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Okay, You've seen the paint scheme. What should I name it?

  • "Utter Madness"..Also a good name

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Discussion starter · #41 ·
I am still around everyone....sorry I haven't updated the thread, been busy. What time I've had I spent on the car, not posting updates. We have baby #2 coming tomorrow! While we are settling in with the new guy, I promise to post up A LOT of updates. Stay tuned - Craig
 
Congrates Craig. We'll be here when you have the time. Family is no. 1. My wife an dI only had one child (son) so we've never had the chance to see what it's like twice. The first time was a story in it's self. Our thoughts are with you during the this time. Mark L
 
Congratulations! You'll be too tired to work on the car for the first month or so, so no rush on the updates. After that you'll want the diversion. Just don't forget to have a similar diversion for your wife. It's a wonderful time that goes too fast. Enjoy!
 
Been missing your posts..... Glad to hear ALL is well with you and your family. Nothing can compare with the birth of a child..... God's gift.
 
Congratulations! My wife and I have all our's out and making babies themselves! We had two the hard way (naturally) and three more the easy way! (adopted) Kids are great, and grandkids are just a bit better! ;)
Looking forward to those updates!
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
Okay everyone...I'm back and ready to get some updates posted. First off, the baby boy is just great - we named him Cole. I can't wait till he can get his hands dirty and help with the endless wrenching going on around here!

So.. let's see where I left off. I had the firewall reconstruction done and quarter panel repair and other sheetmetal rust repair patches and stuff done (Check!). Frame connectors are in. (Check!)

So the next thing up is The front axle swap, the cage and some seat relocation/ interior craziness.

The axle swap, cage and seating mods kind of were figured out and went together all at once, since it all fit together like a puzzle - but I will start posting pics the inside first, then move on to the axle/steering setup.

I figured there will be no rear seats so let's just move those front ones back! The first thing to figure out was the new seating location. Here are some rough pics of where the original seats and steering wheel were, and a mock-up of where they will be moved to..
The original seat location:


And a mock-up of where they are going:
 
Discussion starter · #48 ·
The seats were moved back a total of 12 inches. Reinforcement plates were welded under the floor sheet metal to prevent any "pull through" of the mounting bolts. The actual seats going in the car are a pristine set of A100 van seats, along with reproduction aluminum mounts. The same Seats used in the old Super Stock Mopars back in the day:


The relocation of the seats required a fabricated riser be built into the floor for the inboard seat rails:




And Just for fun......A seat on a motorized beer cooler. Why not?

 
Glad things are going good with Cole. Are the siblings getting along? :) Too young for the battles, yet.

The setback looks cool. Is the engine getting moved back also? That would be cool.

Keep the updates coming, time willing.

Mike
 
Discussion starter · #51 ·
Glad things are going good with Cole. Are the siblings getting along? :) Too young for the battles, yet.

The setback looks cool. Is the engine getting moved back also? That would be cool.

Keep the updates coming, time willing.

Mike
Yeah the big sister is thrilled to have him around. She is quite the helper as well. To early to tell if he likes her much because he just eats and poops mostly. :)
 
Discussion starter · #52 ·
The setback looks cool. Is the engine getting moved back also? That would be cool.
I decided not to do any setback on the engine. I wanted to. I tried to figure out something sort of "non-invasive" I would have had to do waaaayyyy to much monkeying around to get it back even an inch or so. (the fenderwell headers I am using along with the engine being mostly right up on the firewall already just wasn't cooperating. The other option was to cut out the firewall I had just rebuilt so that wasn't a good plan either). As far as weight transfer, the rear wheels are being moved up a bit, the fronts moved up, cage and seating and battery moved back...that will have to do.
 
Discussion starter · #53 · (Edited)
So here is the new drivers seat in position, (note that this picture is before the inner floor support was built):



With the seating position worked out, I could start working out the cage and getting it fitted. It is all built NHRA legal (minus the required headrest for the low back buckets) That will be added at a later date. So here are some pics of the cage being fitted and tacked in:


 
Discussion starter · #54 ·
The next order of business was getting some steering and some stop and go pedals sorted out.

The original steering column and another from a donor car were spliced together to create the length that was needed to reach the new seating position. (both the shaft and column) A spacer was fabricated under the dash where the column mounts to get the correct "drop". The electrical wires inside the column were extended so the factory column harness/plugs remained intact. So there are proper horn and turn signals. And the original hole in the firewall was partially patched and a new hole created below it a bit.

This came out really nice, from the engine compartment side the finished result will look "factory", just with the hole in a different position. I don't have a pic of the finished thing put together (yet), but there are some pics of the mod in process to give you an idea.

The steering shafts themselves were cut to the correct length so that the welded joint would be hidden inside the column. The mating ends of the shaft itself were cut into a "double D" shape. A steering column coupler with DD ends to receive the shafts was fitted, then welded securely into place. I used a jig of angle iron to keep the shaft straight - it was a bit tricky! This union between the shafts is very secure, it will never fail under twisting loads due to the DD flats used in the splicing.

Here is a really long steering shaft!!


In this pic, you can see the location of the original column exit into the engine compartment:


Here is the column exit into the engine compartment being moved into in it's new location. Note the hole in the firewall for the clutch linkage (4 speed car) was filled in as well.


In this next pic, you can see the finished modification to the firewall before primer (down in the lower right)
 
Discussion starter · #57 ·
Man I like those seats. Your build is going great. When you get ready to put in headrests, give me a shout. I mounted mine to the down tubes off the back of the roll bar hoop.
Maddog thanks for the kind words. By the way, I am loving your 38 Plymouth. I would like to see a couple pics of what you did with headrests. I have a red vinyl pad - was thinking of attaching it to the one down tube that runs into the trunk or on a vertical tube that runs between the top of the main hoop and the belt (or shoulder whatever it's called) bar. Thanks Craig
 
Those seat brackets look like they are the from the original mopars plans It looks great! If I had the tools I would have looked into something similar. My stock seat brackets with offset plates will have to do for now. What headrests do you need to install? I have the short buckets also.
 
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Gas Motor vehicle Bumper Automotive exterior Auto part
Automotive tire Flash photography Gas Carbon Bicycle part
Microphone Gas Automotive tire Space Audio equipment

I found something similar on line for sports car racers. They wanted $100 for each brackett. I used a 3/4 pipe that I had to make the stem for the headrest and welded some 1/8 plate onto it for a support for the back of the headrest. I went to a local machine shop and picked up some split shaft collars the diameter of my pipe and the diameter of my rollbar. I ground a flat spot so they could set against each other and welded them. The collars already have a set screw, so I just slid in the pipe and tightened it up. You just have to make sure you have the right angle for the two collars before you weld them so the headrest is horizontal to the floor (or your head).
I took some material I had left from the seats to a local upholstery shop and he made my headrests up. I wood screwed them onto the backing plate.
 

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