Two Shakes the S10

[fissionspeed]

Trudging along, life as always is getting in the way. As of now I've got the seat, main hoop, harness bar, and a-pillar bars in. Tricky job by yourself! Fortunately it appears the cage fits in the truck and I fit in the cage, so far.

Other updates: QA1 shocks are here so it's time fab those up. I'm just using a crossbar across the step notch with some CNC laser cut brackets. Once those are in and the cage is welded up I can roll this thing outside and put the bed back on which will be satisfying to see.

Picked up a ton of stuff from Holley's memorial day sale, window net, parachute, gloves helmet, arm restraints, etc. My poor budget 

[fissionspeed]

Wife helping mock up some bars, it's starting to look like a racecar! Still not sure how I'm going to get out of it. I would imagine being on fire helps a lot.

[Stan Back]

Never done it-- don't recommend it.

Still is probably the safest racing you could do with your truck.  You'll find it a little expensive to start with, but read the rules carefully.  There're some rules that allow us to spread the time out longer than other venues as we don't do it every weekend.  And the SCTA doesn't change the rules on a whim.

[Stainless1]

And if all else fails you could put an escape hatch in the top and pop out that way...

Be careful not to weld yourself in there...  

[fissionspeed]

Shock mounts are burned in and rear crossmember tacked in place. Sadly this does not count as my safety hoop as it's not in the front 25% of the shaft, but it can't hurt and I need it for clearance. I'm not entirely happy with this rear suspension setup, it should be plenty strong and the geometry is correct it just doesn't look very professional in my opinion. We can get fancy with the next car

I am going to try to post more here, it keeps me excited about daily progress. I need to keep a steady pace up if I want to see dirt this year.



as always pardon the mess

[fissionspeed]

After much ado, I am finally happy with where the seat is. I discovered it was mounted much too high (head nearly exiting roll cage), and I didn't notice before I tacked the seatbelt bar in. Made some new seat mounts and lowered the bar to get the belt angle right, which I was finally able to measure properly thanks to my new HANS device (and SFI-20 carhartt jacket).



At this point all that remains to be fitted for the cage is the main hoop diagonal, roof hoop diagonal, and down bars out the back. I am still figuring out how I want to get the bed back on, besides taking the roof off the garage. I'm hoping to get a couple friends over for a "roll the truck outside, put the bed back on, finish welding the cage, roll it back inside" party.

Looking forward to being done with chassis fab, it is not my strong suit.



In light of the "get it on the dirt this year" timetable, I threw on some $130 ($40 after I pointed out there was a hole in them that I had to TIG back together ) chinese headers so I can run N/A. They fit with some non-gentle persuasion. Dave Freiburger says dents don't kill power, I'll have to take his word for it! I also welded on some v-bands should I decide to make them part of my rear-mounted turbo plans.





like a glove!

[fissionspeed]

More progress. The cage is finally fully cut and tacked, and the wheels and tires mounted. I'm going to get someone from SCTA to come over and take a look to give the final approval (and tell me exactly where they want to see gussets etc) before finish welding the cage.



I'm finally starting to get the hang of notching tube! That last bar went in right off the notcher, no trimming 



There are one or two more bars I'd like to put through the cockpit once everything is welded up:

1. Passenger side lap belt mount between the seatbelt bar and frame crossmember, represented by the cardboard tube. It can't go in until the cage is free from the frame and can be lifted up. There is a factory lap belt mount on the body in that area, but I want both lap belts on the cage. Also, since I had to add a driveshaft tunnel to the cab, the factory brace across the floor had to be cut. With this bar, I can weld plates to both it and the floor, adding rigidity back to the area of the floor around the driver.

2. Additional cross bracing bar, and runner to the dash to provide something to mount my switch panel/fire handles to. This is laid out in pink string. I'm not quite married to this idea yet so if you have any feedback here that would be welcome. I might just send that runner back to the main hoop and make a control panel that goes next to the shifter.

[fissionspeed]

The last few days were spent dealing with some body work - something I have now learned is probably best left to professionals!

