Transcona, the Dirty Old XR7

[egoman]

Floater Parts
Remember that floater that I showed you before? Yeah, I am not using that anymore. Remember that I said I would describe many things as sex? This box of machined parts was described without prompting by the ego-nephew as a box of sex. Great minds think alike. These were about 450$US dollars shipped to Pembina ND. Arrived in 2 days, so I guess some people know how to run their business better than Corvette suppliers. http://www.9inchfloater.com/

[egoman]

Tires and wheels together for the first time
Going to the tire place to get everything together wouldn’t make for much of a story. Don’t worry, I can spice it up a little.
I have retired from pipeline construction and industrial pipefitting after almost 40 years. Now for me not doing anything won’t happen so I have started teaching high school vocational education in Plumbing and pipe trades.
The job has many advantages, such as summers off and a lot of free time when the students are on their work experience. One afternoon when I had some free time I ran up to the tire shop and got the job completed. While driving home the radio reported that there was a traffic hold up due to an accident. I knew the area but it wouldn’t be an issue because I wouldn’t have to go there. Not more than 2 minutes later I got a phone call from one of my work contacts to tell me there was some bad news. One of my students had gotten into an accident with the company truck. OOH that’s bad! Oh and he had gone over the sidewalk. OOH that’s bad! Oh and he hit a pedestrian. OOH that’s bad! Oh and he lied to us and he doesn’t have a driver license. AH CRAP, THAT’S REALLY BAD!
That devoured several days of my time and landed the student back at the school for 2 weeks when he should have been at his work experience.

[DrFraZZy]

Thats unique! I find it pretty cool! I cant wait to see how the build progress and the result!

[egoman]

Thats unique! I find it pretty cool! I cant wait to see how the build progress and the result!

I appreciate the response. Sometimes I feel unless you are building a Camaro there is no interest in what's being done.
I felt bad because I watched some suffer with problems I had already solved. I hope they wont hate me!!!!
I promised that I would try to avoid dry spells by waiting till I was a fair ways into my build before I started my thread. If I post once a week I could have 3 years of posts waiting. I may pick up the pace to twice or three times a week if This summer goes well. It was -43C with the wind chill here this morning and that tends to slow the winter progress. You can see through both ends of my garage. There are no heaters that can help that! LOL.

[egoman]

Rear end salvage
Remember that I said I wasn’t using the old floater rear end? Well I needed the center housing so out came the grinder and I salvaged the housing.

[jaybee]

This is going to be fun!

[egoman]

RON EFFIN SUTTON, there I said it.
While the man is a taboo subject on a lot of forums I used several ideas from him that were actually useful. While designing the rear suspension certain things like the width of the rear frame rails were taken directly from his drawings. Turns out 34 inches is perfect width for the speedway engineering rear sway bars. It also allows for a lot of rear tire clearance.
These are my drawings, because any project even though they mostly happen in our heads needs direction. You will see that later on some of the parts are not the same as the drawings. A piece in your hand quite often looks significantly different than the drawing.
I am far from perfect and you will see what looks like the same drawing but it will be a revision. After acquiring 3 red seal trades and attending several drafting courses I love to do drawings anyways.

[egoman]

While most of the pics are self explanatory the tape measure ones may seem weird. I am the guy who hides his own Easter eggs. The 26 was the height of the rear tires and the 69-1/2 is the stock measurement of the rear tires outside of sidewall to outside of sidewall.
All questions are allowed and what you see isn't necessarily what you will eventually get. The revisions continue and her are some more suspension pics.

[egoman]

I am no longer a spring chicken. I don’t like bending over to cut tubing and my gut doesn’t allow me to breathe very well if I do. I had a plan in my head for years to make a stand for the chop saw so that wouldn’t be an issue.
With the turn of a set screw we can angle the saw or change the support for the tubing. Loosen a few more set screws and we can take it down to where it doesn’t take up any space. While I have a decent sized (Albeit very shoddy) garage, I run out of space just like the rest of you. Later on I will show you how bad the garage really is. I just never think about it because the garage doesn’t regulate the project. Mind you it was -46 with the wind-chill last week so I am obviously not working out there when that happens.
By the way no matter what the temps I like the noisy and dirty chop saw outside. With the stand all I have to bring in is the saw itself.
Managed to drag over a variety of tubing and you can see that I have a large selection of cuts laid on the scissor lift. These will become the basis for the rear suspension and rear frame section.
I told you this was not a “bolt a few parts on” type of build. BOYS this is about to get serious!!

[DrFraZZy]

Keep the update coming! The build is getting good. You must be somewhere warm being on roll! I need to add heat to my garage.

[Mikey97D]

Cool project and nice saw setup to keep it outside.

Curious on the decision to use a Crown Vic front end instead of a Vette? Or did I miss read that?

[egoman]

Keep the update coming! The build is getting good. You must be somewhere warm being on roll! I need to add heat to my garage.

The warm weather was a few summers ago LOL

- - - Updated - - -

Cool project and nice saw setup to keep it outside.

Curious on the decision to use a Crown Vic front end instead of a Vette? Or did I miss read that?

