D-6

So are the races you plan running in virtual too? That would make sense of things.

Other than that, the dedication to the CAD work is cool and all (truly), But I’m still more intrigued about you as a person and who you work for. Whats the name of the place you work for? What do you guys do? Asking as person with genuine interest who would love to learn about your business.

Spent my morning sipping coffee and reading this front to back. I got some chuckles better than the funnies in the sunday paper. Can’t wait to see more!
 
So are the races you plan running in virtual too? That would make sense of things.

Other than that, the dedication to the CAD work is cool and all (truly), But I’m still more intrigued about you as a person and who you work for. Whats the name of the place you work for? What do you guys do? Asking as person with genuine interest who would love to learn about your business.

Spent my morning sipping coffee and reading this front to back. I got some chuckles better than the funnies in the sunday paper. Can’t wait to see more!


Those are some great questions. After the car becomes tangible it will run real races. I appreciate all the interest in my personal life, and maybe one day we'll get into it. At the moment though, I'm going to keep the energy focused on assembling the car correctly in virtual reality.

Feel free to join in on the fun if you like.
 
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Those are some great questions. After the car becomes tangible it will run real races. I appreciate all the interest in my personal life, and maybe one day we'll get into it. At the moment though, I'm going to keep the energy focused on assembling the car correctly in virtual reality.

Feel free to join in on the fun if you like.

This is fun for a lot of us. I would just think that with someone with such interesting experience and with these west coast connections with high profile individuals, that you would have a name to be proud of. It's 2020 and this industry runs off numbers. You’re either bankrolled because you marketed yourself and have a name now, you own a successful business and fund yourself, or you’re dreaming. I would hope that some of the previous comments you’ve made below are because of the first two plausible scenarios. But I’ll throw you a bone or two, maybe you are some Elvis Presley that would prefer to remain unknown because you enjoy the anonymity of this social interaction without glamour cloud following you, or you happen to have an awesome credit score and unmarried with no kids. Cool beans either way. Your social behavior is far opposite of what would be deemed adequate in this context, and you know it.

Upper management may get onto me about the winch choice. I'm not married to it, but I like with wireless remote. Up for suggestions.

I know I left room for a bigger radiator, because I may end up being told to put a 1200 hp supercharged engine in it.

So, to answer your question. We won't be ordering tubing until this virtual walk around is thoroughly assessed, and all of the second guessing is gone. Only then, when the blueprint for the car is completely immaculate, and everyone involved is on the same page..... Then we'll go to work.

On my 21'st birthday, Randy Slawson and I hit 111 miles per hour in a stock LS1 powered straight axle rock crawler with 37 inch tires on a Tuesday morning around 2:30 am in the pitch black dark with two tiny LED lights. (would not advise) I was in school down in So-Cal and he was 32 years old at the time. Couple months later Bomber Fabrication was started, and we moved into a little shop in Grand Terrace, CA. I'm 32 years old now, and looking back at some stuff, it's probably not a good idea to roll with the cup holder. That first Bomber only had about 350 horsepower. Those tires were probably 14 psi (also would not advise at 100 MPH +)
 
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So first I’m going to say the push buttons look like they will take your hands off it for whatever reason you hit a hole or rock and it jerks the wheel more so if it’s just on a sheet of metal.

If one of the wires were to get cut and create an open loop would it effect the other buttons you have from working?


Personally I’d just want the essential things on the wheel. Paddle shifters and a com. button and a horn button one each in the top corner of the wheel on the outside edge so you can swiftly and easily slide your thumb over and touch without thinking about it
TCI 301442: Paddle Shifter For GM 4/6-Speed Electronic Automatic Transmissions | JEGS
I'm not an automatic kinda guy, but if I was, this would've been ordered 3-4 years ago.
This is the winner right here.
No need to reinvent the (steering) wheel. Already done for you.

Generally they are all digital switches, so the default is 0 and loss of one just means no 1.
 
This is the winner right here.
No need to reinvent the (steering) wheel. Already done for you.

Generally they are all digital switches, so the default is 0 and loss of one just means no 1.

There were a lot of good replies on shifting options. I feel like we dumped that whole bucket out. Lots of utilization brought to attention.
 
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So, when this build officially starts, what alloys are you planning on using for each part? Chrome-moly? Aluminum? 3xx stainless? Magnesium? Titanium?

What CNC machine are you going to be using to cut everything out? Waterjet, Plasma, Laser?

Which welding process(es)?

At this point I'm not sure whether to grab a handful of filler rods or a box of damn crayons.
 
So, when this build officially starts, what alloys are you planning on using for each part? Chrome-moly? Aluminum? 3xx stainless? Magnesium? Titanium?

What CNC machine are you going to be using to cut everything out? Waterjet, Plasma, Laser?

Which welding process(es)?

At this point I'm not sure whether to grab a handful of filler rods or a box of damn crayons.

The entire chassis is chromoly, and will be tig welded with S-7 filler rod. The sheet metal will be aluminum. The chromoly plate work will be laser cut. The turning center is a Haas ST-35, and the mill is a Haas VF-6SS.
 
