreme Hole Shots on them.

What kind of car do you have? What is it powered with and where do you usually go? Mike.

 

[stonewellmark]

Is that an old "deserter" chassis that you cut up??

 

[Boost Creep]

Correct. I am running 13.50 X 15 Extreme's on them.

What kind of car do you have? What is it powered with and where do you usually go? Mike.

i have a berrien frame with a 1600 vw engine. 14.50x15 desert tracks in back and 6.80 smoothies on 15x5.5 dwts in front. i take it to silver lake sand dunes here in michigan.

 

[zmotorsports]

i have a berrien frame with a 1600 vw engine. 14.50x15 desert tracks in back and 6.80 smoothies on 15x5.5 dwts in front. i take it to silver lake sand dunes here in michigan.

That is awesome. Clean looking car. Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Well last night I didn't feel like I got much accomplished. For the last week and a half I have been bending, fishmouthing and tacking tubes in place and each night it looked like I really kicked ****. Last night I removed the seats, final welded the seat tabs in place along with some final welds on some tubing and machined a bung for the Buggy Whip antenna. As I was closing up for the night I looked back before turning the lights off after about 4 hours of work and it didn't look like I had done a thing.

Attached are a few pictures of the bung that I machined. Thanks for looking and any comments are greatly appreciated. Mike.

This picture is of the bung in the lathe.

This pic is of the two pieces threaded together.

This picture is of the two seperated. I think it will look pretty clean once welded to the top of the 'B' pillar and the wires ran through the tubing.

 

[kbs2244]

It is the old saying....
80% done, but 80% to go.
It is looking good.
I think you will be proud when you are done.

 

[e-tek]

AWESOME workmanship!!! Thanks for posting it and keep it coming!

 

[SteelArt]

sweet build looks like you have it in hand and quite a nice steup to build it in

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks for the comments guys. I appreciate it, like I said this is the first (hopefully of many more to come) sandrail that I have built. I am really enjoying the build. My son is helping a lot in between his college classes so that is an added bonus. I really enjoy the time in the shop with him.

Like I mentioned the little things take time and don't look like much is getting done now that most of the tubing is bent, fishmouthed and tacked into place. I am finishing the welding as I go in increments as I am working on other things around the car. I feel that I am almost to the point of starting my 'completion list', you know the one, the list that we all make as you near the end and start crossing off things so they don't get overlooked. I start getting that perma-grin when I get to the 'completion list' phase.

This picture is of the antenna bung (the one machined the previous night) welded onto the 'B' pillar. After welding it on I pulled some mechanics wire through the 'B' pillar and down the left 'C' pillar to the lower main rail to pull the wire after powder coating.

This picture is of the 'C' pillars welded into place.

This picture is of the upper radiator mounting brackets that will be welded to the underside of the upper crossbar just behind the seats. I still need to fabricate the parts between these brackets and the upper radiator. All of these little brackets are what take time to fabricate. I wish I had the capabilities to either lazer cut them or access to a waterjet but I have to cut them all freehand. These two little brackets took about 15-20 minutes so not a tremendous amount of time but to get them exactly the same it does take a few minutes.

 

[zmotorsports]

Well I didn't get much time last night but was able to get a couple of small items taken care of.

The first picture is of the shifter tack welded into place.

This next two pictures of of the upper radiator mounts that I fabricated and tacked the upper portion to the crossbar and fabbed the other part to bolt between the upper mount and the top of the radiator.

This last picture is of the fuel tank mount which postions the fuel tank between the radiator and the seat but has to be elevated enough off of the lower rails to allow the shifter linkage to pass underneathe.

 

[JC23]

Lookin' good! You do nice work, Z!

Very clever and well done.

 

[D.J.]

What was the donor car?
________
buttsex Webcam

 

[Pukeballs]

Wow, your welds look great!

 

[Wanna Ride]

Wow, your welds look great!

Yes, very nice. Can't wait to see more pics of this build.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks for everyones comments. Like I mentioned previously, I am really enjoying this build. I can't wait to get it on the sand and see how it performs.

As far as the welds, thanks, I wish they all looked like that. Obviously when people post pics of their welds they generally take the pictures of their best welds not the worst. I am no different. Some do not look as good as others. I am still trying to perfect all of my out of position welds. I know they are solid welds and I have good fusion but I am always trying to improve the appearance of my welds as well.

I am hoping to get quite a bit more done of it this weekend with a few days off. I will post more pics after the weekends work. Mike.

 

[jamesemery728]

Wow, very professional work, photos, shop, the whole nine yards. You seem to be much more than a weekend hobbyist. Do you do this type of work full time somewhere?

