New Pro Stock Diesel build - 2 D Max

What should Michael name his new truck?

  • 2-D-Max

    Votes: 40 60.6%
  • 2wD-Max

    Votes: 7 10.6%
  • Something else (please post ideas)

    Votes: 19 28.8%

  • Total voters
    66
Episode 16:
First off I would like to thank everyone who came out to the ISSPRO Pacific Coast Diesel Nationals! Despite sweltering heat we had an awesome turnout of fans and racers, and got to see some awesome racing and sled pulling. We fed the most people yet at our BBQ (despite this being the 1st year of not running gassers at the same time). They did have a gasser "Top Comp" shootout with a limited field, just to serve as filler between the diesel classes. I hoped the big purse would bring even more Super-Street trucks out of the woodwork, but I know a few teams had problems and couldn't make the race, while others broke at the event before eliminations! I was forunate enough to come out with a runner-up again in Sportsman ET, regaining the lead in National points by a single round! I was also foolish enough to tackle singing the National Anthem for the event, doing it acapella and with almost no sleep!

Between that event and other recent events, I have been pleasantly surprised by how many people (many of them not directly involved in the diesel performance industry) approached me to say they are following this build (and a few of you gave me some well-deserved grief for the length of time since my last update)!

Back to the race truck!

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Next step was to build the lower control arm mounts. These were at strange angles in 3D space, and despite creating them in my 3D CAD model I decided to hand-fit them to minimze gaps. I carefully built jig "extensions" which positioned tubes in the same location as the strut control arms will be.

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After that I made cardboard mockups of the brackets to test-fit the shapes on the tubing. You know those annoying subscription cards that come falling out of your new Diesel Power magazine as soon as you open it? I finally figured out a use for them in this step!

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After the first piece I actually switched over to used gift cards as my test mockup models for the brackets, as they were a little less flimsy than the subscription cards. Once I had the shape nailed down I traced it onto a piece of 3/16" thick 4130 plate (previously sheared into appropriate width strips on my dad's big ironworker press), then rough cut the shape using my plasma cutter. After drilling the holes and finish shaping with a carbide burr or grinding wheel, I had my perfectly-fitted brackets.

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I carefully tack-welded these in, then skip-welded (short beads in alternating locations) while still anchored in the jig.


Next up it became evident that I really needed to get some better paint on this thing for the upcoming ISSPRO event. I started going over the cab and checking out various imperfections and cracks. I was surprised to find many voids in the original fiberglass surface, where they left a large air pocket when laying it into the mold.

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A few of those were significant and also showed up as cracks, needing some repair work. I used an old trick of laying a sheet of plastic (like from a heavy plastic bag) over the repair to smooth it out while it cured. This helped me force the resin into the recesses from the voids in the surface.

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I also found cracks in a really cheezy patch job, where they had filled in from prior roll cage rear bars.

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I patched these and filled in with resin and mat, knowing that my rear bars will be at a different width anyway.

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The driver's A-pillar on the cab turned out to be really bad, with huge voids in it that turned into a complete break.

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I had to use a piece of flat stock to reinforce that area, and fully glassed-in the piece as part of the repair.

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Next up was shortening the bed from 7' to 6', to match my shorter wheelbase, After trying a couple of methods, the cleanest cut was with a cutoff wheel in an angle grinder.

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I also had to remove all traces of old stickers from the panels, this was quite a chore requiring a heat gun, scraping, a couple of chemicals, and maybe a cuss word or two...


At this point I hauled the whole mess over to the ISSPRO factory and set up shop outside the paint booth. We have a professional-quality paint booth for spraying industrial coatings, so it was nice to not have to do this in my garage!

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I shot several coats of primer and sanded between coats.


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After the primer and finish sanding I was ready to shoot some color and clear.

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I assembled things (including getting the grille in upside down for this photo) and hauled them out to the track for display at our race. As of 1:00 Saturday morning I had been running on about 4 hours of sleep since Tuesday morning!

Of course I put a ton of scratches in my fancy new paint hauling it back and forth from the track, but at least it is starting out looking reasonably nice (compared to my Vega that still has the same primer and damage from 1988)!
 
