June 14, 2004 This is the Firewall section (Assembly 9410). The photo below is only the start of the assembly.

This is one of the few assemblies that in the NAERC blue print plans that did not fit together well in my 3D (pro/e) model. I did make a few changes from the plans to make the angle cuts more precise.

I did talk to Ken about the drawings needing to be changed and this was Ken's response - I think the problem you are finding has to do with needing to fit the transmission housing into the fire wall. We don't cut the parts custom to match because they still fit close enough to weld properly. I think I mentioned to you that the housing we made was pulled off of an original chassis. We didn't realize it was off square until we went to install it into the first chassis. We have been building from the drawings and have not seen any need to change any of them.

8/12/04 Since I talked to Greg (crashrat) he was telling me that this section was one of the most difficult to build.  As I built this in the 3D CAD program, I also had a hard time modeling it (with many different datum planes).

To make this assembly easier, I cut a plywood template to keep the top and bottom beams aligned to the correct dimension. I am not sure how else you can build this assembly with out some kind of a jig. Again I am building this in my garage (so my methods are simple).

Using the plywood ends will work for both the right side and left side, I can just flip them around for the other side. I was thinking if I have the ends perfectly aligned in plywood, that I could build the center parts, tack weld them and then come back and pop the end parts last.

In the photos below I was going to use 1.5" x 1.5" for the top rail but I have since studied this and decide NOT to continue this idea and go with the drawing plans and use the 2" x 1" as the material for the top beam (as the drawings indicate).

8/26/04 I have the front section turned on it's front nose to work on the wheel wells, what you are seeing is the drivers side and this is how I am starting the assembly build.

I am using 1.5 x 1.5 instead of the plans recommendation of .75 x 1.5.

This is what my garage looks like (today), with the frame and body there is not a lot of room.

I am building the wheel well out of 1.5 x 1.5 instead of the plans recommendation of .75 x 1.5.

11/22/04 I have all the mid sections cut and I am ready to tech weld all the assembles sections together.

Reinforcement First - I tacked on two piece of steel tubing to keep the top section straight and to keep the distance between the firewall and the front section correct.

My garage floor is NOT level and has many dips on the surface, so to weld the front section to the rear section I bought a bunch of wood 4" X 4" fence posts (which I needed for the backyard) to level the floor. It took me 2 hours to shim the post to get a perfectly level floor for the frame to sit on.