Fuel Cell frame construction

This morning I set out into the garage to tackle a fairly large task, at least in my mind. My goal was to build a frame that will secure my 15 gallon fuel cell to the Project 240Z. In case you don’t want to read the rest of this post, I was successful!

I began with a few shots of the car before I started cutting into it (further than I cut last weekend). There are various shots here, above and below.

After taking those shots I got to cutting. Dave (from www.soloperformance.com) and I had discussed how to mount the cell into the car on Tuesday when he came over, so I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I quickly marked some lines to cut with a sharpie, then proceeded to tear up two cutting wheels removing metal from the rear of the car. I don’t know why that stock metal tears up wheels, but they sure to go away quickly when cutting on the car. Here are photos of what was left after cutting.

The intention for the fuel cell frame was to bolt a bar on the back of the rear differential mount, weld to 1x1” square tubes parallel to the ground running towards the back of the car, then come up at a 90 degree angle from those tubes with more square steel. Those two vertical posts would weld to a bar running inside the back of the car, this bar would also be bolted into the car, not welded, so that if necessary the whole frame can be pulled out with minimal effort.

Here are a few pictures of the end result of the frame, as well as some of my crappy welds! I figured out with all but two welds done, that I had somehow adjusted the wirespeed on the welder in the wrong direction, and that was why I was having a horrible time. I think they”ll hold though, they just aren’t very pretty!

This frame easily goes in and out of the car, which should come in handy if I ever need to remove the rear end (which I plan to when overhauling the suspension, after the car runs). Here are a few shots of the frame sitting in the car

And here is the end result, the fuel cell sitting in the frame, sitting in the car.

I think the frame turned out great and I love this photo

The tank sits just low enough, it is barely visible from the back of the car, I actually had to walk 10 feet back and down a couple feet of driveway incline to see either the tank or the frame itself. I’ve yet to bolt the frame to the car, but that can wait. I’ll get some nuts, bolts, and washers tomorrow for the various things I need to mount, fuel cell, seats, etc.

All in all I’m really impressed with myself, I got a lot more done this weekend than most weekends, though I still have the build the driver’s side seat mounts, I finished the passenger side yesterday. What’s next? Well like I said, tomorrow night I’ll be building the driver’s side seat mount, as well as visiting Mr. Whittle’s house to test fit some fuel injectors into my new fuel rail that should be arriving and the old intake manifold. If the injectors he has fit I’ll be ordering injectors on Tuesday.

After that I’ll be running fuel lines, and be working on putting the motor back together so I can attempt to put it back in the car next weekend if all goes well. That might be a lofty goal, but this whole project has been lofty for me, so why quit shooting high now!