(upbeat music)
- So the steering column came in today,
super, super nice stuff.
All Woodward fab, really nice U joints,
these are the steering column mounts.
This is the steering column itself.
It's really nice because this end right here
is collapsible so the mounts go here and then you can
basically adjust your length here
and if you do crash and end up smacking
the steering wheel, you won't die.
So this is the lower pieces, the OEM Corvette,
that's a piece of 3/4 tube that we welded on there,
it's gonna be going right through the firewall.
Tilton floor mount pedals are just sitting in here,
not mounted yet 'cause we wanted to get our
steering column all situated.
Seat brackets, C&C billet seat brackets for the seat.
This is the seat out of my S14 while I wait for Cobra
to come up with some more seats for the Corvette.
But this is gonna be going basically just like this
and bam, we're in business.
- That is nice.
- So nice,
they just make it too easy.
Bolt on, quick release hub.
There she goes.
Alright, we got the steering column stuff put together.
This is my view.
Some pedals.
This Woodward stuff is just so nice
and man, the Corvette is so easy.
The steering column goes straight through the hole
that it was intended for.
You put your seat brackets on that you just buy.
You get your floor mount pedals and they mount
right to the floor.
(upbeat music)
Alright, so today we're gonna be working with
the fire suppression system, the guys at Safecraft
just sent me one over
and of course they included real sweet Tyler McQuarrie
stickers on there.
- Hello. - Thanks guys.
We're also gonna be finalizing the steering column,
making mounts for it, for the front and the back
part of it.
I'm actually trying to plan out where the
fire suppression bottle's gonna go
so I'm gonna get these seat brackets in on the
passenger side 'cause I'm worried about
where we're gonna be running our water lines,
how the seat's all gonna fit.
I'm thinking about putting the fire suppression
bottle right here, how the lines are gonna come
through the firewall so this is like one of the
toughest parts in actually planning out the car
because you don't know exactly how big the parts are,
how small the parts are, and where you're gonna put them.
So parts are starting to flow in,
it's kinda been a slow week.
We're still waiting for more parts,
that's kinda the nature of the beast when you're
building a race car, I guess.
So hopefully more things show up
and we'll be able to get some more stuff done.
Until then, I'm gonna work with what I have
and get these parts on the car.
(upbeat music)
So I was thinking about a couple of different places
to put the fire suppression bottle,
maybe up underneath the dash somewhere,
but it's not the lightest thing seeing as it's filled
with fire retardant foam, soapy water stuff,
so I figure if I can put the more weight in the back,
the better.
It seems like I might have some open space here
so that's why I was getting the dash 20 line for the
water lines because I really want the water lines
to run up here and go through the firewall to the rear.
So, maybe it will fit right here,
I guess we'll see.
(upbeat music)
So I'm figuring out how I want to route the pull cable.
I like it old school.
Safecraft obviously makes a ton of cool like
self-igniting fire suppression systems
and push button ones and all that stuff,
I just like it mechanical, I like it old school.
A cable, it's simple, doesn't need power or ground,
or blah, blah, blah, constant power, or nothing.
So I like it like this,
it makes it maybe a little bit more difficult
'cause you do need to make sure that the angle of the
cable and everything is proper and doesn't have
kinks and stuff like that but I have a pretty good
routing idea.
I wanna mount the bottle here,
have the pull cable run down along the trans tunnel here,
come up and then over to the A pillar.
Formula drift rules say that you can either mount
a single pull cable, as long as it's within 12 inches
of the window opening.
Or if you want it like on your dash or something,
then you have to put another one like either on the
outside of the car or still within a window opening,
so that an official can pull your cable if you need to.
So, I usually like to do both of them at once
by mounting it on the A pillar.
So this should be able to just have a mount right there,
that way it's safe for me to grab and for the officials
to grab and then the cable will just route along
the firewall and come down here.
(upbeat music)
So I'm gonna take the clamps off and then mount the
bracket into the car.
Now would you look at that,
look at these sweet Tyler McQuarrie stickers
that those guys at Safecraft.
Damn you guys.
You're lucky I love you Tyler.
Alright, let's mount these up.
Alright, so I positioned the first mount,
gonna go ahead and mount it,
check it again to make sure that the bottle's
gonna fit correctly, hopefully,
and then we're gonna rivnut it in.
(upbeat music)
Alright, now that the mounts are in the place
that they need to be, I'm gonna pull them out
and then put in these rivnuts.
It makes life a lot easier in the future,
I mean, you saw me reaching back and having to screw
a nut on the back, it's just super annoying.
So we put these in the chassis so it's like a rivet
but it's a threaded rivet.
So when it's in the chassis, all I'm gonna have to do
is just bolt the bolts right in.
And it's funny because Chevy uses a lot of those
on this thing, seeing as it's like either aluminum
or fiberglass or whatever, so they have a lot of
threaded holes all in the chassis.
