Zach's 818R Build Thread

[Zach34]

I love your setup table!

Thanks! It's one of the Strong Hand Build Pro tables, and it is my favorite thing in the shop. They have all kinds of different sizes and options, and they continue to add to the fixturing accessories. I use it for more non-welding projects than I would have ever predicted. Just the fact that it is a flat/true surface comes in handy all the time. I could go on and on about it.

[Zach34]

The body is coming together. Dzus brackets for the rear fenders at the crossmember:

rear fender bracket1.jpg

rear fender bracket2.jpg

The front fenders have been difficult, but I am overcoming. The rear of the front fenders presented the most challenging bracket-making problem. The fenders are not symmetrical (this is the new nose), so I felt slotted brackets were required to give myself the best chance of getting the hood to fit.

front fender bracket1.jpg

front fender bracket2.jpg

front fender bracket3.jpg

Trying to figure out the windshield cowl. It is resting on the round tube at the top, yet there is a good 1" gap between the bottom flange and the frame where it would ideally attach. On the S, the flange attaches directly to the square tubes under the hood. Not sure I've seen any other R builders specifically address this.

windshield trim1.jpg

windshield trim2.jpg

Finally, the wing is here! Very exciting. These APR wings are super nice. I'm envisioning a wing mount system that will incorporate a hinge for the rear of the engine decklid. I know that sounds confusing, but it works perfectly in my mind. The joined decklid pieces are going to be too cumbersome to lift off and put back on by one person without constantly slamming it into the rollbar tubes. The hinge weight should be minimal with the wing structure providing all the support.

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[Hobby Racer]

Trying to figure out the windshield cowl. It is resting on the round tube at the top, yet there is a good 1" gap between the bottom flange and the frame where it would ideally attach. On the S, the flange attaches directly to the square tubes under the hood. Not sure I've seen any other R builders specifically address this.

windshield trim1.jpg

windshield trim2.jpg

I had the same issue. I just cut off the lip on the bottom of the cowl and made simple brackets to connect with the frame.

left-bracket.jpg right-bracket.jpg top-bracket.jpg

Finally, the wing is here! Very exciting. These APR wings are super nice.

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They are quality pieces. I have the GT-250 67", looks like you got the same!

[Zach34]

Thanks for those pictures of the cowl - just what I was looking for. Looks good.

Yep, 67" wing. Anxious to start on the support structure for it.

[Zach34]

More progress. Body is coming together. Remaining items:

-enlarge side vents
-fabricate wing mount
-integrate engine cover hinge to wing mount
-cut out hood vents
-fabricate splitter

Most of the body ended up lining up reasonably well, about a 1/4" off here and there, but all the slotted brackets I made helped a lot. Most ended up not needing more than about 1/8" adjustment off center. The one big exception was the rear deck lid. I don't have a good picture showing the problem, but there was an irreconcilable tapered gap between the rear edge of the deck lid and the top of the rear bumper panel. There was no gap on the passenger side, and about 1/2" on the driver side. It was as if the entire passenger side sail was shifted forward 1/2", or the driver's side rearward 1/2", take your pick. Both side sails were lined up exactly 5/8" back from the frame as directed in the manual and the front fenders/nose actually lined up rather well. I was very careful to make sure the two engine deck lid pieces were evenly-spaced when I bonded them together. There was no way to shift the side sails forward or rearward without causing significant problems at the nose. I ended up trimming 1/2" off the rear edge of the engine deck lid on the passenger's side and tapering the cut to zero toward the driver's side. Hard to explain, a picture is better:

rear decklid cut1.jpg

rear decklid cut2.jpg

I don't need perfect panel alignment for a race car, but a full half inch was too much to overlook. Plus, by trimming it there, it lined up on center and actually looks more symmetrical. Here's how it looks after the trimming:

rear gap post trim.jpg

And here's with the rear deck pins installed. Notice how the deck is pretty much dead-on center, even after taking that huge wedge-shaped slice out of the rear edge. The gaps on the sides are parallel and pretty good.

rear deck pins.jpg

Hood pins:

hood pins.jpg

One of the brackets I made for the rear decklid Aerocatch pins, before drilling the hole for the pin. I know it looks weird. Rather than spend a couple days making 2-axis adjustable slotted brackets, I made a bracket that holds a simple flat piece of aluminum into which the Aerocatch pin is installed. If for some reason I need to adjust the position (very unlikely), I can just replace the simple aluminum piece.

rear left deck pin bracket.jpg

The bracket for the center pin for the rear decklid, yet to get a hole for the pin.

rear deck center pin bracket.jpg

I also installed the door cutaway's. These went in rather easy. I bonded/fiberglassed them in from the rear. I rough-cut the openings before bonding, then used some air tools and sanding blocks to grind/shape them to size after bonding. Happy with how they turned out.

door vent.jpg

The wing mount is going to be pretty cool. Hopefully I'll have pictures within the next week.

[Hobby Racer]

Looking great!

Body work is time consuming and messy, but its very rewarding when it all comes together and looks good.

I really like how you made the square tubes near the center of the roll hoop removable, wish I had thought of that when I was at that stage.

