Pumkinator: A G-Body G-Machine grocery getter...

[absintheisfun]

Can't wait to see it on your wagon!

now when folks ask you what the color is....are you going to say mango tango or toxic orange?

[SRD art]

Here's a few more items I got over the last coupla days. VHT recently came out with a "Burnt Copper" high heat engine paint. Here I sprayed it on some pvc pipe to see how close it matches the paint cap. It's a real nice burnt orange, but I think it may be off a bit from the Toxic Orange body paint. I forgot to take it with me today so I'll run it by on Thursday to compare to the paint chip. If it's not close enough I can always get some high heat additive and use a little Toxic orange for the motor.



I bought this heat switch from ebay for my home-made heater system. It has has 4 positions, has the resister built in to the switch, and is illuminated. Only problem is it looks a little old school and cheapish and in the ebay photo it looked black but is actually brown. I think next time I'm at the junkyard I'll look at some of the more modern switch knobs they have and may be able to adapt it to this housing. Sorry for the blurry photo, my camera is like my eyes, can't see anything up close, lol!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

You could just spray the engine with the same paint. I have had good luck with both single stage urethane and base/ clear. As long as you prep it well you shouldn't have any issues.

[SRD art]

Can't wait to see it on your wagon!

now when folks ask you what the color is....are you going to say mango tango or toxic orange?

Well I have a real fun personality and love to laugh so Mango Tango really appeals to me but when I think of that I picture some lady in a yellow dress with fruit on her head shaking her hips to Cuban Pete... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJej6...eature=related

Toxic Orange fits better with the whole killer pumkin theme, so I'll probably tell folks it's an ancient Chinese secret called Toxic Pumpkin, lol!

[SRD art]

I've been looking all over for some cup holders to build into the center console and recently found these tucked in the corner of the Walmart automotive section. I wanted some stainless showing and it had to be big enough to fit a 20 oz. bottle of soda-pop and a large convenience store fountain drink. These will do after some slight modification. They were also the least expensive thing I could find at just under $6 each.



I also got in my brake pressure gauge. I bought this one off ebay too because the font matches the rest of my gauges. Crazy thing is it comes with fittings for high pressure nylon tubing but no actual tubing. That's kinda dumb. I looked in the Speedway catalog and saw they have long braided lines specifically for gauges so I'll have to grab one of those.

[SRD art]

Here are some shots of the Speedway tubing notcher. It's ultra simple and very easy to use. Only 2 complaints- the numbers are a sticker. Human error shows it's placed about 2 degrees off, but that's easy enough to compensate for when measuring. But also, just the fact that it's a sticker and the WD-40 I use to lube the saw as its cutting soaked right into it. I know eventually it'll peel off so at some point I need to get the dremel tool out and grind all the marks permanent.

Cutting the tubing this way went so well. The first few cuts were off slightly but still weldable. After I got a good feel for how to use it resulted in some real nice snug fitment. I LIKE IT! One of the best $100 I've spent.





Here's the mock up of the cage so far. The back half is all welded as a unit as is the main hoop. I started on the front bars today and by Thursday I should have all the sections in the car and welded together. Because of pipe limitation I decided to triangulate the braces instead of doing an x brace. Should still be pretty stiff. I've decided to paint it Krylon aluminum with a satin clear to match the silver accents on the black and orange interior. The photo shows it in bare metal.



I should have the rotisserie to the school by Friday so early next week I'll have the frame out and then the fun really begins!

[carguykeith]

For the switch, how about one of these and drop it off at an engraving shop to write "heat" or "heater" on it? http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Univer...nobs,5057.html Speedway also sells a set that match for GM steering columns to round out the look if you want.

[csouth]

I made a trip to the local Sherwin Williams auto paint store today for supplies. While there I got pricing on the paint I want. Officially it's called "Toxic Orange" and is used on 2010+ Challengers, Chargers and Vipers. It's also called Mango Tango with the same paint code and used under that name on the more docile cars and Jeeps. We compared a paint chip to satin black and it all matches well. I was hoping for less wallet damage, but between primer and paint even with a student discount I'm looking at right around $1000. Ouch! Oh well, gotta be done. I better get a few more renderings whipped out...

Well at least you're saving on labor...LOL Mine will be discounted because my painter is a friend and I'm helping prep, but I still have to buy the paint. I like the progress you're making, keep plugging away.
I sent you an email about my rendering BTW, hit me when you have time

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Hey Ben, I'm at the junkyard and found an 82 cutlass cruiser wagon. I'll be here a little while longer, call me if you need anything.

[SRD art]

A few more photos...

Here's the complete roll bar mocked up in the car. Again I wasn't necessarily after conforming to any particular type/ class of racing, although I think if I did the correct door bars it would be legal for under 11.90s at the strip. The biggest reasons for building it were 1. To learn how to build one from scratch, 2. To stiffen up the car, and 3. To create something that didn't look like a mass produced unit yet still have the strength of one, and 4. add a cool element of design.

I didn't want to weld the bar to the frame, mostly because I wanted the bars in the car for strength when I put the body on the rotisserie so I can start strengthening the chassis and building the rear suspension. While I'm in there welding up the bars I will weld them to 1/8" thick plates which will be welded to the floor. When it's all back together bolts will go through the floor and down through the frame to tie it all together.

Without the seats in...