Great Michel.You are working good.Keep it up. I likes car graphical work much so that if someone look at your car that one should feel jealous.
 
Working on an update writeup right now. Should have it posted by the end of the week.
 
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Thats a heck of a transformation tuesday!! keep up the good work looking forward to updates
 
Episode 17:
Sorry for the lack of posts in recent months. I am absolutely humbled at the number of you who have asked me (via emails, PMs, phone calls & in person) for updates on the truck build. Unfortunately the rate of progress had slowed significantly, as some family matters had to be given higher priority. Following the last update I had to devote significant time & resources to a child custody hearing (which dragged out into multiple dates). After that the main tasks were finding a new school for my daughter & lots of attention helping her get settled in (she is now with me 85% of the time).

Another distraction was preparing for the annual SEMA show in November, where we debuted our new datalogger (with built in 3-axis accelerometer and RPM & vehicle speed sensor inputs).
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We also debuted the EV2 output module (which allows EV2 gauges to control external devices based on the value of whatever the gauge is measuring). I plan to put both of these products to good use in the race truck, using the datalogger of course to monitor all of the passes, and the output module to control things like cooling fans and potentially water/methanol injection.
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While at the show I met up with an old friend (Steve Darnell) who is about to star in his own reality show building rat rods (coming in April on Discovery).

Coincidentally I met a guy who is also starting a reality show building rat rods, Aaron Hagar. Yes, of THAT Hagar family (he is Sammy's oldest son). His show will be coming soon on the History Channel.
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Getting back to the race truck: Continuing on the front suspension. Part of my plan to achieve desired front/rear weight distribution is to stretch the front suspension out as far as I reasonably can. This is a concept that doesn't really make sense intuitively unless you really think about it, but with a given relationship between the main masses (engine/trans) and the rear tires, the farther forward you can put the front wheels, the more static load goes on the rear tires. I will eventually stretch the fiberglass nose to improve the appearance, but mocked things up to make sure they physically fit now (even if it looks a bit goofy).

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I researched the ways various chassis builders position the front strut upper mounts for welding. Some have fixtures for positioning the top strut cup, while others focused on the wheel hub position, then set the strut at the correct alignment and position the mounting brackets around that. In the prior post I had already positioned the lower control arm mounts, so I figured it would be a good "base" to use with the wheel hub positioning method. As a bonus I could reuse the wheel hub fixtures to position the rearend once I get to that step.

I drew up the bolt pattern on CAD, then used that to mark up a couple of pieces of steel. For the big hole with the hub I stole my daughter's compass to draw it, then marked over the pencil with a paint pen so I could see it while cutting.
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I used a plasma cutter to rough cut the circles, and eventually cleaned up the cut with a die grinder.
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I clamped, measured, nudged, remeasured, etc. several times to get the hub mounting plates in precisely the right position on the Jig.
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I welded it in place, and was very proud of myself when confirming that it had not moved from the proper location.
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Then I thought about it and realized that I needed to be able to move the hub up and down in order to check for bump steer! I punched a couple of holes in the plate and mount (using my Whitney punch I mentioned in a prior post), then enlarged the holes to be a near-interference fit with the bolts. After cutting the welds I was able to get it bolted back into the proper location.


Now it was time to assemble the strut top mounts. They come as flat plates which must be notched to match the tube contour, then welded to some machined cups which hold the sperical top strut bearings.
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I made the mistake of trying to tack weld the 1st one with just gravity holding it.
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As it cooled of course the weld draw caused the other side to pop up! I tried clamping it down (using a piece of scrap aluminum to try to let it clamp tight despite the lip on the edge).
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I forgot to take a picture of it, but this was a disaster as the metal tore at the thin section while it was heated for welding. I needed something to clamp it together while leaving me room to tack weld. A quick glance through my rollaway found a front hub wrench which worked perfectly, allowing me to force the wayward bent/torn piece into shape for final welding.
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I proceeded to "skip" weld around the perimeter on both sides, being careful not to overheat the thin edges. With the skip welding the beads don't look as nice as they would otherwise (you can see where I stopped to move to another area), but it is necessary to prevent warping!
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Next up is the assembly of the struts themselves.
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Thank you Michael for the update. I'm always amazed at your fabrication skills for a Guage guy. Great job again!
 
