The Stickman's BattleCruiser Build Thread

[DvBoard]

I'd hit the drum with a bit of hi-temp rattle can black, flat or semi-gloss. It will help it look lots better IMO and is cheap.

[The Stickman]

I'd hit the drum with a bit of hi-temp rattle can black, flat or semi-gloss. It will help it look lots better IMO and is cheap.

Hopefully the drums won't be there long. I am looking to get rear discs on it

[The Stickman]

Well I finally got some steering wheels for us and installed them today. I took off the old goofy looking plastic one and put on a leather one from a Fiero. It has the nice contoured grips and is so comfy. Yes I know It hasd the Fiero horn cap. I will be trying to fix that in the future. It's also a little dirty. I will need to take some cleaner to it.

[The Stickman]

Well parts have been arriving pretty often lately. I now have a TransGo 200-4R HD2 shift kit for my 200-4R transmission. It will give me either full manual control up or down thru the gears for 1st,2nd, and 3rd gears. Or I can stick in in OD and let it do all the work.

Today I recieved my new shifter. It is made by Brian Kilduff and is one sweet piece. His shifters are made to order so you can't go wrong here.

[The Stickman]

Now if I am going to run a floor shifter I have to replace the bench seat with a set of bucket seats. And I had a few options. I could have found some comfy buckets so it would be similar to what the bench feels like. Or I have a bunch of Fiero seats I could have had recovered. But since this car handles great as is and will only get better to the point I may want to do some track days with it I felt that something closer to a competition seat should be in order. So I found these off of Ebay and it so happens they were fairly local so it saved me some cash. I really like the look. Wait till you see what I do with them.

[The Stickman]

Well more parts have been recieved for my build(s). I found two distributors off of Craigslist. The first one was a Mallory Uni-Lite vacuum advance distributor. It is used but looks ok. I paid $100 and the guy threw in the MSD wires and Blaster 2 coil.

The second distributor was a brand new in the box MSD Pro Billet unit. This I got for $175 which I thought was a steal. So much so I didn't even try to haggle.

Now why 2 distributors? Well the MSD distributor must be used with an MSD box. Now I have a used 7AL-2 unit. BUT it happens to be a 4 cylinder only part. So I am trying to find out what I need to do to send it back along with this coil to have rebuild at a fraction of the cost of new.

Note the coil has an aluminum heat sink around it. This will not only look cool but I have yet to see one on another car. So I can't use the MSD distributor until I have a box and coil to use with it. So I can use the Mallory until all that get's figured out. I hope to have the Mallory in this weekend depending on the weather. It should improve my spark and timing. The Mallory has to be a vast improvement over the tired old HEI unit. And once I have all the parts I need to use the MSD distributor the Mallory can go in the wife's car providing we find an Olds engine for her's soon.

[Shiro666]

That shifter!

Oh, Snap!

[The Stickman]

Ok the wife and I worked all day on getting the old bench seats out and the new buckets in. We had to(ok ok she had to)custom make the brackets as there was nothing to use. I did get sliders with the seats but needed a way to mount the seats and sliders to the floor. We ended up making some nice brackets using nothing more than scraps we had laying around. We did use the outer studs that the bench seat was orginally mounted to. We only got one front seat done but the other one should be a piece of cake now that the first one is done. And the wife did take a good bit of time getting the welder back to where she wanted it as it has been sitting for a long time. Anyway here are the pics. Let me know what you think.

[The Stickman]

Ok bucket seats day 2. My car is becoming more and more like my vision of a high performance touring car like i want. We worked on getting the drivers seat perfect and making brackets for the passenger seat. It took most of the day(well started at 1pm) but now I have both front seats mounted, and I can work on the backs. Here are the newest piccs of both installed. BTW there should be alot of updates this week as I plan on lowering the front end and will be getting my wheel spacers and poly bushings for the front end.

[srh3trinity]

Those seats look nice. I like the shifter more and more each time I see it. Cool build.

[67apostle]

Very cool ride! Keep it up.

[NOT A TA]

It's coming along Neil! That shifter is cool! It's got a functional "industrial" street fighter look about it I like.

[twosaturns]

stickman, I KNOW i've seen your car around here in Easton! isn't there another guy around w/ a primered lowered wagon you hang with also? I seem to remember one w/ red scallops.
btw, I like the low buck approach w/ an odd choice of car. my family once had a '79 caprice wagon for trailer towing (handled like a boat, though).

[chevy42083]

4 buckets would look sweet

Nice unconventional build.

[jackfrost]

4 buckets would look sweet

Nice unconventional build.

I'd love to see a pic of this car on the track w/ 4 people wearing helmets in it.

[The Stickman]

Well I have been slacking off with the updates so I will try to get up to date in the next few days as I will have more after that with a new radiator and intake, as well as a rebuilt trans with shift kit after it's rebuilt.

So here's what you have missed. I rebuilt the front suspension with Energy Suspension bushings and I took the Eibach springs out of the front and put the F41 RPO code springs back in. First I took a half coil off and it brought it down to the level of the Eibachs and I wanted more of a drop. SO I hacked off a whole nother coil. That might have been more extreme then I had originally wanted. But the looks and ride are perfect. So I got way lucky. Here's some picks.







Here's how I want the rear to be with some help from a friend.

Here are some coilover brackets that my wife made. Problem is I have 2 pair of Coilovers that are too long so we have to figure a way to find the extra space for them.

[hechtrod]

This is a cool build and car. Love wagons! I really like those seats too?

[The Stickman]

Well I promised more updates and here they are. Here are some body mods I did with the bumpers. First the front bumpers are tucked in. The one bumper shock was partially collapsed so I collapsed it all the way. Now to collapse the other one I had to drill a hole in it. Then I stripped the bumper down and painted it black.





Then onto the rear bumper. I stripped it down and painted it black like the front. I took it off the mounts and put it against the body and it looks great. But I have to figure out the mounts to get it right but here is how I want it to like

[hechtrod]

Nice bumper mods! Wagon lookin' sharp!

[ProTouring442]

Just an idea on your horn button....

If you find a way to mount a Corvette horn contact:



You can then utilize an Olds sport wheel horn button:



Just a thought!

Lookin' good!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill