Commence the welding!

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and what better to do then fire up the welder and begin fusing the metals with some gas metal arc welding. But in more important news, after weeks of being taunted for missing build days to transplant raspberry bushes, Danielle brought a delicious peace offering of mini raspberry cheesecakes. If you weren't here for them, you missed out. Just look how good they look!


Yeah I had eaten one already...anyways, back to the car. My big brother, and Chump, Jeff, came over to start the welding. We had tack welded the halo inside the car, and surprisingly, we were able to take them out together. So he started welding the Halo to the main hoop, then we started adding the diagonal cross bars. We decided to give our fat pig car some extra rollover protection with a second diagonal brace.


The el Jeffe had to hop in the car to weld some of the horizontal back braces. We could have pulled it all back out, but he wanted to see if he could weld himself into the car. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough on grabbing the camera to document his climb out the back window.


Another shot of the horizontal back bars. We're contemplating lowering the driver seat, which means we might need to add another bar for the seat belts, but we'll see.



Then we got to welding in the front down tubes. To get access to the top side of the weld, we had to plinthe box them, so we could remove the boxes and tip the cage down. Now I just need to build the finished versions of those plinthes, and we'll get those welded in, and the cage welded to the car. We also have a dash support bar ready, but decided to hold off on welding it in yet. But now that the down tubes are welded, we can finish cutting and fitting the door bars. They should be ready to weld in next weekend.


Soren climbed into the front wheel wells to get the new calipers, rotors and brake lines installed.


Don't they look hot? Nice aluminum, four pot calipers save us 4lbs per caliper, but it turns out the bigger LS400 rotors weigh 5lbs more. Doh! Oh well, we'll have some much improved stopping power, for basically the same cost as stock parts. Woot! We also picked up our first sponsor, Frozen Rotors, for a discount on cryogenically treated brake rotors, but we're saving those rotors until we get the race pads.


Next week we'll be back at some small projects, like putting in the braided brake lines in the rear, and flushing the brake system with new high temp fluid. Hopefully the tires will be installed by then and the car will be able to move under its own power. But the weekend of May 1st will be another big build day with lots of projects. We'll probably even start earlier then usual, so if you're a Chump, watch for that invite. Catch you Chumps on the flip-side!

Build Day 4/11 - More cage work

Another build day with a few more projects worked on. We started working on the battery relocation and mounted the remote battery terminals in the engine bay. The cooling fan wiring is complete as well.

We also cut some 4" holes in the trunk to mount the tail lights in. I was amazed how easily a new hole saw cut through the sheet metal.

We also tried removing the fuel tank and found that to be amazingly difficult. You'd think a fuel tank mounted in the trunk would be easy to remove, but no. We did come up with a way to mount the cage into the trunk without welding, which means we can do it with the tank in place. Basically we'll bolt plates in on the wheel well rather than weld it. Should work out well.

Matt also got the passenger door gutted, so they are ready to be reinstalled once the cage is complete.

Greg and Jeremy got a bunch more done on the cage as well. It's really starting to look look good. Since we discovered that the ChumpCar rules changed and we have heavier tubing than we need, we should be nice and safe, just like Lexus intended.

Build Day 4/3 - More cage, less glass

Saturday was a light build day. Most of the team was busy with Easter and other things so Jeff, Greg and I, with a little late help from Fritz, worked on the harder projects.

Fritz and I removed the trunk lid and rear window. The Harbor Freight windshield kit worked well, although the cable broke four times. The rear window was 17 lbs. All of the glass is now out except the windshield, which will stay. I'd like to install polycarbonate windows, but it's a low priority at the moment.





We started planning out the rest of the cage, and the rear down tubes look like they will be a little challenging. In this photo is the fuel tank, which is mounted in the trunk, over the axle. The rear down tube will come down to the front ofthe wheel arch, next to, and in front of the fuel tank. So, next week, we'll have to pull the tank out.


Jeff and Greg fitting the main hoop diagonal. Hey,this is starting to look like a real roll cage now! Next week we should be able to get the door bars done and start on the rear down tubes.






We have a track day in late May, which seems like a long way away, but is getting closer every day. I'm sure glad we started in November!