HM-2005 Build Thread

[Russ Crouch]

Russ,
I also have the Sube seats and sliders. I like your idea of using 1/2" spacer washers and the 3/4" x 1-1/2" rail to mount the sliders further back without binding. Can you tell me where you got the 3/4" x 1-1/2" rail adaptor?

Russ C.

[Russ Rittimann]

I bought the 3/4" x 1-1/2" raw stock on eBay.  Sellers have a lot of short drop offs for sale so you don't have to buy 10' or 20' lengths.  I've bought steel and aluminum.

Here's a couple of pix of the rail adapters.  The large holes are for the 3/8" bolts that go thru the cockpit tub and frame.  I cut a 3/4" hole in the top for the heads to sit inside the channel.  The 5/16" threaded holes are just the long threaded spacers you get at Home Depot or Lowes.  Drilled a thru hole and welded the spacers on both sides.  Then ground everything flush.  Welded end caps at each end.  I powder coated the rail adapters after I finished machining everything.

I put 3/4" plastic caps at the holes in the front to cover the 3/8" bolts.  The pictures don't show the caps.

The 3/4" thick rail adapters were to space the seat adjusters up off the carpet so they didn't dig in and bind.

Hope this helps.

[Russ Crouch]

Russ,
Thanks for the details. I purchased the tubing and plugs on Ebay. Very nice design.

Russ C.

[Bob Worley]

Jason at Hurricane send me new seat frame brackets to update my frame to accept the newer Sube Sports seat bolt pattern.   (They are now making the frames using thew new brackets).

I cut out the old mounts and welded in the new pieces.   The Sube Sport seat sliders fit perfectly.   I havent tried them with the carpet and padding yet.

[Russ Crouch]

 Bob,
Looks like with the new design the seats will be moved more toward the center of the car. My seat backs are about an inch from the doors. I think if my seats had been moved toward the center, the seat would have set further back in the cockpit tub. No problem here. I'm vertically challenged.
I will be using Russ R's design and move the holes in the rails outward to move the seat sliders toward the center of the car.

Nice job on getting the mounting tabs moved.

Russ C.

[Russ Rittimann]

It looks like with Bob's new seat mounts, the four bolts for the sliders are essentially in the same place as mine.  I had to use 5/16" button head bolts for the seat sliders as the head sits down in the "U" channel of the sliders.  The holes in the frame mounts are like 1/2" so when directly mounting the sliders to the frame, you will need some washers on the bottom.  You have to move the seat all the way forward and all the way backward to get to the bolts.  The bolts are still difficult to get to.  I have a small ratchet that accepts 1/4" hex bits for the back and a long "T" handle allen wrench that fits the front.

By the time I got the seats figured out, I had already permanently mounted the cockpit tub.  It would have been difficult for me to weld in some new seat mounts to the frame with the cockpit tub mounted.

BTW, I had to bend the adjuster bar that you pull up to adjust the seats.  It sat right down on the floor even with my adapter rails.  Couldn't get my fingers under the bar.  You have to be careful how much you bend it as it hits the front of the seat if you bend it too far.  It's made from tubing so be careful as you don't want to kink it.

Bob -- you will need some washers or spacers to space the sliders above the carpet.  Otherwise, the slider rail that mounts to the seat will dig into the carpet and the seat is not going to move. 

[Russ Rittimann]

After driving my car for a good bit now, every time I opened my trunk I got a whiff of fuel vapors.  I checked everything including the seal on the fuel gauge sensor and replacing the worm type clamps on the fuel fill tube with "T" bolt type clamps which provided more clamping force.

I finally figured out where the fuel smell was coming from.  There was a notch in the trunk liner tub up around the fuel vent to allow it to fit around the bracket I welded to hold the fuel vent.  See picture below.  This resulted in a direct opening into the trunk and the fuel vapor escaping from the vent was making its way inside the trunk.

I cut a piece of 1/8" polycarbonate (Lexan) and glued it to the frame support with urethane structural adhesive then sealed it with black silicone.

Problem solved.

[Russ Crouch]

Russ,
I have not had a chance to get my car on the road yet so I have not had an oportunity  to check for gas fumes.   Car is not registered and a Nebraska State Patrolman lives just down the street from me. 
I did something similar to seal up the gap in the trunk tub next to the tank vent.
I extended the sheet aluminum used to bring the tub wall up to the body forward to cover the gap. I then fiberglassed the wheel opening side and finished it with bed liner. I also used bed liner on the underside of the body. Picture below is of the finished product.

Russ C.

[Russ Rittimann]

Looks pretty much the mine looked when I was done.  Since I had already welded the bracket to the frame, I had to come up with a way to close off the fiberglass.  I haven't smelled gas fumes since.

What is the curved piece toward the rear cover up?

