Hot Rods The Unibody Roadster Dissected

I really love that car!! WAY out of the box.
I hadn't seen this thread in along time.
Great build and thread Shapes.

 

Thanks guys.

Yeah, I did a bit of work to it, and I have been driving it.


But I'm chasing a weird carb problem, that comes and goes.

I had the carb apart a couple of times, and it runs nice for a while.

But then its back...

It floods.
( carb is set up with the foam type floats, because the brass ones dont take the pressure )
I bought another rebuild kit, and when I can steal a couple of hours, I'll go through it again.

I also want to change the fuel filter for something thats more efficient, and I'm thinking about putting on a Boost sensitive Fuel Pressure Regulator
( I got one off a Maserati Biturbo )


I'll do a update when I have that fixed...

 

Yes, this is a must! Thought you had one already.

 

Cool, thanks for the update Alex!

 

glad to see this thread back up
'loved that car since the first time you posted a picture

and glad to hear it's back on the road
I'm sure you'l have that minor problem solved soon

 

No...

What it had, was a Boost take off that ran tio the back of the membrane on the Fuel Pump.

But when I looked at that some more, I found out that there wasnt anything there to keep the Boost inside the Fuel Pump Housing.

In other words, it was trying to pressurise the entire crank case...

So I ran it without the Boost Take Off line for a while, and I rant it with the same kind of Pump that doesnt have that port.

I figured if that would give me problems, to would be under Boost conditions, and I'd try it out to see how it goes.

The problems I'm having are Off Boost. ( just trying to get it to idle )
And /Or Off Boost after beeing On Boost. ( slowing down for a corner, while going back down through the gears, coasting on the engine...)

Its weird...

It acts as if the fuel pressure ( from the same pumps I have used before ) all of a sudden went sky high...

( have looked for any kind of dirt in the gas, and sofar, I havent found any )

 

I would like to thank you for adding a million more hours to my RPU project!Great thread and AWESOME car!

 

Hi Alex, awesome build and beautiful styling.

Thanks for the great pics, I'd been trying to visualise exhausts in the tranny tunnel for a low and channeled A coupe although I'll have to run cross members and now I've seen it done

 

amazing build

 

Mr shapes. You still got that car don't ya?

Listen fellas I've set in it, its like a cavern inside. Mr Shapes didn't even get shook when I grabbed onto the bare skin to pull myself out of it.

A comparison comparison to an American car might be a Hudson Step-down Cpupe (more commonly called a Hornet). Altough you step as deep into the Hudson.

 

reminds me of a VW floor pan. neat idea.

-danny

 

I have seen this suggested before and thought the same thing you did. Maybe there are mechanical pumps that are sealed from the engine on the atmospheric side that this works on. Or some way to seal the pump up that we don't know about.

The guys over at www.theturboforums.com have a blow through specific section, something like this has likely come up.

http://www.theturboforums.com/smf/index.php?board=13.0

And more specifically how to modify your Holley for blow-through so that it enrichens properly and will survive under boost. I skimmed it this morning and they mention the enrichment circuit and it makes me think that your power valve is staying open under light load or something.

http://www.hangar18fabrication.com/blowthru.html

 

I payed a lot of money for that modified pump from a Paxton Specialist in California....

I had the car dialed in on a dyno.
They did work to the carb, and recurved the dual point.
That was on its first engine, but this one has the same cam & heads, its just a little bigger ( 327 vs 283 ) so it shouldn't be too far off.

And it ran great for a long time.

So there must be someting simple that went bad.
The powervalve hanging up is a good suggestion...
I bet its something like that...


Thanks again for the nice words guys.

 

If the cam profile changed, like more overlap or longer duration, then the carb would need to be adjusted. Displacement not so much.

May be some flotsam in the air bleeds.

 

...

 

kinda looks like a vw pan

 

Monkey see monkey do !!.Man that is one neat ride. My scrap iron is a 33 chevy 3 window with a 345 desoto hemi and 700-4 that was chopped a lot in the 60's area it was channeled also. Im not that tall but I need all the room I can get. So far we took wescoots 32 ford deminsions kicked the front rails up and the rear rails kick up to. Were very blessed to have 3 lasers and a cnc press brake. After seeing your car it helped me to figure out where to put my exhaust. We are putting my body on exacly like an old VW bolted around the perimeter. We are dropping my floors 1'' from the bottom of the rails they are boxed 10 gauge,were using 14 gauge p&o steel for the tunnel and pans we also made 1''x3''x14 gauge hat channels across the bottom and there are bulk heads behind the seat and at the fire wall. It is going to be split horizonal across flush to the rails. I hope this thing will be rigid. The wood is being replaced with tubing . thanks for the jump start !! boy cant wait to drive mine. I will post some build photos soon of the unibody bowtie !!

 

Cool.

Cant wait to see it...

 

I met you a few years back at the So-Cal open house, I think you just put the supercharger on it. The car always stuck in my head, very awsome piece, cool to see some build picks.

 

A good bump since it IS Tech Week

 

Thanks T...

 

Good bump!! glad you did.How did I miss this post!!This idea has been in the back of my mind for a long time.I am tall and don`t like sitting high in cars and love the low roof line.Lots of cool ideas.Thanks for bring it to the top.

 

Time for a fresh question Alex. I am at this stage so I am wondering , just how exactly ARE the subrails welded to the frame? Rosette welds? And in the pictures it looks like you Boxed/sheeted in the inside of the subrail to the floor or tied it into the framerail?

 

I must say... this is cool as shit man. Amazing!

 

There are no subrails.

I welded the flange of the outside sheetmetal directly to the top of the '32 Chassis Rails.

On the lower part of the door opening, I used Roadster rockerpanel parts ( from Brookville, but lenthened to match the longer doors ), to finish the sill part off.

 

OK thanks Alex! That kinda muddied things up for me, planned on keeping the subrails but only in the door area. So in essence I am on about the same track.

 

The way I saw it, the subrails were needed to transfer the load from the sheetmetal parts to the 6 or 10 points that the body is bolted to the chassis ( on a regular Roadster )

Since I have lots of attachment points on every edge where the body touches the chassis, I could eliminate that step...

 

My thoughts as well, the rear 60% of the body will be flanged and welded like your anyway. About all my subrail stubs are doing is locating the A and B pillars for the door gap.

Thanks again man.

 

from last sunday

 

car is sweet....