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The entire chassis is chromoly, and will be tig welded with S-7 filler rod. The sheet metal will be aluminum. The chromoly plate work will be laser cut. The turning center is a Haas ST-35, and the mill is a Haas VF-6SS.
For the Chromoly chassis are you going to heat treat to relieve stress and normalize all the tubes/joints? I'd be curious where around here would be able to handle that large of a project.

Edit- Assumed 4130 tubes but didn't re-read to verify.
 
For the Chromoly chassis are you going to heat treat to relieve stress and normalize all the tubes/joints? I'd be curious where around here would be able to handle that large of a project.

Edit- Assumed 4130 tubes but didn't re-read to verify.

Outside of a flame relief done by hand, I've never heard of anyone relieving a chromo chassis in a furnace.
 
Outside of a flame relief done by hand, I've never heard of anyone relieving a chromo chassis in a furnace.
We've done it in a powder coating oven before. Granted, ours is the size of a school bus.
 
We've done it in a powder coating oven before. Granted, ours is the size of a school bus.

I am not knowledgeable at all on powdercoating ovens. Lincoln says tubing structures made of 4130 in motorsport applications should be relieved at 1100 degrees. Is that feasible with that oven ?
 
I am not knowledgeable at all on powdercoating ovens. Lincoln says tubing structures made of 4130 in motorsport applications should be relieved at 1100 degrees. Is that feasible with that oven ?
Typical bake temp for most powdercoat is 350-450. Ours is natural gas powered. It can go as high as 1100, but it's down right SCARY. I saw that operation performed once a few years ago. Pretty sure my boss decided after that it's not worth the risk of burning down a $3m commercial property.
 
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Outside of a flame relief done by hand, I've never heard of anyone relieving a chromo chassis in a furnace.

Out west they get out into ovens for normalizing. Be tough to get a whole Buggy done right with a torch. It's not always necessary but he loves to walk the cup, put tons of heat into it and leave a 2" haz so probably needed here
 
For the Chromoly chassis are you going to heat treat to relieve stress and normalize all the tubes/joints? I'd be curious where around here would be able to handle that large of a project.

Edit- Assumed 4130 tubes but didn't re-read to verify.

There used to be several places to post weld heat treat nascar chassis after welding and before assembly.

Not sure anymore though bc that was years ago when they switched away from chromo chassis. Now it’s just DOM bc the chassis would move to much in the ovens during the pwht...
 
It will most likely be the front control arms, and 2 trailing arms going to heat treat. They may have to be bead blasted afterwards.

I may do some finish weave welding on the rear axle, but everything else will get a root pass and a finish pass just like they do on the Geiser bro trophy trucks.
 
I've got an old welding book showing an entire fighter jet going into a apparatus for normalizing and treatment....granted it was all T6 but it's still bad ass!
 
I've got an old welding book showing an entire fighter jet going into a apparatus for normalizing and treatment....granted it was all T6 but it's still bad ass!
T6 in 6061 is pretty easy, you can do that in a powder coat oven at 400-450 degrees. Done that with some bicycle frame repairs. Remembered the chromoly normalization issues with NHRA, Stage Rally and some back and forth with it in the rules of KOH through the years. Just remembered regular alloys winning out in a practicality standpoint.

Long and short of it was if you plan to normalize the chromo is fine, light, strong etc. If not regular DOM provides the same strength at a slight weight penalty but is a more stable structure with less crack risk.
 
I've been messing around, getting the rear suspension closer tonight. The wheel base has made it's way to 113.15 inches. Couple weeks ago I was messing with the steering and it looked around 30 degrees.
 
That last 5/32" makes all the difference in the world (that's what she said). :smokin:


I mean, I dig the CAD work tbvh. I build crap on CAD all day long for a living too, but I also get to be all touchy-feely with the end result after a small fortune is dropped on tooling. I was going to say at one point several pages back that your driver is damn skinny lol. Hope you are too. Doesn't look like it leaves much room for corn-fed individuals to go for a rip. Hell, I'm a skeleton these days and it looks like I'd be cramped in there. What's the driver's height/weight? Asking for a friend.
 
I do like the steering wheel button idea you have going. I would consider a couple things though:

1) While racing there's at least a thousand things to manage, watch and account for. Looking down to see where your steering wheel is (rotation) to push the Gear 1 or Gear 1/2 buttons will be a distraction. A race wheel may be best with a "Shift Up" and "Shift Down" either button or paddle to keep hands where they need to be and attention on the trail/track. Buttons would probably only work with a 1 turn lock-lock steering setup. Picking 1st would likely happen at slow speeds where reaching down to the console would be better motion wise. Same with Drive, 1/2 shift etc.

B) Keep only 1 other function on the wheel, horn or comms. I would think the co-driver could handle horn duty. Driver just needs to steer, brake/throttle and shift if manual. He has enough going on. Gauges should be gear selection and rev warning light. Heck all the gauges for vitals could face co-driver too. Driver- "hows the water temp?" Co-driver-"Looks like the gauge found a new high score." Driver- "Well, its moving so I'm going to keep pushing." -end scene-

Kind of an ergonomics/job separation thing. When racing Downhill bikes I removed the gear indicator, if I was looking down I was either losing time or kissing mother earth. Figure race buggy would have the same train of thought.
 
Still haven't seen a picture of that snazzy set up you mentioned that I requested to see. Being a home build guy with limited resources I love to see those kind of post. @mcutler has some of the best I've seen....
 
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