914 Maddog Inner Long Chassis Stiffening Kit - Prep

Knowing I'm going to be putting alot of power through this chassis and after a bit of research and advice from the great folks at 914World.com I decided to weld-in reinforcement to the Longs inside the cabin. I bought the 3 piece kit from Maddog Motorsports http://maddogsmotorsports.org

Here's what you get in the kit.... 2 folded sections that go inside the main Longs and a flat plate that connects the sides along the base of the firewall.

I spent time prepping the three sections. They had a good deal of Black Oxide covering them which I removed with a Strip Disc on an Angle Grinder. I've found in the past that it's more difficult to weld through the oxide, you get alot of spatter and the weld isn't as clean - I guess it could be contaminated with the oxide....so best spend the time and effort removing it I reckon. You can see the oxide on the right of the pic below...and the shiny stripped metal to the left.

The holes in the sections were roughly 6mm diameter but I decided to drill them out to 8mm for a little extra strength. I also drilled a number of extra holes which I felt would add a degree of strength and stiffness. As soon as the sections were stripped and drilled, I sprayed them with Weld Thru Primer to prevent re-oxidation..it can happen pretty quickly!

Obviously I needed to strip the Longs and Lower Firewall of paint and clean them up ready for welding. Here's some more shiny pics of the Longs ready to be welded onto..I forgot to take a pic of the Lower Firewall...doh!

...and sprayed with Weld-Thru primer.

It was worth taking the time to fit the sections carefully into place with self-tapping screws. The screws obviously hold the sections really closely against the car to help create solid welds and get maximum reinforcement.

Here's the Lower Firewall section screwed into place..

A little bit of hammering and bending is needed to get the sections to fit in certain areas - such as the handbrake recess, firewall corners and centre...see pic below. I got a bit carried away and decided to clean out the weld-thru primer in the holes with thinners. I reckon you get a better, stronger weld when welding directly onto bare metal..hopefully I'll only have to do this job once..oh yeah, make sure the thinners have completely dried before you start welding!!!..

Tangerine Racing - Suspension Ear Re-Inforcement

Having re-inforced the outer suspension console, I needed to do the inner one - often referred to as the suspension 'ear'.

When I cleaned it up I realised there were a few rust holes which I welded up before welding on the re-inforcement piece.

This is the part from Tangerine Racing. Cleaned up and weld primered..

Here it is welded into place and 'tidied up' with the grinder post welding. Not the easiest thing to weld neatly! But it works...

Before painting it with Epoxy Primer I gave it a final going over with a cup brush on the grinder..and look what I unearthed..a lovely big hole on the underside of the ear. Had I not found it I suppose the suspension could have folded under heavy loading ...

 

...so I closed it up with with what could be described as a welded 'dog's dinner'! To be fair it was really tricky welding in this tight corner, especially upside-down. I think that should be strong enough now!

I should just mention, I also decided to weld all around the edges of the ear for extra rigidity.

More holes on the other side of the ear, welded closed..

..and the whole thing gets a liberal slap of primer, ready for the next 40 years.

Inner Wheel House clean-up and primer..

Here's just a few pics of cleaning up the hell-hole and inner wheel house post welding..don't get too excited! I'll do a bit of filling and sanding later to finish it off but at least it won't start rusting now.

Next job will be to stiffen up the suspension ear (bottom of the last pic) and add the Heim Rods from the stiffening kit to help stabilise the suspension under heavy loads..."fascinating" I hear you cry. Bet you can't wait to see that!

Tangerine Racing - Chassis Stiffening Installation

Now the Inner Wheel House was done, I started on stiffening the chassis. I bought a kit from Chris Foley at CFR Tangerine Racing in the US. These pics show the installation of the external suspension console. I felt that with the intended horsepower and potential track use it might be a good idea to beef up the suspension to handle the increased loads and stresses.

So first off, I cleaned up the suspension console and painted it with epoxy primer. Here it is with the paint off..

...and painted up.

I prepped the first bit of the kit ready to install.. I cleaned off the temporary primer and sprayed the reverse side with Weld Primer...

..and welded it in.

And now comes the "here's one I made earlier" moment. I stupidly didn't take enough pics and got a bit carried away just welding the hell out of everything! So here's the finished job, fully welded and just needing clean-up and paint! Bear in mind I have to do this on both sides, obviously, so next time I'll take more pics.

You can see how the kit boxes-up the suspension console to prevent it flexing or cracking under heavy loading.

Here it is cleaned-up...

...and primed.

Inner Wheel House - outside painted

I ground the outside welds down although only partially. I felt it was better to leave the weld largely intact so as not to grind the sheet too thin at any point - and once the wing is welded back in place and the wheel house itself has a black stone-chip coating on it you won't be able to see the welds anyway!

Here it is ground, wire-brushed and de-greased...

Then I painted it with Epoxy Primer. I'll eventually do one or two more coats of the Epoxy before I paint it with black stone-chip paint to finish..

Firewall Hole Patch-Up

Rust from the Hell-Hole had spread into the lower section of the Firewall, so that rust had to be cut-out and the hole filled. Here's the hole from the outside and inside...

The patch fabricated..

Welded.. I will grind it smooth and paint later.

Inner Wheel House patch-ups...

Because the main hole I needed to fill was larger than the Panel would fill, I had to do a little extra patching. Here are the pics of that....

I patched it in 2 parts. Here's the first patch from the outside.

And the second patch...