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Spridget Rails

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motofiaccone

motofiaccone

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Morning Gents:

Under my spridget, I have two rails that run parallel to the wheels, right down the sides of the transmission tunnel. To me, they look like drip rails of some sort. However, they also look like they were used to hold brake and fuel lines.

Well, I need to remove mine. Does anyone know of a easier method than sanding them out with a grinder? Are they, perchance, spot welded in? That would make my life easier...

Any help is well-appreciated.

--Thanks, Chris
 
Yep, "plumbing" runs along them. Why do you need to remove them?
 
Hi Tony:

I'm going to run parallel 2"x2" supports down the car like the-mite. On the-mite, Bob retains the rails. I want to move my supports outward more--hence the need to remove them.

Any suggggtions?

--Thanks, Chris
 
I'm sure they are spot welded, but finding those spots will be a chore. How about just ripping the floor out and putting new floor panels? Tail wagging the dog?
 
Trevor - are the rails attached to the floors or the bodyshell? If the floors then they would be part of the floors & close to where the floors are welded to the bodyshell. If part of the bodyshell then they could either be spot welded in place or part of the casting of the shell itself.

Chris - if you remove them, where ya gonna run the 'plumbing'?
 
This is a picture of the underside of my car with the floors removed. You can see the main cross member where the transmission bolts through from the underside and the rails that run forward. I hope you understand that these rails can't be moved without major surgery and restructuring of not only the front end suspension pick-up points but also the front bulkhead and transmission tunnel. These are main structural components of the unibody system. This car is apart right now so if you need pics from a specific angle to plan your work just let me know. Good luck.
 

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they do help the structure of the car. with then out you will have problems closing the doors

cheery
steve
 
Hi Gents:

The good news is that I found the spot welds for the rails. They are spot-welded on 1" centers and alternate fore/aft by a 1/2" Seems like a bit of overkill, but makes my job easier.

The bad news is that I made a mess of the garage. Evidently, wire brushes on angle grinders + paint remover + flung mess everywhere.

I've blatenly stolen the picture below from the-mite website--without permission (let me know if I should remove the photo). Anyway, this is basically what I will duplicate.

PDRM0280.jpg


Notice he left the rails on; I want to remove mine.

--Thanks, Chris
 
I'm curious.....other than for racing, is there a reason to beef up the undersides like that?

Oh, Eastwood has a spot weld removal tool.....but, you can use a drill bit - just be ready to sharpen them more often or throw them away & get new ones before the job is finished.
 
Ya know, Tony, I don't think so. The plan was just to make my wife a cool LBC with a modern FI engine. I was originally going to use a Toyota 20-valve. The a friend gave me a Miata engine. After that, I found the-mite and thought, "That would be a lot of fun!"

So here we are. If you follow closely his build, you'll see why he did things the way he did. I probably could have taken the easy road, but I'm already this far along.

--Thanks, Chris
 
Spot Weld cutter. Comes in two sizes with replaceable cutter blades. Available locally at any body supply shop or via Eastwood.com. Possibly even the big box auto supply stores. I'd go for the smaller plug weld cutter after spening time working on Bugsy replacing the A-Post last year. Now to find WTH I put it in the back of my garage so I can do some more work this winter on an A-Post Patch Panel.
 
Are you referring to the two "stiffeners" aft (and perpendicular) of the jacking point cross member, that run along the side of the trans tunnel? If so, you could remove those as long as you are going back with the reinforcement as used in the Mite photo project. The floors will get very "saggy" without them but as said before if you are adding even sturdier reinforcement then you should be good to go. It appears you have found they are spot welded onto the floorboards.
Hope this was of some help.
Roy
 
I'm gonna have to read his build site.
 
OK, I just drilled them all out. It turns out, those rails also provide additional support and help spread the loads for the seats. This is fine because I'm going to have the much larger supports under there. I found it interesting that the driver's side rail had twice the spot welds as the passenger.

Anyway, I may not have gotten the engine in this holiday, but I'll do my best to get the supports up.

Yep, The-Mite is a great site. He really innovated and paved the way for someone like me. Knowing myself, I would have built half a tube framed car when it was all said and done. That site is like anything: love what you love and leave the rest. If you look close, you can see some of the mistakes he made--which is kinda nice for me because I don't have to make them. I'm endebted

--Chris
 
John Moore said:
tony barnhill said:
I'm gonna have to read his build site.
Click to expand...

I just did. Pretty interesting, man that guy can fab and weld.
Click to expand...
He did an amazing job - but, I'm wondering how long those rear hub splines are gonna last.
 
wow that is good
haveing welded up the floors last spring wow

Started shaggy this morning it a bit cold here

cheery
steve
 
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