Howdy! I wanted to share my project car with you guys. I've been working on it for a while and the guys over at theamcforum.com have been helping me. However, when I started reading GRM I knew I wanted to take part. The projects here are awesome and ambitious!
I bought the rambler in high school when I was 16. I drove it for two years every day and took my wife on our first date in it! When I was still in high school, I decided to give the car a rustoleum plaid paint job. It's outrageous looking, and its tons of fun to drive around looking the way it does.
I parked it at my grandmother's house when I went to college. I spent most of college dreaming up what to do with it after I graduated. I wanted to replace everything with new components. When hurricane Harvey hit Houston, the car got drowned in grandma's garage. That gave me the kick start I needed to get off my butt and get started.
The plan for the car is to replace all electric and mechanical components with late model parts. I want to drive the car to work, and probably do some drag racing and autocross.
So without further ado, here's a huge picture dump with some explanation along the way!
Here's the car after getting power washed and pulled to my house from grandma's.
I drug it into the garage, and put it on some really tall homemade jack stands.
I tore it down.
I took all that old stuff to the scrap yard, and started searching for "new" stuff!
I pulled the front and rear suspension out of this burned c4 corvette for $400
I cut the shock towers and old front subframe out of the rambler (it's a unibody)
Then I installed a new front subframe for mounting the C4 front suspension to.
More to come soon! I'm going to make another post with the rest of my progress to date.
Next a buddy and I made a crossmember to hang the rear suspension from.
Then I mounted it in the car.
I made mounts for the trailing links.
I got some rims from a chevy blazer for the car.
I had to flare the rear fenders.
DO NOT PAINT THE CAR! Leave it as-is. That’s awesome!
I made sway bar mounts and bent the sway bar to fit in its new location.
I designed a new fuel tank to replace the small, gunky one that was in the car originally.
I bent up and welded out the tank structure.
And this weekend I fabricated and installed the pump access panel.
And that's up to date! Soon I'll be working on getting an engine and transmission. The plan right now is to get a vortec 4200 from a Trailblazer and set it up with an AR5 manual trans from a Colorado. I'm going to make a custom flywheel to mate the two.
I've got lots more pictures if you're interested in something in specific, let me know! I'll keep posting updates as I make more progress.
Yikes, Nash - Kelvinator would be proud!
Pete Gossett said:
lotusseven7 said:
DO NOT PAINT THE CAR! Leave it as-is. That’s awesome!
100%!!!
I'm glad you guys like the paint job. It's a lot of fun to park it near the window at a restaurant, and sit inside the window watching people take pictures of it.
This is awesome, I also dig the paint. Since you are going v4 suspension are you going ls powered?
bigfranks84 said:
This is awesome, I also dig the paint. Since you are going v4 suspension are you going ls powered?
No, It will be vortec 4200 (4.2L inline six) out of a chevy trailblazer. The LS was very tempting, but the call of the inline six has won me over.
In reply to NOHOME :
If it's not, I suspect it is now.
NOHOME said:
Very cool project.
Is that a family tartan?
Pete
No, its just a pattern I liked. I don't think I have heritage in Scotland. I just saw another plaid car on the internet with a different pattern and I was sold. After that it was just a bunch of painters tape and rustoleum.
You have some awesome welding skills. Kudos to you.
For some reason when I own a GM product for a while I end up hating it when it's gone - We owned a 2WD 2003 Trailblazer for 15 years and for some reason I am no longer a fan of these even though it served us well. Go figure.
Datsun310Guy said:
You have some awesome welding skills. Kudos to you.
For some reason when I own a GM product for a while I end up hating it when it's gone - We owned a 2WD 2003 Trailblazer for 15 years and for some reason I am no longer a fan of these even though it served us well. Go figure.
Thanks for the complement!
I think they've got a good enough reputation to be a safe bet. Also, they're dirt cheap and a very cool engine. All aluminum, DOHC and VVT. It should be fun getting it set up for a manual transmission too.
I cut out an access panel in the trunk to give access to the pump after I install the tank.
I drilled out matching holes in the panel and the floor
I welded in weld nuts to bolt the panel into. I rolled the edge of the panel to stiffen up the connection, and bolted it in.
Now I need to make some new tank straps as well as order a pump, a tank vent, a filler neck, and a wiring harness for the pump.
I'm thinking of ordering a Walbro GSS342.
I like it. Keeping an inline six under the hood is a good idea, although I'd think about using the 4.2 liter out of a Jeep Cherokee just because it's the descendant of the original engine.
stuart in mn said:
I like it. Keeping an inline six under the hood is a good idea, although I'd think about using the 4.2 liter out of a Jeep Cherokee just because it's the descendant of the original engine.
The jeep engine is tempting since its also cheap. It has a decent aftermarket and comes from the factory with a manual transmission. However, it's got 100 less horsepower than the vortec. I'd have to do some serious work to it to get the same kind of power. Then I'd have a hopped up 300hp I6 vs a factory 300 hp I6.
I'ms still considering it, but I'm leaning toward the Vortec.
There are so many good things about this!
Welcome to the GRM forum, you definitely belong here.
I prefer the idea of using the vortec anyway, more chances of an aftermarket for the engine appearing.
I love the plaid bodywork. Have you considered other color combinations?
This afternoon I plugged all the ports in the tank and hooked it up to the air compressor. I only brought the regulator up to about 2 or 3 psi. Just enough to make the leaks show under soapy water. Then I sprayed all the welds down and looked for bubbles. I found 6 pinholes, all in the pump access cutout. I welded them all up. I'm going to check it again after I get a filler neck and weld it in.
I fabbed up some new tank straps to match the new shape of the tank. I made some new hangers to pull the tank up. It's still using the original mounting points at both ends. I just opened them up a little bit.
It fits into the factory position really well. Here's how it looks from the side, down low.
It hangs lower, so its visible from the side. However, once its down on the ground, I don't think you'll be able to see it.
It just barely hangs down lower than the back of the car. Once I've got it on the ground I'm going to make sure the tank can't scrape under any circumstances. If it can, I'm going to let the tow hitch hang down just enough to hit first.
If there's no issue, I'll tuck the hitch up as high as possible to keep it out of the way.
Here's the view through the tank access hole. Everything should be very easy to access and hook up.
Now all that's left for the tank is the filler neck, adding the pump and fuel sender, and painting it.
Floating Doc said:
There are so many good things about this!
Welcome to the GRM forum, you definitely belong here.
Thanks for the welcome! I've been browsing other threads and I agree. This is my kind of place.
GIRTHQUAKE said:
I prefer the idea of using the vortec anyway, more chances of an aftermarket for the engine appearing.
I love the plaid bodywork. Have you considered other color combinations?
Exactly. I'd like to help flesh out and create a need for an aftermarket.
I've never considered a different plaid color scheme. Painting it was an immense amount of work, and I didn't even do a "good job". I just scuffed it up with sand paper and did all the paint with rustoleum spray paint.
I have considered toning it down a little bit. Maybe painting the body a solid color and leaving the hood or roof plaid.
It's not really related, but for some reason GMC used plaid painted valve covers on some V6 engines back in the 1960s. You could do the same thing to the engine in your car. 