Notice in the photos above that the cage sits on a ledge from the main hoop forward. I knew once I got the rear section welded to the hoop welding the last little bit on the top was going to be difficult, especially since I've never done anything like this before. I know its typical to cut the floor out and drop the cage down but it's so tight to the roof I didn't think there'd be enough room since the frame is not far from the floor here. Several of the older guys in the program suggested cutting a couple holes in the roof, weld up the bars and then welding roof patches in. I didn't want to do that so a hunch said cut the body seam on the floor and bend it down (red arrow), bang the top seam out of the way (green arrow) then tugging on the partially welded cage would allow access to the top as it dropped out of the car on one side and down into the feet well on the other side. I got it within 1/8" of dropping down and it was pretty much stuck. Not willing to give up I gave the side that would drop into the feet well a little kick and the bar had enough flex to drop down and it fell right out of the car on the other side. This allowed plenty of welding access and it didn't take that much effort to get it back into place. I did the same on the opposite side, a little kick and it popped right out.

[SRD art]

One problem I ran into while making the front bars was I ran out of bar. The last bar to bend was the floor bar for the passenger side and it was about 6 or 7" too short. So I grabbed piece of scrap practice tubing and carefully stitch welded them together. In the second photo you can see the end result, it came out pretty nice. There was some mild warpage and you can still feel where the weld was but I think it's good enough that if I didn't say anything it won't be noticed. Although I originally was going to have plain painted bars I may cover these floor bars with some vinyl that matches the seats. The rest of these photos are pre-welding, testing fit with the seats in. I need to oblong the driver's seat bolt holes a little to move the seat inward about 1/4" for door bar clearance, but other than that everything fits great.

[SRD art]

oops, double post.

[racin66coupe]

Looking awesome! I really like the cage design. A few questions though, what made you not want to go with a few A-pillar bars/ hoop that goes all the way to the windsheild?

[SRD art]

Thanks!!

A few factors on not running front bars- I really didn't want to cut up the dash or have a bar go in front of it horizontally. I also had a set budget for the cage and the front bars would've put me over. Although not much it would've added what I saw as unnecessary extra weight. Seems like NHRA requires a 10/ 12 point cage for 9.90 and quicker I think. My car will be running high 13s so I really don't even need the cage to be official. with all that said I decided it would've been overkill and I voted against it.

I guess in a lot of ways it's sort of like a 10 point as it is, I guess I just read the instructions wrong and installed it backwards, lol!

[racin66coupe]

Ah, gotcha. Well it looks bitchin!

[Scott Parkhurst]

That does look great- I'd have loved to see you run it all the way to the rear C-pillars and then down to hide it so it wouldn't be visible through the rear 'wagon' windows, but I love stealth cages too. You could have added another support bar across the top by the top of the tailgate and/or added an X across the roof in the way back part of the wagon to beef it up.

I've been looking at how to cage a wagon and retain access to the rear seat while still allowing the rear seat to fold down as well...and my final plan looks pretty close to yours. I also decided on door bars for the rear doors and a harness bar behind the rear seat to mount 5-points back there.

I doubt it will ever happen- I've thought long and hard about it and I really like not having a cage in the car now. Plus my best friend is now building a wagon that will be a step or two up from mine, and he'll be able to use those ideas in his. It's a 76 Malibu and will have a Laguna slant nose and a 750 hp LS engine, so keep an eye out for the inevitable build thread once we make a bit more progress on it.

Congrats for getting this one close to driving! I can't wait to see it on-track!

[SRD art]

Thanks Scott. I'm far from driving it. Will be even farther by end of next week when the body is on the rotissorie. I thought about running the bars all the way back but I almost like the diagonal bar in the rear windows, passers by will have to do a double take as they glance in. They'll be tinted anyway so it will still be somewhat stealthy. I tried to come up with a way to put a cross brace in the back but everything I thought of would've ruined the cargo area. I thought of running harnesses in the back seat too but I just can't justify the cost and then I'd have a bar in the way when you fold the seat down. What I came up with was the best overall compromise my non-engineer brain could think of.

Doesn't seem your car needs a roll bar unless you're doing much high speed racing. It does well without, so why fix what aint broke, right? That Malibu wagon sounds sick! Can't wait to see it come together.

I graduate end of April and I'll be relocating my family to Georgia so I'm stoked to get involved in some big events back there. I think I'll probably just miss the power tour but there's plenty of action after that. The goal is to use the car for what it's intended in my efforts to hang with some of the smaller cars with my granny mobile.

[SRD art]

Ah, gotcha. Well it looks bitchin!

Thanks. I recently was on the phone with Joe from Bulldawg and told him I feel like my car is at the bottom of the p-t gene pool when I look at some of the builds on here. I'm not one to talk up my skills or cars, I guess I keep a low profile and feel as long as I'm happy with my own efforts it's ok to not be in the same league as the "big boys" here. Joe suggested I oughtta give myself a little more credit for what I'm doing with the car, its nice to hear things like that coming from someone on the outside, so I appreciate your compliment too.

[csouth]

Thanks. I recently was on the phone with Joe from Bulldawg and told him I feel like my car is at the bottom of the p-t gene pool when I look at some of the builds on here. I'm not one to talk up my skills or cars, I guess I keep a low profile and feel as long as I'm happy with my own efforts it's ok to not be in the same league as the "big boys" here. Joe suggested I oughtta give myself a little more credit for what I'm doing with the car, its nice to hear things like that coming from someone on the outside, so I appreciate your compliment too.

Ben your skills are on point with a lot of the builders here. I'm sure you're talent will be greatly appreciated and help take that OTHER shop up a level when you hit GA...lol

[BulldawgMusclecars]

Ben your skills are on point with a lot of the builders here. I'm sure you're talent will be greatly appreciated and help take that OTHER shop up a level when you hit GA...lol

Ben may want to reconsider...I hear that shop owner is a real a-hole!