I'll bet you find no evidence of difference between your's and your buddies. At least not enough to go through all of the rebuilding you're getting ready to bite off.
Ya know, I didnt really look at it when I bought it because I didn't know that it was wrecked. It all seemed to fit fine...
Ahh managed to get a rise out of the master fabricator himself! Responses in red. And I understand the Devils Advocate approach. Someone has to do it!
I got ya! The frame rails look bent on every fox when the surrounding sheetmetal is taken away. If the car was wrecked in it's past,...and was consequently repaired by a reputable shop that had the ability to straighten the frame back to at least close to factory spec,..there'd be evidence of the remaining kink(s) where the frame was pulled on.
Coming from somebody that has built more than a few race cars not only for myself, but for quite a few others as well,...messing w/ any part of the box that you're gonna put 700-800 HP in is risky business,...especially when the by product of having that much power means that the whole mess will be traveling somewhere in the 150+ MPH range in a quarter mile.
As long as you put the structure back together (even using your round tubing, and brace it accordingly to at least rival the strength that the stock stuff had), then there'll be no trade off. But why take on all of the work to fabricate mount points for the front end, radiator, bumper, fenders when it's all there already done for you in brand new sheetmetal?
So now, Im off to a buddies house who has a fox in great shape with no motor in it. Going to take some measurements of his engine compartment and figure out what "square" really is so I can mimic that with my engine bay.
Meh,...I just hate watching a movie where the main character dies at the end.Meh, it's just something I wanna do. Pull up a chair and enjoy the show!
But,......it appears you have cut, spliced,...and butt welded almost every bend togetherYup.
gonna have to point out the obvious to meBut,......it appears you have cut, spliced,...and butt welded almost every bend together
I'm not opposed to the whole project, however when I look at the tubing I get a vision of the front end hitting the wall at about 100mph and it kinda smears to one side. I'm thinking a real tube chassis tied to the cage is in order at this point.
Well I tried to post a video clip, but imagshack is not cooperating. The front of the car is light enough for me to easily pick up. Not really worried about weight.
And besides, I think we are kinda missing the point of this build. Hot Rodding was born from making stuff work out of your garage. I say screw paying thousands to have professional shops do the work for me. I have $3300 in this build so far and have full confidence this thing will be running 10s (at least) for under $10K.
Will it be pretty? Noo. Will it work? Yes.
I think you're missing the point. The car needs to be safe and in order to be safe the correct materials and installation practices must be utilized. What type of material did you use in the front end, pipe or tubing?
Pipe is measured in inside dia. And tubing is measured in outside dia. Tubing has a much different construction process, different strength and hardness for starters. For example a length of 1" sch 40 steel pipe from home depot could be easily bent by standing on one end and killing. You would be hard pressed to do this with 1" .120 wall mild steel tubing and I would bet money you absolutely couldn't do this with .083 wall chromoly. I'm not sure what size you have used but 1 5/8 minimum off the strut towers and around the front and 1 1/4 for the rad support would be sufficient. Long story short your safety is paramount and if you need help sourcing the right material I'll be more than happy to help you find it. I'll have to look through some old pictures I think I have one of a front end my buddy did a while back similar to yours.
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