(upbeat music)
- What up guys, I'm Matt Field,
professional Formula Drift driver.
(motor revving)
Except that was my 2017 car.
This year we're building a 2013 Chevrolet Corvette.
(upbeat music)
Welcome to Field Prep.
Welcome to this week's episode of Field Prep.
I'm not quite done with the fab on the chassis,
so the goal is to get the body panels off to the body shop.
Get that all painted, teal and blue falcon colors.
Finish everything we need to do on the chassis.
We got a lot of stuff to do, a lot of little bits,
a lot of Carbon Kevlar, a lot of Carbon fiber to fit.
We need to get it done.
So it's time to hammer down.
(upbeat music)
The next step we need to do in even order to fit the body,
'cause that's what I need to focus on this week,
is getting this trimmed out.
So this is the air run out.
The fans go on the back right here.
This gets cut out and the fans blow the air through this
and then that pushes it through the bumper.
So we need to get all of this fit up correctly,
so that I can get the radiator mounted
in its right location.
Then this can get cut out in the rear bumper.
Taillights can get cut out.
Holes can get drilled for zip ties
and then this section will be done and ready for paint.
So that's what we're gonna do right now.
Get these all cut out with the fans set up
and try to finish it up.
Alright, here we go.
Got to cut this guy.
Normally I don't screw with this
but the last time I was cutting on the carbon stuff
for days, I had carbon lung, I felt it.
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That's where the air from the radiator comes out,
so time to cut it.
No turning back now, woo!
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Kevlar bro, looks good.
So we made a template off this stock taillight hole
in the rear bumper because the Ishq Ka rear bumper
is not cut out.
It's just solid, so were gonna make a template.
You can see these taillights they have like a screw mount
that goes up into a tab here and clips in there,
so it's gonna be kind of a mess but we'll get it.
Whoa, Johnny.
- Sugar free, Matt said I'm fat.
Number two.
(upbeat music)
- We're fitting up the Aeromotive brush list five gallon
per minute fuel pump and the fuel filter.
I just mounted the tops of the clamps here,
so now we to do ribbed nut the bottom.
You come to the inside here, you can see we just welded tabs
on the firewall on the back panel
and now it holds a firewall in.
And holds that in, this needs ribbed nuts on the bottoms
and we're good to go.
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This is gonna go forward, down into the front of the car.
And then the feed is basically up inside here
and it's gonna loop around come right into here.
Nice!
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Just got finished making some radiator mounts,
there rubber isolated.
Hopefully that should help.
My radiator was never rubber isolated on the S-14,
never cracked but obviously this is the right way to do it.
So I welded those on, these go on here.
Boom!
And right now Gram is about to rib nut two points
in the chassis 'cause this is where that goes there.
So we got the radiator mounts on.
Pretty good, it's cool because it can still swivel.
Now we're working on the front ones.
This is the layout here on 'em.
We're gonna dimple dye these ones
because they do have to be longer, so might as well.
Speed holes.
Now you gotta lighten up this 16 thick material here.
(hammering)
(upbeat music)
(grinding)
This is where the radiator grommet goes
and these two are are the dimple dies,
so I think it's time dimple die em.
(welding)
It's hard to reach all away around.
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Oh, yeah!
Voom, voom, voom, voom!
Got some movement, it's perfect.
I have the coolant lines figured out
but what I'm gonna do work on now
is getting the water lines through the firewall.
You can see this firewall is pretty thin so I
didn't want to just put the bulkhead fittings right to it.
So I'm making this plate that gonna go on the inside
and I'm gonna weld the bulk head nuts to it,
so you just thread bulkheads in, tighten it up.
Don't have to worry about getting
around the back or anything.
Then this will get bolted into the car and stay in there.
So hopefully, if you ever do have to take the lines off
you just loosen from right from the front,
pull the radiator or do whatever.
I'm gonna run a whole saw through this
and then weld the bulkhead nuts to this plate
before I get it all marked out.
This is gonna go on the inside of the firewall here,
these two bulkhead fittings are gonna come through it.
These nuts are gonna get welded to it.
Then the fittings will be able to go through the firewall.
You'll actually be able to tighten them down,
seriously before hand.
So I put the bulkhead plate on outside as a drill guide.
There was no way I was getting in there
with a case and everything else.
That's not gonna work.
And hopefully, yeah I can see it's not perfectly centered
so I can correct that a little bit.
(drilling)
Alright, I got the bulkheads through the plate
with the nuts in place.
I'm gonna go ahead and weld these on
like two sides or whatever
and then at that point I'll drill out these holes
to the correct size hardware.
Drill out firewall and then put it in
and see how the lines are gonna work.
It's gonna look like that
and thread this one in right now.
This is what it looks like on the back.
These are where the lines are gonna come up
to 90 fittings down.
Water lines are gonna run along here
and go out to our front little mailbox slot.
Oh damn, that looks good.
(upbeat music)
What I'm doing right now is finishing something
that I started a while ago.
It's something I'm pretty excited about.
Don't know why.
The door poppers.
I've been waiting for this piece
because I have to put a ribbed nut in this Carbon piece.
There's already one in the chassis here
for it to go through.
But I have to basically,
I just have drill that hole get this to be lined up,
mark where that next hole is gonna be.
Put a ribbed nut in this Carbon piece
and then that will be mounted.
You can see over here on this side, I already got it done.
Fits nice and flush.
Close the door, pull it and then the door opens up.
Nice.
But now this is a way I can get in and out of the car.
Look what I bought!
It's kind of cool for some stuff.
(upbeat music)
Alright, yeah!
This is a fuel filler cap for the fuel safe drive right?
