NS F355 Project (Page 72/73)
fierogt28 MAR 13, 11:59 PM
Graham, Nice fabrication for your new cradle.

Will you be painting the new cradle or leaving it bare aluminum??

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fierogt28

88 GT, Loaded, 5-speed.
88 GT, 5-speed. Beechwood interior, All original.

kennn MAR 14, 11:03 AM
Thanks for the edification of terminology. Very informative. Sorry for the late reply, been awhile since I've been on PFF.

Ken


quote
Originally posted by Yarmouth Fiero:

Hi Ken

In this instance, I use the term HSS in reference to Hollow Structural Section. While the term usually refers to steel sections in the construction industry, we also use it for aluminum hollow sections in the marine industry, whether they be square, rectangular, circular or oval in section produced by extrusion, rolling or formed and welded . They are considered structure shapes as opposed to pipes or tubing which are designed to carry fluids and gasses.

Thanks for asking. I know I should be more clear when using acronyms.

Edit to add: with regard to the aluminum material used, all HSS is 6061-T6 and all plate is 5083 / 5086 H116.
Yarmouth Fiero MAR 16, 07:36 AM
Thanks guys. My plans for the cradle finish fierogt28 is to powdercoat either black or gold nugget like the roll bars. That won't happen until I have an engine ready to mount.

No problem kennn. I only get on here a couple times a month myself now.

Spent the weekend mocking up the driver side control arm. Still need the ends cut to length and then prep'd for welding. The bushings are laying to the left. The tubing is all steel, seamless 1 1/4" and 1" with a 0.120" wall thickness. The bushings are 316 stainless steel seamless sch 40 pipe.
85-308 MAR 16, 09:12 AM
Looking very nice! Looks like two good, tight-radius bends on the piece on the right side; what do you have for a bender?
What thickness are you making your balljoint mounting plate. This looks very substantially heavier than the stock piece!

What was your final 'overlength' ie how much longer did you have to make the control arms?
GP
Yarmouth Fiero MAR 16, 09:34 AM
Hi 85-308

Thanks. The tubing was bent on our hydraulic tubing bender. Its a sweet machine. Just type in the angle and press go. We do a lot of hydraulic tubing at our shipyard. The die radius is 2 x tube dia. so 2 1/2" radius for the 1 1/4" tubing.

The plate for the ball joint is 3/16". Its thicker than stock but once you cut the 1 5/8" hole for the ball joint, there won't be much material left and I didn't want the control arm tubing wrapping all the way around the plate due to clearance issues with the spindle and the brake rotor.





Edit to add: The control arm length from bushing to ball joint axis is 13 3/4". Off the top of my head, I don't recall what the stock length is but its got to be close to 12". I tried to keep the length as close to stock as possible to minimize the effects on the suspension geometry. I obtained my increased track width by making my cradle wider.

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 03-16-2015).]

seajai MAY 03, 09:10 PM
Any updates?
Burning Oil SEP 17, 06:37 PM
Wow thats a long read. I had seen this post back in 2013 and liked what you did with the frame. I just sat down a read the whole thing again.
I love your fab skills and it helps tremendously to have the different machinery/metal working tools at your disposal like you have. I have been collecting parts
for a couple of years and am now gearing up to do something with them. Won't bore you with the details at this time. It is crazy though that
the car I have built in my mind is almost the same thing you are doing, even down to the pulley/belt drive train, but I have plans to do it with a chain drive from a
4x4 transfer case.
I see the last request for an update was a few months ago, so I hope your still going on this. Would love to see the progress.

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1987 Fiero GT.
2002 Golf TDI.

seajai SEP 21, 11:58 PM
Graham has moved his build off Pennock's and on to his own website: http://ns355.weebly.com/
Car-Lo SEP 22, 01:53 PM

quote
Originally posted by seajai:

Graham has moved his build off Pennock's and on to his own website: http://ns355.weebly.com/



WOW, first Bloozberry and now Yarmouth what's going on, what's the story they where having so much fun here on PFF sharing there awesome builds to the world.
I know Bloozberry was having trouble with Madclury's bad preaching , but he's gone and Yarmouth had no trouble with anyone?
Stubby79 SEP 23, 06:01 AM
After looking at all the work you've put in to it...I think it might have been easier for you to build a whole new chassis!