Project X71, reheating Stampie's leftovers(FCFC)

Sorry.  I couldn't resit.  I present today's Lunchtime project.

In reply to nocones :

I can't wait to see Bob in a cowboy hat, chaps, boots & spurs behind the wheel of this thing. 

CB had the afternoon available so we got in the shop and compared shafts

Short side Ranger on the left, stock '04 MGM on the right.
The Ranger axle shaft is ~8" shorter with the same spline count and outer bearing surface diameter, so the next logical step was to break out the chop saw! After some cutting and cleaning and prepping, we were here:

And after some welding we ended up with this:

Once things cooled a bit we slid the newly offset axle under the frame and lined things up again. I failed to grab a final mock-up picture but we went from moving things tens of inches to an inch here or there, and closed the evening with a solid plan for drivetrain component locations.

You add any camber when you welded that axle back up?

Do NOT chop up Mom's MGM. Do NOT chop up Mom's MGM....

TVR Scott (Forum Supporter) said:

You add any camber when you welded that axle back up?

Not intentionally? 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to nocones :

I can't wait to see Bob in a cowboy hat, chaps, boots & spurs behind the wheel of this thing. 

I'm in. 

Epic. That is all.

Photo semi-related by the fact that it, too is Epic.

SVreX (Forum Supporter) said:

Do NOT chop up Mom's MGM. Do NOT chop up Mom's MGM....

Sell hers to me, and then we'll chop up mine!!!

This is more or less where the driveline situation ended

GRM Express brought me a seat and rear shocks

Today I laid down a bunch of tape, got the frame on the floor and leveled in both directions, then set the engine/trans in its desired location. On the tape are marks for important locations, centerlines, and plenty of blank space to write notes to ourselves.

Rancho makes adjustable shocks?  Are they any good?  I know their off road stuff is generally considered fine.  Didn't know they made anything adjustable.

In reply to nocones :

A fair number of drag race guys I know swear by off-the-shelf Rancho adjustables as a decent alternative to high end aftermarket stuff. The Camaro I co-piloted for Drag Week '15 used adjustable Ranchos out back.

Me with my face in front of the computer cruising GRM after lunch, "I should go work on some crossmembers; make some progress"
Me one foot into the shop, "I am going to finalize that seating position!"

Well, moving the manifold outlet away from the footwell seemed prudent, and things went from there. Flipping the manifold caused things to crash into the water inlet, so I removed said things

Almost there, but still some interference so the next step was to pull the inlet and scrounge some junked parts from the pile of engines past. Color me sidetracked.

The modular uses this funky piece that combines the water pipe with the oil filter adapter. Shared gasket because we like to live dangerously. I grabbed another adapter which had a cracked hose nipple and the elbow from the broken one pictured above. Remove the remains of the hose nipple, blank off the port, glue on the broken elbow, and create a new configuration.

So much room for activities now!

I did eventually get around to cutting and fitting the first crossmember.... Mucho thanks to nocones for sharing his techniques when working with square tube. This tube fit perfectly, straight off the saw, with an odd shape on each end to match the frame. I should have peeled the tape before the picture, but there is a piece of 2x2 under there. You get the idea.

Two project workdays this weekend! We made some good progress on the floor and started mounting the drivetrain

Gumby! Where's our Sunday evening update? I'm having withdrawals out here. 

In reply to barefootskater (Shaun) :
Well, let me tell you....

First, we dressed up the left engine mount and finished it off

And onto the right side

Couple of our CAD templates

I turned that left template into the trans mount

With three mounts completed we yanked the drivetrain off the frame for better access welding up the primary floor tubes, and got started on the secondary diagonals.

Needs more Bradley body on it for you know us guys that are more visual.

In reply to Stampie (FS) :

I hear next weekend theres ore frame getting cut. 

More floor diagonals

We tried to pick the frame up, but the back fell off!

We evaluated our new situation and decided to test fit the body again

Better make room for a seat

We visualized a few other parts before pulling the body back off

And back to the chassis work....

Never thought I'd associate this with you but that's sexy.

Sunday nights are the best

so this was the fina seating position. The red oil filter box is the intake elbow analog. Not nearly as scary view now. 

I'm getting all excited now. Hurry up and stuff that motor in 

How are you going to reattach the rear end, differential, that is what has my attention?  Please, carry on.