Anyway, the project has been on hold, but here’s the final poster I had to make before completing the last semester at school.

Students Celebrate Research at Steinmetz Symposium

I was also able to pull apart the front spindles and get them cleaned up a little bit. We needed to bore out the lower ball joint bolt so that I could fit the 5/8 ball joints in. I rebuilt the calipers, bead blasted them and then painted them. Pictures from that process will come in the next update.

Next I tackled the rocker arm fabrication. This is something I’ve been avoiding because I’m only about 80% confident in my design. That last 20% will come once I’ve had a chance to drive the vehicle. Luckily, they were pretty easy to make so if I’ve gotta do it again, it’ll be manageable. I decided to build them from waterjet parts mainly because not only will they be cheaper and faster to make, but they’ll likely be stronger than a billet Al piece. Once I have the design nailed down and tested, maybe I’ll get fancy. Here’s a shot of the parts camed out and ready to cut.

Here are the parts fresh off of the waterjet.

And here’s a mockup before the welding started. That’s a piece of 1.00x.065 chromoly tubing where the bushing will go. I’ll mill the bushings tomorrow and get pictures for tomorrow night’s update.

Finally, here’s the piece all welded up. It’s not real pretty but we’re going to mill it down to fit the bushings in anyway. We’ll see how they turn out tomorrow.

Don’t forget that I’ve started leaving a lot of small details out. I won’t be sharing screenshots of the solid model or anything anymore since that could go on and on. Of course, if you have any questions or would like to see something else, let me know and I’ll be happy to do what I can.

I also picked up a rear tire from a car to try and mount to the rear swingarm. With the motorcycle tire back there, there would be serious traction issues. Don’t get my wrong, I’m a big fan of ‘traction issues’ when it comes to the rear end of a vehicle, but I think this would be to the point where it would prevent me from going fast, which is not what I want. Anyway, I picked up a 215/45/17 and as you can see, it’s a little big. I think I’ll step down to a 205/45/17. It’ll be a little bit smaller diameter than the original tire, but I’m not really too concerned about it, especially if it fits.

Forgive the sideways picture, I took it with my phone and forgot to rotate it. Maybe later.

This one shows the transmission mounting tabs better. As you can see, we’re going to need to lug the frame so that the mounting bolts can be removed if necessary. That’ll happen today/tonight as well.

Next we were able to spend some time on the waterjet and get the swingarm mounts, transmission tabs and a throttle pedal cut. The swingarm mounts will be gusseted using 1x.065 tubing after they’re in the right place. The rear end of the frame will have a second horizontal tube welded in the very back to support the top end of the mounts. The transmission tabs will hold the 4 mounting points in the rear.

The throttle pedal was designed as a flat pattern in Solidworks and then cut and bent. It turned out pretty well but still needs some tweaking as well as the pedal face

We also received the hardware from mcmaster that was ordered for the front end. All of the heim joints are 7/16″ and the ball joints are a bit beefier. We also got some bronze stock to use for making bushings for the rocker arms.

Last but not least, we finally got the wheels courtesy of Jon Wilson.

That’s about it for now. We’ve got a lot more happening and will start fabricating the front suspension members next week. The remained of this week will be dedicated to mounting the engine in the frame.

The lower section of the frame went together quickly. Since I decided to go with square tubing, the cuts went quick and welding was straight forward. A combination of 2×2 tubing and 1.5×1.5 tubing was used.

After the lower section was all welded up, we bent the roll hoops and nailed it on the first try. Paul certainly has the bender mastered. In the photos, you can see the hoops before being tacked in and just after. The frame looks much bigger than it really is when sitting up on that table; it’s very small. Enough talk, on with the pictures. Expect another update with more pictures very shortly.