 

[chads2slow]

looks good, what powerplant r u going to use

 

[zmotorsports]

Wow, very professional work, photos, shop, the whole nine yards. You seem to be much more than a weekend hobbyist. Do you do this type of work full time somewhere?

Thanks. I am a mechanic by trade. I have a full time job where I am a mechanic and my wife, son and I have a small hole in the wall performance shop/business behind our home. Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

looks good, what powerplant r u going to use

Turbocharged Mazda 13B with a shot of NOS eventually. Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Well I was able to get some small items taken care of over the holiday weekend.

I want it to have smooth steering to I machined a piece of tubing that will incorporate two needle bearings and seals in which the steering shaft will pass through. This assembly will be welded to the crossbar on the 'A' pillar.

Bearings and seals.

Here are all the parts cut and waiting for welding.

Here is the drop-down bracket welded to the crossbar.

 

[zmotorsports]

This is the tachometer mount which is just to the left of the steering wheel.

This is the completed/welded steering column assmebly welded to the crossbar.

Here is the crossbar tack welded into the car.

Transaxle mocked into place.

 

[zmotorsports]

Here are the brackets for the trailing arm mounts.

This is the trailing arm brackets tack welded to the chassis.

These are the lights I am going to run. I machined the small bungs that the lights thread on to. They will be welded into the tube just ahead of the 'A' pillar and the wires will be ran inside the tubing.

This is a picture of the fuel tank mounts, battery box mounted and radiator mounting without the seats. Thanks for looking. Will post up more pics as work continues. Mike.

 

[Max Power]

Great progress and now another project for me. I used an off the shelf steering bearing and support when I built my rail and my steering is anything but smooth. Not to mention the major flex in the steering shaft. Off to the garage for me.

 

[zmotorsports]

Here are a few more pics of the last couple of nights work. I was able to get the diagonals welded into place and the rear suspension trailing arm brackets welded.

Last night was a waste of time due to having to re-mount the seats and fuel tank for the third time. I mounted the seats the first time but then the fuel tank hit them. I lowered the fuel tank but then the shift linkage hit the fuel tank. I then raised the rear of the seats only .625" but it rotated the seat forward and placed my head too close to the rollcage and didn't 'feel' as comfortable with steering wheel and shifter.

I ended up lowering the shifter about an inch, lowering the fuel tank about .625" and then re-mounting the rear seat brackets in the EXACT same place as I had originally had them. Talk about walking out of the shop after 5 hours of work and feeling like a total waste of time. Oh well, I guess everything is a learning experience (at least that is what I keep telling myself). Mike.

 

[JC23]

zmotorsports,

Looking good, man. You do nice work. Where did you get those rear arms? I'm talking the chrome ones that look like hair pins.

 

[Skyline]

Great work! You've got some great skills there. Looks like it's going to be a really fun machine.

 

[zmotorsports]

zmotorsports,

Looking good, man. You do nice work. Where did you get those rear arms? I'm talking the chrome ones that look like hair pins.

Those are off of a friends Mazzone car that he converted to 5-link IRS. I was going to build mine very similar but I swapped some work for his rear trailing arms and front A-arms that were already chromed. Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Great work! You've got some great skills there. Looks like it's going to be a really fun machine.

Thank you. I am getting excited to put it on the sand. The wife and I sat in it for the first time last night while I was marking the attachment points for the harnesses. Mike.

 

[Griff93]

Really nice work! Look like it will be a fun ride.

 

[jakeb]

Is that VW transaxle...?

I have a fiat 500 project coming next and trying to decide what route to go.... I want more power than the stock 17hp.

 

[zmotorsports]

Yes it is a VW transaxle. I used a Rhino case and stuffed it with all the good stuff. Mike.

 

[Infidel]

What are your mods on the 13b? porting, turbo, fuel, ecu? I love rotary. I've heard that you get most torque from stock ports, although it may require more boost that a ported engine to achieve the same power levels. What's you goal?

 

[zmotorsports]

What are your mods on the 13b? porting, turbo, fuel, ecu? I love rotary. I've heard that you get most torque from stock ports, although it may require more boost that a ported engine to achieve the same power levels. What's you goal?

The 13B has street ports, a Turbonetics T-04 turbo with a Deltagate wastegate, Weber IDF carb. It will also have a 60hp NOS setup installed.

The engine should put out approx. 350-365 hp at 12 lbs. boost. I hope to have the entire car weigh in right at 900 lbs., maybe just a tad over. It should end up being a pretty wild ride with that kind of power to weight ratio. Mike.