Just in: steering to swerve the Salt

We got a nice lil' package in the mail: an all aluminum rack & pinion steering rack, designed for a dragster, but that will suit our Salty Bomb just fine, thank you !

Allways great to get that kinda mail !

Lengthening the bomb

After we did some mocking up, we decided the tank had to be lengthened by 40cm, or some 15 inches for you Imperial thinkers.
Harks Staalbouw did a good job rolling a couple of pieces in the right curvature. We did the cutting after clamping some sliding tubing to keep everything in shape during the stretch.
Now we should have enough space to occupy the driver AND all important parts !

Let that engine float !

Last week we made up some adjustable engine supports, wide enough to let the tank body slide under, and sturdy enough to hold that heavy sucker !

Expert welding was done by Polle, no longer a welding Virgin !

L.A. Grand National Roadster Show 2010

It's nice to see that our shirts are getting some exposure! Though several Trash-Can shirts have already crossed the ocean towards new owners there, this here's our local buddy Mr.HotRod. Het left his Rod Shop in freezy cold Rod City for a field trip to the GNRS. And we all know who that other guy is, now don't we...



If you have a nice picture featuring your Trash-Can shirt or sticker, be sure to mail it to us at trashers@live.nl. We like that stuff!

Preparation of the frame build

Here's another short update from the workshop.
We made an outline of the shape of the bellytank and mocked up the axle positions and the length of the drivetrain.



Though we knew it wasn't going to be easy,
we soon realized there just wouldn't be enough room for our driver.
We decided that the throttle and brake pedals, and therefore Sascha's legs, should be positioned behind the front axle.
There also should be enough room for cooling and fuel system components, so we can make a decent firewall to seal it off from the driver compartment.
All for safety purposes ofcourse.
This means we'll have to lengthen the tank by approximately 40 cm.
The middle part of the tank shape is cilindrical so this shouldn't be too hard to do.

Now that the wheelbase was determined, the rear axle is mounted on the chassis table. Hanzl fabricated some adapter plates, so we could bolt the rear axle sidebells to the quickchange center section. This enables the rear axle to be mounted in the correct position during mock up and construction of the frame.



Next step, make a construction that'll place the engine in the correct position. Then our master fabricator can start building the frame.

After extensive contact with the SCTA, we decided on rectangular steel tubing for the main frame rails, which exceeds the minimum width the SCTA requires.

We're also busy planning an event concerning sponsorship for the bellytank project, we'll get the details posted on the blog as soon as we've got it all sorted.