[Zach34]

Thanks. The removable tubes, like most of the good ideas on this build, came from this forum. I've had the engine in and out 3 or 4 times. Can only imagine what a pain it would be with those welded in place.

[Zach34]

Designing in my head.... head hurts now....

wing mount 1.jpg

wing mount 2.jpg

wing mount 3.jpg

Doing all this with thin-wall chromoly tubing, for no particular reason other than to just get some experience working with it. The above is 1.25" diameter, 0.065-wall. Bends are about 10-11 degrees. The tubes that will connect these to the frame will be 1" diameter, 0.058-wall.

[Zach34]

Made good progress this weekend. The wing mount "sub-frame" is pretty much done. Came out very well. It's relatively light due to the thin-wall tubing.

wing frame dzus.jpg

wing frame template.jpg

wing frame template 2.jpg

wing frame plates.jpg

wing frame mock up.jpg

wing frame mock up 2.jpg

wing frame mock up 3.jpg

wing frame weld jig.jpg

wing frame plate weld.jpg

wing frame welded.jpg

[Zach34]

wing frame welded 2.jpg

wing frame welded 3.jpg

wing frame install 1.jpg

wing frame install 2.jpg

wing frame support tube 1.jpg

wing frame support tube bracket.jpg

wing frame support tube 2.jpg

support tubes welded.jpg

support tube weld.jpg

tabs welded.jpg

[Zach34]

tabs welded 21.jpg

support tubes installed 1.jpg

final install 1.jpg

final install 2.jpg

final install 3.jpg

Next is obviously the uprights to the actual wing. They will be 1/2" thick aluminum, but with a lot of material removed. Planning on making a plywood template to capture the location first. Tentatively planning on machining them if I can figure out how to fixture such large parts.

I may put the uprights on the back-burner, though. I need to get the body to paint ASAP. Checklist for paint prep is:

-passenger side rollcage modification
-splitter
-side scoops
-exterior lights

I got FFR to make me a set of the big side vents that Wayne used on the Gray/Orange car!! Very excited about that. Many thanks to Wayne Presley and Dave Correia and Tony Zullo at FFR for being so helpful.

[Rob T]

This looks really great. You have some serious fab and welding skills. Can't wait to see it finished.

[STiPWRD]

Lots of attention to detail and some great looking welds.

[Mitch Wright]

Nice work Zach.

[AZPete]

Very nice work, for sure. In a perfect world, you'd live next door to me.

[Zach34]

Thanks for the kind words! I've been busy at work. Not a lot of progress lately. Quick update:

1/2-inch plywood splitter. After some research and advise from folks on this forum, I decided wood would be a better/cheaper/safer option than carbon fiber, especially having access to a CNC router. I made it a little too big. Probably going to trim a couple inches off. Anybody have any resources for determining splitter size/stick-out?

splitter routing.jpg

splitter mock up.jpg


Made some upright mock-ups out of plywood to confirm wing height and location of the mounting holes relative to the new frame structure. These were scanned (by my home printer/scanner, no less - worked great!) into PDF files, which I used in Inkscape to create a vector file for the hole locations, which I then imported into Fusion to design the actual uprights:

(Disregard my disaster of a garage...)

wood uprights.jpg


Unfortunately I ran into an unexpected problem. Although it's difficult to see in the picture, the wing is pretty crooked. I built the wing support frame structure using the rear bumper as my reference for location of the tubes. After a lot of measuring and sighting, it turns out the driver's side of the rear bumper is about 3/4" lower than the passenger's side due to asymmetry in the panel molds, or at least how the panels came out of the molds.

crooked wing.jpg

I added two more adjustable-length tubes to correct it. You will have to compare to the pictures above to find the new tubes.

adjustment tubes 1.jpg

adjustment tubes 3.jpg

adjustment tubes 2.jpg


Oh, and the design for the uprights.

wing upright v10.jpg

[lsfourwheeler]

That splitter would be awesome if you plan to go to pikes peak! How did you make all the threaded ends for the adjustable tubes? My college competition team has done these frequently using a lathe, but it takes time to do all of them.

[Zach34]

That splitter would be awesome if you plan to go to pikes peak! How did you make all the threaded ends for the adjustable tubes? My college competition team has done these frequently using a lathe, but it takes time to do all of them.

Oh man, $6 each from Summit! Can't beat that compared to all the time it will take turning and threading them on a lathe. Link below to the ones I used. Just make sure you are buying the right ones for your tube wall thickness.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fkb-1906

[Sgt.Gator]

Pegasus has them in metric if your trying to stay metric.

[Mitch Wright]

Here is another source to add to your list. https://www.aa-mfg.com/product-categ...acer-bushings/

[Zach34]

Decided to have the pedestals waterjet-cut. Pretty happy with the result.

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[Mitch Wright]

Beautiful work Zach.

[Rob T]

That is some great work. You have some serious skills.

[Mechie3]

Lots of good stuff going on in this thread! Like fab of the wing mount.

