Sunbeam Alpine Wide Body V8 Part 17

[00:00:00]Hey guys, welcome back to Kiwi Classics and Customs. It's another Alpine session and it's time to actually stop speculating and start doing. So yeah, time to start cutting this rear end apart or, you know, hacking out what we don't want and fabricating up some stuff we do want uh for this fourlink rear end that's going in here. So yeah, let's get into it. Uh we've got quite a bit of metal to cut out. I kind of had a been kind of looking at it in my spare 10 minutes here and there during the week and really trying to save much of what there of what's there is really not a great idea I don't believe. Uh so we are going to retain the chassis rails but that floor in the back there uh the front of the chassis rails where the old leaf springs used to go all that's going. So yeah uh it's time to get this back up in the air. I've got all my kind of measurements and datam lines and that kind of thing so I know what's going to go where. Uh, and yeah, up in the air, start cutting, throwing some sparks. Having some fun. All right, I'm going to put the old camera on time lapse and uh, you can watch me work.

[00:01:33]All right, it's all level again. Got some room to work uh under this old girl. And yeah, it's all it's up on six stands.

[00:01:55]It's all perfectly level front to back and side to side. So, what I got to do now is get rid of this junk. So yeah, and uh reimagine all this. So yeah, back on a bit more line.

[00:02:12]Little bit more time lapse.

[00:02:34]Okay. Real time speed in theory.

[00:02:38]Okay, so lot of that floor is gone, which opens up our chassis rails. I'm going to have to clean all the old where it was welded on nicely instead of just buzzing it all off. Uh, now this go try and kind of explain here the plan. Believe it or not, there is a plan. Of course, plans change, but you know this beam here is obviously fairly structural.

[00:03:06]that's going to go because it's just it's where the fall link wants to mount, but it's thin. You can see none of that metal in this. It's just it's a box section. It's not super strong.

[00:03:24]Yeah. Certainly helps the car, no question. Um, you know, and it kind of helps tie the chassis rails here in to the sides. And that's kind of your torque box here. So that that is tied to that which is tied to the side and this big you know triangular wedge in here and tied to the other side tied to the floor plan. So it all makes it strong.

[00:03:47]So but that's not enough to mount the falling onto. Uh so what I'm going to do is cut that out completely. Leave the chassis rails there. We're going to lose this front part of the chassis rail because it's just too far forward.

[00:04:03]That's where That's where somebody Well, not that butt, but the back of the seat needs to go. Uh, and yeah, so we're going to replace that with some 2x3 1/8 wool box section, which is going to go all the way across here in a straight line for now, but it's going to go through here.

[00:04:21]Obviously, it's going to fill in this this notch for the drive shaft. And we'll remake that later, but I want to keep it just one straight piece at the moment and worry about making this modification later. Uh, so yeah, we've got to get all this out of here and out of here. Then we'll mount that in. And it's going to be 3x two, so it'll be a little shallower through here. And then we'll mount the full length, the top bars off the back of this, the new beam that's in here. And then the bottom bar is going to mount off of this what's left of the front of this. This will be cut kind of around about here somewhere. And then we will because that chassis rail that's pretty beefy, we can weld a tab to that for the bottom part of the falling and then fill in the gaps. So at the moment we've got gosh, what is that four or five foot gap? Uh yeah, it's quite a lot.

[00:05:26]It's all right. Hey, we'll get there.

[00:05:28]It's just sheet metal, you know, and we can make it how we want it. Um, I think we may have to make some room here for the axle to get that ride height down.

[00:05:42]Um, and you know, there is there's options at the moment. I want to get this front piece tied in the replacement, the new one, and get some four lengths mounted. And then we'll figure out what we're going to do.

[00:05:58]to give ourselves a new floor to get up over the somewhat bigger what a bit bigger rear axle. Um, everything you do has, you know, everything you do is an equal has an equal and opposite reaction. And, you know, the reaction is that you put a bigger diff in, it takes up more room. Uh, doesn't necessarily fit where the old little baby one did. I mean, the one that was in it was tiny. Uh, because it was designed to cope with 60 horsepower. uh and a lightweight car. So, didn't need to be strong.

[00:06:31]Now, it does. We've, you know, probably going to be what, six, seven times a horsepower.

[00:06:41]Six sixes of Yeah. Yeah. Six, seven times a horsepower. You see me doing math in my head. It's not very good, is it? Uh yeah. So, onwards, team. I'm going to Yeah, we'll see if we can we'll do a little bit of time lapse just cuz we can. But yeah, I've got to kind of chisel all this out and get all this gone.

[00:07:03]Um and then we'll have a clean sheet of paper to start fabbing. All right, back in a minute.