I got the corner panel like sanded down
so it's nice and smooth.
And I'm gonna mark out the corners
where I'm gonna drill it.
I'll put in the corner panel, drill the corner panel
and then this is gonna get nut
and bolted in to the corner panel.
That way I can take it off
and put it on a spare corner panel, do whatever I need.
And it's gonna get painted all separately,
so if the paint gets underneath there,
this gets painted separately as well.
(drilling)
Got the plate here, got my holes drilled out.
I'm gonna go ahead and drill.
I marked out where the center of this is here,
so I have to go ahead and cut the corner panel.
And then, should be able to bolt it on.
So I got the fuel filler in.
It was definitely a pain in the (beep)
because this inner fender touching it
but it's got a little bit of movement so it's okay.
It didn't fit exactly the same as I intended
but we got it to work.
Pretty sweet just be able to push right up on it.
Right now I'm fitting the hood
and getting ready for hood things.
And Ry, is turning out the inner fenders
or the inner lip of the ACK outside fenders.
They come with a pretty big lip,
so we want to trim them just to make sure the tire
not gonna hit it.
These are the hood pins that I'm gonna be using.
There quick latches, pretty sweet.
Super convenient, it's nice 'cause you can
miss a line in a bunch.
So right now I'm figuring out where to go.
I had to trim out this part of the hood.
There is where the front like hinges,
since the Corvette hood hinges off the front.
So I'm gonna figure out where I want these,
drill a hole on both sides.
That's gonna tell me where it goes
on the chassis right here
and I'll make a hood pin come up to it.
And I'm gonna be using these in the back,
back here for my rear hood pin.
And this is just a stock piece
that I trimmed up a little bit.
So I have the hood marked out where they want to be.
This is the backing ring to this.
I have it marked out just where I want it on both sides.
So it's time to drill a hole.
(upbeat music)
So I got the hood fit up there, I made hood pins,
there sitting on the frame rails, I cleaned them all off.
You can see these up in here.
See my hood pins there,
so I just got em level or square this way.
Now I gotta square them inside and out and then
I'm gonna tack 'em right now then work on the front.
I got the hood fit,
pretty cool with these little popper guys.
It is gonna be a little bit annoying
having to use four hood pins to take the hood off.
But on a Corvette the hood opens this way
so It's kind of trying to think if there was a way
to do some sort of latch and everything.
But kind of just don't have the time
so it's gonna be this way for now
and if it absolutely drives me crazy,
I'll try to figure some sort of hinge and do it then.
But it came out good.
(upbeat music)
I'm about ready to weld the plates on
for the bash bar for the rear end.
Just got to clean up some of this paint,
clean up some of the edges a little bit
and then we'll be able to put 'em on and weld them in.
Before I do that though,
I have to weld the nut on the inside of the plate.
So let's get to it.
(grinding)
I got the plates trimmed up,
I got the frame rails smoothed out.
So I'm gonna weld these flange nuts
on the back of this flash bar plate
and I drilled a hole here
so I could weld this around to the frame rail.
I'm gonna do that to both of these plates and then
at that point, it'll be ready to go on the frame rail.
Kind of jumped the gun there
and was about to tack it without thinking.
I got the nuts welded in the plate.
My hole drills for the rosette weld is now turn out well.
So you can see how this piece fits around here.
I'm gonna go ahead and weld it all the way up.
Do the same of the other side.
And then we can put our bash bar plates up here.
I am working on front bash bar.
Have my plates here.
I'll laser cut out or CNC plasma cut out.
Just did my transfer, my pilot holes
and what I'm gonna do is drill this out
so that the nuts will go in here.
I'm gonna weld the nuts to this plate
on the inside of this plate.
Put the plate up in here,
with the nut sitting in the frame rail
and weld around this plate
so it actually makes it much sturdier.
If you look at the front of this,
it's actually pretty thin and can flex out a little bit.
If I weld that plate in here should be much stronger.
I got the bash bar plates done, nuts welded in,
I even primed the inside so it wouldn't rust
'cause it's just gonna be against the frame rail.
I got my holes drilled,
I had to slot 'em with the die grinder
because I used flanged nuts instead of regular nuts.
Kind of a stupid mistake but they fit
and I'm ready to weld them up.
(upbeat music)
The next thing I'm gonna do is build a front bash bar.
I just pulled my tubing out,
this is an inch and a quarter O63 weld chromoly.
It's really, really light but this has the same strength
as inch and half 095 wald DOM.
Which is, like the roll cage
and all the other stuff is built out of.
So it's light especially something you want
because it's sticking so far off the front end.
And all it has to do it protect this.
Very thin, floppy Kevlar front bumper.
So I'm gonna shoot for building right here,
you can see that's kind of where my height mark is,
based off the headlight to the middle of the plate here.
I'm gonna cut this tube,
line up my center mark and then do my first bend.
So now I need to go underneath
and measure from the dash bar plate to the bumper
to see how long of a forward bar we're gonna need.
It should be pretty much straight,
since the frame rails are like right here.
It should fit perfect in there,
but I am seeing that this comes down,
so I might have too twist the bar down a little bit.
I don't know.
So I just went ahead and cut my end pieces.
This is just a rough guess, but I have it squared up.
This is the length of the width of the frame rail,
center a tube, center a tube.
I'm gonna tack it, then tack it on here.
Grab the front bumper, fit it on
and see if our clearance is right.
It's fit, bumper clears,
I'm gonna weld as much as I can on the chassis.
I'll probably take it off to weld the bottoms of it,
so I'm just not tip welding on my back
but I'm gonna go ahead and take it up.
I hope you guys enjoyed this week's episode.
Check back in next week.
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