Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Another floor pan shot. Notice the markings to cut out clearance for the ebrake handle...it is hard to think of everything when you are making parts that all have to fit together.

[David Kirkham]

Close up of the driver's foot box. Notice the big "X" on the left side of the picture. That will be left billet in the car with now carpet to cover it up.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a shot of the rear support. This is bolted straight down to the rear bulkhead. The body is supported from this structure and the roll bar helps to brace it. It has 1 in square tubes going backwards to support it in the rearward direction. If you look closely, we also milled directly into the part slots for the passenger shoulder harness.

[David Kirkham]

Here is another shot of that same bracket from the rear looking forward. Here you can see the billet work for he shoulder harnesses. No sharp areas to cut the shoulder harnesses!

[David Kirkham]

And here we have one of the supports for the roll bar.

[saltytri]

David:

Of course, once you get all the details worked out and have the CAD/CNC files on your hard drive, It'll be a snap to turn these bad boys out one after another. So, can I make an appointment to bring my car in and have a shiny, new billet chassis slipped under the body? Shouldn't take los hermanos more than a half a day to knock it out, eh? Heck, at that point, it isn't even skilled labor - it's more like a big Lego set.

Let me know when you can fit me in.

Best regards as always,
David I.

[David Kirkham]

Yes, just push the button now...

I wish running a CNC were that easy!

As for slipping a "new chassis" under one of our earlier cars--not going to happen. Way too much work. It would be easier to just start over fresh and new. You are right on the Lego set thing. We did it that way on purpose. We were very careful when we made it so that it would be easy to put together. We spent a LOT of time programming the machines to do all of the hard work. When the parts come out, we pretty much just bolt it together.

If the customer doesn't care, then I think we may start making a few more of these. We won't know until delivery, however, what he wants to do. Of course, that depends on whether or not customers want a billet chassis instead of the original 4 inch chassis. Maybe I should post a poll???

David

[saltytri]

OK, my tongue is out of my cheek now.

Seriously, you (meaning the whole crowd at the Skunkworks) are truly da bomb. Who else could pull off a technological tour de force like this, or would have the audacity to try?

Please keep posting photos every so often - it's a fascinating project!