1975 Camaro Bumblebee Autocross Build

[SPG]

it's been almost 4 months but I finally have updates! My dad had surgery on his arm so we haven't been able to do anything....on top of that, as you guys know the instructions for the torque arm kind of sucked when it came to placing the brackets needed to weld. I called the guy and the only notes I got were "it needs to be 2" away from the center of the axle" Which was all fine and dandy but that was wrong too. So...said F it, squared it up and went about my life and will cross my fingers we didn't totally screw it up.

There isn't much adjustment so it's as good as it's going to get.

Anyways, pictures. I wired up an outlet to use, as my house had been pre-wired for an outlet for an electric car....well I couldn't find the other ends of wire in the breaker box, no idea where it terminates too. I turned off my solar panels for a moment and high jacked the connectors for the plug to use on the welder.


Here are the practice welds to dial in the settings (this was done on 110v instead of the 220v that we ended up with)




Here are the welds that I did when my dad was teaching me, this is the first time I ever weld, the line on the top was pretty good, the giant blob at the bottom was me trying to do one continuous line going back and forth...it made sense in my mind but I ended up just making a giant puddle. But according to my dad they were pretty good for never welding before.



Drilling out a section in the frame for the u bolts


Pants caught on fire while welding, we didn't notice because I was focused on our jank wiring set up didn't catch on fire



Finished welds on top bracket, angle of the picture makes it look like it's crooked, it's not, I swear, we checked at least 10 times. (I will clean up the slag, don't worry)




We also took apart the rest of the front subframe, because taking out the springs are terrifying we heated them up with a propane torch to weaken them. Worked great


I need a shed...

Anyways, I wanted to weld the front suspension stuff as well, but it dind't come in the mail in time, no idea when I'll get it....probably march. I got this kit from global west. I expect it to be very nice. We'll see how it plays out.
Also, yes I know, you can get aftermarket frames, I did this purely because I wanted the 12.19" wilwood rotors and they don't work on the CA spindles. Is that reason absurdly stupid? absolutely, do I care? No, because I'm using 15" rims, what I'm doing is already dumb. Heard it a million times already. Already know I should be using 18" rims

I also stitch welded the floor pans as suggested by others.


Next plans, strip the rest of the underside of the car, epoxy it, upol raptor, and then it can go back on wheels to do body work! Hope to have the underside finished by April. depends on the weather.