The Willomet Charger

[1970RT]

Are you going to follow the project when it's in Vegas? I'm going.

Yessir. It’s a sculpture for Seymour and in partnership with Miller Welders and SendCutSend. There’s a whole video we’re putting together to support that coincides with their 75th anniversary. They’ve been family owned from the start, and that’s pretty rare.

I’ll be there for setup at Seymour’s booths, and then Tue and Wed for meetings.

A full week is a bit too long to be in Vegas.

David

 

[ckessel]

Cool. Lets hookup if possible.

 

[1970RT]

Bit of a catch up. I thought this door rust repair project would take a weekend plus a weeknight or three.

It took a month.

The car must have set under a carport. The driver side is in excellent shape while this passenger side must have taken on some rain from being at the edge of coverage. The PO scabbed in some junk so the filler would take. This low crown panel with a key body line turned out to be a real challenge. High crown panels are easy by comparison.

I had to make this particular patch three times before I got it right. Low crown is hard, but I'm a little better at it now.

With limited access to the backside of the panel, planishing was a challenge. I spent an entire day with a slap hammer and shinking disc to get this smooth within .035". I only know it's that tight because I couldn't fit my TIG filler under the lower points.

Even though it'll be stripped off at the paint shop, I put a coat of Seymour's filler primer and sealer primer just so it looks good while I fit the rest of the body panels. This burned a lot more time than I would have liked, but learned a lot along the way.

David

 

[Hemirunner]

Looks so simple but it’s so challenging. Results look great!

 

[1970RT]

Looks so simple but it’s so challenging. Results look great!

Thanks man. Seriously, that's the hardest panel repair I've ever done. An AMD door skin would have gone a lot faster, but it felt good to save this one.

I got these AMD tubs about 95% done before I was burned out on them. Picking them back up, I used the planishing hammer to fine finish the reworked front radius and flanged the rear similar to the inner edges.

Silicon bronze is my go to for making a weld look like it's bent sheetmetal.

New passenger door jam.



Everything in the unibody that can get a dimple and get stronger and a bit lighter, will.

Now, to make a big leap in assembly.

The go-kart is about to get a lot bigger.

David

 

[Scott Engelhardt]

You do amazing work!

 

[ckessel]

Nice work David!

 

[cdr]

VERY cool !!!!!!!

 

[1970RT]

You do amazing work!

Thank you. The car is teaching me a lot.

A childhood of assembling general lee models has paid off, and my welding project has finally turned into a charger.

OE truck fit check, and everything is gapped pretty well with just minor fitting of the rear deck filler panel.

Front fenders ended up hanging pretty easily once the doors were fit, and I built a quick structure to make adjustments a bit easier. We put the tram gauge on the car and verified key dimensions side to side are identical. That was actually a huge relief.

And something I've been excited about for months now...

That was my super bowl.

A few details. I picked 68 fenders and quarters because the marker light holes are smaller and easier to fill. The fenders will be modified to have a 1970 forward edge that matches the bumper, and I'll reference the pair of '70 fenders I have as a template. The front suspension is set about 2" forward from OE, so the arches will get moved and modified to fit the 305s at full lock.

The Speedkore hood is 21.5lbs where the factory one weighs 70 (that figure includes a bunch of pecan shells a mouse stored in there at some point). The trunk lid is 13.2lbs versus 34.5. All together, it's about a 70lb reduction that would have otherwise set high in the car.

I still have a ton of work to get the body locked down, but the first orders of business are reorganizing my shop to accommodate this seventeen footer. It was pretty easy to work on it when it was just a go kart, but that day has passed. And, getting a green laser because my red one is almost impossible to use with the lights on, and the long body line won't forgive a half-baked effort.

It'll be good to take a break from all the body setup, so steering column and headers are probably next.

David

 

[cdr]

Please post pictures & advise of the 70 fender conversion, I was thinking of doing this to my 68 fenders for a Daytona nose, Thanks, Charlie

 

[1970RT]

Please post pictures & advise of the 70 fender conversion, I was thinking of doing this to my 68 fenders for a Daytona nose, Thanks, Charlie

It's going to take some figuring, but I will absolutely share results.

David

 

[ZDECKICH]

May I ask what the hood and trunk lid from Speedkore ran?

 

[1970RT]

May I ask what the hood and trunk lid from Speedkore ran?

Going from memory, $5800 before freight in late 2023. Mine are raw, so the cleared and buffed versions are a little more.

Assembly video:


David

 

[1970RT]

Working out ideas for the upper chassis. This is how I spent my time recovering from the flu. Thanks, Orlando.



I’m looking for that sweet spot where beam strength and torsional rigidity, space for passengers (dogs), and light weight overlap one another. Everything is .065 wall 4130, 1-5/8 and 1-1/4 diameter. What’s shown would weight ~120lbs.

I think of this as an upper chassis rather than a roll cage, so the design focuses on reinforcing the 4x2 frame’s beam strength and torsional rigidity. That’s why I’m leaning hard on the idea of building a center spine and keeping ingress and egress reasonable with minimal door bars. But, I also want Harriet and Aura-Lee to be able to ride in the back, so I’m trying to do get all that performance whatnot without making it a promod jungle gym.

This design violates both the SCCA and NASA rulebooks since it has no diagonal brace in the same plane as the main hoop, and the main hoop itself will have more than 4 bends (top is radiused, though they might let that slide and treat it as the allowable minor roof bend). It also doesn't meet either of their material minimums. Both of those rulebooks explicitly prioritize roll safety and say something like, "chassis rigidity is a side benefit." I approached this with chassis rigidity and passenger comfort as the priorities, and in that order.

In my imagination, the structural compromise that comes from lesser door bars is offset by the structural spine. The torsional strength that comes from a diagonal brace is (attempted to be) made up in the shorter diagonal braces that still allow passengers (dogs) to get in the back. Also, the spine is tied into the firewall and the rear suspension structure, so that's something similar to a shear panel at the front and maybe a smaller shear panel at the rear.

If I end up with a minimalist design like Speedkore typically goes for, then this is a rowdy road car that can run in the Optima events. Optima's cage guidelines are essentially one sentence that says, "you should think about putting one in your car." That might be enough, since this is the wrong car for competitive autocross (fun, but not competitive against a C6 or the passel of Speedtech camaros). My local track has its own tech inspection, and I can participate in their open track days. Plus, there's always the fun public roads like the 3 Sisters in Central Texas.

I drew all this in bendtech to get my different thoughts "down on paper" and roughly estimate how much tubing I would need. 4130 is a common domestic alloy, but I want to get ahead of any price increases that come from the general pricing lift provided by import taxes. Right now, it's still reasonable, but hope is not a plan. Anything leftover will find a home on the suburban or waggy or whatever.

Just thoughts on paper. Back in the shop.

David

 

[ckessel]

I for sure am no whiz mechanical/structural engineer, but looks and sounds great to me. Maybe you could provide them with your design prints with torsional and rigidity specs to give them input?

 

[1970RT]

I for sure am no whiz mechanical/structural engineer, but looks and sounds great to me. Maybe you could provide them with your design prints with torsional and rigidity specs to give them input?

It seems like a lot of tracks have an inspection process for their open days. That will likely satisfy what I want to use the car for.

Final model for now. Bend tech isn’t the easiest program, but I have enough info to order material.

David