This car is soo cool. I also forgot about your courier, which is also awesome.
This car is soo cool. I also forgot about your courier, which is also awesome.
I've been working on this every day I can, but I've had several days away with family and otherwise tied up!
First, I needed to replace the transmission mount and 2x4 crossmember, which I did with angle iron and a new <$7 rubber mount. I believe that with the flat plate addition I'm likely ~$0.60 into the steel, and I gave it a coat of red before installing.
Today I cut a hole in the cowl for my HF battery cut-off switch.. I'll likely tack in a reinforcement "plate" on the underside, and add slots to ziptie the battery cables to, so there's no real weight on the terminals. Apparently picture didn't take, will add tomorrow!
Also been working on a mount for the shifter, which I have cut - need to repair the shifter with some JB Weld and use CAD to mock up how/where to weld the bracket in place!
I also realized today that to fit the seat I have, I'd have to notch out part of the trans tunnel, and raise up mounts on the door side, so I might be back to the drawing board there. I need to make a few trips in the next week for super-deals on roll bar material and a battery box, and so-so deals on disc brakes and a pair of shocks for the rear. If they haven't sold, there are some Aztek rear shocks nearby that have ~5" of travel from 10.6 to 16 or so, where the ideal "resting" length is in the 11.5 or so for the current stance. Not many shocks that short!
In reply to classicJackets (FS) :
If you're using the Kirkey from your earlier post, how wide is it? Or, how wide is the place it needs to go. I've got a couple of seats that might be narrower.
If I'm measuring right I've got about 17.25" Across the bottom back. There's maybe 16" from tunnel to door, but it depends on how far forward in vehicle the seat goes too..
Sorry, my stuff is all wider than the Kirkey. If Riggamort were my car I could just upholster the floor and sit in it , but then I've got a few pounds on you, too.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
I'm looking for (with no experience on what works) a safe-ish way to sit and run a harness, this seemed like the best bet. I can find something else or bolt some other stuff down, just not sure how safe I'd trust it to be/how safe it needs to be.
The original seat came loose with the car, maybe I can figure out how to get that bolted in..
Little more progress tonight - whipped up a reinforcement and zip-tie web (keep cable weight off fittings/nuts) for battery cut-off and the battery cables. This is just a HF cutoff switch, so 6.99 to the budget, since the metal is all file-cabinet pieces.
Also made a plan to get disc brake hubs to use with my front cut uprights/everything else for $90 on Thursday, which will be fantastic - once some of these other odds and ends get wrapped up I'll be in position to get disc on!
If you're going to be the only driver, this car might be a good candidate for a poured seat.
FYI, NHRA master switch info. If you are going quicker than 11.49, per Challenge rules, the HF switch isn't compliant
Cheapest, legal, "high current" switch I could find was $15.99 on eBay
In reply to gumby :
At 300hp and ~2000lb (both guesses), online calculator says 10.88... but I'm an absolute novice of a driver, the car has terrible suspension, and I'll be on 205's so I'm not expecting I'll be too near that. I also am not likely to have the right cage for that quick of a time.
The potential is here to get into proper master switch territory running just a simple roll bar. Come on, do it! 
How do I miss these?
That's a great find. Going to be wild.
If I remember correctly curb weight wet onna stock bugeye is 1300 and change, wet FYI
autocomman said:If I remember correctly curb weight wet onna stock bugeye is 1300 and change, wet FYI
Correct. But that v8, trans, and rear axle probably have it in the 1600-1800lb range would be my guess.
In reply to Apexcarver :
Both figures are ridiculous. I had the 1800lb number in my head as original curb weight, so if it's anywhere near that I'll still be very happy.
Made some progress on the discs today, with 1 wire wheel casualty. Springs are removed from my donor front cut, and I'll try to get some of the rest of it taken off tomorrow or the next day!
Got this side fairly torn apart and the other side removed from front cut. Sadly, I'm about to drop a large majority of remaining budget on front end rebuild parts.. bushings/pins/etc and wheel bearings. What came on my front cut is absolute junk, and whats on the car now is also junk, even if I wanted to save budget and run drums.
I don't think I'll be setting record drag passes, but anything I do I at least want to feel semi-confident the front end won't take me 2 different directions.
Luckily - Classic Motorsports just posted a great YouTube video detailing a suspension rebuild so I'm going to, basically, copy that exactly!
Big money spent this morning - front end rebuild kit and wheel bearings ordered this morning, along with (budget exempt) calipers and rotors, with pads and new lines to follow soon
Did you get taper bearings rather than the factory ball bearing setup?
You doing kingpin bushings?
In reply to Apexcarver :
Yes to both - got everything in the kit below. Best case (on riggamort) parts are 25 years old minimum, and parts from the cut sat in a field for a few decades
The kingpin bushings will need to be reamed in - they go into the uprights but then the ID is too small for the kingpin. They used to sell a special reamer that did both bushings at once. I may know a guy that has one (in Michigan).
Barring Kendall's connection, I have a reamer in the DC area.
You can still get it, just hold on to your wallet. https://www.bpnorthwest.com/king-pin-reamer-sprite-midget-disc-brake-king-pins.html
Kendall, I PM'd you.. Apex, depending on what we hear back, I would be grateful if I could borrow yours. $300 for a (likely) 1-time use tool is not in my budget
Also, if your goal was to reuse control arms, getting the old kingpins off is usually such a pain, most people just replace control arms.
classicJackets (FS) said:Kendall, I PM'd you.. Apex, depending on what we hear back, I would be grateful if I could borrow yours. $300 for a (likely) 1-time use tool is not in my budget
I didnt get any PM but no sweat - I dont have the reamer but I may know someone who has one. I made a call and will follow up if I hear back. Any machine shop may be able to do this as well. The single sized reamers are pretty cheap but you need to set it up so everything is square. The expensive one is pricey because it lines up both bushings at once.
Check where the slop is - if the king pin is tight to the upright ~AND~ the kingpin to lower control arm pivot is OK & not sloppy - you can just clean them up and use as-is. The pivot at the bottom of the kingpin is a bit of a bitch to take apart. that little stud / setscrew thing is usually locked into the kingpin so you wind up saw-zallin the lower bolt thing. A lot of times its the control arm side thats beat up and you do all this work and its still sloppy.
Its a can of worms & scope creep thats for damn sure.
email me at kendall dot jones at gmail. I've got a guy in Brighton MI who has a reamer. He used to run a spridget parts business but is kinda retired now.
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