[Russ Crouch]

Russ,
For some reason the angled roll-bar brace on both roll-bars was very close, if not touching the corner of the trunk tub on both sides.  I cut openings in the wall of the trunk tub on both sides to make room for the bars.  Then formed steel and welded the covers. I will post pics of the trunk interior.

Tonight I will get park light power to the license plate lamp. The tube inside the trunk lid goes to the opening for the trunk latch handle. With the new trunk lid design for taller US license plates, they moved the lamp higher on the trunk lid and added a bulge where the license plate lamp resides. However, that does not leave much room between the bottom and top trunk skin to get two #16 wires from the trunk latch access opening to the hole behind where the lamp attaches to the trunk lid.
Russ C.

[Russ Rittimann]

Interesting that the roll bar brace(s) was that close.  Mine was no where near the trunk tub.  The formed steel cover looks nice.

I had to cut a semicircle notch in my license plate as it was interfering with the trunk handle.  I also notched the bolt holes a bit to raise the license plate just a bit so it was flush with the bracket at the top.  I guess I have the old style trunk lid.  Wasn't aware they changed it.  I had no problem snaking the wires down from the hinge to the license plate light.  There was enough spacing for the thickness of a single 16 gauge wire.  There was no tube.  I snaked the wires from the hinge to the latch and then up to the light.

[Russ Rittimann]

After driving my car for 300 plus miles, I found gravel in the cockpit area behind the seats where my rear tires were picking it up and it was making it through gaps in my rear inner fender wells.  I had planned to install inner fender liners but had not gotten to it.  Some builders have installed custom bent aluminum panels to enclose the inner fender wells.

After looking at my inner wheel wells, it was obvious the gravel was coming from the gap where the rear cowl lip on the cockpit tub is supposed to seal against the cowl area on the body and also on the bottom of the fender area.  There is a "D" gasket that was glued to the lip on the cockpit tub to proved the sealing.  In the area around the fender area, the lip deviated from the contour of the fender and was no where close to sealing.  Big gap right into the cockpit.

I decided to fix the cockpit tub cowl lip so it conformed to the fender contour and sealed properly.  In the picture below, I cut the lip in Area 1 and spaced it about 1/2" with foam pieces to the fender contour.  I then fiberglassed the triangular piece that resulted in cutting the lip.  The picture is after I glued in some high density polyurethane foam and contoured it with an angle die grinder with sanding disk.  Just a matter of applying fiberglass matte and resin over the area.  I used 4 layers of matte and resin.  Now the "D" gasket (you can see it in the picture where I pulled it out) will fit the 1/2" gap and seal as it is supposed to.

While I was at it, instead of custom cutting/bending some aluminum panels to fill the inner fender liners, I decided to just fill the gaps with the same foam, fiberglass matte and resin.  Those are shown in Areas 2 and 3.  I only attached the new fiberglass to the existing fiberglass of the cockpits tub.  I masked off where the new fiberglass contact the metal seat post or frame.  Also where the cockpit tub meet the body.  This will allow the fiberglass to flex a bit when the frame flexes.  Again, 4 layers of matte and resin as I found this results in about 1/8" thick fiberglass composite patch.

After applying the fiberglass, I coated everything with rattle can truck bed liner.  Matched the existing coating pretty well although the texture is not as aggressive.  Applied a large bead of black silicone to all the joints.

The final result is shown in the picture below.

Just a different approach to filling the gaps and sealing the rear inner fender wells.  Seems to have worked well.  No more gravel in the cockpit area.

[Russ Crouch]

Russ,
Hurricane addressed that issue beginning with my car HM-2018. They extended the "wings" on the back of the cockpit tub up to meet the underside of the body.  I think mine was a prototype. The may have improved upon it with later cars.
Russ C.

[Russ Rittimann]

Nice!  Glad they made that mod.  Looks like the openings to the cockpit next to the door posts still need to be closed off.  Might be as simple as how they trim the cockpit tub so it fits closer to the door posts.

Hurricane keeps making their car better and better.

[Russ Rittimann]

Finished installing the carpet in the trunk.  There are 5 pieces of carpet for the trunk.  Since I couldn't find any installation instructions for the trunk, here are the sequence for installation I used: 1) install the two side pieces.  Align with the side tops and then wrap them around behind the rear wheels.  Glued these pieces down.  Don't trim the extra for now. 2) install the center floor section starting at the battery shelf.  I only glued the carpet on the battery shelf to allow the rear to be pulled up to get to the fuel level sender.  The carpet has been custom sewed so it fits snugly and flat. Have to cut around the roll bar and fuel inlet tube.  3) install the two pieces behind the wheel wells. Glued these down.  Now is the time to trim everything so it fits nice and neat.

Here's a pix of the final result.  With the installation of the trunk carpet, I'm essentially done with my car.