"Uncle Ben" - Rambler American Wagon / Lexus SC300 Body Swap

Shades of Suprang...

These cars were meant for each other! Nice work keep it going!

Crackers said:

For those of you who don't believe in my commitment to my overkill fabrication suggestions...

I did at least stop before painting it. 

Although honestly, if I had some of that wrinkle paint...

That is beautiful. Congrats on all the recent progress! This is the best life this old Rambler could have hoped for- it looked way too far gone to actually save and restore. 

A couple hours before work. I have more time, but I better stop here.

Back

Front

Rear wheel spacing.

The arch has to go up at least 3 inches. But I should have enough wiggle room finding wheels shouldn't be too hard. 

I had to mock up a fender. 

The springs won't let me move the wheels up to simulate ride height, but it looks pretty good. 

And whack in the AC condenser, mock up the grill. 

The grill is actually resting on the Lexus core support, and within 3/4" of it's normal position. 

Sooo much room! 

And I was worried about intercooler space! 

It will probably have to sit there until Friday. 

So close to rolling!

I think you will get these two put together faster than NoHome did.  Huge burst of progress lately.  I'm stoked to see it progress more.

Anyone else see the secret  weapon used to make sure this went smoothly! Never thought of using one of those!

In reply to NOHOME :

Horseshoe?

Oooh, I wanna know! 

Maybe I can get more!

Gunchsta said:

In reply to NOHOME :

Horseshoe?

And I kind of want to know why there is a horseshoe embedded in the stucco?

Pete

NOHOME said:

Gunchsta said:

In reply to NOHOME :

Horseshoe?

 

And I kind of want to know why there is a horseshoe embedded in the stucco?

 

Pete

For good luck, duh!

Oh, that's my anvil stand. 

175# anvil on a 350# concrete stand with steel reinforcement. 

The shoe is welded to a hidden cross brace  in the concrete. 

I made the shoe too. 

Crackers said:

Oh, that's my anvil stand. 

175# anvil on a 350# concrete stand with steel reinforcement. 

The shoe is welded to a hidden cross brace  in the concrete. 

I made the shoe too. 

And your metal art is something to behold

Obligatory "this whole panel is made of body filler" post. 

Honestly a little embarrassed it took me this long to realize this. 

(Edit: for those that don't know, all the cracks are from shrinking body filler, but what really has me embarrassed is the mound of filler over the lip.)

Getting these rockers prepped is taking forever. The bottom flanges originally had a rolled lip on the bottom, and some shiny happy person bent the E36 M3 out of them with an air hammer. So getting them flat is taking a ton of hammer/dolly work. 

There's also a couple dozen small dents that I've been working out in the process. But it's slowly getting there. 

It's gonna take a lot of primer to get them straight and flat. 

wow that wheel fitment looks shockingly good.  I think this project was meant to be!  That filler, though, someone needs to be nut kicked for using that much bondo.

All of my gussets are made. 

Including stripping paint off my donor scrap piece, deburring and final trimming, making 12 of them took just over an hour. Not bad considering the state of my work area at the moment. 

I ordered some clecos that should be in at any minute. (I'm actually stalling for time right now so I can use them.)

The rectangular tubing I'm putting in the rockers turned into a sizable project in and of itself as I decided to incorporate it into the bottom "pinch weld" and the holes left from removing the original rocker stiffening panels. 

I'll get pictures of that later. For now I'm going to work on cleaning up a little while I wait for my clecos. 

Crackers said:

I ordered some clecos that should be in at any minute. (I'm actually stalling for time right now so I can use them.)

Not knowing what clecos were, I thought this was a joke reference to the Coleco computers from the Simpsons. Seemed somewhat appropriate after the Bondo stuff a few posts prior. 

Dude, love the metalwork. That anvil stand is sweet. 

Keep up the good work! 

Super impressive. Can't wait to see this thing rolling. Still dumbfounded by how well its coming together.

Remind me again what drivetrain is going to end up in there? Hopefully one that kinda belongs so that you don't get hung up and strung out doing an epic engine swap.

In reply to NOHOME :

It will be SC300 errything minus the body, save maybe the steering column. 

Oh, wait. The fuel tank and sender are going to be from a 2 door S-10 Blazer for packaging reasons. 

Crackers said:

Oh, that's my anvil stand. 

Only here...

This is coming together nicely.

In reply to Crackers :

Because you are a smarter man than I was!

Pete