Here's what I'm currently doing - cutting pieces of 1/4" aluminum angle (1.5"x2") for a custom part of this new truck (this isn't the motor mount):

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1098Small.jpg

ah, now that i look further in my archive of pics. its 7075-O softer stuff i suppose, right?



http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h1...DSCN2832-1.jpg

thanks for the compliments, its been a long journey to get it running.

Yes, it is softer because it has not been heat-treated.

Yea it is annealed

Here's what I cut out of the 1/4" angle today. I still need to do some filing:


http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1111Small.jpg


http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1107Small.jpg



It's a bit beefier than stock - I may cut away some more metal, but my plan is to connect these shock towers through the bulkheads to the chassis with long bolts and connect my braces (whatever they end up looking like) directly to these shock towers.

Nice work
 

We can see where your going with this and I kind of like it. Just looking at your effots I can see various ways to do this. Its always nice to see some home made alternatives to most of the weaker stock parts that we have had to deal with over the years. Personally I like parts like this one to be beefier so they hold up better. Unless you are terribly concerned about excess wieght I would just leave them the way you made them at least for now. These types of projects take a lot longer, but always turn out better and can still be modified even more to make adjustments to suit ones taste in engineering, balance, and handling. Nice work, keep it up.

Nice work! I wish i could do this! THis is going to be awesome... i want to see more progress on this chassis.. quite intrigued as to how this will turn out.

You could easily do this - the only tools I use are a tabletop drill press, hacksaws, files, dremel, tap, and other hand tools.

The dimensions of the body are:

11.25" wide at wheel wells (widest spot):

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1126Small.jpg

25.5" long:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1128Small.jpg

7.5" high:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1131Small.jpg

and compared to 4 year old girl:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1132Small.jpg

Thanks for the measurements and the size reference Brian!

haha awesome pics bud! Crazy how big that body really is!!!!

You do some really nice work Brian, i love these projects.

Alright, I had a chance to do a little bit on this project. I changed the shock towers slightly. I was going to try to make this work without a top plate on the bulkheads (just the shock tower) but have gone back to a top plate. Here's how it looks attached through the bulkheads with four 70mm bolts, that will go through holes in the chassis:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1211Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1212Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1213Small.jpg

The idea with this is that I'm not relying on any screws into the plastic bulkheads to hold things together. I decided to think of how I would want this designed If I were designing it from the ground up - and connecting the shock towers as directly to the chassis as possible was what I wanted. So I needed to design my own shock towers with narrower legs/feet with the same width as the bottom chassis holes.

Next, I need to start cutting/drilling the chassis so I can mount this.

Edit:

I'll add these comments to this post: The extra holes in the supports will allow me to lower the tower by 1/4" if I want to try raising the ride height a bit.

The diff blocks have been reinforced with glued-on lexan sheet because I had to drill holes through them - otherwise they would have broken into two pieces.

I'm a fan.
 

I'm a fan now. Your work is very interesting, and I like the way you think with regards to rigidity, strength, and stability. This rig is going to turn out really solid if you keep moving in the same direction you are right now. Keep up the good work Bud. It's too bad that there is not an easy way to replace the bulkhead/diff setup altogether. Isn't there an aluminum upgrade for those diffs?

Jerry, thanks for the kind words, and yes, you can buy aluminum bulkheads and shock towers - but I decided I'd rather engineer my own solution than just buy someone else's. I think that what I'm doing will be just as strong - so I'm giving it a try.

[Having said that, I do have one set of aluminum bulkheads and one aluminum shock tower on my other large scale build - but I picked them up at a bargain.]

I cut the back end of the chassis plate and mounted the rear bulkhead assembly to see how it fits:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1246Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1247Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1248Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._1249Small.jpg

It feels very solid to me. I'll make a skid plate to protect the socket heads sticking out the bottom.