Thread: I've finished my project now what?

That is what I call insane. I've always had this compulsion to do up a Morris Major Elite, View here.. A mate of mine recently did up a VW with a Rotary 13B engine in it, goes like the clappers.

As for your next one? Something bigger and better than the Little Red Wagon

The old Morrie Major/Elite.

I used to use their diffs in my MK1 Sprite.

It ate them as it had a hot MGB engine in it.

The MGB had an R100 rotary. This was in 1970!

I've always been a car tragic and as I'm retired it keeps me in the garage and away from SWIMBO.

The Major Elite was the first car I ever drove in, probably explains my compulsion. Dad use to let me drive it up the road and back when I was 14, I loved watching the road go by when I looked down at the missing rubber from around the gear box.

depends what sort of car you like i guess, roadsters are awesome fun but difficult to get past engineers when they've got big engines, specially nowadays. pre ADR commercial are still easy with the right engineers. challenging them isnt really a good idea in my experience, you may have had a different time yourself though

i sorta dont see the point in pouring so much into a car you're never really gunna drive, so whatever it is id keep it jussstt tame enough to drive it whenever you want. this is just a personal thing, but perfect bodywork (ie 1000+ hours in bodywork alone) tends to detract from what a car is for, in the sense that you'd be disinclined to drive the thing because you're worried about hurting all that effort and time in bodywork. these projects tend to be sold fairly soon after completion, defeats the entire purpose in my book but of course thats only a matter of opinion

the toyota UZ's are nice ive got one in another of my cars and would love to go nuts on it someday, other things to get through first though. they're not actually that light despite being alloy. the trick is they're tech 8's so the added size and weight of quad cam heads and the very strong bottom end and all the other fruit brings weight close to that of the archaic (but very powerful) LSx SBC's. so if you're keen on trying something a little different, dont let the weight get you down cos it doesnt really matter. 600+hp on stock internals is a hard thing to ignore with the UZ though hey

ive got a thing for roadsters at the moment, not sure why. a v8 in most roadsters will be tricky though. if you wanted to stay toyota, JZA80 supras have a great deal of potential to become very very fast. more and more v8 ones are popping up, the chassis and rear end spec make for a very strong platform to get into and below 10's if you were so inclined, one chap in america is running 8.99 on what would be our street legal rubber!

I hear what you say about not driving projects that are are too well finished.

I've got 100,000klm on my Rover and I don't mind it taking the odd bump as that is what it was built for. When the body is almost 1metre off the ground it doesn't see too much damage!

When I say "challenge my Engineer" I mean set them a task of approving something that is as close to illegal as I can go. The guy I use is an old client of mine from when I was in business and we think the same so we work well at finding solutions to marginal problems. When you start questionng their opinions or decsions you're on thin ice!

I'm not after a traditional hotrod as I'm involved in finishing off a Ferrari powered T bucket that was built in the States by the late Bob Reisner so that will satisfy that interest.

I have the option of assembling a Renault 5 Turbo Group B car for a good mate or working on my Lancia 037 rally car but they're just "bolt em back together projects" that don't challenge your inventiveness or problem solving abilities. Their value lies in remaining as the factory built them.

Not sure I'd use a 1UZ again unless it was trubo'd. Getting 500hp from one with a supercharger is hard work and expensive. I guess I have $40,000+ in my engine and whislt it's outstanding to drive I can do the same with an Chev LS3 and $15,000.

I've looked at small coupes from the 60's and '70's with the thought of putting a chassis under them, which would allow almost any engine to go into them but nothing has taken my eye yet.

I suppose I need to keep looking and wondering and in the meantime enjoy my Rover.

XJ6 Jaguar tired body convert to dual cab pickup/ute well side, drop in 454 chev donk.

Iam working 1/18 scale diecast models current project/s 3.8 MK11 jag repainted deep cream, dechromed all over and all converted to copper look including widened wire wheels, cream/chocolate interior, orange 427 ford donk.
Others are VW Caddy vans have in 1/87, 1/64, 1/43, 1/24, 1/18 all imported via ebay. All finished Arctic white, grey interiors (std) and BBS rims.

2nd 1/18 is getting lowered, pearl overcoat, rear barn doors converted to tailgate, tan interior, timber flooring in rear, carpet, GTI motor, custm exhaust.

None nowhere finished or ready for pics yet.

Nah, models aren't my thing unless they are flesh and blood and throwing themselves at me. Don't worry it'll never happen!

I'm 58 and grew up with drag racing. I was there the night they broke the 200mph barrier in Australia and watched E.J. Potter and Bill Shewsbury do their thing so I'll always look back at my childhood and say "I was blessed".

I'm not into American Muscle Cars (early Hemi Barracud excepted) per se but American Drag Cars do attract my attention.

Not sure I want a tool box full of A/F spanners when I have a very complete set of metric spanners that could dismantle almost anything going but if US it is then A/F it is.

Still nothing is jumping out at me saying "this is it" but it will happen.

A couple of interesting projects I am aware of include the installation of the full drive train, including flappy paddles from a late model Maserati into a classic Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV, by a guy in Melbourne and another a chap over in WA who is installing a Ferrari V8 into a similar but earlier model GTV. While over in the US, there is a guy I know who cut the chassis off and removed all the drive train from one of these coupes and married it to an Alfetta GTV6 chassis, including the dash from the GTV6 and extended the front guards and bonnet so that it all fitted.

Definitely my kind of cool car projects (, though not that I could ever manage such a project.

Unfortunately living in NSW means neither Alfa swap would be legal unless you wanted to go Individually Constructed Vehicle (ICV),

Due to their light weight they would be restricted to engines under 2.5litres.

You could use a rare (in Australia) Ferrari 208 engine fitted tot he 308 in Italy, a friend has one here in Sydney but only for the block and crank..

