New Guy- New Bellytank Lakester

[Chaz]

 I've been trying to weld up the cockpit cover the last day or so , and I'm having a real hard time of it. Everytime I hammer and dolly across a welded seam it cracks.
  I'm gonna try cutting strips off the parent material to use as welding rod to see if that helps. Pretty frustrating I must say...
  I guess if it was easy the girl scouts would build these things.

[Sumner]

Could you put up a closeup picture of one of the problem areas??  How are you welding, mig, tig, gas??  What is the metal type and thickness??  Why are you using the hammer and dolly??  To flatten the weld or to shape the metal across the weld??

c ya,

Sum

[Chaz]

I'm tig welding. Its 1/16 in thick aluminum. Not sure of the alloy. I'm using the hammer and dolly after I grind the weld to even out the seam that distorts a bit during welding. This is the first time I've worked with aluminum and I sure have a lot to learn.
   Any tips are greatly appreciated.

[Peter Jack]

Chaz:

You're making it really hard on yourself when you don't know the alloy you're working with. Some alloys are much more difficult to weld and some just don't like that treatment at all. The other thing that could be causing you trouble is your filler rod. What alloy are you using there? You'll find that 4043 will be much more workable than 5356. Aluminum is one of those materials that it pays to know what you're working with and to use the correct alloy for the application. You can easily anneal some of the alloys so that they are much more easily worked.

Pete

[Chaz]

 Yeah, Pete I'm finding that to be true. I still have 2 sheets in stock, so I'm gonna use them. I picked up the softer rod yesterday, and it really helped, as well as welding the back of the seam. This has been my first attempt at fabricating aluminum, and the learning curve has been a bit steep.



This is where I got to by the end of the day. I'm not sure its a keeper, but its a whole lot better than yesterday.

[SPARKY]

Now we have to keep up on TWO sites---keep posting---we will follow

[Glen]

Looks like it might be short on side visibility. 120 Degrees of forward vision. You want to be able to see the black lines and course markers with the canopy closed and with a full helmet.

[SPARKY]

In looking at your headon shot hot seat shot ---it looks like you are going to need to "tighten up" the side clearance between roll cage and helment--unless you guys are planning on a Hans Device.

[hotschue]

The roll cage looks a lot like a funny car.  There has been developement of a lateral head restraint by John Medlen/Force Racing that if used in conjunction with a Hans or simular device would afford a fair amount protection in a rollover especially a "pencil roll".  Before I finalize my cage dimensions I'm going to find out what is available. It will probably be marketed through McKinney Corp. or Force's new safety division in Indiana. When I find the info I will post.....

[Dr Goggles]

Looks like it might be short on side visibility. 120 Degrees of forward vision. You want to be able to see the black lines and course markers with the canopy closed and with a full helmet.

When speaking with John Broughan the former head steward of the DLRA and an owner builder of a bellytank himself he pointed out the necessity of side vision to us . Here we are allowed to drive the car under it's own power in the pits which probably sounds like a recipe for mayhem to you guys but there you go. John said that when they first built their tank that he found it very difficult to pit because he would be steering blind when turning in to their pit area....there are other issues too. I'm not sure what the correct term is but as the field of your vision narrows it affects your spatial awareness and judgment .The other issue is communication with the driver when the canopy is closed....

I was surprised when I drove our tank for the very first time how little I could see .....In the shed it sits on stands three feet off the ground , I'd sit in it looking down the driveway , no big deal...... when on the airstrip I not only found it difficult to see the centerline I could barely tell the grass from the edge of the tarmac because of the low angle of approach , throw in a bit of vibration and it all got kind of hazy......when I see pictures of the lakester with the periscope I get kind of queezy.......

Early on in the design process of our car I said to the Reverend " it'd be good if we knew what we'll be able to see from the drivers seat"........"hang on a minute he said"  he pulled up the CAD program and moved the little camera icon that decides what "view" you see into the roll cage right where the drivers head would be and bingo! there it was , we could see the tops of the front tyres pretty much as it looks now when you sit in the "real" car....

[SPARKY]

What a great year for the "Strange Days" BellyTankers!!!   I look forward to following your progress in '08 most informative!!!!!!!!!

[SPARKY]

Chaz,, thanks for the up date with the '08 picts

[SPARKY]

Thanks for the new picts---I have been so inspired I bought me a new tank and am thnking of builing a new FWD "tank"

[SPARKY]

Great Job Guys!!!!!!!!!!! I cant tell you how much easier my job is going to be because you took the time to post the picts!!!!!!!!!  I will follow suit be cause I will apprach some things differently---but a lot of what we will will do is inspired by your approach!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Reverend Hedgash]

Just updated myself on your progress, top stuff!

You said that you still don't know what plane your tank came from. I reckon it should be fairly easy to find out and interesting too. On our tank we found a stamp with a number as well as the remnants of a painted plane number and from that we gained a huge amount of info from the net from the boffins there. Our plane appears to have had active service over Russia and was chased out by Mig17s. Exciting stuff.

If you can find some numbers or something and put them up here I am pretty sure I could find something for you...

"Today we started on the rear axle. We chose spindles and brakes from a caravan. Several reasons for this. 1, The spindles are flat backed . 2, you get your choice of drum or disc brakes and  3, they are plentiful and cheap".

We had the same plan for our front spindles (trailer hubs) but found after a while that it was a weak point as they turned out to be not quite true! By putting the wheels on and rotating against a known point we found that they oscillated in and out by quite a few millimeters. Fine for a trailer or caravan maybe but not good if going the speeds you intend to.

Yours may be fine but worth a check!

"Sometimes I feel shitty about posting updates every week. Especially like today. The work went slow, the pics are lousy, and not much to show for a long days work. I promised myself I'd keep posting regardless of the outcome so here goes."

Rest assured we love it!!! Even just looking around your weird shed is a hoot. What on earth is the Famingo Cafe? And who is the pedal car nut that has 30 of them stacked in storage?

"We chose Goodyear frontrunners cause we know they can handle the speed, they have no tread edges to catch on a spinout, and they're light. I was bitching about the halfassed paint job they did on the letters, and then realized they didn't paint two of the tires at all! Just as well, I suppose if that's the best they can do."

No it's not the best they can do! It is appalling workmanship and lack of care. Especially when they are so expensive. To not even paint them is even worse. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Shame on you tyre makers".

Check out this thread for some cool old school tyres where quality counted!

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=239766

At least by not painting them you have a clean start to paint them well yourself!

Keep up the good work.

rH+