The Tangerine kit comes with these two templates - an inner and an outer. You can see that once the suspension points are removed, it exposes those holes in the longs. These templates line up with the holes and indicate where you need to chop into the longs to create the needed clearance for the new pick up point component.

Here are the templates in place. You can see that I've Sharpied part of the cut line on the inner.

Note that the picture makes it look like the template holes aren't aligned. It's a camera thing, they do align.

Oy, that looks messy. The primed metal underneath looks almost brand new.

@Krieger Andy, you have no idea just how messy. Worst part of the entire build, getting all that metal cut then grinding the flanges away.

But you really should experience it. How about you come down tomorrow and do the driver's side!

Damn Chris! It's going to to be sweet!!

I love you Chris, but not that much! I would be up for the challenge, but I am seriously wrecked from these fires again. We had a very close call on Thursday. About .25 mile from mile house and no time to to really pack. Just watched 3 tankers and 1 helicopter attack.

So you've done the easy part.
Cutting off the consoles is still reversible and shouldn't be too scary, but when you cut a big hunk out of the frame...
Oh, and putting it together correctly will be the hard part. Lots of opportunities to second guess yourself there.

Wow! Hope you have one of these to rest those big balls.

Click to view attachment

Spooky left over helloween comment,,but I have the kit also ,,got from a guy who couldn't commit...

@ChrisFoley - Not helping!
And remember, I have your cell number!

But I do hear you on the 2nd guessing. I'm going to follow all your instructions and leverage the install Jeff Hail posted on his build thread here. It starts on page 25, post #486.

Wow Chris. I can not wait until the next time I am at your place to check that all out.

I started on the passenger side since that inner ear was rusty. But before I slice off the driver's side, I figured I'd measure all the bolt hole locations so I can duplicate these distances when the Tangerine stuff goes on.

And here's another one for the tool whores. This is a really nice tram gauge. It has a built in tape measure and measurement marked depth probes. This allows for precise measurement of distance between points when the surfaces are on different planes - like they are in the case of the front and rear suspension mounts.

I can get the distances AND the depths of the stock locations, then add the 2" to the rear Z values and use these numbers as yet another check for accurate install location.

You can see why Mr. Foley poked me about "opportunities for second guessing...".

If anyone is interested in using the tram gauge, PM me. It packs up nicely and should be easy to safely ship. Overstating the obvious, it won't be available until I've completed this phase of work.

On to the driver's side - and slice off the inner ear as a first step.

And here I thought I was the only one who left "stragglers" when I MIG. Apparently, so did Dieter! At least when he built this car.

If you ever wondered if you should check all the drain holes on your car to be sure they aren't all plugged up, the answer is "Yes".

Here's what happens when you don't.

And we wonder why they rust from the inside out.

WHAT WAS THAT? YOU'LL HAVE TO SPEAK UP! I HAVE NO EARS!


I still have to remove all that flange material on the driver side. Once that's done, it's time to level the car and start the Tangerine kit fitment.

Looking good!! .




We won't talk about leftover sticker welds....

If you read Jeff Hail's thread and the part where he installs this same Tangerine pick up kit, you'll see he mentions what a deal, cost-wise, it would be to have @ChrisFoley do this. (It's posted on the Tangerine site.)

I've only done the removal of the stock pick up points and based on how much time and the amount of consumables it took to get to this point, I couldn't agree more! To get both sides fully out, flanges and all, it was probably over 12 hours. I wouldn't say I'm the fastest with a Sawzall but you have to be careful and there are a ton of niggly areas with giant weld beads.

This is, without a doubt, the most labor-intensive thing I've done on this build.

OK, show of hands. Who here hates drilling out spot welds?

Driver's side all done! On to fitting the new parts.

Simply amazing.

The way your car rides and handles will make it all worth it.

Nothing like bottoming out your shocks during a high speed corner or going over a curb.

Awesome work as always.

This will be the "Singer" equivalent of a 914 when it is done.

John

Looking good! Installing the pickups and getting everything located is not too bad -just takes time and lots of measuring, re-measuring etc. Its the un-installing of everything old, prep and clean up that is labor intensive plus the consumables. Some of the factory welds are really rock hard in that area and eat tooling up along the way. Factory used some serious thick and hard wire in there. The tram will help getting the new pickups dialed into position. Chris nailed it when he devised these.

Niggly? That's a new term for the books.

Not a new term at all, but accurate.

Chris,

You up for a visit Saturday? I'd love to see your progress and maybe work on a project of my own? I know @Arkitect had something he wanted to make as well.

@Andyrew - Party at the Red Barn? Sure! Saturday, 11/9 works for me.
I've talked w/ @Arkitect and if he can make it, we can get his piece done, too.

I have a few large projects going so let me know what you need and I'll be sure any needed tools are accessible.

What time shall I expect you?

@FourBlades - "Singer". Well, I certainly appreciate your kind words! But I'm afraid I'm not quite in that ball park. Or Zip Code...or county.

I have something that could use your laser table expertise as well, it’s just that that damned mountain between us has snow on it...

At your convenience, @ConeDodger

Located a few miles away in North Hollywood. In an unsuspecting building in an alley in dire need of paint.

Well, what do you know! At least I'm in the same STATE!

