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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 7, 2014 18:59:47 GMT -5
Well its time to make some changes to my Bradley. A little background...here is a picture of the car the day I picked it up in Alabama back in 2009. You can see the broken driver door laying on the back of the car. The next pictures are of it at my house a couple of weeks later, after I got it running, stopping, and lighting up. I have been driving it like this ever since.   
Thanks to the inspiration from Skip20s projects I decided to go forward with my modifications. The drivers door was broken and the passenger door and back glass were cracked so I decided to change it into a roadster (Hence the GT-R). Here are some crude photoshops of what I want to end up with.  
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 7, 2014 19:09:36 GMT -5
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 7, 2014 19:20:07 GMT -5
Next I built a windshield support out of 1/2 inch square tube.   
It follows the shape of the trimmed windshield area and will be screwed to the body at the bottom then glassed in at the 'A' pillar and across the top. |
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Post by skip20 on Jul 7, 2014 19:56:14 GMT -5
I like you idea's. Good work on the W/S frame
Like the turtledeck.
Keep up the good work, it's fun & keeps you out of the BARs because all the money went to this.
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 9, 2014 22:01:59 GMT -5
Thanks Skip! The roll bar I will be using is designed for a Miata. It is a chrome 2 inch double hump bar. I will be adding some structure to the Bradley with some tubing and will incorporate this bar into that. Here are some pictures of how I plan to use it. It is still wrapped in the shipping foam so it looks white.
  
Jon |
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 13, 2014 22:29:42 GMT -5
I got a chance to work on the Bradleys reinforcement frame today. I bent the perimeter frame from .120 wall 1.5 inch tubing. It will incorporate 6 pickup points on the pan and two forward mounts on the front axle tube and two rearward mounts on the rear shock mount brackets.
  
The knee bar will also be the steering column support. The knee bar will need to be curved to fit tightly to the dash and give as much room as possible for getting in and out of the car.
  
You can see the curve of the knee bar in the center picture above. The whole assembly is slid back a little for the pictures it will be about 2 inches further forward and an inch up closer to the dash.
The frame will also incorporate a windshield bar and the double-hump roll bar behind the seats.
Jon |
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Post by Big-birds-ride on Jul 14, 2014 12:04:54 GMT -5
Looks great and I like the cardboard mock up. That will really give the Bradley a touch of real sports car look. Keep up the good work and post pics as to progress. This is very fun to watch.
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Post by horen2tas on Jul 14, 2014 18:19:07 GMT -5
NICE metal fab!!
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Post by skip20 on Jul 14, 2014 18:23:31 GMT -5
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Post by savedbygrace on Jul 14, 2014 20:22:50 GMT -5
Looks good. Nice fab with a tubing bender. Are you gonna use the full windshield frame or cut the top off and just use the glass?
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 14, 2014 20:33:40 GMT -5
Thanks for all the positive comments! @sbg - I am using the full fiberglass, in fact I will be adding a little to tie in the metal support I showed earlier.
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 14, 2014 21:56:00 GMT -5
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 14, 2014 22:24:12 GMT -5
After rolling the frame it opened up a lot. Next I trimmed the length of the 'A' pillar portions and bent a little kick in at the bottom to line up with the lower frame tubes. It is hard to see the bends at the bottom in the picture of it in the car but I lost the picture of just the windshield frame bent. You can see how much closer it follows the windshield after rolling. Lastly there is a picture of the inner reinforcement frame out of the car.    
I think I might have been able to tuck it in a little closer at the top if I had rolled it before I bent the 'A' pillar ends. The bends prevented me from being able to roll all the length of the top bar. But I think it is good enough for me so I wont be re-doin it.  I also cut 2.5 inches out of the width of the double-hump Miata bar. This was to help line up the 'humps' with the seat backs. It is just sitting there in the picture to get an idea how it will look. I cut a piece of tubing to slip inside where I cut it to reinforce the weld but I did not get it welded back together or installed because it began to rain again. Maybe in the next few evenings I'll get it mounted. Jon
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 20, 2014 16:09:54 GMT -5
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Post by Gary Hammond on Jul 20, 2014 16:47:56 GMT -5
Hi Jon,  Nice work with the tubing!  Just curious ...........what are you doing to the (V-8 ?) camshaft mounted in your lathe, and what's it out of  Gary Hammond,   |
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Post by skip20 on Jul 20, 2014 18:32:17 GMT -5
That is GREAT tubing work with the HF stuff.
You will have to come over here for some bending when I do my next Trike.
Where Have tou been hiding all this time "METALMAN"
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Post by 48flatbed on Jul 20, 2014 21:03:17 GMT -5
Thanks for the nice comments!
@gary - Yep it is a V8 camshaft. It is from a Ford 351W - I was checking the lobe lift to see what size it is, and the overlap and duration. The lathe is a convenient way to measure round things. (and make cool stuff)
@ skip20 - thanks the roller is an HF item all my other benders are home built by me (Im a cheapskate!). Speaking of cool stuff made on the lathe, I made my own dies for my bender on my lathe. They are steel and VERY heavy but they work well!
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