Alright, you guys are going a little crazy with the doors :) I've got to get the van body attached to the car first. On that note, there is now a nearly G6-sized hole in the van.
And my "spare parts" pile is growing larger. I'm going to have to make a scrap yard run soon.
Until next time.
You probably can make the slide door go farther by making a longer rear pivot arm or something. Or gull wing it. Or hinge it.
Point is, bolt it for the challenge and make it open farther later. You are building a sick car. You can nail that.
Box flares rules!
Some more progress. I got some 17" G6 wheels from the local pick 'n pull and some tires from work in 225/50R17. They are our just released UHP all season tire, the Cooper Zeon RS3-G1. It should be more than sufficient for the van during the challenge. I'd try and convince you all that it's an amazing tire, but I'm a bit biased. I'm in charge of the tire line. 
I mocked up the tires under the van and then bolted them up under the G6.
Then tonight I did some more measuring and determined that the G6 rocker panels needed trimmed back some. So I took care of that.
It looks like the van's lower frame rails will need removed too. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm getting closer to test fitting the body on the car. Just a few conflicts left to resolve. Which is good, as I'm rapidly running out of time to finish this before the Challenge. Until next time.
The suspense is killing me! Can't wait to see this!
Wow, somehow I had missed this thread until today.
You might have issues with changing tires on the rear once the body is mounted up. BUT! Don't despair. You can do a sort of "levering" the tire into place by holding it face down under the car and sort of rolling/hinging it up into place. If that's not enough, you can have a helper pushing on a large lever (2x4 might work) put into the suspension on that side. We had to do something like that to change rear tires on the raceboat.
(seen here, me in the tophat toward the back, doing a poor T-Pain impression:)
Somewhere I have a picture of us changing the rear tire on it. Eventually I got the technique down to where we didn't need the lever. Make sure your jack stands are secure because your legs will be all the way under the thing!
Make that scrap run, Elliot's in Rising Sun gave $90 /ton yesterday. Best I've see from them since February 2015
Don't scrap the g6 wing. I kinda want that for no reason
This is awesome! Love what you are doing here and the balls of steel bravery required to mate these 2 cars together.
I'd like to see you go all out with a "Dust Buster" theme. Build some kind of "handle" sticking off of the back of the van when you are done. 
You could do a "Pig Pen" Charlie Brown costume of some sort too.
More progress tonight. I got the driver's side rocker panel trimmed back on the G6
And most of the lower driver's frame rail on the van is now gone.
Until next time.
Keep it up! So excellent 
It's too bad the windshield math would be so difficult if you were to chop the van body. You could just skate under the rollover rules by removing metal and making it look awesome at the same time.
The sliding door totally needs to Falcon out like a Model X.
Keep it up! Now I feel really bad for not fixing a hole in my floor.
Thank you all for the encouragement and appreciation. It means a lot.
This has been a long project and I'm just now getting glimpses of the light at the end of the tunnel. I just hope that I can get there before the Challenge.
Surprise news, the build made GRM's Facebook page. I'm honored.
I've made some progress since the last update. The driver's side frame rail on the van is clearanced:
And so is the passenger side. This meant completely removing the lower sliding door mechanism
Now I've moved on to clearancing the van and car in the front 1/3 (engine bay, A-pillar, and firewall). I spent about 2 hours tonight measuring and planning and measuring and drawing some cut lines and measuring some more.
I'll look at it a little more tomorrow and start making cuts. The plan is to lift the van body and have the first direct test fit of the car chassis by this weekend. Until next time.
Good to see your build showcased on the book of faces. This is going to be Epic!
That scca rule you mention. What exactly is the height. Is it from floor to highest point on the vehicle? or to the roofline?
i.e. would a 1996 town and country with roof racks be taller than one w/o the racks?
per this post http://www.autocross.us/forums/topic/5569-excluded-from-stock-in-scca-rule-book/#entry56668
You dont know the SSR so you have to follow the first graph, which means you do not need to lower the van as much?
The height is the overall height of the vehicle, from "the ground to the tallest point of the vehicle". So, yes, removing the roof rack decreases the height of the vehicle. Removing it off of the APV got me 1.5-2".
The relevant rule set is section 3.1-A in the SCCA Solo rule book.
SCCA said: The SSC has reviewed the allowance of competing cars with higher roll centers and has prepared the following chart on the next page to be used as a guideline for assisting Regional members in determining whether a vehicle has a higher than average potential to roll over in Solo® competition. Vehicles falling into the acceptance range still have the possibility to roll over but they are less likely to roll over than those that are not in the acceptable range are. The chart on the next page is for all vehicles not specifically listed in Appendix A. The measurements are to be taken from the ground to the tallest point of the vehicle for the Overall Vehicle Height and the normal track measurement as stated in Section 12 for the Average Track Width. The SEB may use a Static Stability Factor (SSF) for classing new vehicles. Vehicles SSF is defined as ½ track width (T) divided by the height of the center of gravity above the road (H) and can be calculated by the formula SSF=T/2H. Vehicles with an SSF of less than 1.30 should not be permitted to compete in Solo® events due to the higher risk of rollover
The "Overall Height-Average Track Width Relationship" graph in that section has the cut off at a 1:1 relationship. Basically, this means that the overall height of the vehicle must be less the average track with in order to meet roll over regulations and be allowed to run. That's why I'm aiming for a ride height lower than 60" (the average track width of the G6 GTP). It also says that even if I'm in the "acceptable range" it's up to the Safety Steward to allow the vehicle to run.
I do actually have the SSF for the APV in it's stock form, but that is obviously no longer applicable. I could calculate it when the vehicle is completed if I need to (I'd need a lift and some scales to calculate the height of the center of gravity). But for now I'm just aiming to get in the acceptable range of average track width to height.
Work in progress.
That looks incredibly awesome...
Cant wait for that first tack-weld that makes it one.
So close now I can taste it. At least I think that's what that sulphur taste is.
Getting closer. I've still got to drop the body another 4-5" (you might be able to see the max height marks on the gantry supports, at the top of the windows). It's just below stock ride height now.
Oh yeah!!!
Would this now count as a stock floor body drop?
It depends on your definition of stock floor body drop. Because the stock floor being used here doesn't actually belong to this body. That floor is in pieces behind the garage:
But the floor being used is stock for the chassis. Oh, so confusing
In reply to ShawneeCreek:
Exactly.
I say that you have a stock floor body drop of a dustbuster. Probably a first, even for the van in guys. Or the minitruckers.
How much can you lower the car ride height?
You'll need to log in to post.
