As the new build is almost complete, we are going to go a few weeks back and show you what was done in the beginning of the build.

We started by laying out the mid-rail section. This chassis uses a rear section from an F-Toy with a 4″ spacer to widen it.

We added the roof section and figured out what had to be done upfront to fit the FJ-40 hood that TJM USA provided for us.

Next, Mike started welding up the lower link mounts that are incorporated into his sub-frame assembly.

The lower link cross members go into the jig with the tubes that make up the rest of the sub-frame.

Mike has a couple small winches on a track above his main work area. This makes it possible for him to do what he does as a one-man operation. After tacking it all together, he likes to hang the chassis up at a comfortable height to finish welding everything. As he says, “The quality of my welds is directly related to my comfort level.”

With the number of chassis Hendrix knocks out (he has a bit over 250 chassis floating around in the world right now), he does a lot of notching. He likes to jig up his mill with an air-actuated stop to get the tubing in the right place every time and let it do the heavy work.

As more tubing was added, some of the corners got busy. Here’s the intersection at the roof and c pillar.

During KOH in 2009, we had a rear upper link mount separate from the chassis, taking us out of the race. As we looked into it, we found the first and main problem. The tubing I made that crossmember from was way too thin. Hendrix then realized a second problem — one area needed to be strengthened a bit due to the loads it takes. After seeing mine, he took a look at his own car and saw that his was starting to crack as well. He and Desertoy came up with a solution. They boxed it with another plate at the top and fit a vertical rib inside.

As always, keep checking back for more updates on what was done to the new build.