We just add some more.
I got a little rivnut set up,
this bites into the rivnut to keep it from spinning.
So we put the rivnut on here, put that in the hole,
hold the rivnut, and turn it in.
So what it's doing right now is it's pulling
the backside of it flat so that it holds in the chassis.
Pull this out, and bam, we have a threaded hole,
no welding needed, nothing.
Keeps it simple, makes it easy, it's quick,
best way to build a car.
(upbeat music)
Now that the bottle's all mounted,
I'm gonna start figuring out the lines,
pull cable routing, 'cause obviously we need nozzles.
Formula D rules say we need a nozzle spraying
at the fuel cell, at or in the vicinity of the driver
in the cockpit, and then one in the engine bay.
Alright, so next I'm gonna make the mounts for the
steering column.
We got this all set up, that's with the wheel sitting
all the way down.
Where I'm comfortable is if it's raised just a little bit.
So I'm gonna make two tabs to go on either side
so that this mount can sandwich itself in.
So I'm gonna drill two pilot holes,
and then I'm gonna go ahead and drill the 5/16 hole
that we need for the steering column mount.
(upbeat music)
Alright, holes are drilled,
let's deburr it, trim 'em up, see how it fits.
So I'm pretty happy with the tabs that we made
for the steering column, so I took it all apart.
Those are the tabs there, we have our firewall bearing.
Now, this is what the shaft that connects to the
steering rack passes through there.
I have it marked on the back where the stock hole is
and this is how much room we're gonna have to drill
and rivet and then bond this in.
You can see like a lot of the holes
we can't weld them in because it's a fiberglass
firewall so they're bonded in.
So we're gonna do the same with some rivets
and bond it in.
Alright, so I'm about to put this firewall bearing
into the firewall.
As you can see, I put some sealant on it
and drilled holes for 1/8 inch rivets.
Since it's fiberglass we gotta bond it in
and rivet it in so I'm gonna go ahead and do that.
By the way, this thing, the best ever.
Pneumatic rivet gun, oh my god,
especially when you're doing like big panels
with way too many rivets in it, oh my god,
my hands used to get blisters
but thank God for Allstar.
So now the steering column center bearing
is all done, look at how nice that stuff
all goes together.
Looks good from the back, nice and centered.
So now I can go ahead and tack this in,
and then build our second mount right here.
Alright, no joke, I've been for like at least
20 minutes like moving the steering wheel
a little bit this way, a little bit that way,
up, down, uh, uh, just to get it just right.
And you know what the funniest thing is?
My S14, the steering wheel is like definitely
not centered with the seat and I've never cared about it
but I'm just being a picky little (bleep) right now.
Alright, I think I got it,
I think I got it straight.
Set, it is what it is.
Flick on our new Miller welder here
and we're gonna go to town.
Alright, it's tacked in place.
Now, I'm gonna go ahead and build this secondary
mount here, up to this.
Usually you don't need that for a Woodward column.
Usually just a single one off a dash bar is plenty
but since this column is so long and I'm sitting
so far back, we wanted to put a secondary support on it
right here, just to help it from rocking up and down.
And then this mount here is gonna go up towards the top
and that's gonna be for my Aim dash mount right off there
'cause the dash pretty much ends right back here
so it would be quite a long view.
So mounting it right off here is gonna be perfect
for me looking through the steering wheel.
Alright, so I got the second mount mostly fabbed up,
it's on the welding bench.
You can see this pinches the steering column
so I had to actually like set the right amount of
preload in the piece, which is why I made it out of
three pieces 'cause if I was just going to try to break
it, it would be very difficult to get the right squish
in there.
So I'm gonna TIG weld here and here
with our Syncrowave 210 and we will be good to go.
After I get this welded, I haven't quite decided
if I'm gonna use a piece of round tube or box tube here
to connect it to the chassis and the firewall
so I'll figure that out.
(upbeat music)
Alright, so since I got that clamp welded,
I decided with blocks tube, it's really thin,
super light, and small so it doesn't really even matter
but I just think it's gonna look good.
Let's see how this piece fits in here.
I just had to regrind it to fit it.
Alright, so I'll TIG weld this around the base
and MIG that to the car
and the steering column will be mounted.
(upbeat music)
Such a little piece takes so long.
So I did something stupid.
I was planning on welding that part into the car,
as you can see here.
I cleaned the paint and I was like huh, here's a magnet,
that's steel, that's aluminum.
God (bleep) it, back to the drawing board.
Alright guys, that's it for the week.
It's late, I gotta go home, I'm tired.
Be sure you tune in next week,
we're gonna be putting in our mock up engine,
figuring out all the super charger brackets
and power steering pumps and all that stuff that's
involved with the engine bay.
We're gonna finish up the interior
and kinda go from there.
So make sure you like, share, subscribe,
and let us know what you like and didn't like.
Catch you guys next week.