Looking good thanks for the update.

What weight bias are you shooting for?

Can you send me some more information on the new data logger? We are quite interested.
 
Thank you Michael for the update. I'm always amazed at your fabrication skills for a Guage guy. Great job again!

C'mon Michael! We're pulling for ya!
Thanks guys! It's nice to get back to work on this, hopefully it won't be too much longer before it's on the track!

Looking good thanks for the update.

What weight bias are you shooting for?

Can you send me some more information on the new data logger? We are quite interested.
Shooting for about 52% on the front tires. That seems to be a good starting point among the fast gasser doorslammers.

Below is a product announcement for the new datalogger. We're finishing up the documentation (instructions, release paperwork), as well as some field testing. It will work with the current Performax systems but depending on the age of the ESP it may need a software update. I will try to have a programmer with me at the races so I can update the ESPs for people.
*************
ISSPRO Performax Accelerometer Datalogger

ISSPRO brings full-featured datalogging to the budget-minded consumer, and you can still easily add gauges for any of the datalogger channels.

ISSPRO's new datalogger is an add-on to the popular Performax gauge series, which includes 8 pressure (0-5volt), 6 temperature (resistance) and 2 thermocouple inputs sampled 5 times per second. The new datalogger adds to that an 8g three-axis accelerometer along with inputs for engine RPM and vehicle speed sensor, which are sampled at 50 times per second and recorded along with the gauge inputs onto a USB drive. The included PC software decompresses the log file and displays it graphically, also allowing you to save it in a spreadsheet format to allow additional data analysis using popular spreadsheet programs.
 
Shooting for about 52% on the front tires. That seems to be a good starting point among the fast gasser doorslammers.

Below is a product announcement for the new datalogger. We're finishing up the documentation (instructions, release paperwork), as well as some field testing. It will work with the current Performax systems but depending on the age of the ESP it may need a software update. I will try to have a programmer with me at the races so I can update the ESPs for people.
*************
ISSPRO Performax Accelerometer Datalogger

ISSPRO brings full-featured datalogging to the budget-minded consumer, and you can still easily add gauges for any of the datalogger channels.

ISSPRO's new datalogger is an add-on to the popular Performax gauge series, which includes 8 pressure (0-5volt), 6 temperature (resistance) and 2 thermocouple inputs sampled 5 times per second. The new datalogger adds to that an 8g three-axis accelerometer along with inputs for engine RPM and vehicle speed sensor, which are sampled at 50 times per second and recorded along with the gauge inputs onto a USB drive. The included PC software decompresses the log file and displays it graphically, also allowing you to save it in a spreadsheet format to allow additional data analysis using popular spreadsheet programs.

In the bigger horsepower stuff I have been seeing as high as 56%, but I think you are better to be a bit conservative and have to fight wheelies vs fight hooking.

As you well know we run all Isspro gauges and sensors, and would love to test that unit out.
 
In the bigger horsepower stuff I have been seeing as high as 56%, but I think you are better to be a bit conservative and have to fight wheelies vs fight hooking.

As you well know we run all Isspro gauges and sensors, and would love to test that unit out.

Yup, I figured I can move some weight around as necessary, either ballast bars or things like radiator & trans cooler. Planning to leave room for those both in back and out front!

When are you guys going to start testing this season?
 
Yup, I figured I can move some weight around as necessary, either ballast bars or things like radiator & trans cooler. Planning to leave room for those both in back and out front!

When are you guys going to start testing this season?

Sounds like you have it well covered.

As soon as the snow melts and the tracks open. So likely late April early May. I will have Torrey call you, if that works for you?
 
Sounds like you have it well covered.

As soon as the snow melts and the tracks open. So likely late April early May. I will have Torrey call you, if that works for you?
Sounds good, we should have plenty of testing on it by then, you will benefit from any bugs found or new features dreamed up!
 
Sounds good, we should have plenty of testing on it by then, you will benefit from any bugs found or new features dreamed up!

If I can suggest a feature (you may already have this) but have time as recording (not actual clock time, just a counter). This will make it much easier for those of us trying to match up these graph's with other data logging graphs. Something that we can display on the X axis.
 
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