The truck's original bed had crushed rear quarter panels, something I thought might be a problem should I ever get close to a record. I decided that since the bed can't come off once the cage is in, I would try to deal with it before re-installing.

The damage:


Driver's side came out ok-ish:


The passenger side not so much:


After all this and a quick coat of paint, I realized that I'd hate to look at this for the rest of my life, and it was too far gone for patch panels:


So I gave up and $500 later, I snagged myself a new-to-me bed in much better shape. And I'll find someone who knows what they're doing to pull that dent Big thanks to GM for making millions of these things.


Also very proud of the C30 for surviving its first day trip. Though I didn't trust it enough to shut the engine off

[fissionspeed]

The bed needs clearance for the step notch and rear axle. After much ado about how I was going to get fancy and dzus on a bent sheet metal cover, a simpler option presented itself: the humble 55 gallon barrel.

I've been looking for a chance to try out the plasma cutter, and boy is it fun! After removing the tops of each barrel (but leaving one rim on each, to hold the shape) I tacked the two edges together.



Then, the tube was cut down the middle,  cut for width, and the rims removed. The scraps:



A little geometry gave me the arc length I needed to cover the fender wells and how much circumference to remove. With a little force, the radius of the tube was increased by pressing it down over the fenders of the junk bed. Can't be messing up the paint on the nice one!



I was worried that it would kink, but it seems to have expanded nicely to the proper radius. I still need to remove a little material to lower it over the stock arches more, I need some more room in between the arch and the bed cover just in case.



Not bad for $15, eh?  8-)

[fissionspeed]

Here's the latest: Got a sweet driveshaft from IE driveline. They even gave a "fun meter" pin! Fun meter is currently somewhere in the middle.

The driveline angles look great, which is a relief! I guess I can measure stuff after all.



Driveshaft mockup revealed a critical error though: with a 2 piece driveshaft, you're supposed to use a bolt-on yoke. The 4L80e has different output shafts and they're not cross compatible. The bolt-on yoke output shaft has a shoulder to bottom the yoke out. Otherwise, the bolt does nothing. Guess which one I put in the transmission?

At least the shaft is still threaded. I made a couple pieces on the lathe that will let me weld up the yoke and bolt it on at the correct spacing.



200 days until the may meet  :|

[fissionspeed]

The bed is back on and the cage is getting finish welded. Fire bottles and parachute on order. Need to seal up all the holes, do seatbelts and window nets, then do the plumbing and wiring, and we'll be ready for some shakedowns.







I decided to listen to everyone's concerns and whip up some bars that would let me hard mount the seat and belts to the cage rather than the floor:





If anyone knows a good primer for how to make an aluminum dashboard, please link it!

[rockracer]

I love the proper use of the 55 gallon barrels.  😎 🍻

[fissionspeed]

I love the proper use of the 55 gallon barrels.  😎 🍻

Thanks! Unfortunately they are a little far forward - didn't realize that the factory wheel tubs are not centered on the axle. But that's ok, nothing the zip disc can't fix.

[fissionspeed]

I'm starting a new job and managed to get myself a couple weeks off, and I've been having so much fun just working on the truck and fixing up the house full time. I wish it could always be like this!

Spent the last couple days making a swing-down parachute mount / push bar combo. I haven't painted the swing bar yet because I don't know my CG and therefore where to put the chute anchor. So I'm ordering up a couple brackets that will let me move it up and down. I figure when I pull my chute during my rookie runs we can dial it in. Got a couple grade-8 hitch pins on order for ease of use.





I got all my gussets in and painted the top of the cage so I can scoot it back up and send it to its forever home. My window nets are not yet here so I'm debating waiting so I can get the mounting tabs in the right spot while it's still down, versus trying to monkey around with a stubby TIG when it's in position. I need to get the door bars and all that in so I'm tempted to, as my wife says, "burn that bridge when we come to it."



Flat black rust-oleum cut with a squirt of acetone on a foam roller works great for cage paint!

[71GSSDemon]

Looking good!