Mark's 1G Winter Projects

[JET]

Is that fiberglass? Any worries about the it cracking since the bumper is very flexible? It will definitely give your car a distictive look!

[Mark Leasure]

Is that fiberglass? Any worries about the it cracking since the bumper is very flexible? It will definitely give your car a distictive look!

No worries, its flexible too. They are separate from the bumper cover. I'm not sure how to connect them yet, options are trim panel tape or mechanical from the back of the part similar to how I mounted the side mirror deletes.

[JET]

Ahh, that will work great then. You could put a bracket on the back since the stock fog lights attached in there. Nice job!

[Mark Leasure]

I’ve been sick all week, house bound Thursday and Friday. I’m finally feeling better today so I spend a couple hours out in the garage. Since I’m painting the engine bay and my aero stuff I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t f it up by starting anything new after it's painted. So the last mod I’m going to make this winter is to chop off the very front end of the car to clean things up and to my surprise lose a substantial amount of weight. I researched some DSMtuner threads on doing this, I also came across a link of John’s Gallant project. One guy reported 25-30 lbs max, however he didn’t weight anything. Here is the thread:

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/custom-fabrication/438805-tubed-front-end-ffm.html (http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/custom-fabrication/438805-tubed-front-end-ffm.html)

I weigh everything I take out to see where I’m at. The following stuff in the pic weighed 62.5 pounds!!!
http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp207/Wicked_EE/IMG_20130119_130512.jpg
I purchased a Woodward tube bender yesterday and I’m excited to try it out on this project. I’m guessing I’ll add about 10-12 pounds back in.
This car is going to be fun this season!!
Before:
http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp207/Wicked_EE/IMG_20130119_092240.jpg

After:

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/pp207/Wicked_EE/IMG_20130119_125150.jpg

[CornFed2.4]

Man always good work in this thread. Of I don't make it out with a car I gotta at least come see this run.

Good work!

[turbotalon1g]

Crazy!!
Did you see john wigger's car?
He chopped the front of his car off too!

[carltalon]

Crazy!!
Did you see john wigger's car?
He chopped the front of his car off too!

What He said. I thnk John said it weighed 43 pounds. Your more hardcore then me I only had the balls to cut the lower support off of mine I was thinking about going all the way back to the strut towers. I can't wait to see this thing out next summer.

[scheides]

Holy shit.

I hate to ask this since maybe it's too late, but how do you make sure that the chassis stays straight while you're welding in the new parts? Shouldn't there be some temporary crossmembers welded in or something?

[CornFed2.4]

What could have twisted? He hasn't welded anything in yet if your talking about the front end chop.

Also he has the tube trans mount in place but I still don't see how anything can twist?

[Mark Leasure]

Man always good work in this thread. Of I don't make it out with a car I gotta at least come see this run.

Good work!

Thanks, I plan on attending both PG everts this year. They are always a good time.

Crazy!!
Did you see john wigger's car?
He chopped the front of his car off too!

Yep I saw his too.

What He said. I thnk John said it weighed 43 pounds. Your more hardcore then me I only had the balls to cut the lower support off of mine I was thinking about going all the way back to the strut towers. I can't wait to see this thing out next summer.

Thanks, should be a fun summer. John's 43lbs sounds about right, I had more weight since I still had the bumper crash absorbers and a little of the crash beam remaining. This is not that hard core, I still left the top part to mount the radiator/fans and head lights, others I have seen do this mod remove everything. The material thickness of the top is very thin and barely weighs anything, but my thought that if I kept it in palace it would make my job much easier. Not much to figure out on this one, I hope!
Holy shit.

I hate to ask this since maybe it's too late, but how do you make sure that the chassis stays straight while you're welding in the new parts? Shouldn't there be some temporary crossmembers welded in or something?

No worries on the chassis. Everything is very stable and the cut is after all of the motor and trans mounts. The only thing the front needs to take care of is the roll stop motor mount and then determine where the radiator and intercooler sit. The car is on jack stands and I measured everything up prior to cutting. It will be spot welded in and assembled before I finish weld the tubular front up. Then off to paint. I need to have it don't in 2 weeks. I still need to source some chromeoly tube too.