S550 Honey Badger GT350 Build Build Thread Profile - S550 Mustangs

[Fabman]

Made a little more progress today. Got the passenger front on. With both fronts tested for fit, I went ahead and fully welded it on. Might have gone a bit overboard with the welds, but at least I know it’s not going to move. Ha

View attachment 84732View attachment 84733

for the rears, I am using this plug behind the seats and before the rear seat shelf. I thought about tucking into the corner a bit more, but the floor underneath has some brackets I didn’t want to mess with.

To enlarge this hole, I made a template out of wood and hot glued it to the floor. Then used a hole saw to cut the 2.75in hole for the mounting tube.

View attachment 84731View attachment 84730

easy peasy. Underneath of floor will have a 3/16in thick steel plate welded to the floor. Then tube welded to that. Still waiting on the plate.

View attachment 84728

in the meantime, I fab’d up this bracket for the top. Reinforced with two gussets - one on each side.


View attachment 84729

Very cool!

 

[honeybadger]

Got a little more progress done on the badger.

Rear air jack mounts are in. I originally had planned to just weld a plate to the floor and then weld the mounting tube to that and then add a gusseted mount up top. But after the bottom plate giving me a lot of trouble with mount to the floor, I decided to double-up the bracing in the cabin.

Bottom plate took about 150 tacks to get enough material to lay a proper bead on. At least for this n00b



Double-braced in the cabin


Air jack fits - didn't warp anything


Obviously had to test the jack

Air jack test

youtube.com

I also got my seat rails mounted in. Will no longer need the Planted seat brackets I used before. And the seat will sit lower to the ground. Not that my 5 7" frame needs headroom, but the further away I can be from doors and roofs in a race car, the better.


Next up is either the fuel cell or dry sump tank mounting. Probably the fuel cell. Waiting on the delivery of my welding table so I can use that to help fabricate the fuel cell mounting structure. Hopefully this weekend.

 

[JAJ]

How much air pressure are you planning to use to raise the jacks? It had never crossed my mind until I was in the pits at a pro event in 2018 and I realized that all the crews have those tall, skinny high-pressure air bottles to run the jacks. I did a quick calculation and if your jack cylinders are 2" diameter or so, you'll need more than 350PSI to lift the front corners. How are you doing that?

 

[honeybadger]

How much air pressure are you planning to use to raise the jacks? It had never crossed my mind until I was in the pits at a pro event in 2018 and I realized that all the crews have those tall, skinny high-pressure air bottles to run the jacks. I did a quick calculation and if your jack cylinders are 2" diameter or so, you'll need more than 350PSI to lift the front corners. How are you doing that?

Manufacturer says to start around 400 PSI and see how that goes. This reminds me I need to find the appropriate AN fittings. I plan to run 1/4" tubing from the valve to the individual jacks. The jacks have a -6 an fitting on them. The AN fittings for tubing that I am finding on places like Summit have 250 PSI limits.

As far as air source - I plan to mount a 40cu ft bottle in the trailer and using a regulator to supply the air at whatever PSI I need. We a have a bottle in the storage unit already. Just need to mount it, get the regulator, and source an appropriate hose.

 

[JAJ]

Manufacturer says to start around 400 PSI and see how that goes. This reminds me I need to find the appropriate AN fittings. I plan to run 1/4" tubing from the valve to the individual jacks. The jacks have a -6 an fitting on them. The AN fittings for tubing that I am finding on places like Summit have 250 PSI limits.

As far as air source - I plan to mount a 40cu ft bottle in the trailer and using a regulator to supply the air at whatever PSI I need. We a have a bottle in the storage unit already. Just need to mount it, get the regulator, and source an appropriate hose.

Try these guys: https://www.anplumbing.com/pre-made-hoses/pre-made-6-ptfe-hoses.html

I've had great service from them on some hard to find items.

 

[captdistraction]

be careful with the lines. There's a World challenge race in 13/14 where there's great video of my team screaming at each other in the pit lane after a line blew off at a crimp location - we had the safety jacks in but when the pistons retracted, there was little we could do to safely remove the stands during the 45 minutes of the race. Painful event memory, for sure, and every time after that event I was absolutely terrified of our airjack system - I let the other guys set the stands before I would get near it.

 

[honeybadger]

Try these guys: https://www.anplumbing.com/pre-made-hoses/pre-made-6-ptfe-hoses.html

I've had great service from them on some hard to find items.

No luck - but they did point me in a few directions. Thanks!

be careful with the lines. There's a World challenge race in 13/14 where there's great video of my team screaming at each other in the pit lane after a line blew off at a crimp location - we had the safety jacks in but when the pistons retracted, there was little we could do to safely remove the stands during the 45 minutes of the race. Painful event memory, for sure, and every time after that event I was absolutely terrified of our airjack system - I let the other guys set the stands before I would get near it.

Yeah - this is a fear of mine. I plan to use blocks like the Kohr team uses. A lot more dummy proof than the blocks that wrap around the pistons themselves.

I'm working on sourcing some really high pressure fittings like they use in the aircraft industry - I have a feeling people mistakenly use AN fittings - which are only rated to 250psi. If you don't mind, where did it fail exactly? Did the hose just fly out of the crimp fitting?