OK, here we go: Car is leveled, resting on stands and still attached to the rotisserie.
It's nice to know that I have two reference surfaces that measure out exactly the same. And it's a bonus that one is from the factory! I will say I did my best to get my lower firewall cross-member welded in at level. Looks like I did!

Rod Stewart sang that "the first cut is the deepest..." I would suggest that the 2nd and 3rd cuts were pretty f-ing deep, too!

And actually, not deep enough. You can see there's a piece of the inner structure that my cut-off wheel couldn't reach. I was desperate to get the new pick up placed in there, just to see it, so I just bent it out of the way. Have no fear, I'll get in there and remove it before things get buttoned up.

So far, this part is moving along far more quickly than removing the stock pick ups.

And as Jeff Hail pointed out in his resent post here, @ChrisFoley hit it out of the park with this set up. The parts fit so nicely that it almost assembles itself! Let me explain.

The kit includes all the needed structural plating that gets welded in and helps support this main piece. In looking at them and comparing them to the pics in the instructions, I couldn't quite understand how things were supposed to fit.

I was about to give Chris a call for some help.

But once I got the main part set in place, it was instantly clear how things should fit and the plates essentially show you exactly what material needs to be removed to get everything just as it needs to be.

It's all really, really well thought out and manufactured.

Major milestone: 100 pages in the build log and the car isn't even a roller yet.
If this isn't the perfect example of "don't quit your day job", I don't know what is.

I was a just gonna type, wow 100 pages of the art of metal. Looks great Chris.
Cool set up from C. Foley. Looking forward to how all this is placed.

This is when you also drive a 4x with mud/snow tires where you live. The only time I've ever dealt with chains on the pass was in a big uhaul. That was fun.

He sang it, but Cat Stevens wrote it, and sang it long before Rod.

That is a sweet piece of work you are doing. Congrats on the 100 page milestone.

Passenger's side cuts made and both sides now mocked in. The kit includes a fixture that ties both sides together and is used to help set width and level.

Beyond raising the pick up points, the kit allows for the pick ups to be moved outboard, generating a wider track. Doing so also creates additional inboard clearance to help things like engine access for you /6 conversion folks.

I plan to use this capability to see if I can optimize how the wheels fill up the flares. If you look back in the thread, you can see they look pretty good on the stock set up but I think I can push them out a bit more. We'll see.

Anyway, I couldn't resist a quick check of level with the components just set in place. Remember, this is just resting them on the cut outs that were made using the kit templates.

Gotta say, pretty encouraging!

"Make the Noise....!"

Cutting into the longs means a lot of the kerf material ends up inside them. I run an extendable magnet back and forth, side to side at various lengths, getting up as far forward as I can.

I pulled probably 10 blobs like this from each side.

I'll see if I can get a skinny shop vac hose in there, too.

I happily confess, I did call Mr. Foley, just to verify my thinking on a couple items. One was that I needed to remove more material from the longs.
As I mentioned, the support plates pretty much dictate what needs to go, but I figured it couldn't hurt to talk with the expert!
Here, you can see that the cut lines do need to go all the way straight back. So as you can see, I went ahead and did that.
It's hard to tell in the pic, but I still have a bit to remove on the lower, outside corner of the long in order to gain the clearance needed for one of the plates.

Getting there...

Stick an air nozzle in the front section of the longs and blow it towards the aft end of the longs. Then vacuum /magnet it. Blow/suck, repeat. Yes a good joke, but also effective. I used to restore B-25 aircraft. We'd walnut shell blast the airframes. That was the easy part. Clean up could take days.

I mentioned the fixturing jig. Here it is with the new pick ups bolted in place. What you can't see in these pics is that the fixture is actually two pieces with a sleeve in the middle so you can widen things, as I described above.

The instructions call for things to be bolted up and then slid into the slots cut in the longs.
Well, OK then, let's get this party started.

Believe it or not, it basically slid right in. I had to bonk one side with my hand to get it past a tight spot at the front of the slot but that was it and in it went.

Now, moment of truth. How close are things to where they're supposed to be?

Are you f-ing kidding me? @ChrisFoley has this dialed! I guess I get a couple points for being a good little instruction follower, and yes, I have to get the fore/aft placement set but holy moley!

Man, I just love it when a plan comes together.

But then I thought, "I wonder if those end plates are the best location to use for measuring...".

OK, what about the main pickup bar? YES!

I'll probably find 12 other locations to measure from but so far, things couldn't be going better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_H8bK8o3UM?t=1474



Wooohoo!!!!

WooHoo, indeed! Thanks @Andyrew .

But now the real fun begins: fore/aft to get it matchy-match to what it was.

I see now that installing the flares prior to getting the pick up mod done is less than optimal. It means I REALLY have to get the wheel position right since I can no longer rely on cheating the flares one way or the other. Ah well, lesson learned for you others considering this.

Sort of like the ol' "Pants first, then shoes."

Thankfully, I remembered to get some triangulated measurements that I can use to replicate the locations of the pick ups.

PF = Passenger Front, DR = Driver Rear. The little drawing is to be sure I know which hole is which.

This is PF1 to DR1. Close, but I'll need to move things forward to get this to 266 cm.
The other good news is it's exactly the same from DF1 to PR1. Consistent side to side triangulation means things remain square.

All things considered with '70s build technology and the variances we know are built into these cars, this isn't bad at all. I'll take it!

This was a good day at the Red Barn.

Well at least they're bellbottoms.