College budget restoration, Trudging forward |
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College budget restoration, Trudging forward |
ThePaintedMan |
Dec 29 2011, 07:02 PM
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#1
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 3,886 Joined: 6-September 11 From: St. Petersburg, FL Member No.: 13,527 Region Association: South East States |
Hello all,
I'm finally getting around to documenting my restoration after the past several months of work. This may not get updated immediately as I'm trying to get as much done as possible before grad school kicks in again in January. However, I'm going to try and post pics when I can. I purchased this car from a gentleman less than ten minutes from my house named Ray. He apparently is/was a member on the forum as well and was a very cool guy to meet. We talked several times about the car and he was very up-front about its condition (to the best of his own knowledge). He recommended it be used only for the drivetrain, which at this point seems like it was the correct suggestion. However, being 27 and stubborn, I saw it as an opportunity. Most of my experience in the past has been with American and Japanese cars from the the 1980s and newer, and most of that spent doing body work. This car I saw as a chance to learn something (mostly because I figured I couldn't make it any worse than it already was (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) . So, after seeing the thing run and falling in love, I gave Ray 1,000 for it and convinced my girlfriend to help me tow it home. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of this, but wish I did! The look on her embarased face was something like, "Oh my God, now I've become trailer trash." We towed it five miles clunking the whole way because Ray failed to mention that the CV joints had been disconnected from the wheel. What a ride home. I then set to work on it immediately, replacing a broken clutch fork and cable over the span of a weekend. Drove it around for two weeks to make sure I was still crazy enough to keep it, then began tearing it down. I should mention several things. First of all, this car always had an intention of being raced, which initially was to be in Chumpcar. However, I realized the amount of work needed just to get the thing safe to drive warranted me keeping it for more than just track use. So, at the moment, its going to race Chumpcar next August, and I'm going to PRAY it doesn't get clobbered so that it can be driven afterward. Trust me, I already know I'm (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif) . Second, I have made it a point and a promise (to my forever understanding girlfriend) that I'm going to keep the cost to a minimum. That means a minimum of pre-fabbed parts, which also forces me to learn more about metal working as well. This build is certainly not up the past quality work of many of the folks on this board, but like I said, I'm a cheapskate (student loans ain't what they used to be). So, here it goes! I'll try to explain more as I go along. Attached thumbnail(s) |
ThePaintedMan |
Jan 11 2012, 12:07 PM
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#2
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Advanced Member Group: Members Posts: 3,886 Joined: 6-September 11 From: St. Petersburg, FL Member No.: 13,527 Region Association: South East States |
Thanks for the kind words fellas. Been raining all day so I couldn't get any work done on the car before classes this afternoon. However, I went out and took a few photos. This one is the passenger floorboard we made. Still needs some welding and a few more bends to be complete, but I think it'll do fine in the car. It was a full days worth of work to make, but for me, cost is everything. If you look at the welds, you can see how it was done. We cut a few slots lengthwise using a cutting wheel as well as one down the side for the seat channel. Then, bent those downward using channel steel and a ball peen hammer. Then, hammered this "V" shaped valley against bar steel to achieve more of a "U" shape. This left about an 1/8th to 1/4 in gap, which had to be welded closed. The only real problem was the warping, because I failed to mention to mark that he needed to put in all of his spot welds first. However, fitment wasn't bad, and since this car was destined for a scrap yard anyway, I think anything we do to it is an improvement. Once I'm out of college I'll find a nicer model to do everything the "right" way (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
Attached thumbnail(s) |
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