Hot Rods The product of my inspirations: My Tudor Sedan

I can see right now that this is going to be one of my most favorite threads. Fer sure. Gary

 

I love Fjastad's sedan too. So UN-bullschitty.

 

Nothing else is like a sedan. Room for friends, no crybabys tho.

 

This is looking really cool I really like the stance of the car. Keep going

 

I want an update!!!!

 

No kidding man...

 

Ha okay, lil bit of an update. Haven't got a whole lot done lately but I'm starting the lay the foundation for a big part of the car... the steering. Anyways, here's some pics:

Bought some Kirkey seats. I tried out their vintage racing seat at the PRI show and I LOVED them... especially with the padded upholstery. One thing though is that the vintage seat is kinda pricey and I'm kind of a big dude so I couldn't buy the little 15" wide one that Speedway has for $169 (I think). I needed the 17" wide seat but it was like $225. Then I looked around and realized that their drag seat which is like $160 is the same thing as the vintage seat except that it has the head rest part. Well, me being a cheap SOB I bought the drag seat, pulled back the beading on the edge of the seat, cut the top off, and then welded the beading back on. Viola, vintage seat. I saved $130 and got the do some AC welding with my TIG machine for the first time.



Speaking of TIG welding, I recently got a water cooler setup. Holy shit, I don't know why I didn't get this sooner. Makes such a huge difference. My old air cooled torch would get so f'ing hot it was damn near impossible to do any real heavy welding with it. Well worth the $650 especially when AC welding.



Okay, so the steering... I got the steering arms on and made a temp tie rod just so I could tie the front spindles together instead of having the wheels turned all crazy.



I made up a bracket to mount the radiator. Oops looks like it's going to hit the tie rod.



Will probably need to do this:



Yup, that'll work.

 

The steering is going to be a pain in the ass to do. For whatever reason, I'm dead set on having cowl steering but with the pitman arm INSIDE the cowl. Obviously things are tight because this is a '28-'29 A plus the engine and trans are way up inside the car and I'm running three pedals. Anyways, I made up a quickie bracket to mock up my pedals. Looks like I have room but it's going to be tight. The throttle might have to be up on top of the trans.



Another view... notice the piece of tubing sit by the fire wall. That's where the upright will go that will tie to the cross tube that the F1 steering box will mount to. I can move the clutch pedal all the way to the firewall and it doesn't hit the tube. Nice. Now I just gotta make sure that the pitman arm doesn't hit the upright tube or the clutch pedal.



The next part will involve getting the upper steering arm on the left front spindle and then figuring out where the drag link is going to go which will then determine where the steering box will live.

I'm going to try and keep everything parallel. The tops of the wish bones are parallel to the top of the frame and the drag link needs to be parallel to both those things. That's something I picked up from the Rolling Bones... everything in line and focused forward. It makes their cars look fast while they're standing still.

 

Some more turbo goodies...

Big ol honkin air-to-water intercooler.



Going to mount it right to the front of the engine. Will need to hack off the inlet/outlet and welded on some 90 degree elbows. Going to try and keep everything under the hood.



Also got an exhaust flange and some stainless weld els to build the turbo manifold.



I originally designed a pretty nice looking manifold but it's going to take too much time and effort to build so I'm just going to do a quick and dirty log type manifold. My goal is to have the car up and running under it's own power this year so I'm having to cut some corners. When I have time in the future I'll do a built motor and do up a proper manifold.




And so here it sits... I'll update again as I get more done. Thanks.

 

Beef,
Looking good, as expected. I swear, were twin brothers from other mother's on your project, the engine is just so much like what I've been planning I still can't believe it.

Some questions on the intercooler... does it cool the intake air with engine coolant or another cooled water source? Or? I was planning on a custom built air to air unit in my build that would fit under the radiator and extend forward in the space between the frame horns. The horns would have covers on the top and sides ala vintage race cars so the cooler would not be visible. The horns would be un-boxed and the ducts running the air to / from the cooler would run inside the horns and be routed alongside the bottom of the radiator and then up to the motor. But the unit you have looks like it would fit in that space, too, and save me the custom fab work.

