Well it's unfortunately been fairly slow going on the project. I have managed to put in some time on it, just not as much as I would have liked...
Between moving to a new place this last month and looking for the place the two previous months, combined with some time spent on the GTR for the up coming NASA race... well, not much done to the 240.
Anyhow, time to post up a few of the pics I took the last go at it. Sorry the pics aren't of great quality either. All I had was my phone because the digi camera's batteries were kaput.
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The above pictures show the passenger side trans cross member mount location. I made it just like the GTR was with the heavy hex metric nuts welded to the top side of the plate before it became a box around the frame rail. The previous posts show it's build I believe...
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Above is a few views of the trans cross member mount zig-zag piece under the drivers side (American driver's side that is).
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Above is a few more of the GTR towers. I'm not done with them in the least, I just hit the weld and grind areas with a rattle can so they wouldn't have surface rust to deal with later... We've had a bit of rain here in the Phoenix area lately & it's pretty nice really!
I like that I got to save and use the GTR tower to firewall gusset/strap too. All I had to do was cut an inch of length out of it and stitch it back together.
Lastly we have some pics I took of the rear drop horn for the engine cross member that is finally welded out
& the clearanced frame rails to give some relief to the axles.
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I used 3/8 wall 4" dia pipe for the material. The right frame rail relief is 1/2" shallower than the left due to the proximity of the pivot at the diff. Axle travel/swing is going to be much less on the right side. This should allow me to lower the car a bit further than would otherwise be an option. I added a 1/4" strap to the top of the frame rail as well as a 1/4" perpendicular to it which nests all the way up to were the bottom of the GTR tower begins. This made a nice heavy duty angle which will make up far any lost strength with the axle relief. This of course isn't even accounting for all the strength you get when the GTR cross member spans the distance and becomes part of the frame too.
Most of this was done with the big migger for burn in heat & penetration. You may see some undercut and low spots in the weld areas for now... but I'm going to go back over everything with the little mig with .020 wire & fill all of that, & then regrind everything smooth. My goal is for it to be really strong, which it is already, but for it to be smooth and clean, without having to use all the silly putty Nisan used to fill the ugly seems from the factory.
That's pretty much it for now. Next up, is the transfercase passenger floorboard sheet metal. I have a piece rough cut but still need to fit it and get it tacked in.