You also can't increase the wheelbase without going ICV.

I'm gettign close to a decision, I'm waiting on my engineer to let me know if my interpretation of "mid-engined" is acceptable to the RTA.

If it is it's all stops out.

Once firmed up I'll let you know what happens.

Looking forward to seeing what you decide on and its progress.

OK, after much head scratching and discusion with the engineer I'm very limited as to what I can do by the NSW modified vehicle rules.

The vehicle will be built under the Individually Constructed Vehicle rules, which are very specific and quite difficult to comply with.

I can't import a Dodge A100 and do what I want to it so that one is out. The A100 is the vehicle the Little Red Waggon was based on and I want something simillar. I'm regressing to my childhood. It happens with age.

So, my vehicle of choice is a Mitsubishi L300 Express van from 1980 to 1984. Never thought I'd own any Mitsi let alone one of them! It has to be those years as the vehicle needs to have a full chassis to allow me fit the engine I want. No other delivery type van built after about 1980 and sold in Austrlaia had a separate chassis. The L300 is the most oldf ashioned van of its day. Asdditionally it has coil spring front suspension whereas most other vans have torsion bar front end that will get in the way.

As the base vehicle is over 1,100kg and has a full chassis I can fit an engine with up to 5.46 times the vehicles weight in cc's. That means if it weighed exactly 1,100kg I could fit a 5.46 litre engine. Or I could use a 4.68 litre turbo/supercharged car. I have two supercharged cars just now and don't want another so it will be normally aspirated.

The plan is to fit either a Holden LS3 engine or the CHrysler 5.7 "Hemi" engine. Don't worry the vehicle weighs enough to go to 6.2litres! Both Chev and Chrysler happen to 6.2 litre engines available.

The engine will be coupled to a 3 speed auto (a TH425) from a 1960's Oldsmobile Toronado front wheel drive vehicle. This allows me to mount the engine either over the rear axle or about 600mm in front of it. To do that I need to divorce the differential from the tranaxle and build a short drive shaft to run a conventional rear axle.

As the drive from the transaxle is offset to one side the diff centre will need to be offset as well. This isn't too hard to do with a bit of cutting, welding and axle shortening and a re-spline.

The body will be cut down into a pick-up style using the exiting rear door and frame as a rear for the new cab.

That all looks simple enough but I don't like farming too much out work to others so what I plan will be all mine.

The finished vehicle has to pass a number of tests the toughest being the IM240 emmisions test where the vehicle is run on a dyno for 4 minutes and exhaust quality is sampled all the way. This is why I plan on using a very late model engine so it is almost guranteed a pass. It also needs to meet todays noise limits but that's only putting enough muffleing on it and making sure the intake is well muffled.

The next "worst" test is the torsional and beaming tests. This is where they test the torsional rigidity of the chassis by chaining down one end and imparting a turning force across the opposite end of the chassis (they put an arm on the chassis and load it up until it twists) and must meet a maximum deflection figure. The same with the beaming test. My main concern with this is the chassis from the '80's may not be stiff enough to pass this test. I"ll bet Yonnee wished a few trailers had these test.

We can do some home testing on the bare chassis to see how it goes and if it's too floppy I can solidly mount the body (for the test) to give it some more support and add acente "X" frame to gusset it.

I figure finished weight will be under 1,400kg and it should have around 450fwhp and around 400lbft of torque.

If that can't get its wheel up in the air nothing can.

The vehicle will be my fun car to run around in and wander out to the Drag Strip when it takes my fancy.

My first hurdle is learning to MIG weld as I only stick so first thing is a new welder.

I'd be interested in comments and feedback as I'm quite sure you guys have suggestions on how to improve the concept and I'm open to all suggestions. Apart for don't do it!

Originally Posted by zuffen

My first hurdle is learning to MIG weld as I only stick so first thing is a new welder.

If that's what you call a hurdle, then it should be a pretty easy 1st lap. MIGing is a point'n'shoot version of stick. The two biggest tricks are getting the gas pressure right, which is pretty much set & forget, the other is matching the Amps and wire feed to the material.
Check here for some light reading.

Good luck with it. Would love to a W.I.P. thread as you go.

You guy's haven't seen my stick welding. (((

I think my eyes aren't good enough to adjust to the arc when it starts so I'm blind for a second or two so the weld quality goes out the window.

I've been thinking about changing from an AC welder to DC to see if that helps.

I use both conventional and auto helmets and it doens't seem to make any difference.

My best results are welding in the sun as the light variation isn't as great.

The die is cast.

I'm now the proud owner of a 2008 VE HSV GTS Commodore to pull apart for parts.

Sounds flash until you see it!

The car has been involved in a monumental front 3/4 collission which necessitated the removal of the roof and driver's side B pillar and 3 doors to get the driver out. His boot is still stuck between the door pillar and the transmission tunnel. Fortunately no blood in the car and his boot is empty, I checked before the auction))

A few mates have asked why this particular car?

This version of the Commodore has a 6.2 litre 317kw engine and 6 speed tiptronic transmission. Should be plenty of grunt and all with factory drivability. From what I can work out I can bolt a Mercedes transfer case to the back of it and thus turn the drive around so it runs to the back of the truck. The engine faces the rear of the tray.

I can sell a few undamaged parts off the car I don't need and recoup some of the costs.

Cost of the car was $6,000.00 plus charges, and there's no way I could have purchased any other engine with this output for the same money or built an engine to give this power for the dollars. On top of this I get all the pollution gear and cats/mufflers thrown in so it will sail through EPA testing..

There are plenty of broken bits to sort out but the engine and trans look to be fine. The engine has two broken coils but they are a 10 minute swap so I'm pretty happy there.

Now I just need to find a van.