[00:07:23]There we go. I've been busy. That time lapse wasn't very long, but then it decided to shut itself down. Got too hot. So, let me show you what I've been doing.

[00:07:34]Got kind of everything cleaned up here around the rails. Got some of the old nasty paint and glue and all that fun stuff that was all over the place.

[00:07:43]So, yeah, we're kind of getting to uh getting towards being having, you know, that blank canvas that I need to start adding back in. But I got to get rid of this this very lightweight little crossmember.

[00:08:00]So, uh yeah, time for the sorzel. And then we're just going to cut it beside the rails. And then we got to kind of dig in and get rid of it all around here, which is going to be a bit of a pain in the butt, I feel, but got to be done. So, let me set it up and uh get to work.

[00:08:52]I didn't too much take anyway on that one.

[00:09:55]You can't straighten your blade out a couple of times.

[00:10:07]Oh, I just swept up under here. It all rained out again.

[00:10:15]How they do it in Hollywood like this?

[00:10:21]Well, that's opened up the room a bit.

[00:10:27]So, now dig this out of here.

[00:10:34]Show you what we're up against.

[00:10:37]Now, on for the wild ride.

[00:10:46]This needs to come out. But it does kind of carry on down into there. I got to figure out how to get into there.

[00:10:57]And I suspect what I might end up doing is cutting some of this out. Maybe around about that level with the top of this triangular section. So it opens all in. This triangular section actually carries right on up. Try to get that into here. That is welded onto the wheelhouse and that actually carries on through there. Kind of looks like it finishes here, but it actually goes through ties into the wheel tub which is part of what gives this car its rigidity. So, I'm thinking I'll cut around here.

[00:11:35]It's just a little tack weld there. lose that and then I'll be able to see in there a little better from there. But there you go. It's spot welded onto the rail through here and then in there somewhere and let me get to cutting, drilling, grinding.

[00:11:59]See what I come up with back in a minute.

[00:12:04]Okay, I've been busy and it's another day. So, magic of Hollywood and all that, but I have been busy. So, let me show you what I've been up to. Last scene, we were kind of looking at that arrangement here. All the floor was gone. This crossmember here, now I've got this all cut out, which the more I dug, you kind of Yeah, it became apparent that all that factory stuff had to go.

[00:12:31]uh which you know it I had to take a little bit at a time, a little bit more, a little bit more and just to get an idea of what was all going in there. It was a little busy section of um the car and down here that's all some of the stuff that I I've cut out of that one little area. So quite a bit has gone.

[00:12:51]Let me show you what else I've been doing.

[00:13:14]Okay. So, this here is a piece of uh 2x 1 and 1/2 box section. not what I'm going to be using, but it was it was what I want to use is a 2 by3. So, like a really big piece of steel tube and you know to tie each side of the car together.

[00:13:35]So, but I'm using this to kind of get a hole trimmed and get it kind of get one shot to get it in the right place. So, there's a little hole we've got cut through the side there and that is going to allow me to try and hold the camera at the same time.

[00:13:55]head through there and kind of end up over here this way.

[00:14:07]This structure here, this is quite heavy gauge. This kind of bracing piece here and up here, which all ties into this, you know, this is this is a real focal point for um strength. What I can do is when I get this, this needs to come up another inch and a half so we can get the 3-in tall in there. And then it all can be welded around around the bottom of it around here on the other side into the 3x2s that are inside the rock 3x1's, sorry, that are inside the rocker. And it'll all get tied together and uh that's going to stop pretty much any twist. There's always going to be some twist, but if I can pull this off, and I really do think I can, um, you know, the twist should be absolutely minimized, and we pro I'm probably going to add add some more material in places here. While this is off, I'm kind of spoiled and been I'm able to do stuff that the Sunbeam Alpine car builders weren't able to do. Um, some stuff. Here's a little one of the little things I want to do. Now, this is not a big heavy structure, but you know, it's it's part of the car, and it would be nice whether you can see this or not.

[00:15:25]You're not I don't think it's really showing up on camera, but this is not connected to the top of the tub. There's no welds through here. And you can actually lift it lift this whole piece up and down.

[00:15:38]And there's no reason why that can't be welded along along here connected into that. And that just creates more triangles, more contact points, more places where the car's holding hands with itself, you know, like all hanging on. So yeah, that's what I'm going to do while this uh quarter is off. Uh now where this is going through to the other side, climb back in here.

[00:16:07]This I've cut the hole just to the height. So, this is touching here. This section is is resting on top of this chassis rail. And that's what I want to get. What I need to do is get this chassis rail tied to basically this chassis rail. That's really what it is.

