45 replies to this topic

[MACKAZ]

Well guys, after 10 million years of saying I was gonna do it, Im ACTUALLY doing it.
Bought a 1922 Buick model 45 cowl for $150, its in pretty good nick for its age

Then got a chassis out of one of these for $90 (1984 mitsi L200 sport)(this is a sample pic off goggle)

Cost $140 to redo the lower inner, radius rod, sway bar and sway bar link bushes. Found some shorter springs at the junkyard...freebie
Rolling stock are standard Mitsi L200 4wd rims painted gloss red with 225/75/15s on the rear and 185/60/15 fronts.
No V8 motorvating this......

Mighty 3.3 and trimatic cost $240out of a 79 VB Commodore, (I thought I was a Ford guy WTF????) Good ol tardme....
While Picking the motor and box up from Auckland the guy produced an ultra rare Lynx 186 manifold complete with 2 matching original 2" SU cards and brand new filters (surface rust of course....)......Best score so far....$150!!!!!! Will take a pic soon.
Reason for the six is its different, cheap to run and cost knaff all. And with a V8 in a 109" wheelbase rod it would look kinda stupid
Headers and EH 179 sump and pickup to make a rear bulge pan.... $5
This weekends mish is remove the front, intermediate and deck mounts and throw the engine/box in the frame.
Its a big project........



Edit, oh yeah, Im building the rest of the body from pictures, looks like this

4 seater open tourer.....

[MACKAZ]

Cut the cab mounts off today and ground flush. One needs finishing touches but ran out of sunlight. Shed Im building it in(Dads) has no power connected yet. Hes off to reterieve his engine hoist sometime during the week so we can elevate the motor to change the sumps over. Then dangle the engine in approximate position for relevant measurements to make the engine mounts.
Edit Ill throw some pics up when I get a data cable....

[MACKAZ]

Well still no data cable dammit.... Anyway boring update, due to infliction of pain to groin region, the chassis got abbreviated from just behind the spring hanger!!!!! (Hurt too!!!) and removed the original gearbox crossmember for modification (ie sustantial chop lower and reinstall) and have finished grinding up the leftovers of the cabmounts. Easter, well, no work will be done on this old girl, consumption of malty alcoholic substances for 3 days are beckoning.
Over and out.
Love Mackaz

[MACKAZ]

Dads been busy so I rocked out and got the engine crane yesterday. I went around today, ripped the auto off, and removed the offensive Commodore sump and oil pump pickup (pan is at the front). Chucked the EH 149 sump and pickup (pan is at the rear) on with a new gasket. Gravy! Knocked the bungs out and put the EH dipstick in the side of the block (commodore is directly into the side of the sump) Found about a 3rd of the teeth on the flexplate are half worn through. So no engine dangling until I get another flexplate, hopefully tomorrow, Dad said a motor and box came in on saturday.....Fingers crossed. Once the motors in place and mounted, we can figure where the cowl sits, and how much it will need widening by to fit the chassis properly. Once thats sussed we can start building the body. Need to go chat to certifier and find out whether full harness belts are an option....

[MACKAZ]

Well no joy yet with a flexplate, bugger it all, but on brighter note scored a meke patina'd to fuck (ie rusty) chrome rocker cover, keen to source similar rusty stz chrome sideplates. Will look so rat it will leave rodent crap everywhere......ps still waiting for data cable by dude assures me he will have it for me tomorrow. TUI Yeah right.......

[MACKAZ]

A few random pics of my pile of bits
Chassis front

Diff

Carbs and Manifold

Grille surround

Quick mock up


Dodgy cell pics sorry

[MACKAZ]

Went around and did a couple of hours on engine, decided to use the knaffed flywheel, having issues finding another, anyhoo reattached the auto, well, tried to, issues with torque converter which mustve slipped off its spline when been shifted around the shed. Anyway managed to get it back onto its spline, (and a buttload of ATF on the floor).
Got all skippy and decided to get it sitting in the chassis, albeit on strops and blocks. Sits pretty high in the chassis but needs to be to look halfway decent, and its got one huge recess, number one cylinder is BEHIND the front splindles.
Front suspension didnt sag nowhere near as anticipated so will look into that once the motor is in permanent.
Ill take some more pics over weekend, weather is shit up here, no good for motorcycling!!!!!

[MACKAZ]

Few pics from last night, phone battery died prior to photo of tacked together widened cowl. Pretty nerve wracking taking a zipdisc to an 89yr old part, did NOT want to fuck it up.



