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.

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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?

 

[captdistraction]

They were high pressure PTFE lines, but I think we did the crimp work ourselves (IE: finger of blame). Definitely something I'd get the measurements and have a shop with a good mandrel set do (even a HosePower or equivalent place would be fine)

 

[JAJ]

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


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?

The 250 PSI limit is for aluminum fittings. The fittings to use for this are steel -6AN. The -6AN Part # 600006ERL hose from Holley is rated 1500 PSI and the steel fittings for it are presumably rated at least that high. Aluminum not so much, though.

As for assembly, if I need something made, I have an industrial shop nearby that makes them for me. They primarily serve trucking companies and other industrial users, so they're not top of mind for us car guys. They've got the right tooling and their prices are pretty reasonable. They assemble to spec and pressure test to the rated pressure (brake lines I've had done were tested at 3,000PSI). There's bound to be someone like this where you are.

 

[Dave_W]

+1 for both the steel fittings vs. aluminum and the industrial hydraulic hose shops. You could look for places that cater to replacing hydraulic hoses on construction equipment. The other thing to consider is using hard line instead of hose.

Find a Store

www.parkerstore.com

 

[Tonymustang302]

Why dont you call a company like pirtek to come make them for you at your house. My buddy used to work for them in college and they have everything on their trucks for every scenario with industrial crimpers that come to you

pirtekusa.com

 

[cholmes1]

Very interested to see how this all comes together. I’m especially interested in your dry sump parts list and installation.

As part of this build process have you torn the engine down and had it blueprinted?

Hydraulics look great as well

 

[honeybadger]

Very interested to see how this all comes together. I’m especially interested in your dry sump parts list and installation.

As part of this build process have you torn the engine down and had it blueprinted?

Hydraulics look great as well

Engine was blueprinted by MPR Racing (second refresh). Has very few hours on it, so will work with a local builder to verify it and take measurements for the new crank (only parts needed are new crank and cams). At least that's what is predicted.

And I'll post a dry sump parts list and install soon.

 

[honeybadger]

Made a wee bit of progress this. Got the spare tire well cut out and the "bulkhead fitted. Simple stitch welds on 3 sides with tabs bent down on the back and then those welded to the chassis. As usually, tons of contamination between the layer I was welding to and the one behind that I didn't have access to. So took a bit of work to get a serviceable weld.





Next up will be building the "cage" and box it goes in. Copy fabman's method. Hopefully will get that done this week.

Reasons for the little progress: setting up a small band saw station and assembling a welding table



These should help with the parts of the project we're getting to now. This little garage sure is getting full!

 

[honeybadger]

Okay - made a good bit more progress on the fuel cell tonight than anticipated. First things first, build the mounting structure/cage for the fuel cell. I used 1x1 tube for top mounting "flange". Then 2in width by 1/8th in thick flat stock for the "straps."



Then built an outer shell around that using 16g steel. It's about 1/4in wider/longer/deeper than the fuel cell.


Trace onto the bulkhead I put in over the weekend



Cut out square and weld to bottom of outer shell. Then drop shell into floor (after enlarging the hole a bit more as needed for fit)


Test fit fuel cell


Next is to weld on mounts for the fuel cell "cage" to bolt into the frame rails and then drill holes for the fuel cell to mount to. Planning to use rivet nuts for easy remove of the fuel cell

 

[Fabman]

Okay - made a good bit more progress on the fuel cell tonight than anticipated. First things first, build the mounting structure/cage for the fuel cell. I used 1x1 tube for top mounting "flange". Then 2in width by 1/8th in thick flat stock for the "straps."

View attachment 85360

Then built an outer shell around that using 16g steel. It's about 1/4in wider/longer/deeper than the fuel cell.
View attachment 85362

Trace onto the bulkhead I put in over the weekend

View attachment 85361

Cut out square and weld to bottom of outer shell. Then drop shell into floor (after enlarging the hole a bit more as needed for fit)
View attachment 85363

Test fit fuel cell
View attachment 85364

Next is to weld on mounts for the fuel cell "cage" to bolt into the frame rails and then drill holes for the fuel cell to mount to. Planning to use rivet nuts for easy remove of the fuel cell

Rivnuts might be okay to bolt the can to the tubing but the tubing frame to the car needs to be bolted through the body with big washers on the back to keep the cell rigidly located in the event of a flip or crash. Also I bolted 2 straps across the top of the cell to help keep it firmly located in the frame. (this is required in many rule books) I love following this….great job!

Personally I don’t like rivnuts, I’ve had too many pull out under load so I just don’t trust them. What I do instead is take a flange nut and turn it upside down. Then I drill a hole in the tubing just big enough for the nut to sit flush but not big enough to let the flange of the nut fall through, then I weld it into the tube. Super strong and you can screw the bolts in and out a million times without pulling through or damaging the Threads.

 

[Fabman]

I welded the flange nuts to the bottom of the tube so the bolts go all the way through the tube. A cell full of fuel is quite heavy and god forbid the car starts flipping you want that bomb as firmly located as possible. I used 3/8” bolts to mount the cell to the body.

 

[honeybadger]

Rivnuts might be okay to bolt the can to the tubing but the tubing frame to the car needs to be bolted through the body with big washers on the back to keep the cell rigidly located in the event of a flip or crash. Also I bolted 2 straps across the top of the cell to help keep it firmly located in the frame. (this is required in many rule books) I love following this….great job!

Personally I don’t like rivnuts, I’ve had too many pull out under load so I just don’t trust them. What I do instead is take a flange nut and turn it upside down. Then I drill a hole in the tubing just big enough for the nut to sit flush but not big enough to let the flange of the nut fall through, then I weld it into the tube. Super strong and you can screw the bolts in and out a million times without pulling through or damaging the Threads.

Agreed on mounting to the body. I had planned to copy the same style of mount flange and was going to use some M10 bolts to go into some buts welded to a plate that's welding to the frame rail.

I've had good luck with rivet nuts so far, but I hadn't thought of your upside down flange nut idea. I'm going to look into that. Great idea.

Also planned to copy your top mount straps. Just ran out 1/8in stock ha. Planning my resupply mission

 

[Fabman]

Here we go:
I like to run a tap through the threads after welding to clean them up as the nut tends to shrink some from the heat.

 

[honeybadger]

Here we go:
I like to run a tap through the threads after welding to clean them up as the nut tends to shrink some from the heat.

Ahh great. Another application to practice my tig welding. I got started with tig this weekend - oh boy. Had no idea how much different controlling the puddle is. So much easier to control the heat, but harder to control the puddle. ha