"Ray's AKA demonfire's XR4Ti build up"

[Ray]

Did not have much time to make any progress recently, but got the car moved from one bay to another - first time off jackstands since i think late oct / early nov - winter wheels are ones i got as a trade for my "street tire" autoX wheels - the autoX wheel and tire combo is sleeping in the furnace room for the winter. Looks goofy, and i had to paint them lime green for effect. It's amazing how low your car is when you have seen the thing elevated a foot for months.

Anyway, removed seats, removed rest of the interior trim, removed some misc fittings and have the dash ready to be pulled after taping off areas to cut. Cut out old harness bar. Plan on making some progress this weekend. (saturday) Sunday is a Whisky Festival.



3 23' long sections of 1.75" x 0.095" DOM tubing. The white tube is my old harness bar.

In the background is the TIG welder, tubing bender, tubing notcher, drill press, etc.



More exciting pics to come as progress is actually made.

Any tips for painting this? Of all the work to be done - that's the one part i dont look forward to. I also want to integrate the A pillar and main hoop to the chassis. Dont know what i'm going to do with that yet.

What gauge sheet to use for spreader plates? I have 16 ga right now but i am not sure if i should go thicker or not. Stock sheet is probably 18 or 20ga - not extremely thick. (should probably read the rules, eh? i am right in my tubing selection and design so far, but i didn't see the part about spreader plates except for 9sqin or more for harness mounting points)


edit: just heard the spreader plates need to be 1/8". ugh. that's gonna 1. be expensive 2. be a bitch to weld to the floor pan.

Finished removing bits from inside this evening - then used an air chisel (my god i love air chisels) to remove the rest of the tar mat that was under the center console i never got around to removing before. Cut that goofy angle bar from the diagonal. This weekend i might cut the diagonal, but i might just reweld it. It's plenty strong but the welds dont look super. I figure zippy wheel then hit them with the TIG torch and maybe add filler if need be.




Roll bar padding... is the pmzracing stuff decent? it's much less than the other racing sites.

[Ray]

PMZ stuff is probably too good to be true - i might order a small bit to see how it is.

Started Fab this evening. This. Is. Time. Consuming. I figured i'd be 2 bars ahead of what i am now - i got three fitted in about 4 hours. Tack welded with the MIG. Going to try to seam with the TIG but i have no idea how i'm going to be able to hold the torch, feed the rod, and operate the foot pedal while contorted in the car.

Diagonal cut, notched, and tacked.


Harness bar cut, notched, tacked.



As of right now i should be able to flip the thing with only a few swings of the hammer - wasn't sure if to put the diagonal the other way or not. I like it this way, personally.


tomorrow is diagonal to other strut tower, then mock up (but not tack weld) rear strut tower brace using the 1" x 0.120 bar that was my harness bar. Not going to tack as it's gonna be enough of a bitch to get in there to weld without that thing in place. Then if i have time, start the A pillars, which are the ones i'm most leery about as it's 2 bends and a notch, and the longest piece of steel. if i screw it up it's a huge waste of both time and money. Then Halo, then door bars. Was going to do an X but i dont know if i can get my seats back in with the X, so i'll stick to the floor bar then a down return angle from main hoop to A pillar.

[Ray]

0.085" <min is 0.08> spreader plate welded to shock tower. Diagonal tacked in.



A pillar mocked up (not tacked) door bars mocked up for test fit for seat fitment.




This was another... what, 6 hours?


Coming along. 5 more bars to fabricate. pass floor rail and door bar, pass A pillar, halo, and rear shock tower brace. Then, time to break out the heat. I figure another solid 40-60 hours of work.



Think it's worth it to X the door bars?

[xr4ti85]

looking good

[John Brennan]

Lotta work. Looks good-- here's to your efforts, your bothering to document it and share it with us, and especially, to never needing it!

[Ray]

You got that right! I didn't realize how much TIME it takes to get these bars to fit right. I know that if i did this for a living, it'd be easier for me but man, if you're off a little, you're off a lot.

Here's to never needing it!

[Ray]

Seam welded the diagonal, harness bar, and X bar to the rear shock towers. Also bent the A pillar bar for the pass side. Might redo the d/s A pillar bar. Cut and notched the Halo.

Left: notch pass door (floor) bar, cut and notch pass door downtube bar, measure and cut / notch knee bar. Cut dash a little more to fit A pillar bars. Finish up spreader plates for a pillar bars, stitch weld in (will probably MIG those). Everything else so far has been TIG.

Total time so far about 20 hours- i'm less than halfway done.

Quick picture

[BeefFajitas]

Good work Ray. I know where I'm going when I want to build a cage!

[Ray]

I wouldn't recommend a roll cage in a street car at all. A roll bar yeah. Not sure what you're end goal is but it does require notching the dashboard and quite a lot of welding. And cutting. And fitting. And test fitting. And mockup.

[Ray]

Some more few pics. Matt (guy in the red shirt who is helping teach me to TIG weld) used his FACE to use the pedal when he was doing the floor bars. Hardcore I am doing most of the welding but he really likes it and i get to pick up on some techniques.

Ran out of argon with 4 welds to go. Figures. Will finish welding when i get a chance to refill the tank.

Mockup of door bars to a pillar


Knee bar mockup




welcome to the jungle


i'm getting better at tig welding finally


Matt playing with 5000 degree plasma:








"using your face to operate the heat pedal"

[mopman93]

aw yeaaaaaa!!!! lookin good ray. hit me up for the next work party

[Ray]

Painted. This was a bit of a chore, but not unexpected. Was going to paint the cage white - but the black i was using for primer (rustoleum semi flat corrosion protection - badass paint, btw) looked really good as is... so we left it.




Seats installed. Pass seat will need to be replaced with another race bucket. Stock seat does fit, but has zero adjustment and is very tight.



Next up: A frickin' bath (tomorrow is detail day for the cars. 4 cars. Wash. Clay. Wax. Wax again.

I also repainted the wheels for the subaru today - had a few small chips.

[BeefFajitas]

That thing is starting to look pretty serious. Nice work man.

[Ray]

Decided to grab that spare upper intake i had on the shelf and do something with it.

Please excuse the cell phone pics.



Then i realized the hood wouldn't close. A quick call to Anglin verified that i, in fact, buggered it all. I wish i would have known that before welding, grinding, cleaning, priming, painting, and clearcoating...

So, i removed this...


Then welded it back together.

Relocating the intake required modification to the intercooler piping, so i decided to TIG it. I was overall pleased with the outcome.



After extending the wiring for the TPS and IAC (about 18" or so, sleeved in heat shrink the entire run) here is final mock up





Car is back to running condition now and i hope this makes a bit of a difference in top end, which was lacking before. I spent about 2 hours with a carbide bit on the air grinder smoothing the inside, and did a quick knife edge on the lower.

First race is next weekend.

[BeefFajitas]

Much better! You'll love the access to the valve cover.