Author Topic: American Jaguar  (Read 19564 times)

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Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #15 on: June 16, 2008, 10:32:55 AM »
Thanks for the door net contact JL222!  I will call DJ Safety.

Sam, thanks for the offer of a helping hand.  I just made a list of things yet to do.  Yikes!  And only 62 days!  I'll PM you.

Geo.

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #16 on: June 21, 2008, 08:35:50 PM »
I sent an email to the Tech Committee and have not received a reply so I am asking for your thoughts on the roll cage.  I had a epiphany, with out drinking by the way, about making a dual hoop cage for the coupe.  I am about to commit to metal and would not want to make a technical foopah.  Yes, we sometimes have to work outside and that is not an oak tree in the background, but it is a shade tree.

We have placed the race seat in the car and added more tubes to the mockup since the photos to find out how easy it will be to exit.  Not easy at all!  Ejector seat needed and the roof flap will need to be a bit larger!  Removable steering wheel added to the list.  Grab handles added to the list.  Reduce the size of breakfast and dinner added to the list.  My wife has started an exercise routine for me, bless her!

This has been very interesting to go from the thought of "there is going to be plenty of room even though it's a medium sized interior, to, Wow! this is going to be tighter than I thought for some components.  Mind you it's not a streamliner however once you start to check elbow and head room with the added bars the interior shrinks!  Your comments appreciated!

June 14, 2008

Dear Technical Committee Cars,

Mr. Lee Kennedy and Mr. Alan Fogliadini, my name on Landracing.com is Geo and I have been reading the posts for about a year and have read the 2008 rule book some 30 times.  I think I am beginning to understand things.  However I need your advice on one item as follows for car number 1081 as shown on the entry list for Speed Week 2008.

I am building the roll cage and with the rear hoop well behind the “B” post on my coupe I would like to add another hoop at the “B” post giving us the ability to have head protection and support similar to the streamliner and roadster “funny car type” cage as shown in fig.4 on page 26 of the 2008 rule book.  We will also have the forward legs at the “A” post giving six legs to the cage, instead of four legs as shown for a coupe in fig. 1 on page 25.  A seventh support will be vertical from the floor near the center of the car to the middle hoop for the inboard head protection attachment point, forward end.  And we will have two rearward support braces from the rear hoop to the frame by the rear wheels.

My thoughts are to use the area at the rear of the door opening for added protection without hindering the ability to exit the car.  Rather than extending minimally supported arms from the rear hoop to support head side restraints “helmet-retaining strap” I would like to build a box for the head, neck and shoulders that will have the head side restraints “helmet-retaining strap” supported front and rear on the two hoops.

I have attached a drawing of the basic structure and photos of the mockup we are constructing.  Please note the factory seat in the photo will be replaced with a metal racing seat allowing the driver to be lower.

Thank you for your work with SCTA-BNI allowing us to safely partake in speed trials.

Best regards,

Geoffrey Green

Offline RichFox

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #17 on: June 21, 2008, 09:30:05 PM »
Hope you have better luck getting a useful answer than I did.

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #18 on: August 02, 2008, 10:10:20 AM »
Time for an update  :-D

As this morning I have computer time, as opposed to racecar time, you know which comes first; I will bring everyone up to date.  Mind you the post time does not correspond to actual build time.  I am way behind letting you know where I actually am with the build.  So here goes...

The white paint was on and dry when my brother came to visit, vacation for him, so I did what any good host would do, I put him to work on the car!  :evil: He’s a gear head too and helped immensely.  Thank you bro!  We added the checkerboard stripes and installed the chrome.  I have always wanted a car with racing stripes and finally I have one.  Now the neighbors are commenting on the beautiful car in the driveway.   :-D Seems the neighbors are weirder than I thought.  :lol:

The interior has been stripped and the sketches made for mounting weights and safety equipment.  The door lock has been de-activated.  The inside work can now begin.  That’s for the next post.

