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Mar 29, 2019 18:57:52 GMT
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Yeee HAW! Actually, it's not done yet. Crazy, right? I will get back into it tomorrow. Test fitting the body. I'm not sure what I'll end up with, but my buddy that owns these two vehicles is ALL FOR IT. He's committed to the build and is letting me "do what I do" to get it on the road. Cosmetics are his department. (and I love that by the way) I don't have to spend days/weeks/months painstakingly detailing the details of the detail. Weld it together and make it drive. Look cool and be somewhat interesting. The formula seems to work. We are waiting to see what it does when the body goes on to the chassis. The guesswork on ride height and wheel size is then taken out of the equation because the bonnet can only go down to the top of the engine, and that sets ride height. Unless we were going for a lifted 4x4 appearance and I don't think that's the direction. Might be forced to take that "high" road- who knows? We will tomorrow because that's when I'm getting back out there. The airbag video isn't on the forum, it was a screen shot of my PC. It was a little phone video anyway. Loud as heck though!
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Mar 29, 2019 22:10:27 GMT
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oh no ... not another one of these builds...means i have to check in daily for updates....YEEEEHAWWWWWW!!
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating '80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip '97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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This kinda says it all. Yup, we are in. X2
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I offered it up today! Too bad it's not going to be a 4x4 Truck. Tony wants it LOW and street roddy. Lowering the rear is no problem at all. tons of room there. The front is another hurdle.
I have to move the front frame brackets that carry the floor pan mounts on the Durango floor pan in order to clear the foot well sides of the car. The nose of this car, is simply too narrow. It just won't clear, as ALL the others have.
No big deal though, I already have a solution to get the car slammed down into the weeds without touching the suspension. It'll be RAD. Speaking of Rad- in case y'all haven't seen the latest 2 minutes of bicycle nonsense, enjoy this:
That riding session occurred on Wednesday and I was sore beyond belief Thursday and Friday. I'm still all beat up from it. But, my son and I had fun cramming all those little clips into 3 hours of riding. Most of it was filmed after the crash so I was riding hurt. And fat lol..
Here are a few snap shots of the CAR BUILD before my buddy and I started on the 'sauce haha:
This is my long time buddy Bruce- He makes an appearance once or twice a year and we usually end up having beers far too early in the afternoon.
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Last Edit: Mar 31, 2019 4:18:57 GMT by grenade
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The Googles tell me that the wheelbase mis-match should only be 2" or so, but it looks like more based on the firewall mis-match.
Standing by to see how this plays out.
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You and me both! I'm not sure how it's all going to work out either. The plan all along has been to make up the wheelbase difference by trimming the rear wheel arches. I'm going to start offering up fenders before I make the cab location permanent. They keep calling me back into my job, or I would have had this done by now! I'll set some fenders on it tomorrow and see where I'm taking up the slack. -P
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The measurement that I always take for a chassis swap is the front axle to center of drivers seat. If that is more than a few inches off, it starts to mess with the relative firewall locations and driver ergonomics and the game then gets more complicated.
This looks like the firewall on the truck needs to come back to meet the firewall on the Plymouth by a fair bit or at least until the front wheels are centered in the fenders. That possibly leaves you with shortening the Durango chassis, and I know you would rather drink warm flat beer before you did that.
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keyring
Part of things
Posts: 913
Club RR Member Number: 47
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A lot of work ahead, but it looks like it’s progressing well and you’ve got a plan, really excited to see this progress
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fer4l
Posted a lot
Testing
Posts: 1,497
Club RR Member Number: 73
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Warm flat beer is good Cheers Matt
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EEEEW! No warm flat beer. Eeeew, gross. Ice cold, Doom Bar or Labatt Blue. Or even Blue Moon, but COLD. Foster's is good too. Stella is great. Anyway- I don't have to actually move the Durango firewall. It can stay. The floor space under the dash, gives you more foot room. The pedal box and steering will get moved so it protrudes in the correct spot. I'll build the controls and their supports accordingly. The top of the Durango firewall- it will not match when under the bonnet of course. In all other builds, I simply "box" it in. Or, make a shelf type cover that joins the two. I'm heading out there tomorrow and setting it into position, mocking up fenders. I'll have more pics mid day. It'll go.
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Can you "z" the chassis a bit?
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Z? You mean cut the chassis? Pshh.. Well sure I can. BUT- that opens up brake lines, drive shafts, fuel lines, EGR lines, wiring, I mean it's just not worth it. These sell for what they sell for, or I charge what I charge, because of NOT cutting the frames. It's like when someone paints a patina truck. For example- if it costs you ten dollars to build the truck, in materials. It takes you 200 hours in labor and you sell it for $1010 dollars. Great, you got your money back and made five bucks an hour. Now- add paint. $1,000 extra dollars in material and 700 more hours. It's still only going to sell for $1500 bucks. Not worth the extra effort in the long run. Frame altering, perfect or driver quality paint- Nope, not at this garage. These are not actual numbers but I'm sure I've made the illustration. I could take a year and build it perfect. Two years even. It would have to sell for 150K. That's why I bang em out quick and cheap, fast and dirty. It's all about the bottom line. I'm not hourly. Now if I were paid in BEER--- that's a different story
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Agreed with all of the above..its why my chassis swap is into year six and two chassis donors and a few tens of thousands of dineros and thousands of hours. Since I am building it for the wife-unit I keep reminding her that she owes 4000 hours at her discounted rate of $50/hour. While she DOES pay in beer, I still have my doubts about full payment ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Gets complicated in a hurry when you need the wheelbase 7" longer so as to match match the body and have to do this... A simple 7" stretch ( or cut) sets off a cascade of changes that affects every single system on the car. DO NOT try this at home unless you are nuts.
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One thing I have learned about beautifully done, custom things: Buy them already finished. Let someone else take the loss. I appreciate the work, the love and the dedication that one person can put into one car. They do it for the love- not to sell. But eventually, 99.5% of the time- the thing gets sold for one reason or another. If you're lucky enough to be the purchaser and you buy it right- that one deal can finance your next several deals. For me- it's about the art, the vision and the chase. I love finding them and talking about "what if I did ...." . Perfection is costly. In time and money. Both will eventually run out. I've said it before and I'll say it again "I don't want just one car. I want ALL the cars. If only for a few minutes each".
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So here is the preliminary drop. Channeled 6.5 inches. This one is getting smaller wheels, before I do any trimming of the arches. I may not even trim them, depending on which wheels turn up.
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Last Edit: Apr 3, 2019 18:52:01 GMT by grenade
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Test fit? It's going to work.
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Smaller wheels ahead. Then- a light trim of the rear arch. Fronts are fine. Square peg, round hole? It'll go.
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