American Motors Xperimental full frame

[coolwelder62]

Coming along very nice.Somebody use to race dirt cars.

[454bug]

Hey Ron,

Everything looks great on the cage. The only issue I am wondering about is the diagonal bar in the main hoop... If you ever plan on running a NASA or SCCA event I'm pretty sure they require the diagonal bar to be from the driver's side attached to the top portion of the main hoop (within 12" of the radius) and diagonally to the passenger's side lower portion of the main hoop. The other requirement they have is the diagonal bar is supposed to be the single piece design and the "seat bar" is the one that is supposed to be split. If you don't plan on running those type events, it probably doesn't matter.

Just checking!

[jtomas801]

To add, I believe I read that if the diagonal is in two pieces it has to be an "X" instead of an diagonal, to be legal in SCCA or NASA.

Looks great Ron! What are you planing to run fuel tank? It doesn't look like you have much room left in the trunk with the axle moved back.

Jon

[Ron S]

The whole cage is 1 5/8" chromoly, if I remember correctly SCCA requires 1 3/4", so no its not built specifically for SCCA. I designed it to stiffen the car without adding too much weight, and for head room, vision, saftey, and ease getting in and out of the car. This is a driver, built to run in the A.S.S. (LOL). This will definitly be one of the safest cars in the series, and once I close everything up and put carpet(yes carpet) on the floor, it won't look near as busy.


The fuel tank has worried me since I dreamed up this build, I really wasn't sure how tight the rear compartment was going to be until the watts bars went in, now that they are in I can get it figured out. I think I can buy a poly tank from Speedway that has no holes in it yet, and stand it up rather then laying it flat, or build one out of aluminum. Either way I will have to fab the internal fuel pump and trough like I did in the Mustang.

[Mike Holleman]

Ron, Have you given any thought to a custom fuel cell? From my past experience I am going to be hard pressed to not go that route with future projects that will be tracked. They can be built in almost any shape. You won't have issues with fuel getting away from the pickups and there is a huge safety advantage. When I look at the area you have to work with, custom a fuel cell would be fairly easy to fit. Mike

[racin66coupe]

It doesnt look all that tight in the pictures, but pictures can do that sometimes.. Have you looked into any circle track cell's and modifying for more of a road course setup? I would think that you could get one to fit pretty well going from just infront of the "kick-up" back twords the rear body mount, and across, with the bottom of the cell even with the top of the frame rail. the only thing is there wouldnt be a ton of room if you ever got rear ended or backed into a wall. but then again, I've seen a bunch of full race cars that don't have a ton of room from the rear bumper to the cell

[Ron S]

The more I look at these pics my buddy Mark took, the more tempted I am to finish the flares and floor, bolt the car back together, leaving it in its original faded baby sh*t yellow paint. If only I could figure a way to fade out the quarters and fenders to match.

[Dan S.]

Any color you want to match, fade, feather, can be done. Artificial rust... other effects... no problem.

[Bryce]

Ron,

It would be a cool sleeper with the stock paint!

[coolwelder62]

How do you like TN250 tube notcher.I luv mine.

[sr73bu]

I like your idea using the original paint....some scuffpads, reducer and metal dust can go along way creating an "aged" paint job... Shooting the enitire car then aging it "uniformly" may be easier than trying to blend new panels/parts with the original aged paint. I had a project in college aging some military parts....I even used salt water from the ocean while scuffing the parts after paint. haha. You may want to check out some Guitar forums for aging techniques.... Either way, the project is looking great Ron!
-Sean

[exwestracer]

The whole cage is 1 5/8" chromoly, if I remember correctly SCCA requires 1 3/4", so no its not built specifically for SCCA. I designed it to stiffen the car without adding too much weight, and for head room, vision, saftey, and ease getting in and out of the car. This is a driver, built to run in the A.S.S. (LOL). This will definitly be one of the safest cars in the series, and once I close everything up and put carpet(yes carpet) on the floor, it won't look near as busy.


The fuel tank has worried me since I dreamed up this build, I really wasn't sure how tight the rear compartment was going to be until the watts bars went in, now that they are in I can get it figured out. I think I can buy a poly tank from Speedway that has no holes in it yet, and stand it up rather then laying it flat, or build one out of aluminum. Either way I will have to fab the internal fuel pump and trough like I did in the Mustang.

Ron, I'm sort of well versed in finding "skinny" fuel cells...this might help.
http://www.atlinc.com/pdfs/Racing/20...G-web%2014.pdf
All of ATL's A,B and C cells share the same footprint, only the height is different to create higher capacity. No one else (that I've found) makes a narrower cell.

[dropit69]

Cool pic Ron..who's chevelle?...and yes leave it faded yellow..

[Ron S]

How do you like TN250 tube notcher.I luv mine.

That is my buddy Dominic's bender, I use a JD squared type 4.

[Ron S]

Cool pic Ron..who's chevelle?...and yes leave it faded yellow..

That is a customer of DC Performance, a really over the top build, will be an 8 second street car. DC does mostly super fast drag cars. There are alot of 7,8,and 9 second door bangers with tags on them in this area. Do you remember when a 12 sec. car dominated the streets? I sure do.

[Ron S]

I'm loving how smooth the bottom will be

[Mike Holleman]

Tis slick. How is the exhaust going to run? I know you have that worked out in a mental blueprint.

[Ron S]

You got the mental part right. It will run along the torque arm on the drivers side, and alond the driveshaft on the other, in 3", go up and over the rear, and exit behind the rear wheel. Its kind of nice I get to do that from above before the floors are installed. I think the trans mount and exhaust will be the next thing as soon as the cage is done.

[andrewb70]

I'm loving how smooth the bottom will be

Great progress Ron.

Does that torque arm mount just unbolt?

Andrew

[Ron S]

Yeah Andrew its the torque arm/trans mount so it kind of has to come out. I was a little worried about the strain of the torque arm, so that crossmember of made of 3/16", and the bolt together section is extra beefy, I need to study at weight watchers!!!!