Turbo V8 Jeep hot rod scratch build - SC400/Soarer donor

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

I've always liked cab-forward. Engine access pretty good?
Sounds like they tax anything that touches/wears on the road.
We have tow dollys that carry two wheels and also tow bars that fold away for storage and flat tow (no wheels off the ground). The steering of the towed vehicle is unlocked and always towed by the front.

[Beelzeboss]

I've always liked cab-forward. Engine access pretty good?
Sounds like they tax anything that touches/wears on the road.
We have tow dollys that carry two wheels and also tow bars that fold away for storage and flat tow (no wheels off the ground). The steering of the towed vehicle is unlocked and always towed by the front.

So good! The whole cab flips forward so you're basically just looking at the engine between two frame rails - though you can also lift up the middle seat for minor maintenance or checks.

Flat towing sounds cool, I believe we're allowed to do that here as well but haven't looked too much into it. You usually see it with small vehicles behind RV's (or campervans, as we call them), and I think the vehicle has to be modified, certified, etc. to be legal here.

[Beelzeboss]

I've been preoccupied a bit over the last few weeks redoing our deck.

Before:



And now:



I also acquired a bead roller!



Test beads looked good and I noticed that it came with a large roller which looked about perfect to form the slats on the Jeep grill...



... and I promptly destroyed it Ah well, it's all a learning experience

Some other odds and ends over the weekend: I ground down the welds on the front guards in preparation for making the aluminium skin.



Then I fully welded and ground down the scuttle radius support pieces so I can better fit the scuttle.

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Nice deck. Some kind of maintenance free composite?

[Beelzeboss]

Nice deck. Some kind of maintenance free composite?

Thanks mate! I was considering composite but got talked out of it because it can get extremely hot in the sun, and the deck bakes in the hot aussie sun most of the day, so I ended up going with Merbau which is a hardwood timber. The boards are 140x19 rather than the original 90x16.

[Beelzeboss]

A small update: based on advice from a member on the ozrodders forum I tried to heat shrink the front grill back to it's original shape.



I heated it with the torch on the front face and then quickly cooled it with a damp cloth. It's not perfect but it's good enough for the moment

I also gave the garage a general tidy up before I start on skinning the front guards.

[Beelzeboss]

Bit of a jumbled update today, my main focus has been making some bits and pieces for the truck to make it more useful. First up is a removable winch so I can pull the hotrod up onto the bed, while avoiding any speculation the truck is a "tow truck" which may need special (read: expensive) registration.

I started with a hitch extension piece from Amazon



Once cut in half this gives the male and female piece for a quick-release winch mount. The male end of the hitch has the baseplate for the winch welded on.



Then the female part of the hitch is attached to a crossmember that goes on the truck tray.



This allows the winch to be lowered down between the cab and tray and fastened with a standard hitch pin.



The winch I chose is a 700kg pull worm drive unit so it can't back-drive from the load, and can be operated with a standard battery drill. It's also small and light enough that I can store it easily in one of the toolboxes on the truck.

Next up I put the cold saw to good use making a rear pipe rack so I can pickup steel from the supplier without having it pre-cut down to short lengths.





It just needs baseplates and a lick of paint and it's done.

I also managed to skin the front right guard from a cardboard template I made.



It isn't perfect but it will definitely do the job.



After that I hammered down the cockpit edge of the scuttle.



And finally checked that the 36-1 trigger wheel I made will fit the original 6 tooth wheel.

[horchoha]

Your project is coming along nicely.

Last time I saw a power hacksaw, I think I wa a pre teen (late 1960's?) with my dad visiting one of his friends at his farm shop. I was amazed someone could invent a machine that would cut metal without manpower. My dad built a lot of things out of steel on our farm, and I was his 'power hacksaw', I worked for cheap - food and a place to sleep

Keep the pics coming, I really enjoy seeing your progress

[Beelzeboss]

Your project is coming along nicely.

Last time I saw a power hacksaw, I think I wa a pre teen (late 1960's?) with my dad visiting one of his friends at his farm shop. I was amazed someone could invent a machine that would cut metal without manpower. My dad built a lot of things out of steel on our farm, and I was his 'power hacksaw', I worked for cheap - food and a place to sleep

Keep the pics coming, I really enjoy seeing your progress

Thanks mate! Haha the power hacksaw is such a great machine, it's really slow but the blades last forever and it cuts very square. I'm not sure what year mine is but it's pretty ancient.

On the hot rod I decided to start on the fuel tank next, mainly because the full sheet of 1.5mm stainless is really heavy to move around the garage.

First I marked it out from a CAD drawing I made using a tape measure and straight edge.



Then cut it out with the 5" grinder.