Offline willieworld

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #19 on: August 02, 2008, 10:38:37 AM »
geo---you have more tubes than required in the rule book--2 main hoops rarher than 1 --the only thing i dont see is a diagonal tube in the roof --very important it turns squares into triangles much stronger and required in a strong rollcage    just some thoughts   willie buchta 
willie-dpombatmir-buchta

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #20 on: September 11, 2008, 11:22:15 PM »
Willie, your thoughts are always welcome.  As are anyone’s.  Thanks for looking, thinking about what I am doing and posting your ideas.  You are correct about making triangles in the cage and I do plan on having diagonal bars, yet they would have cluttered the sketch of what I am doing.  Glad you brought this point up so everyone who visits this build is aware of the correct way to build a cage.  But, the cart is before the horse.  In trying out the tubing I noticed the rear interior panels might not be easily removed once the rear hoop was in.  So, I worked on the interior rear panels.

Sumner, I have watched your build from day one and picked up a few great tricks.  One is to make a pattern, or in my case four before the last semi ridged one fit well.  From that I hand cut the aluminum and hand filed the edges to radius corners and remove any sharp edges.  Then I borrowed my daughters swing set to use as a sheet metal brake.  I am only bending 4 panels with two bends per panel so I could not justify buying and storing an actual sheet metal brake.  I am happy with the final fit and I had fun making them.  You can see from the photo above, of the plastic trial cage, what the panels cover.
« Last Edit: September 12, 2008, 10:37:08 AM by Geo »

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #21 on: September 12, 2008, 10:46:12 AM »
Installed are the pads for the roll cage and the mounting rails for the weights and safety items on the passenger side and the seats and belts on the driver’s side.  The pieces closest to the interior skin of the car need to go in first and then you work your way to the center of the car.   

The rails along the floor sides will allow 2 inch square tubes to be bolted in filled with weight or as mounts for the fire bottles, cooling tanks, electronics, etc.  The square tubes will form a secondary floor and another row of tubes can be reversed and bolted above them, back to back.  Flat plates can be bolted in and moved as needed.  The location of the weight tubes is 1.5 inches below the centerline of the axles. 

The engine and electronics are factory for now.  This will change with the first race engine install and most of the wiring you see will be removed.

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #22 on: November 16, 2008, 11:11:08 PM »
I installed the interior panels and covered them with cardboard for protection when welding before the roll bar tubes go in along with protecting the plastic film window tint from welding sparks.  The only way the interior panels will come out is if you bend them severely out of shape.  Good thing there is nothing behind them.

There are twin hoops from one side of the car to the other spaced about 11 inches apart.  From these there will be two center risers that mirror the left outer risers creating two narrower hoops around the driver using the left side body width hoop risers and center risers.  These hoops will be tied together in a ladder structure with the horizontal bars serving as (1) mounts for the foam pads surrounding the drivers head located at the lower jaw and temple on both sides and two above the head and (2) tying the shoulder seat belt bar to the door opening diagonal bar along with the roof fore aft bar on the right side this will be done with a head bar also serving as a roof side bar on the left side.

The photo shows some of the nine horizontal bars are in place along with the rear hoop center riser on either side of the rear hoop diagonal.  The horizontal bars are close to correct position.  The lowest is the shoulder then jaw then temple then roof side/head and another head.  The inside ladder will have the temple and jaw.  The rear shoulder seat belt and some diagonals are not in place.  I do not have enough magnets to hold it all together for a trial fit however enough horizontal bars were tried to make sure we could assemble as required with some horizontal tubes left loose for the diagonal tube end fitting/length trimming and placement in the cage before dropping and welding a horizontal cap on the roll cage box/triangle section. 

It will be a tack weld as you go until we have most of these in and then the remaining rear bars will go in followed then by the side roof and front bars that will go in after my brain clears from fitting this jumble.  I have a sketch on paper showing the build sequence yet it still causes mental strain to keep everyone following the sequence so we do not screw up!

Good thing my wife has not seen the tool bill for things I did not have on hand to install the roll cage.  It has been fun roaming the tool stores around town!   Looks like I will be rearranging the shop this winter.  Good thing I have had years of practice and training by my wife on the living area furniture shifting.

Geo

Offline John Noonan

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #23 on: November 19, 2008, 08:25:02 PM »
Wow,

Geo looks like a very cool build..

J

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #24 on: December 22, 2008, 10:14:36 PM »
Thanks John.

These photos are slightly out of order and should have come before the above posting showing the side padding support bar horizontal tubes. 

Here I am sitting in the car to show how the horizontal roll bars will relate to the human body.  Handsome fellow I am. javascript:void(0); Along the lines of Dr. Goggles, eh?  Mind you I am not sitting up straight because my back hurts and the seat is not mounted and is rocking slightly towards the door.  Yet I am still breathing so I can still work on the car!

