Tommy Boy: Making an ex Nascar turn right on an almost challenge budget

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to Mr_Asa :

I saw that in there. May be the way i go, but taking it off whole would be awesome if I can. 

 

And that guy may be my hero. I hope tge driving experience for me is just like his. Only with less failures. 

If that is how the bottom is attached, I'd think you could do something with dzus fasteners and some basic bracketry along the bottom.  We know the body doesn't give any rigidity to anything, so I'd assume it could easily be removed and reattached when need be.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Midnight thought:

Service, cleaning and inspection would be way easier without the body in it. However, id like to get it running and driving prior to the body swap. Limit my issues. 

How hard are these cars to remove the body? Is it light enough for two people? I know ive seen the bodies complete and for sale, so i know they come off in one piece (theoretically)

I wanted the same thing with my Camaro project...I made a skirt off the main rail and attached the body rocker to it.  That gave me the clearance/geometry to lift straight up.  You are going to need to narrow the pan (I think all the way to the main rails which are 60" on my car) and obviously cut out the nascar bars and bring them in.  
I tied the top into the top of the roll cage, and connected in regular nascar fashion to random points around the car.

If you come to Hyperfest, I can show you in great detail how I did it.  If not, I can do a facetime with you some evening.

In reply to jh36 :

Do you remember how you got the stock car body off? Thats the forst step....

And yes. Ill be at hyperfest Saturday after the robotics competition. 

Super cool, man.  I love it.

I'll bet your wife likes all those big thick roll-cage bars.

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Midnight thought:

Service, cleaning and inspection would be way easier without the body in it. However, id like to get it running and driving prior to the body swap. Limit my issues. 

How hard are these cars to remove the body? Is it light enough for two people? I know ive seen the bodies complete and for sale, so i know they come off in one piece (theoretically)

I think the body removal process is highly dependent on the builder. I looked my LMSC body over with the same kind of goals in mind. It was installed very professionally. What I found is a combination of attachment methods at various points.

On mine, everything is riveted, with only a few exceptions. Obviously, the hood and "trunk" are removable. Some panels are riveted directly to the cage or to a support tube coming off the cage ("door" panels, bumper covers). Some panels are riveted to one another (front and rear half of roof, junction of fender, "door" cowl). There are some brackets that are used to bridge a gap between the panel and the cage (A-pillar, windshield). There are also some struts (body braces) that are used to bridge large gaps and allow some adjustment; the fenders are one example. I even saw some panel adhesive used at the junction of the firewall and front fenders (there may be other places).

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to jh36 :

Do you remember how you got the stock car body off? Thats the forst step....

 

And yes. Ill be at hyperfest Saturday after the robotics competition. 

It was a simple matter of drilling out 100,000 rivets and disconnecting the telescoping braces.  Not hard, but time consuming.  They come off in big chunks.  Not all one piece.  At least, that's how we did it.  I say we, but it was one of my son's who did most of the dirty work.

its definitely interesting to tow

But, i own a stock var of indeterminate age and manufacturing!

It has to feel really, really cool seeing that in the rearview.

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

berkeley yes it does 

When you sit in it and make voom voom noises is it louder than your other cars?

Hell Yeah!

It's both funny and awesome to see such a car on a uhaul trailer!

Very interesting. To bad no Jericho was included. Any thoughts on transmission choice? Also ebay GT45? 

The car probably belonged to these guys at some point

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rev_Racing

Today was a big day. Im just now home and done. 

Couldn't have done it without my wife, stu Lasswell, some tips from all yall, and at tge end the guy at the uhaul lot. It was my forst ever solo trailer experience, and i even backed it the whole way down.the road!

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Cool. Ill grab a junkyard unit here and set up a relay for yours. What ratio is yours? I have a 2:1 steering quickener leftover from thebamc as well....

Summits not far from Frederick Md, if it can find its way to Fredneck on or before May 5th I'll be up there picking up my new nightmare and can get it back down to NC

In reply to JThw8 :

I THINK that they've figured out a way to get it to hyperfest for me. Which would be a great time to go meet more folks.

But, if that doesn't work, ill take you up on it!

I was sad that you sold the AMC, but this is equally as cool. It will be 10x cooler with a Duster body. 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to JThw8 :

I THINK that they've figured out a way to get it to hyperfest for me. Which would be a great time to go meet more folks.

But, if that doesn't work, ill take you up on it!

Sounds good.  No one took me up on the empty trailer headed north so I figured I might squeeze something in coming back home.  That's small enough to make a cut.   I'm suddenly realizing how much more space is needed to haul home a vehicle when its completey disassembled.   Still not sure how to make it work but I'll figure that out :)

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to JThw8 :

I THINK that they've figured out a way to get it to hyperfest for me. Which would be a great time to go meet more folks.

But, if that doesn't work, ill take you up on it!

Looks like we have a grm relay plan. I have a special spot in the bus for the goods.  Looking forward to meeting you. 

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Congrats! Hope I get to meet you at H-fest. I usually park near Jack but that may not be possible this go 'round. If you tour the paddock, this will be me:

Awesome!

Thanks yall! I really look forward to meeting you and learning from you all.

Hopefully tonight i can sit down with the laptop and do a real update. 

Its been a whirlwind, and ive been called in on some mental health crisis stuff at the church in addition to work. So, sleep was optional last night and today is a long day in the saddle. 

Anyone need a 98-02 Taurus body? Its gotta go. Can barely close the shop door. Thing is gargantuan. 

I need to sub to this one, methinks...

I owe yall a real post and pictures and such. 

Things have been insane the last few days. By the time i get done, i shower and sleeep. 

After todays metalwork on a 51 for.f1 cab for my father, and a shower, ill fire up the laptop. I hope.