1958 Berkeley Special

This thread just gets better and better. That shot of you and the baby wearing goggles in sepia tone is the friggin' bomb. Now I see multiple race ready dwarfs and a berkeley. I am on the edge of my seat here.

By the middle of May 2007, the dwarf car is in my garage and I'm ready to start chopping up the Berkeley.

With relatively little work, the front was off.

Then the firewall. No going back from here.

Same thing for the back of the Berkeley. And after taking a couple hot laps around the house with the dwarf car, it was time to chop the top.

I like this look :) Maybe a couple more hot laps around the house

Subscribed. This is getting interesting.

Are the dash and suspension tops low enough? o.0

Can't wait to find out!

Wow. I love this project.

Do dwarf cars turn left and right? Could be a fun autocross toy. Especially with lights and a plate.

How flexy was it when you chopped the top off?

I got lucky in a couple of areas. On my car the suspension setup was symmetrical, with the exception of the rear brakes (one big one little) and one of the rear coil-overs having a different spring. As far as rigidity when removing the top, I’m sure I lost a bit, but on this particular car, the lower frame is a 10” truss bridge, so quite stiff without the rest of the cage. I’ll try to dig up some pictures later tonight.

Oh and the other thing that prevents the car from turning well is the spooled rear end, which did a number on my lawn during my hot lap session

So is the game to drop the Berkley tub over the "As unmodified as possible" dwarf chassis? So that in effect you have a Berkely that handles like a dwarf?

I am assuming single seater is the goal?

In reply to NOHOME:

Exactly the plan. Single seater was more of a consequence than a goal.

Good news is you wont need to build a gantry to raise and lower the body a zillion times like I did!

In reply to NOHOME:

That is super cool. I need to see the finished product on that one.
No gantry required for the Berkeley, a little guy like me can easily lift the front or back sections and put them on or take them off.

I want a Berkeley body if anyone has one cheap. I need the body complete, drive train is not important.

So within a couple days and a little more nip/tuck on the Berkeley and the dwarf, I was able to drop the front and rear sections in place. The fit was better than I could have hoped for even if I had custom built the chassis.

Chassis is still completely drive-able at this point.

Even the aluminum sill sections of the Berkeley pan line up with the truss bridge on the dwarf.

Hard to see in this picture, but even the extractor on the hood is well positioned just behind the radiator.

Unbelievable fit and almost entirely unplanned.

Beautiful. Really kicking myself for passing on a Berkley roller that was for sale here locally a few years back.

By fall 2007, the body is temporarily bolted down and car is drive-able. I found a set of 14" steel wheels from a '95 Accord. Not as cool looking as the fat tires, but at least now I could turn and I think the skinny tires fit in well with the 50's GP car theme.

I also had found an inexpensive solution to my lack of headlight buckets and hardware.

At this point I started to rebuild the rear section of the roll bar to fit into the Berkeley rear shell. Also installed a new 5 gallon fuel cell to replace the little 2 gallon unit in the dwarf car.

Most entertaining, sir. Carry on...

Fall 2007 Now that I couldn't hang the car from the ceiling anymore, I was out of garage space. I went to Sears and bought the largest garden shed (tinfoil tent), that the town would let me put up. I think it was 10x12. Anyway plenty big, that's like a 2 car garage for a Berkeley.

Heavily modified on the inside. Added lots of shelves for parts and support for the roof. The original design I'm pretty sure would have collapsed after the first inch of snow. Door is just over 4 foot wide and a perfect fit for a Berkeley.

Still enough space left over to add in my vintage generator setup. One of my neighbors had recently removed it from his old Adirondack cabin. One of my other hobbies is vintage electrical stuff.

I have that exact same generator. It burns a little oil, but still runs like a champ. You need to do a build thread on it as well.

I like the way the car is coming together. Very cool.

This is quite possibly the best picture ever posted on the Internet. Well done!

You are making this look way to easy.

Since I like to make everything difficult, I would have been tempted to cut the body down the middle and widen it to cover the big tires.

It's like a mini AC Cobra.

We support your War of Terror.

Toyman01 wrote: I have that exact same generator. It burns a little oil, but still runs like a champ. You need to do a build thread on it as well. I like the way the car is coming together. Very cool.

Great generator, quiet and low speed. Does your have the aux shaft on the generator end? I heard that this model was used on utility trucks. Sadly, I don't have a lot of pics of this build.

NOHOME wrote: You are making this look way to easy. Since I like to make everything difficult, I would have been tempted to cut the body down the middle and widen it to cover the big tires.

This was my first project of this magnitude, so I tried to keep it simple. I also ended up getting really lucky that everything fit the way it did. I'd done a lot of planning and measuring, but I really had no idea how it would go together until I started chopping.