I'd say that there's no going back now, but we crossed, exploded, and burned the remains of that bridge a long time ago. :) Until next time.
I'd say that there's no going back now, but we crossed, exploded, and burned the remains of that bridge a long time ago. :) Until next time.
Wow. Just wow. The challenge makes people do crazy things. 
I decided to mock up the body at ride height tonight. Since the average track width of the G6 is 60" the roof of the van can't be any higher than 60" to meet the SCCA rollover guidelines. It still needs to go about an inch lower from here:
Small caveat, the wheels are going to be downsized an inch to 17s. And the tire diameter will shrink as well. But man is thing ever going to look sweet when it's done. I've got to rethink my strategy on connecting the van body to the car's frame though. I wasn't picturing it in my mind being this low. Until next time.
In reply to ShawneeCreek:
I totally understand the performance & budgetary reasons for downsizing to 17"s, but damn does that look sweet as-is.
Looks spectacular!
Is there any room to widen the track with spacers?
Yesterday afternoon I was out your way driving Rt6 and couldn't help but wishing I had time to check it out while there.
Seriously cool project. Part of me says you should have the roof taper down between the windows ....so you can install a sweet wing without changing the side profile of the car.
updates?
Where is the body going to end up relative to the lowest point in the suspension's travel? It would be super cool to drag what's left of those rusty rocker panels in corners until they self-clearance 
NOHOME wrote: updates?
Really? He just updated 12 hours ago.
I bet the only update is I got some sleep and then went to work.
petegossett wrote: I totally understand the performance & budgetary reasons for downsizing to 17"s, but damn does that look sweet as-is.
Yeah. The 18s look nice, but the overall tire diameter is a inch larger than stock (for the van). Even without letting the body I was worried about clearance in the front while turning. Interestingly, the standard 17" tire for the non-GTP G6 is the same outer diameter as the stock tire size for the van. So that's what I'm going with. 225/50R17 on an OEM G6 17x7" wheel.
JohnRW1621 said: Is there any room to widen the track with spacers?
Possibly. I'm going to look into that tonight. The problem is that I can't go much wider than the fenders because of how much they tuck. And then I could have issues with the sliding door on the passenger side.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said: Where is the body going to end up relative to the lowest point in the suspension's travel? It would be super cool to drag what's left of those rusty rocker panels in corners until they self-clearance :)
Pretty close. In this first mock up the van's lower pinch welds are about 4" above the ground.
JohnRW1621 wrote:NOHOME wrote: updates?Really? He just updated 12 hours ago. I bet the only update is I got some sleep and then went to work.
Eh, no worries. I'm excited to see progress too.
I'm in love with this thread. Keep up the great work. That is a seriously cool van.
This. Is. Awesome.
John - I feel the nissan/infinity reign is very threatened.
Wow. Very cool!
ShawneeCreek wrote: I wasn't picturing it in my mind being this low.
Then the picture in your mind is wrong. Low DustBuster is good!
Robbie wrote: This. Is. Awesome. John - I feel the nissan/infinity reign is very threatened.
It is awesome. No threat to me. If I could find the time, I'd travel the 1 hr to help with the APV build and do whatever I could do to help.
Those wheels look sweet on there. Unreal
ShawneeCreek wrote:¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said: Where is the body going to end up relative to the lowest point in the suspension's travel? It would be super cool to drag what's left of those rusty rocker panels in corners until they self-clearance :)Pretty close. In this first mock up the van's lower pinch welds are about 4" above the ground.JohnRW1621 wrote:Eh, no worries. I'm excited to see progress too.NOHOME wrote: updates?Really? He just updated 12 hours ago. I bet the only update is I got some sleep and then went to work.
Hey, the Challenge is coming! No time to waste.
After some quick measurements tonight, it seems that wheel spacers are not going to be possible in the back. The tires are just under 69" wide and the wheel openings in the van are just over 70". It's going to be a tight squeeze as is. To give you an idea of what I'm working with here is the back side of that wheel mocked up in the fender.
I'm going to have to remove all that remains of the van's inner fender (not really a problem) and the inner fender of the G6 will reach almost to the bottom of the window. And this is only one of the many places of interference. The van's windshield wiper mechanism wants to be in the same place as the intake manifold on the G6. The sliding door mechanism wants to poke the passenger in the hip. And the rear floor of the van wants to coexist with the rear subframe and gas tank of the car. It's a lot. But I'll get these co-spacial events figured out, one at a time (with the help of many a reciprocating saw blade 
Until next time.
Cant begin to tell you how much I am enjoying someone else go though all this fun. Really looking forward to hearing the stories on this class come Challenge time.
I've been traveling for work the past week so I haven't had time to work on the van. I did manage to sneak in a couple of hours after I got home last night. I was originally hoping to keep most of the van's rear floor (behind the front seats) intact. However, this directly conflicted with the rear suspension and gas tank of the G6. Now the plan is to keep the last foot of the van's floor and clearance the G6 accordingly.
I also managed to get the van's floor mostly cut, but ran out of time before I could get through the rear suspension mounts.
Until next time.
gullwing hinge the sliding door to the roof, box flares.
Clearly the van somehow knew what it's future held and let its rear wells rust out so bigger tires would fit
patgizz wrote: gullwing hinge the sliding door to the roof, box flares.
Lambo doors - front, side and rear. 
Suicide sliding door?
You'll need to log in to post.