Patience, you didn't miss anything yet friend. I am a a lot further along than these posts.

[egoman]

Woke up Saturday morning to a temp of -50F.
My water was frozen and the cars wouldn't start, well almost all the cars!
My dependable Pontiac Wave (A Dae-Woo In disguise) fired right up. It didn't like it but it ran. If you had to guess which one I got running next I don't think you would have come up with my diesel yard tractor. That's right, after less than 20 minutes of being plugged in it fired right up! Of course it has 3 full size batteries on the front of it for weight to balance the snow blower and they are all wired in. Then the wives car needed to be plugged in for 2 hours and get a new battery. The old battery was slightly larger than it was supposed to be at this point. Then after surveying the water problem at home I called a local plumber to fix it. That's correct the plumber called a plumber! Don't worry it gets funnier. My nephews wife called me with a plumbing emergency of her own, so off I went to help her. That's correct, I was doing a plumbing job for free while I paid for someone to do my work.
These are the reasons that a lot of Canadians wait to start posting their build threads because a lot of time is spent staring out the window at ice fog and snowstorms.
I knew that would be the case when I started posting and I have a library of posts to come yet. That's right I endure these winters just for you guys, LOL
Those of you in the great white north, stay warm! Those of you in the south, well the heck with you EH!

[jaybee]

Gets pretty cold in Manitoba this time of year! I like your chop saw setup. They can make a bunch of noise and a bunch of metal and carbide dust in a short period of time. Looks like you've got yourself a frame kit!

[egoman]

I told you this build was about to get serious. We are talking a full frame build and this is the first domino to fall. I am a modular style of builder and the rear section will be completed and a roller before we start on say, OH I don’t know, “The front section”?
There are 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, and 2x4 sections in this frame section. Because most of the rules call for a roll cage of 1-3/4 .120 wall I have chosen for the frame to be .125 wall as well. Obviously a chromoly cage would be lighter but many ruling bodies discourage, or don’t allow a lighter wall tubing for the 4130 cages. Extra expense with no weight advantage. NO THANKS!
With a layout table we build the first side. PEOPLE, that’s really easy! The hard part is when you have to make the second side match. Just use the first side as a pattern. That’s the easy way, LOL.
I know I mention this a lot but squares levels and tape measures are a staple of the pipe fitting trades and I am well versed in using them to keep it all straight. I kinda like using a piece of string once in a while also.

[egoman]

Just a few more left over pics from the rear subframe sectio0n.

[egoman]

While there isn’t much to see here, this is vital!
These pieces will hold the rear end exactly where it needs to be for the foreseeable future.
Nothing more than some 2x4 tubing with a 3 inch hole saw drilled through and then cut in ½ and cut to length. This locates the rear not only laterally but also at ride height. That’s why I have the tape measure picture of the tire and wheel diameter. By the way there was no trust in the cut at the bottom. All measurements were taken from the 3 inch DOM tubing set on top. Overthought for sure but if there are no variances to chase down later then we can concentrate on other stuff later?
This will not be the last time you see me do this to center pieces exactly where they will end up later.

[egoman]

While you have heard me go on and on about the garage not being an excuse for the project, well!
My dad and I built this garage when I was 17. It was built from the lumber that we salvaged from a 100+ year old barn that was at my auntie’s place.
The fact that it was built almost 45 years ago from 100 year old lumber isn’t even the real issue. We also didn’t have a clue what we were doing. It is amazing it has been upright this long.
The south wall is bulged out about a foot at the top. The ends are rotted out and let in more daylight than the windows. They also let the wind and cold in and that stops a project when the overnight low in Rosser Manitoba was -50F. Frequently it is warmer outside if the sun is shining.
Americans already think we live in igloos and ride moose to work. An igloo would be significantly warmer. And a moose wouldn’t have a frozen battery!
The steel beams are probably the only reason the roof hasn’t dropped and combined with the chassis jig is probably why I feel the car is safe in there.
The insulated side has a hole that extends from the roof right through to the ceiling. It also is so rotted that the door spring isn’t attached to anything. The entire door is lifted only because I am quite strong. There is no mechanical advantage to take care of me.
There is also an Easter egg here for those that read the text and carefully look at the pics.

[egoman]

More yucky garage pics.

[egoman]

SOOOO somewhere along the line it was suggested that you couldn’t use the Corvette parking brakes on a 9 inch floater. Well, maybe you can’t? Undeterred I forged forward with my Schreiner spindles and the brakes and stuff that I received from the Corvette supplier.
Naturally you missed me putting the spindle ends in the 3” .188 DOM tubing. HMMM I thought I had pics of that? This portion of the build had me running to my friend Doug’s place about 14 times a day to use his lathe and have him plasma stuff for me. I can actually be kind of a pain in the arse apparently.
The measurements are not for your use and I recommend that you don’t do what I do. That people, is a “DISCLAIMER”.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Do...!4d-97.0844968
You got a big truck project or something that need to be straightened after a BOO BOO! This is the guy to do that for you. I actually worked for him for a few years and we went to school together.