Engine in its approximate place,



need to figure body height, seating etc first to decide its final position, also Falcon diff and 5 stud front conversion happening soon, have some 15x8or9" steels for rear standie 15x6" up front, gloss red of course

[MACKAZ]

Cowl now (almost) welded together (inside and out) and started filling random drilled holes with weld. Havent ground the welds yet. Have made pact that this is having no bog whatsoever to any part of the body, all warps from welding are staying, no weld is to be ground flat completely,

[MACKAZ]

Bullshit update. Reversed the crossmember under the gearbox by cutting the bottom off and welding it back on the top, looks choice. Took couple of hours to get that right, mission of a job.

[MACKAZ]

This was supposed to go in the above but couldnt be assed editing it. Needing ideas for lowback seats with really short legs, or if anyones built any please throw pics in discussion thread, thinking the regular t bucket style( ie upholster the back of the "body") with a squab base. Much better if I can use a factory seat, but I need to get my substantial prosterior as close to the floor as I can, as the body needs to be in line with my shoulder to mount the top belt mount...

[MACKAZ]

Went around and performed a little more hole filling with the welder, then grind off, then repeat. anyway Ive got it to the rough as I want it stage so cowl is ready to be attached to to start the rest of the tub. This is being made out of 44mmx1.6mm uncoated exhaust tubing. The exhaust guy 2 buildings down the road do all the bends, expansions for awesome deal too.
Enough boring words PICTURES


Prior to grinding



After grinding, sorry crap pic



Firewall



On the chassis



Front view, body curves out wider still (probably another 75-100mm each side)



Rat chrome, oh yeah , thats patina right there



Removed front cab mount, hideous...



After a bit of cleaning up.

[MACKAZ]

Last nights mission was a brainstorm and figure out night. Decided to stay with the Mitsi diff, and use a 750/15 12ply truck tyre, which by some formula counterer thingee on the enet gives us a final drive pretty close to an HQs 3.55.....
Also made cardboard templates for the engine mounts that will be made out of sculpted 75x3mm flatbar.
Front half of the driveshaft is almost ready to go to the engineer to be welded, Not going to balance it because it is a total of 365mm fron centre of universal to yoke spline...
see if old boy is keen to do some work tonight.... edit, which didnt happen....

[MACKAZ]

Todays effort was to remove springs to find bushes absolutely shot. Taking springpack to local springmaker on Monday to see what he can do, ideally 200mm shorter would be awesome but 100-120mm will suffice. Going to get reversed eyes too to help with height issue. Also hoping we can do it with a single parabolic spring,depends on what the man says.
Removed the mount in this pic. This section of chassis is going to be cut off then the spring shackle mount is to be reused after careful grinding to remove excess metal, the crossmember in the backgroud is also going to get replaced by a more presentable boxsection one.

This is where we need the spring shackle to be (at the very most, otherwise too much is gonna hang outside of the arse of the body)

The removed shock mounts (what was cut off is being swapped side to side and installed on the UNDERSIDE of the chassis and shorter shocks fitted.

Rough standard ride height

So yeah, all this craps gotta be done prior to starting the body.....piss me off.... One step forward 10 backward....

[MACKAZ]

Scored these awesome sideplates with mickey as rust spec.

Also got some early Mack Truck bulldog emblems that are going to be incorporated somewhere,

and about 40 5/8 ROE spanners that are going to also be used along the lines of these pics.


Yay? Get fucked?

[MACKAZ]

Got the springs back ($300) until we get load on them we dont know whether we need the 2nd spring. The new ones are the shorter of the two.

Removed the old shackle mounts and cleaned em up nice


Old boys into the crossmember with the gas axe!!!

General mockup of the new hanger position, more grinding of chassis required

Apologies for poor lighting.....

[MACKAZ]

Fuck those pictures are terrible. Meh. Anyway small crap update. Put the rusty sideplates on, they look shit hot!! Ground the hell out of the back of the chassis where Dad took to it with the gas axe. Springs ended up being 230mm shorter, pleased as punch. Have decided on using two springs and leaving (pun not intentional) the overload out of the equation. Going to reassemble the springpack after buzzing 100mm off the second spring. Waiting for new front spring eye bushes to come from Auckland to go with the rear eye and shackles purchased yesterday. its coming together slowly

[MACKAZ]

Got hanger position sorted! Still a bit more chassis to get whacked off. Commencement of building the body imminent!!!!! Finally...
Couple of pics of end result.




God need to get some decent lights sorted!!!!!!!

[MACKAZ]

Done a few quick calculations on how much the build has cost. Was pleasantly surprised that the tally of the receipts and cost of chassis, motor and box, and cowl is $1076.90. Well below budget, and majority of the money that needs spending actually spent. Total budget is $3000, including cert and reg. Call me an optimist but we reckon it will fall within our badget.

[MACKAZ]

Did a little bit more last night. mainly the final cut of the rear of the chassis. in total there has been about 650 mm removed off the rear. Ive got a nervous 6 weeks ahead of me, big big changes, but not going to jinx it yet. If it goes ahead this will be on hold for quite a while......