AMCM chassis 002 starts its transformation
AMCM chassis 002 started life as an ASA car. Its been around for some time, most recently being run in the NASA Colorado region as a Super Touring 3 car. In the engine bay sits a Ford 4.6 2V modular engine…that is definitely going to need to go as it is not the right platform on which to get the reliable power we’re looking for to run AMCM.
Before we get to the mechanical aspects of the car, the first order of business is to remove the body. Of course we wont be using this body in ACMC competition anyway, but removing the entire body right away will make it super easy to work on everything.
The hood, roof, and rear window are already off, as is the “trunk”.
Wow its easy to take a body off of these cars! Three guys, two hand held drills (almost all of the body is held on with rivets) and a pair of wrenches and the entire body was off in one hour.
Here you can see one of the advantages of these types of cars over street cars: tubular bumper structure (yellow) designed to fail before doing damage to the chassis (blue). These bolt on tubular bumpers are easy to fab, you can even buy kits with tubes pre bent to your specific bumper cover, pre notched to fit together, just have to trim lengths and weld together. The entire assembly bolts to the chassis so you dont have to weld on the chassis!
Another interesting detail is the radiator ducting. This car is showing its age with the aluminum and rusty sheet steel structure. You can buy composite radiator ducting now that connects the bumper cover to the radiator with a rubberized flexible duct so even when you bend the nose you dont have to fabricate new ducting. Nice.
In the back notice again the yellow colored removable and easily replaced rear bumper structure. In this case that also includes the support for the rear section of the bodywork, supporting the body just behind the trunk opening that allows access to the fuel cell etc. Look just to the right of the coil spring and you can see the chassis side mount for the panhard bar. This bolt on mount allows the panhard bar to be moved up and down to adjust the rear roll center. Of course there are more sophisticated mounting options out there to allow adjusting this up and down by turning a screw adjuster, but this simple one nets the same result.
Also interesting is the black “package shelf that seals the driver’s area from the rear of the car. In this case, that sheet metal extends all of the way back to the trunk. When we rebody the car, this piece will likely be remade to end at or near the bottom of the rear windshield.
Notice also the vertical wings extending outward from the main and front roll cage hoops to seal the drivers area to the door of the body. These will have to be remade to fit the contour of the new body obviously, but its easy work: aluminum sheet metal riveted to the cage and then glued to the door to create a nice seal.
Continuing the disassembly with a goal of getting to a bare chassis and building it proper from there. The 4.6 modular Ford will soon be gone but you can see the front bumper structure, suspension arms, spindle, and brakes are already gone with just a couple of bolts.
Notice the dual brake master cylinders and clutch master cylinder mounted low for direct floor mounted pedals. Interesting that this car had remote reservoirs for the brake masters but not for the clutch master. Thats not likely to stay that way! No brake boosters means solid pedal feel with very little travel, and the ability to adjust front to rear brake balance with a balance bar; literally a bar connecting the input shafts of both master cylinders and adjusting where along this bar the brake pedal is connected.
Another interesting note…the steering tie rod and the lower control arm rod that are both still hanging off of the car…hex tubing threaded to accept a rod end. Cheap, durable hardware that makes replacements much easier than year and model specific components.