Making My CJ5 Into A CJ6/II

John , No just to far away...............There is a precision tube bender here in the Bay Area in Newark and he's done stuff for me in the past.......but his back to back tooling just did not allow it to be Bent / Built the way I wanted.

As far as doing the bump up by just adding length to the existing kick ups as I have now........... the compound angles would have all had to be re-calculated and re-cut from the bottom main frame rail up , which was not a big issue but just the same were not talking about having a precision 15" cold metal cutoff saw here either. These cold saws only have one angle and that vise alone is not as stable as one would like........add the flex in the blade while cutting and 1/10 one-tenth of one degree being off is just like night and day in how it fits up.........( take a look at how tight those old joints & cuts were , took allot of time..... joint integrity and strength is first all about the fit ) the compound angle portion is done by another large 12"x 12" angle plate fixture clamped off the saw surface to the table while supporting the other end of the tube on another independent fixture while setting the proper angle with a precision angle finder...........

Having been through this before it's just a long process to get all of the parts to match & fit with each other..........in fact in most cases your making multiple setups & cuts on one piece as you creep up on the desired finished angles.

I mocked those angles on my Mikita and cut them in wood and I just wasn't happy the way it looked with a steeper angle and a long flat upper rail.

The other option was to cut those tubes out of flat plate and weld them all together was also nixed by the fact it has to be done using 1/4" material , so that you have enough left to grind off and match the corner radius's on 4 sides of the tube...........for me that option was just to clumsy , heavy and bulky.

What I'm getting now should work out quite well......................I hope!

 

It's all about compromise... I like it though.

 

Back to the build...........
Newly bent Top Rails showed up.




This is where the job gets tough..............setting up the 15" Cold saw and making several Compound angle cuts where a tenth of a degree off is like night and day in how the parts fit back together.

A tenth of a degree saw adjustment here and a tenth there and it's starting to look pretty good.........


Not Bad , but now I have to figure out whether or not I want the center of the raised section of the new tube over the center of the axle? One would think Yes , But, Since the high steer arm , drag link & tie-rod have there own clearance needs forward of the axle center line I may have to make another cut in the tube to move it back.



I have now shortened the tube in the rear.................one more finish cut on this side and I can get to the other side............

 

As you are aware, Its amazing. The equipment to bend that tube... That tube cold rolled?

 

Looks pretty cool. How are you going to deal with the kinda awkward transition from the new pretty curved stuff to the miter cuts at the firewall? It almost looks like the raised portion on the new piece could be a little longer, then drop to the existing rail. Does that make sense?

 

Terry, I just had to go dab my forehead and go have a smoke - and it's a habit I kind of despise and never took up... very nice .

 

Yes , More correctly Pickled & oiled.

 

Jon ,

The picture I think your looking at was one of the very first cuts made and was off a little........you have to creep up on the compound angles by making a few test cuts. Even though I have digital angle finders & protractors that can measure the angles within a tenth of a degree , converting that back using math to the correct compound angle just doesn't always come out correctly each time due to the vise and cutting blade pressure flexing enough to effect the cut...........On the compound angles you must first be able to accurately measure within a few tenths and then be able to move a tenth or two and repeat the cut without sometime else effecting the original accuracy..........
Not as easy as it seems although I have enough cuts under my belt with that saw that I have learned it's nuance's ............it is a little arduous trying to make the perfect cut as the change in the setup is sometimes just only a few thousands at a time.

The last cut made on that side is now dead nuts or +/- a few thousands. The pieces now do fit back together correctly as they should.............I'll show you that final cut in a picture later on.

 

Just read this entire post and all I can say is you have some mad fabricating skills and this is going to look awesome once it is all together.

 

55_Willys..........stay tuned we have a ways to go.......and Thanks for the comment.

 

That's amazing!

 

Entertainment at it's best.

 

Doh!! I was so excited... I thought Tarry had an update... Phooey

 

Soon Jon..........just to many other projects including business....that is dogging me right now..........but I do see that clearing up after the 15th.

 

perfectly said...

 

Wow...........Been a while since I've been here on this project but even during the absence as I walk by daily..........my mind and Credit Card were still hard at work........had to get away from the front axle for a while as the steering geometry was driving me crazy. If you remember a while back I built some Mock-up high steer arm fixtures to better see what I needed in the way of High Steer arms to clear the housing and yet get them into the proper position for the Drag Link..............last night within a few minutes after I installed the mock-up arms along with the 1.50"x .250 wall tie rod the problems started to quickly drift away..........Yes, I still have to whittle two arms out of a hunk of 1.50" x 3.50" Cold Rolled steel but now I have a "Real Time" pattern that I can duplicate without guessing...........


The aluminum spacer with the tapered insert inside below the TRE represents the arm itself at a New elevation...........and position.


As you can see as the axle turns full left with a Drivers side pumpkin the clearance starts to shrink at the housing as the tie rod climbs and moves rearward..............not only am I fighting clearance at the Pumpkin I'm also having to pay close attention to the clearance I have between the bottom of the frame rail and top of the tie rod.........currently I was shooting for 7 inches between these two points and right now I have exactly 7".....Two inches of clearance is going away because I wanted to lower the car by that amount and the other 5" was needed for bump up travel on the Fox 14" travel shocks..........trying to see all that in a virtual world was beyond me hence the need for the mock-up Arms.

Looking pretty good...............I'm happy!

 

Terry,

I enjoy watching your build come together piece by piece.

It keeps me motivated to get mine back together.

Dane

 

Looking good Terry, as usual.

 

It may not look like much , But I am actively working on this but progress is slow............After sorting out the steering above , I had to step back and re-evaluate the front chassis pieces once again for the final time in order to move forward as I need to start welding some pieces together. This is sort of the point where all of the previous work and thought needs to be spot on as there is no turning back from here............This is also the point on most builds where the time spent here getting these parts to fit correctly and plumb pays off in spades later with a car that performs like it should.

I needed to pull the motor and then go through the complete chassis fixture front to back and side to side to level it once more along with getting the frame rails on the fixture straight , true and level.



New top frame rails are off and the compound angles that attache the main rails to the front end now that I have re-leveled the fixture have to be adjusted. Slow process of grinding and fitting until the bubble on the level says it's OK to proceed.

The final fitting also gets compounded due to the fact that when the front rails were formed the tubing gets stretched and bulged in certain spots. As you can see while sitting on the bench the rails at mid span do not mirror each other and also has a slight twist end to end on the left rail.............This is in no way the fault of the folks that bent these........just a common problem with bending and stretching materials......in fact this pair is much better than others I've seen in the past. All you can do is map out where there is slight discrepancies between the two and then mitigate those difference's as you re-assemble them back on the fixture.........

Fitting them up...........and grinding a relief for welding.


Ready to tack weld that side

 

Hi Terry, your build is absolutely incredible. I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating, the story, plus the build is truly great. I have my son (age 12) look at this build when he thinks my build is good. I then explain that you are truly a craftsman.