FEBRUARY

S66
We used a square off the ground to square up our tire to the floor. We did this to make the tire perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Then we welded the 1/8th inch steal to the frame of our car.We had to then take the motor off in order to attach the chain to the tire. We then put a scale under all 3 tires in order to figure our ballast. We want 55-60% of the weight in the front and 40-45% of the weight in the back. With our driver in the car we realized that we had to move one of our batteries to the front in order to get the correct percent of weight. We also have to throw all of our weights in the front of the car. This gave us almost a perfect 55-45% ratio. After we figured out the weight, we figured out the brake system on our car. We started this process by cutting brackets in order to hold our brake calibers. To do this we laid out the design on 1/8th inch steel plate, we then punched the holes for the bolts and cut out the bracket with the plasma cutter. We then drilled the holes, and mounted the caliper to the bracket. We then did this to both brakes, and lined the brake pads up with our brake rotor. We made sure everything had plenty of clearance, then we welded it up with the mig welder. That is how far we are on our braking system. For our steering we have done quite a bit. We started by cutting our 2 pieces of metal which are a inch and a half wide, by four inches long. We then had to find the center of the pieces, and then punched three holes. We then had to grind down the corners of the steering arms in order to give them plenty of clearance. Once the corners were ground down, we lined them up on the car, we did this by attaching them to the car and then taking a piece of sting to the back tire in order to find the ackerman angle in order to prevent tire scrub. The holes were cut for our tire rod ends, we also cut our steering shaft and support. We cut our steering shaft out of one inch round tubing. We cut our steering shaft at four feet long. We also cut out another plate, and found the center, punched and drilled two holes, and mig welded it to our steering shaft to connect our steering shaft and steering arms by using tie rods. We cut a support from one inch square tubing and one in round tubing. We cut the piece of round tubing in half and put a hing on it, and then welded it to the square tubing. This is how we made our steering support.

S44
We started out by cutting peices for our front steering arms then we used the drill press and drilled three holes in it so we are able to adjust the steering rods. Then using a string started lining up the angle on our front steering arms with the center of the rear axle to find our ackerman angle to prevent tire scrub. Then we welded them in place. We then moved onto the weight distribution of the car. we placed a scale under the tire to figure out the weight distribution we already had. We figured the front had to have about 55-60% and the back would be about 40-45%. We found it best to place one battery in the front, then we will create a mount on the back of the car to place the other battery on the opposite side of the motor, then our ballast will be placed in the front of the car as well. Then we stripped the old cars apart for some ideas as well as some additional parts such as brake lines and steering rods. We than moved onto the steering. We used 1in round tubing for our steering shaft. We are still working on the placement of the shaft because it has to go over the battery in the front. We have also welded some 1in square tubing to the frame of the car on the bottom where we will be putting our seat.