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Car one month after buying it from the kid – March 2009
I had been planning this specific project for 15 years.
A student bought this non-running car in hopes of making a cheap daily driver. The students wouldn’t listen, so it never did run. They didn’t want to haul it away at the end of the semester, so since it had papers, I bought it.
It’s a 1987 Pontiac Firefly Turbo – a Chevy Sprint to the Yankees below us who never got the Pontiac version.
The turbo models have a bit of a cult following – find someone who has one, and they probably have two or three more in their back yard. I did a leak down on the engine, then stripped the car and sold off the useless bits for twice what I paid for the car.
My plans were to build a complete, running, rolling chassis that I could just bolt the shell of a body on. That way, if I ever got pulled over and ordered for vehicle inspection (VI), I could just buy another body, cut out the floor, and drop it on. “Oh no, officer, this is a different vehicle: different colour, different VIN. Different vehicle.”
Firefly-Brainstorming-Sketches-almost-all-of-’em
I had just bought myself a TIG, and after a bit of practice I figured I would TIG the frame all together. The frame at this point is all 2x3x0.120″. Yes, it could be lighter, but first and foremost, this is to be a street-driven toy. Durable and safe is more important.
And then cage work began. First, bracing the shell, and cutting out the floor.
Mr. Plasma Cutter is my friend today.
I want to run our local hill climb, as well as our local drag strip and local autocross events. Building a car that can “do it all” is a challenge. I drew up how I wanted the door bars and main hoop bent, and a friend bent it all up for me. The main structure is 1-3/4″ with 1-1/2″ in places where I could get away with it. I did not have a 1-5/8″ die, or I would likely have gone that way. Whatever. I keep telling myself it’s stronger/safer.
This is the very first roll cage I designed and built. As with everything, I would do things differently next time….
Trying to design a cage for both drag racing and solo sprints is a bit of a challenge. The two rule sets don’t work together very well.
My TIG skills are improving. Slowly.
It took a bit of playing around to get a fit I liked.
I thought bolting the original seat belts back in would be a good idea. Heck, why not anchor the roll cage at that point too?
This is how the engine bay started looking (firewall will be cut out):
I forgot to show the diagonal in the roof:
You will notice I changed the rear down tubes – connecting at the same node as the door/roof bars:
One of the few gratuitous shots of myself, getting ready for final welding:
(April 2010)