[00:16:22]Yes, it's a rocker. Yes, I've reinforced it, but these two need to be holding hands. And so yeah, this is going to have a 2x3 which is going to take it up to about this little felt mark little uh Sharpie mark here. So this will all get welded into this which is obviously attached to that which is attached to there which is attached to the rail at the back. So yeah and then like there will be this piece the four link is going to swing off uh somewhere down about here. I have to box this chassis rail in again.

[00:16:59]Uh, and then between there'll be some bracing, some more bracing here to tie it in. And there'll be something going from about here. The bottom length is going to be about at this height. So, I'm going to put some more connection in between this face and that face.

[00:17:20]Uh, once we get finalized on exactly where the four link mounts are going to be, and then, you know, we've got some gaps here. This will get plated in here and around the corner there'll be a plate from this edge going back to intersect you know just horizontally till it intersects intersects with the rail here. So this will be connected to the rail back up here with a plate you down the side and over there. This will have a plate going straight down the front here like all the way from the top of this to the bottom of this rail. Boom.

[00:17:54]Straight down. And yeah, it should all tie together quite well. What I do have to do now is the same to that side so that I can then slide, you know, this this bar all the way through, trim it to exactly the right length and start welding. So, I'm going to start getting rid of that. Uh, opening up that hole so we can actually get the 2 by3 in there.

[00:18:21]Go and buy myself some 2x3. and uh I'll be back in a flash.

[00:18:29]Okay. Well, I spared you uh watching the video of the back of my head throwing sparks and trying to cut metal out of a very confined area. Uh but I've got to where I was wanting to get. So, let me show you.

[00:18:44]Here is our 3x two box section.

[00:18:49]Harpooning the car literally well, so to speak.

[00:18:53]Uh now obviously this has got to be trimmed to length and we've got to get it like right through the other side too. But this will get welded all around here, all around here. Some little plates going in. Yeah. To just tie all this all this together nicely. Uh the bottom here, it's actually notched into the uh the two 3x2s we've got inside the rocker. So that's all going to be solid.

[00:19:18]Yeah, we'll add a little bit more bracing wherever I can. Uh inside here, you can kind of see all that's pretty much all gone now.

[00:19:30]That's going all the way through.

[00:19:35]>> Yeah, we'll uh we'll put the little panels back, you know, fill this back in here so that the original interior trim will all line up. That's about the same point, give or take a fraction, um, of where the original step up from the floor was about there. This might be a tiny bit higher. Now, uh, the other thing is, don't panic. I know there's a drive shaft got to come through here. Uh the other the piece we took out of here had had like a little C notch in it and a little step up here which I'll rep reproduce once we get I get all this all welded back in and all braced and gusseted and all that sort of stuff. Uh, and then I'll, you know, I'll weld I'll weld some material on the top here and get that all solid. And then we'll notch it out and, you know, at and then by that point, you know, we'll have the transmission, we'll have um the rear, you know, the the rear axle in and we can get it at full bump and we'll see how much of a notch we need to get that drive shaft in. And we'll set it up for just enough clearance. But yeah, still looking pretty naked. Uh yeah, we've got to get the CAD design going. Hang on.

[00:20:45]Let me see if I can try and get you a shot of that. We got this side of the rail here needs to be plated in. And that's where the the four length the lower fall length bracket or mount is going to go off here. And the upper mount will go off the back side of this 3x two. So that'll be super strong. the we'll put a quarterinch plate down here to hang the lower fallen bar and that'll all be tied in. You know, braces down here, braces across here. Think I'm repeating myself, you know.

[00:21:20]Uh so yeah, I'm I'm happy with it. It's it's it's different, but I do feel like this is going to be super strong. Uh and that is certainly one of the things I want this little car to be. I don't want it twisted and flexing around cuz they, you know, I mean, they they worked all right with a little 60 horsepower forbanger in them. Uh, and then, you know, when you put 170 horse 260 in them, that was they they struggled a bit. Uh, and then, you know, when you start putting a 331 with 400 horsepower in it, they're really going to struggle. So, uh, yeah, a lot of, uh, beefing up I'm doing. Um, some may say it's unnecessary, some may say it's not. This is what I'm doing. So, yeah, I um but that's it, guys. That's uh for this video anyway. I'm going to finish trimming this stuff up, make some patterns for some plates and bracing, and kind of get it all burned in. And uh on the next video, we'll have a closer look at what I've done there. And um carry on. All right, fellas. Hope you enjoyed that. Uh, like and subscribe, all that fun stuff. Hype the video if you liked it. That always helps me a lot. So, yeah. Uh, in the meantime, take it easy. I'll see you on the next one.

[00:22:43]Take care.