Decided as it is now not that much extra work to go back to the bare chassis, so work that is now completed is as follows; Frt and Rr screens out, the rear was actually quite easy, the frt less so as the installlation was poor. Floor pan out and the rest of the frt liners. Roof off Side engine bay panels out, why Ferrari welded these with so many welds for essentially cosmetic panels is anyone's guess? Rollcage template fabricated from wastepipe to figure out mountings and dimensions. Trial fit of front spoiler (steel) before committing to laying up a mould. Engine sling in place ready for engine out. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hopefully back to total bare frame by the end if this week-end. In total there will be about 70 hours to get it to this stage. Progress will slow then as lots of measuring and cutting of steel to sort out the reinforcement parts, a d also the bumper mould to sort out.
Unfortunately it is in Dutch, but this person from Belgium did something the same. The photo's shows the progress he made... http://www.f**********/showthread.php?t=1807
Engine now out, the actual removal was fairly swift, probably 20mins, a bit easier not having to worry about the rear window or gutter (as the roof is off). Work started on preping a shallow steel spoiler to act as the plug for a fibreglass mould. Also updated the CAD for the brake caliper adaptor drawings as will be running 355 frt brembo's and also rear brembos with a tiny 28mm pistons so brake balance is more or less spot on with standard. Off on business now for 2 weeks so now further work for a while....all the designed parts however are now with the laser cutting company for the chassis work, so should have a pile of parts to work with once back. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great to see the work on your car, exposing everything! How is the rust? From the picture most seems solid with only surface rust, correct? Any surprises, positive or negative? I'm curious because I often wonder what goes on beneath the outer skin of our cars. Best, Peter
Mainly surface rust, the areas that need a little attention are; The flanges at the end of each sill where they get blasted by stones etc from the wheels, they will need a little metal letting in, again will draw on CAD and get laser cut. The inner sills were never protected at the factory so have quite a bit of surface rust, on my car some of this will be cut away to get the cage in and so not a major issue. The gap between the inner and outer sills had little or no protection, but seems solid enough. Main chassis in great condition the undertray really does protect this area. The plan now is to get all the metal work done on the chassis and then get either soda blasted or dry ice blasted before painting the whole lot. I have quite a bit of fab to do to get all the new metal work ready before getting some one in to weld it all together.
After a couple of weeks out of the country I have finally manged to get back into the garage. Fairly quick job to remove all the suspension especially as access is so easy with no body in place, the car is now more or less back to the bare chassis. The chassis is actually quite light, an easy lift for 2 people. Next job is to mount the chassis to some custom made rails so it is still mobile and then set too with the metal work. Just waiting now for all the tube and section to be delivered, although there is a bit of work to cut out some of the old material and also lay up some templates to support the rear windows. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
After a little break, back to it. The new front bulkhead panels are now moulded and have a whole heap of new laser cut parts (including front and rear dolleys that pick up on the suspension mounts). Started work on proper fabrication of a rollcage template, this then ensures I get the cage I want from the cage supplier. It was also good to have a good talk with Lee Jones from GTO racing about his car which he used at last week-ends race retro. Also all of the replacement tubes are now cut, next job is to make sure all the old cuts are cleaned off ready for a marathon of welding in the new stuff. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well after a couple of business trips to China, and a few week-ends off, work has re-commenced. All of the old brackets that are no longer required have been removed, nearly all of the new tubes cut to length (there are a lot), and finally the damaged front suspension legs have been cut out. The front legs have been badly repaired in the past, the new legs will be welded back in and a fork made to ensure a neat job is made as getting the old ones out was a royal pain due to the amount of weld material used. All of the old welds have been dressed back to ensure a flat surface and prep work is now underway for the cage to be installed. The chassis is actually fairly flimsy, I suspect not so bad in bending but torsional rigidity I suspect is very poor, the cage should add a huge amount of strength into the chassis. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
This really is an awesome project. Will you keep the original front-end geometry? I understand that the F40 and the last 328s used a revised setup that reduced dive under braking.
The Rollcage fitment is now under way, main hoop complete, front dash cross member in, there are still the door bars and the bars back to the rear to notch plus some adjustment on the door frames for a perfect fit but all coming together. The replacement front suspension leg is now all together and just requires final cut of the existing metal to align the mounting forks. The front leg I have made by cutting the box section and then will fold back on itself to form the angle face. The spot welds for the sills are all drilled out and will be taking the flanges off and replacing with small rectangular section so the sills are then riveted to this and there are no projections on the underside (as per the original cars). I am estimated about 10-15 hours now to complete all the metal work then off the welders to put the giant kit together again. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
A bit more progress, the sills have now been cut off, good job as they were a bit ratty around the rear arch lips and also a couple of holes near the front, the inner sills however look fairly good apart from near the bottom as water tracks up the joint. Holes drilled for the new ARB mountings, and plugs cut, these will be drilled and tapped then welded on all sides to the whole tube section shares the work rather than just using crush tubes. Just a bit more work on cage fitting and a bit of notching and next stop will be the welding up of this jigsaw puzzle. Carbs are also off the engine and stripped waiting for cleaning and re-plating of parts. These probably won't go back on the engine but as I have the rebuild kits seems daft not to do it as it is not an especially big job. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
An important parcel arrived this morning to allow the smaller tubes to be notched. I was quite sceptical how this would work out, but with decent hole saws it rips through the tubes even when driven with a normal cordless drill (a good buy) and with a small amount of de-burring is producing good joints. The front end is now complete and ready to be welded, a tiny bit of work to finish off now at the rear end with the bracing tubes and that will also be buttoned up. The front cruciform looks way better than the old unit and is now fully central too. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Finally all the tube notching completed for all the new braces, just a tiny bit of work now to finish off the window channels and a few bits of the cage for final notching and she can be welded up. Front end also trial fitted to check jigging works ok, it is amazing that the front was so far off, probably about 20mm on the front upper wishbone mounting brackets as i have had to re-cut the main horizontal tube about 20mm longer from when I fist did this with the original chassis leg! Next week-end will be final fettling and collection of all the parts for welding. All the cab parts are now cleaned and also started on the dry sump tank. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Roll cage fabrication now completed, also got the tanks coated with Wurth Stone Guard a great product for filling in the odd scuff here and there. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Simon, impressive work and "revealing" to see the true condition of the car's framework, i.e., rust and gunge. Question: when you're facing a project like this with so much metalwork, do you consider having the whole thing media blasted first, to make the fabrication and welding easier, or would that be a waste because the surgery required is so extensive, that half of what you had blasted would be subsequently cut away anyhow? Thanks, John
Looks far worse on the pictures, mostly surface rust and lots of sealant gunge (the rust in some areas will be in most cars as the oe factory treatment was so poor). The chassis is in great condition thanks to the undertray. Just trying to locate someone to blast, weld, paint the chassis at the moment it is probably the correct way round to clean then weld and then paint. I am looking for this to be done in fairly short order.
Just started trimming and fitting the new front bulkheads and wheel-arch liners, these are about a 1/4 of the weight of the standard items and were easily fabricated using an aluminium mould and then laying up a composite of glass and diolen mat (the same type of construction as canoes), these are very light and tough parts. The blue stuff on the surface is just PVA release agent which I have not washed off yet. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