Secondly, would any of the engine parts, like the exhaust, from the rear drive Solstice or Sky roadsters work, versus fabbed headers? Later and thanx for the new posts! Gary

 

Gary, the intercooler system consists of the intercooler, heat exchanger, and pump. The heat exchanger will mount ahead of the radiator and the pump will probably mount to the side of the engine where the A/C compressor used to go. The pump pulls cool coolant out of the exchanger and pushes it through the intercooler and then back into the exchanger. Your idea sounds like it would work well. I couldn't find a spot for an air-to-air intercooler so I decided to go with this air-to-liquid unit.

The Solstice GXP is factory turbocharged but the motor was different from a regular Ecotec (direct injection) so I don't know if the exhaust manifolds will interchange. Garrett made a really nice trubo manifold for the regular Ecotecs but it's pricey and it orientates the turbo to point the wrong way (inducer towards the rear). You could use the stock Saab turbo manifold because it does point the right way but the turbo is tiny. It's a Mitsubishi turbo so it may interchange with a bigger unit off a different car. Making a simple log manifold like I am would be another easy option.

 

What, no updates? Seriously... I need more! Gary

 

no, no real updates. got the rear shocks on which made a huge difference with the air sleeves. was uncontrollably bouncy before but now is fine.

actually, i haven't done anything lately except move my sedan over to one side to make room for another model a. more details later.

 

subscribed

 

I like this a lot! its innovative but still has a traditional feel to it.

Subscribing, very cool

Joe

 

Wow this thing looks incredible man. I'm building a model t roadster on model a rails right now. Would you mind pm'n me to give some specs of your front end setup? Axle drop, axle width, length of the split wishbone bars, all that stuff. I'd appreciate the info and help!

 

Gonna watch this one..

 

Way cool, I'll be joining the crowd watching

 

It's been 4 months man, we need updates!

 

lol sorry man no updates other than been working my ass off for four months straight getting our bonneville car ready to run. guess the efforts paid off because we set a new record so pretty stoked on that.

now that all that's over i almost don't even know where to start back up with this thing. i'm almost not in the mood to even do anything... kinda gotta get back into it. the next step in my mind is the steering and honestly i'm not looking forward to doing it. i've got it set in my mind that i want to do this cowl-steering-with-inside-pitman-arm setup but it's going to be a royal pain in the ass to figure out.

eh... we'll see what happens.

 

I like it. Looks good, wouldnt be my choice of engine but its differant I like it.

 

Beef, not to worry... many of us have extended our subscriptions... we are in it with you for the long haul. Gary

 

I'd love to give you some words of encouragement and inspiration, but your skills are so very far beyond me I don't think I'd be anything but annoying.

 

Nathan, start a list, knock off a little item each day until you are ready for the steering. I am in the same boat with the lakester.

 

Just found this thread for the first time, your front end setup is almost EXACTLY what I have been planning, except I was going to go with hairpins, and I was going to step the front of the rails outside the hoodline. Looking forward to seeing the finished rad mounts. Looking at your ride hieght, I may not need to step the rails. If you dont mind my asking, how tall are the front tires in this photo?

 

Pretty sure they are Appliance wire baskets, minus the wire basket, and with the plating stripped off. They actually work pretty well here, have a bit of a "packardish" look. Hope this doesnt push Ryan over the edge...

 

If you read the entire post he had the wheels made for him to imitate a halibrant solid.

 

If this had started out as a thread of what you wanted to do, rather then what you have done to this point, most would be beating you down.

Although not a popular engine choice, your vision and execution is exceptional, and it showed in your opening of the thread and I think that is why you have so much support.

Awesome build, this will be referred to in the future for others to get info from on many points beyond the drivetrain.

 

Doh! Found it. Sorry about that...