Hello fellow enthusiasts,
The current BMW V8 powered Tbucket build has been on the road for just over 3 years now. Its debut event moving under its own power for the first time was the 1/8th mile Kingman Street Drags in Oct of '21. At that time the pre-tech inspection a week before the event gave a small list of things to address. I did and had a fun, nerve wracking, three days at the event. In Sept of '23 I took the car down to Tucson for the 1/4 mile Roadkill Zip-Tie Drags. At that event the tech inspector did not like the car at all and would not let me run the event.
Honestly the car has just been my small town cruiser, bar hopper, car show and cruise-in attender. The car makes you work for the drive, after a 20-30 minute drive all of your senses are buzzing, vibrating, ringing and exhausted. Feeling every pebble in the road the entire way.
So, it's not a good race car and It's not a good street car. I'm thinking it's time to rebuild the thing with street suspension in mind. Building a 2nd version of the car with the lessons learned from the first one and trying some new, unconventional, ideas that have been rattling around in my head. Building a simple & clean street cruiser utilizing the drivetrain, wheels, front axle & brakes from V1.
Following the same modus operandi, starting with a Speedway motors bare T frame and Tbucket fiberglass body:
Digging out the spare Jaguar IRS, this one has a 3.54:1 gear and a "Powr Lok" posi:
This body is listed as a '25, but it appears identical as the '23 tub. This one is going to have a door for no other reason than the version with the door was slightly cheaper than the one without a door.
The plan is to keep the kicked up section of the frame inside the body and hang the differential off the back on a perch.
I had an idea to use a cheapy pendulum laser level to align things during the build, and so far this little thing has become invaluable.
Cleaning up that jag diff:
Tackling other projects:
I'm sure a more talented fabricator could make a tank to fit and utilize the spacer better, I am not confident enough to make a tank nor have the ability to pressure test it and verify no pinholes in the welds. So mail order parts it is:
This next idea sounded good in theory, but the final result is just meh. Using the simple mechanical fuel level gauge that came with the tank. No extra components needed, simple design that works, keep on an eye on fuel level getting in and out of the car instead of from the driver's seat. Watch the fuel level while filling the tank. The problem is, I don't like the look of it.
Mounting the '50 Pontiac tails and a high mount third brake light, mocking up a painters tape euro offset stripe:
I've wanted to rear face the caliper mounting on the center section, I'm going to give these VW conversion (ghia) calipers a go. They need some minor grinding inside for more clearance on the rotor and the pad grabs only the outter 1/2 of the rotor but I think it'll be alright. I am also using spacers behind the rotors to help correct the wheel camber angle at lower ride height.
The rear perch is a 1/4" plate that was cut and bent by SendCutSend using my design that a friend helped convert into a digital format. The perch has a 5° kick up angle for the center section allowing a 0° pinion angle in the frame. The drivetrain will also have a level 0° mounting in the frame, but will be at different heights and the pinion is off center so there will still be a driveshaft and Ujoint angle.
With metal dowels in the control arm brackets there appears to be a 3ish° downward angle of the radius arm pivot point from whatever application this differential came from. I have 0° brackets from an XJ6 on order to level the control arms and bring that pivot point back up into the frame.
Moving on to the center mount section for the steering gear and tank mounting
Modifying and reversing a Tri-5 belair style steering gear to use for the cowl steering, the previous box was from a 70's ford truck with a 24:1 ratio. This tri-5 gear has 16:1 ratio, a super long input shaft I can cut down where I want it and will have a cleaner look.
I'll need to add another mounting tab to the gear to solidify the mounting, but it'll work.
It's been two months into the new build and it's tough not to get scatter brained with so much to do, starting a piece of the project, needing to order parts, starting another piece of the project while awaiting parts, ordering parts for the new project....etc. With the majority of big components laid out where they are going to be I want to focus starting from the rear of the car and then working my way forward. Please check back as progress is made and thank you for checking out my project.
