The 510 Realm

I thought I would start a project thread on my wagon , after mentioning it on the Miata rear end thread. I always wanted to do this to a wagon- A wagon that would handle like a sedan, that I could do track days if I wanted to. I am starting with a 1969 Nevada car- no rust. My plan is a fully independent,R-180LSD, VQ-35DE, 6-speed, 300zx brakes. I also want to keep the weight down as much as possible. Here is the car, it is totally stock. In this picture I was seeing if the Rays wheel might fit.





This is a picture of the stock rear end, I plan having a "H" sub frame that goes between the two frame members where the bump stops hit on the stock frame member. The entire frame hoops will be reinforced to support the weight of the car.
After brain storming on what do do about fabbing a IRS from scratch, i wanted a A arm type setup with coil-overs i.e. open wheel race car. The most work I thought would be fabbing the uprights with line boring for the bearings and all. One day I was at a friends shop where he had a Miata up on the lift. I thought that this might be a start towards the IRS, A- Arm setup,a small car, light, and people race them, so the basics of the rear end must be good. I then located a fire damaged Miata at a yard and purchased the rear assy. After a clean up, the work started. The first problem is that Miata, even though it is a pretty small , the rear end is 5" wider than the stock wagon rear end. So instead of modifying the Miata A-arms, I decided to start from the center and work out towards the wheels. This is a pic of the start, notice the rear end is R-160, I will be using R-180 from a STI to handle the power from the VQ.



This is the start of the lower sub frame thats bolts to the R-180, front , side cover, end rear cover. It was real pain to get the "u" bent so it fits correctly to the side of the diff. with no spacer. You can see by the marking we are in the 0.00 to +0.030" spec.



More pictures to follow in the near future.

Monte

Great, thanks for starting this. How did you cut the steel for the lower sub frame, wire EDM, laser, water?
This is cool also because it's the first time I've ever seen the underside of an estate. I think I want one now, and I know where there's a pretty nice one...

very cool project. Looking forward to seeing more.

wow..that fabricaion is awesome.I wish I could weld good so I could do that kinda stuff. Those rear wheels look tits!

Thanks guys for the encouragement .
S15DET,
I use a band-saw, hole saw, mill for the most of the brackets, an Amada press for the forming of the "U" shaped piece. This is another pic of the beginning sub frame.



The rear end will be capable to have the toe & camber adjusted by moving these.



Here is a pic of the bracket part of the adjuster.



Mesojdm,
I have been welding since I was 10 years old,now 52, my father owned a steel fab business so I started young. I would recommend that you take a class and practice,practice,practice.

More to come!

Monte
Reno

yes! more wagon projects!! Why didn't you post this before I began my 4 link setup.
Are you going to run a fuel cell on the goon?

Don't know yet about a fuel cell, altough 15-16 gallon tank would be nice.

The following is the start of the rear diff. brackets. The lower sub frame is supported by three points, the front, the sides and the rear of the diff.



The finished bracket.



The brackets tacked into place and diff. mounted.



Please note that in all of these pictures, all parts of the subframe are just tacked into place. The final welding will happen later.

The subframe as it stands now.



A close up of the bottom of the Wings.



I will later add some lightening holes in the bottom of the subframe and also for draining the oil from the diff.


Next up in the project is the the hubs, going from 4 x100mm to 5 x114.3mm.

Monte

wow..looking great

wow that is some fab, that thing is going to be trick when finished up. I like the toe adjustments you built in. Overall great work. Thumbs up and keep the pics coming!

Absolute art!!

that is a beautiful piece of ingeneering, I could only wish to be able to have all of that machinery, i don't even have a garage but then again I live in los angeles where house prices are through the roof, even in the worst ghettos.

Yep, this is definitely craftsmanship at it best! Great work, I always love to follow thread like this. My hats off to anyone who "makes" their own stuff.
I've been a machinist for 20 years now, and still love widdling art from chunks of metal - it's quite rewarding. Seeing someone else do the same - well great stuff.
I'm really interested in a thread like this, keep it coming no matter how long it takes.
Byron

Thanks again guys for the kind words!

THE REAR HUBS
This pic shows the two hubs, Miata on the left and the 300zx TT on the right.
I have to combine them to get 5x114.3mm that will fit the bearings of the Miata upright.



First job is to remove the outer part of the Miata hub



This is the completed inner protion, note that there is a step closes to the bearing surface, their will be a corresponding step in the outer portion of the 300zx part of the hub. The reason for these steps is that they will inner lock, if the weld(which I will show in later picture)fails the outer hub cannot come off of the inner hub.



Boring out the 300zx TT hub



Completed 300zx TT hub, this and the inner portion are machined with a interference fit, The outer hub is heated and the inner is frozen, an then they are quickly are pressed together



The two mated



From the front side, inner hub was camfered for a better weld



Preheated the two and then welded



The compleled hub.
The the back of the hub is relieved to fit into the upright.



next up the uprights!

Monte

WOW, that's just unbelievable.....very nice work, I guess I need to stick with fixing airplanes.......simply OUTSTANDING!!

All I can say is DAMN! Nice work!!!