[Zach34]

Hope this works...

rear cover aluminum reinforcement2.jpg

rear cover aluminum reinforcement.jpg

rear cover aluminum bonded.jpg

If you are curious, it's all West System epoxy fiberglass. I used their 404 High Density Adhesive Filler underneath the aluminum tube/plate. It's supposed to be preferred for bonding metal hardware on boats. First time I've used it, so we'll see, but I know the epoxy resin bonds well to the fiberglass panels. Just one layer of fiberglass over top of the aluminum.

[Mitch Wright]

Zach, curious how heavy is your one piece deck? I gave some thought to doing the same when building my car, my fear was the combined pieces would be hard to get on and off by myself more so because of the bulk than the weight. I believe Retro has done something similar and have want to ask the question.
As always beautiful work

[Zach34]

The weight is not bad, even with the aluminum/epoxy stiffening. Your fear is correct - the bulk is the problem, especially negotiating the rollbar tubes that extend rearward. That's why I'm designing a hinge in the wing mounts. If you look carefully at the pictures in post 101, you'll see the small brackets in the inside "elbow" of the wing supports. Those will hold simple ball bearings. This weekend's project is to design and possibly start machining the arms that will attach to the top/rear of the deck lid and connect to those bearings. I'll probably use a simple prop-rod to hold it up.

The advantages are:
1. the entire rear deck can come up with only 3 pins to fiddle with
2. you don't have to set it down anywhere
3. it will be faster/easier to access the entire engine

The disadvantage, though, is huge - it's taken an incredible amount of time and effort to design and fabricate a solution that I like. I don't think it's logical for a true race car, but that's one of the many reasons I'm backing off my original goal of racing this thing. It will probably be more of a track day toy with racing potential.

[Mitch Wright]

As with all that you are doing looking forward to seeing your solution.
Also never say never, I built my car to race but have been offered drives by various teams which has provided my fix. Plus really being honest with myself I have been racing for 51 years and not sure I want to work that hard. I have been having a bunch of fun with track days and Time Trials. I figure if the car breaks I load it up and take it home to fix it at my leisure then play with it again. With all that said and looking at the new NASA ST rules a race or 2 could very well be in the cards this year at NCM because it is easy. That will be determined by house projects my wife comes up with, my energy level (Starting to reenergize now that it has slowed down) and my Falcon project. I do have the car back home to start working on front flairs so I can put the 235's back on the front.
Sorry for the ramble, enjoying your build and looking forward seeing completed and on track.

[Zach34]

No, I appreciate the thoughts. I'm the exact opposite of you - a complete amateur with racing. I need to get to a track more often and just find guys like you to observe. With all the time and $$ I'm putting into this thing, the thought of going wheel to wheel in it and probably banging it up is becoming less palatable. You could say "don't sweat the small stuff" and just get it done, but with so few of these 818Rs out on racetracks I'm liking the idea of scaling my ambitions back and just making it a nicer car - which is what I'm predisposed to anyway.

For racing, Spec Racer Ford may be in my future. It's probably more inline with what I want to budget for racing, anyway.

[Aero STI]

I've wanted to merge the two rear pieces into one for at least a year. Great work!

[Zach34]

deck hinge pad.jpg

deck hinge pad location.jpg

[Zach34]

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I've got to stop fooling around in the machine shop and pick up the pace on this thing...

[Zach34]

Most of February was lost to job commitments and some nice vacation time, but I did get the hinge parts welded and assembled for a test. I'm very happy with the result. The deck lid is very stiff and easy to open one-handed from either side. I definitely added a little weight, but less than I expected, and the results are worth it.

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[lsfourwheeler]

Those parts are awesome!

[longislandwrx]

very cool concept.

[DanielsDM]

I like the wing mounts. Nice work.

[Brd.Prey]

I'm jealous of your welding. Wish my beads looked like that!

[Zach34]

Slow progress. Been busy at work a lot over the past couple months. Also took some vacation. Made a little progress recently.

The rear hood is finally coming together. I've had a lot of problems getting it to fit without ridiculous gaps (3/4"+) and mismatched curvature. I got in a hurry and disassembled it to start on other little body projects before taking any pictures. I'll circle back and post once it's back together. Overall I'm glad I made the hinge. It's working well and will be tons easier than lifting the panels around the roll cage 10 times a day at the track. I do have a picture of the delrin spacers I made to help match the hood's curve with the fenders/rear. These are attached with nylon screws.

hood delrin.jpg

Bonded in the new side vents. Very excited about these. Mounted them the same way I did the front door vents. I still need to add a couple layers of fiberglass mat to the backside for additional strength.

side vents 1.jpg

side vents 2.jpg

side vents 3.jpg

[Ajzride]

Where did you get the buckets for the door cutouts and side vents? If you posted it, I missed it, where they hand fabricated or purchased?

[Hobby Racer]

Bonded in the new side vents. Very excited about these. Mounted them the same way I did the front door vents. I still need to add a couple layers of fiberglass mat to the backside for additional strength.

side vents 1.jpg

Wow, those rear vents look even deeper than mine . After you cut the opening out they should let in a TON of air. Are those from FFR? I don't see that version on their parts site.