NS F355 Project (Page 16/73)
RCR FEB 14, 06:52 AM
How about extending your frame extension to the firewall. It's probably 20 spot welds to drill out, but you could replace that whole top rail and shape it the way you need it to be.

Bob

[This message has been edited by RCR (edited 02-14-2013).]

Yarmouth Fiero FEB 14, 07:13 AM
Hi Bob. Thanks for your input. I have been thinking about that all night. I am also scratching my head as to why I didn't extend the upper rail when I did my 3" chassis extension because there was a short 4" long piece of frame rail just hanging there in mid air.

I am also looking at the fact that I have to remove the upper portion of the B pillar for the spider and will have to cap the gaping hole which will be in the same plane as the new transverse frame so I may design the structure to handle both of these matters at once.

Its quite suprising just how little there is holding the frame rails to the back of the firewall..... literally 3/4" sheet metal taps spot welded on two or three sides of a square section frame. I can only guess that the rear chassis is designed to separate from the passenger cab in the case of a serious side impact. I know I've seen a few pictures on PFF showing Fieros with the rear ends missing after an accident. Its scary to think about that's for sure.
Yarmouth Fiero FEB 14, 08:21 AM
I think it's all going to work out ok by just extending the transverse frame all the way to the outboard side of the upper frame rail and keeping flanges attached as a means to connect these frames together. Once I get the B pillar drawn and added to the assembly, I'll be able to see more clearly how the transverse frame will flange to it as well. Here are a couple pictures without the B pillar shown.
Yarmouth Fiero FEB 17, 09:19 PM
Watching Fieroguru's video of his LS4 coming to life inspired me to get my own V8 finished today.

Just have to top up the sump with some high grade Italian EVOO for lubrication and she's ready to spin.
Yarmouth Fiero MAR 10, 11:15 AM
While the chassis modifications proceed at what seems like a snails pace for us, we decided to tackle the topic of choosing wheels and tires for the car. While it's a long way off until the day they actually spin under power, the decision to finallize a wheel specification will allow us to begin the work of developing the requirements for the suspension components. Proceeding in this order presents us with the oportunity to select available wheels from a wider range of designs. As we all know, just dealing with the constraint of sticking to 5 x 100 wheels is bad enough. The only other aspect that we wanted to consider was keeping the selection of final tire diameter as close as possible to Blooz's selection as we are building similar cars from the same moulds. Now that he has taken the plunge and made his selection and purchase, we had a huge sense of confidence regarding the direction we were headed in.

If you think its hard deciding what wheels to go with, try adding the opinion of two teenagers into the mix. Unfortunately both my boys have exceeded me in both height and weight so there are times my 33 1/3% vote felt more like 20%.

As we have stated a few times, we are planning a black color for the car so we first agreed that the wheels would be black also. The next item was that we wanted the wheels to be as flush as possible with the outer edge of the rim. Looking at many many pictures of fieros, modified fieros, various beautiful supercars, we found that we liked this look and it made the car look a little more stealthy, especially as the 355 spider body will appear low and wide anyhow. After many hours of back and forth choices and much deliberation, we selected a couple possible candidates from the brand XXR. From this point we narrowed it down to the XXR 527 in flat black and last night we agreed that this was our final choice and assuming they are available when we place our order, that is what our future black 355 spider will be rolling on. Oddly enough, there was an article on MSN this morning regarding supercars and their 0 - 100 kph numbers and on the McLaren MP4, there were wheels very similar to what we had chosen. We think they look awesome so that gave us a sense of satisfaction that we had made the right choice.

So using several online wheel and tire selection tools, here is what we will be going with.

XXR 527 in flat black
Front Wheel: 17 x 8.25 ET 35mm
Front Tire: 225/45/17

Rear Wheel: 18 x 9.75 ET 20mm
Rear Tire: 265/35/18





As you can see the tire selector only uses one decimal point for the wheel width so it's off by 0.25" ......but its close enough for this execise. As well, we have not chosen a tire brand yet but it will be a summer tire that's nice and sticky as this will only be a fair weather driven car anyway.

Here is the McLaren MP4 with similar looking wheels and we think it looks amazing. Actually, that car could ride on wooden barrel tops and it would look amazing.



So that is our decision regarding wheels and tires. I'll update once we place the order and when they arrive I'll post some pics.
If you have any comments, please feel free to express your thoughts.
motoracer838 MAR 10, 11:26 AM

quote
Originally posted by Yarmouth Fiero:

Watching Fieroguru's video of his LS4 coming to life inspired me to get my own V8 finished today.

Just have to top up the sump with some high grade Italian EVOO for lubrication and she's ready to spin.






Wow, what a flashback, I built one of those as a kid (a very long time ago, in what seems like a galaxy far far away.)

Joe
Bloozberry MAR 10, 04:32 PM
Excellent choice of wheels. They'll make your black spyder look even more sinister. While there is an argument to be made for dished and lipped wheels from an aesthetics point of view, flush wheels are an indication that the control arms are out at the four corners of the car where they should be, not tucked in a foot under the car. These wheels should allow you to design the control arms to maximize performance.
RCR MAR 10, 06:05 PM
Nice choice on your wheels. You've got me re-evaluating my choices.

BTW, If it's not too late, LSD Motorsports seems to have better pricing, although shipping might be the equalizer.
http://lsdmotorsports.com/m...tBlack&gSize=&gBolt=

Bob
Yarmouth Fiero MAR 10, 06:11 PM
Thanks Blooz. Thanks for your help along the way. Its very exciting to finally make a wheel selection and we are satisfied with our choice. And if the selection can add to the design of the suspension arrangement then that's even better. I hope they are still available. ha-ha-ha-ha.

Hi Joe, the model was alot of fun to build and the boys learned alot about the inner workings of the IC engine. There are videos on Youtube where they spin the models to 5000 rpm and apparently they sound like a real running engine. I'm looking forward to trying that. I may build a plexiglass box to put it in... just to catch the flying parts.
It's been 40 years since I built a model kit and it brought back some fond memories. Except this time I had to use a lighted magnifying glass on a stand to see what I was doing.

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 03-10-2013).]

Yarmouth Fiero MAR 10, 06:17 PM
Oops, thanks Bob. I guess I was typing my first response to slow. I haven't selected a distributor yet so I'll check out your suggestion. I am guessing that shipping and customs are going to add significantly to the cost.