Next up the tricky bit - I wasn't sure if my DIY bender would be up to the task of bending the ~1100mm long bend in the stainless, but I'm happy to report that with some cheater bars it was *just* able to make the 90 degree bend.



Not perfect but more than good enough for a fuel tank.



Once bent up the two halves fit together pretty well, the gaps you can see are just because some of the bends are not exactly 90 degrees and I probably don't have it lined up perfectly.



Anyway, test fitting in the car shows that it fits in the required space with enough clearance.



And while it is lower than the chassis rails it's higher than the engine/gearbox. The tank can probably go up another 10mm but I still think I'll put in some sort of bash plate, just because this is a fuel tank we are talking about.



I still need to decide on the layout of the baffles, where to put the pump, and a filler/vent solution.

[Miatav8,MstrASE,A&P,F]

Nice tank. For expansion space, the filler can go in the side or a standpipe can extend into the tank an inch or two with a 1/8" hole drilled in the side of the tube within the tank and close to the upper tank wall.

[Beelzeboss]

Nice tank. For expansion space, the filler can go in the side or a standpipe can extend into the tank an inch or two with a 1/8" hole drilled in the side of the tube within the tank and close to the upper tank wall.

That sounds like a good way to do it. I'll need to have the filler on the rear end of the tank with a vent line running from the front end so it can fill properly, I'll try to run the tank vent off the filler neck area because that will be by far the highest point.

I had a little time over the weekend to knock out the front left guard skin.



The piece of 1.2 aluminium I had leftover was *just* big enough, which was lucky.





Then I did some work on the bonnet bracing.



I extended the front cross brace by 30mm after I took this pic to make it fit better. My plan with the bracing is to have it all welded together as an assembly, and then glue the skin onto the frame on a flat piece of MDF to keep it all square. I'll use some sort of sikaflex adhesive and a couple of rivets at the ends of the cross braces as a back-up to keep it all together.

I also had my truck inspected for historic rego and it passed with flying colours (not surprising as it's basically completely standard). There was a Kei truck there also being inspected and we couldn't resist putting them next to each other

[Beelzeboss]

The VE Commodore pump module arrived and I'm glad to say it's 200mm high (exact same as the fuel tank) and is designed to sit right on the bottom of the tank for maximum scavenging. I can see the venturi scavenge setup and it's about 5mm from the bottom of the tank so should work pretty well.



And a little progress after work yesterday on the bonnet bracing.





All welded together and ready to drill the rivet holes to glue on the skin, but I'm going to figure out the hinge & latch mechanism first, just in case I need to weld anything else to the framework.

I've also been thinking that I may forego the bug catcher scoop for the moment; it's quite a lot of work and will mean that I can't really drive or park the car in the rain - not ideal.

[Beelzeboss]

Back to working on the tank: for the fuel pump flange I decided to use some off the shelf pipe flanges. They save me a significant amount of machining at the expense of being thicker than I would have wanted (10mm) and the bolt holes are for M16 bolts which are also too large.

First I bored out one of the flanges from 114.3 to 122mm so it would sit over the top of the pump.



Then I bored out the other flange to 130mm to clear the underside of the pump, and machined an o-ring groove for the OEM E85 safe GM O-ring I bought.





I found a spec sheet on a similar cross section O-ring to estimate the correct amount of squish for proper sealing.

My plan for the lower flange is to weld a thin strip around the edge so it can be recessed down into the tank slightly (~20mm), and then machine down the OD of the clamp flange so it will definitely fit into this recess. Finally I'll need to either weld some M10 bolts into the holes of the lower flange to seal it up, or seal off the holes with sheet and add some tapped M8 threads elsewhere for the clamping force. At the moment I'm leaning towards using just the 4 M10 bolts, which should be plenty with these thick flanges.

[Beelzeboss]

A little progress on the fuel tank - I welded the 20mm lip onto the pump flange to recess it into the tank slightly.



Then I made the baffles for the tank.







I chose the location of the cutouts in the baffles so that any slosh forwards or backwards directs fuel to the left side of the tank where the pickups are going to be located. I still may have an issue on long left hand turns with low fuel level, or parking on a left hand slope, but because the tank is quite long any forward or aft angle/slosh should still direct fuel to the pickups, and as a backup I have the fuel pump bucket and a surge tank.

I'll add a threaded bung on the right side of the tank so that worst case I can add a little Facet pump to go direct to the surge tank, but I doubt it will be needed.

[Beelzeboss]

I had a little time after work to tack the fuel pump flange onto the tank.





And then to knock up a quick transmission cooler mount up front.



The cooler weighs next to nothing so the mounts are just cantilevered out, but I can easily link them up to the front crossmember if necessary. The location should also help funnel more air into the radiator.