It is surprising how the enormous interior is filled by seemingly thin or small components.  A helmet seems thin, a racing seat seems thin, clothing is not too thick.  Besides we removed the thick stuff; carpet, padding, comfy seat, headliner.  But even though the roll bar is as close to the roof as we thought we could get and have welding room, when you place the seat on the bare steel floor and then you sit in the car with the helmet on there is just room for padding above the head.  The sides are not going to be a problem with miles of room.

At the top of the roll bar the “H” designates the center line of the head.  The “E” on the side is the center line of the ear.  The “SB” is the shoulder belt bar location.  The plain white tape locates the horizontal bars that will hold the padding to limit head movement.

This is what I envisioned the driver’s area would look like when finished with this picture from ISP. 

http://www.ispseats.com/id102.html

A double hoop with three padded areas to limit head movement.  I have talked to Innovative Safety Products as I have constructed the roll cage.  The pads have SFI 45.2 specification label tags.

I am still working on a design for a grab handle or two placed on the roof diagonal, side and or windshield header bar to ease getting out of the car.  Ideas would be greatly appreciated.  Pulling heavy butts out of the deep racing seat is going to be tough. javascript:void(0); Perhaps an Aston Martin DB5 ejector seat is needed.  Please don’t tell me to drink light beer, it’s not going to happen!

Geo

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #25 on: November 05, 2010, 01:02:09 PM »
WOW!  What happened to the time!

Well I missed my "have available time to build" window due to college graduation and a real job, health, children's school, yes there's more.  And then the decision to stay where we are rather than move.  I went looking for a welder to finish the cage.  I could not find one who was not outrageous in price or was unable to weld!  So I decided if hundreds of others could weld then so could I. Which meant home upgrade.  Install new 220v service from the pole to the house, rewire the house and remodel the garage.  The whole wall in the photo was replaced and you can see the new electrical panel.

So, I found a welder.  A nice machine, not a person.  Then came a year of learning to weld, as I only had spare time and not much of that.  A few sculptures.  A couple of projects - pictured is the nut and bolt rotating rack holding 88 jars.

Geo

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2010, 01:13:34 PM »
Finally I felt good enough to weld on the car.  Almost a spool of wire and a bottle of gas with advise from welders and people at the welding supply store. I wanted to add a cage that would make a small compartment for the drive in addition to the regular cage. This would allow head support panels to be mounted.  You will see as we go along.

The inner tube was not the structural tube co it was cut and placed around the diagonal structural tube.  I wondered how to get the two pieces lined up and then read about using a piece of angle with a notch to place the tubes in correct orientation.  Well in looking around the garage I had angle, but what size.  IN thinking this through I realized holding a corner of the angle against the round tube would not make a steady clamping point for the vise grips.  So I cut a piece of Electrical Strut Support.  The channel holds the tube and the flat surface gives one steady clamping point opposite the round tube.  I cut it halfway through and folded the center together to allow room for the diagonal brace tube to pass by this holder.

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #27 on: November 05, 2010, 01:23:31 PM »
OK, that was the hard one.  The rest went together well.  I welded the top joint of the cage before placing it together.  There are a couple of places I will finish the weld on when I remove the side windows.  And a few more bars to add in the spring when the weather warms up.  I am not allowed to weld in the house!  :oops:

I have found welding from underneath is the hardest.  And ou will get a good burn when a small ball of metal drops into your shoe.  :-o  Wow, it's getting harder to find a way to hold your body and see to make a weld.  Elementary school jungle jim play ground practice is coming back. :-D

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #28 on: November 05, 2010, 01:30:26 PM »
After welding I cleaned the tubes for a Winter Storage paint coating.  I cleaned the tube, weld and car.  There are side tubes at the shoulder that will be set after the seat is in and the height is determined. A couple of diagionals and some brackets.

A big thanks to Willie for his help in my taking this step!   :cheers:

Geo

Offline Geo

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Re: American Jaguar
« Reply #29 on: November 05, 2010, 01:34:22 PM »
For those looking at this for ideas on building a cage.  I suggest looking at many examples.  I also received a copy of the factory build sheets for the body to find the best places to mount the cage.

Geo