Transcona, the Dirty Old XR7

[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.

[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!

[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?

[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.

[Mikey97D]

Nice progress.

It appears the block with the threaded holes is aluminum, if it is steel ignore this: I would suggest putting some helical inserts in there since you will be adjusting the pivot from time to time plus it will help with the loads in the aluminum.

[egoman]

There is almost 2 full inches of thread engaged when that is assembled. If I do have any problems I can still use the original part with the mods you suggested. Thanks for looking in on my little project!

[egoman]

Here you can see how I am reducing the spindles to their simplest form to use as a bracket for the floater.
I also got into the CAD work for my watts link brackets for the rear end. (Cardboard aided design)
A lot of this stuff is my first real attempts at using a lathe accurately.
I also had my buddy Doug do some more plasma work for me. Then the boring job of sanding it all down had to be done.

[egoman]

Details and more details!

[egoman]

Those brackets from the other day are deburred and sanded smooth. Brainless but tedious work. The bars that have all the holes in them are just suspension stiffeners and are for, well suspension stiffening! Don’t exactly know why I had to say more there HMMM?
You can also see that I have machined the watts rocker so it works in double shear. I used that ¾ rod coupling that I mentioned before as a mandrel to chuck it all in the lathe. Oh by the way it’s actually a 7/8ths rod coupling and I trusted my memory again when I really shouldn’t have.

[jaybee]

Good looking stuff!

[egoman]

Good looking stuff!

Thanks for the praise. It helps to keep a guy moving LOL!

[egoman]

Here you can start to see that the spacers and the spindle and the steel bracket are coming together to make a complete braking system. At this point I have made a huge miscalculation, but I don’t know it yet?
I also bolted the aluminum spacer to the original spindle to bore it out and then turned it again to face it smooth and parallel.
Certain things require small clearancing, like the E-brake adjuster and some other stuff.
I have also placed the suspension brackets on the rear end so I don’t forget them later. I actually don’t forget them later too. That’s kind of nice isn’t it?