Picture of the beast! Warning, it's ugly!

[CHILI]

I figured it was time to post a picture of the new car. Like I said, it's not too pretty. The cage is now done and battery boxes removed (thanks to Randy Beck). Also had him install a permenant strut tower bar. I'm in the process of removing the suspension for repaint and new whammy stuff!

[DW SD]

GREAT! How about some more photos?

I was hoping for something a bit uglier, based on your headline.

Doug

[Jack Olsen]

Nothing ugly there.

[CHILI]

You guys are too kind.

I'll take some more pics over the next week or two.
Here's a list of the mods. Similar to yours, Doug. Funny thing is, I was gearing up for this simultaneously with you. Great minds think alike.

Elephantracing Polybronze bushings, front and rear.
Tarett hollow swaybars front and rear (aka Weltmiester Pros)
Hollow 22 and 28 T-bars
Factory Adjustable springplates
Aluminum trailing arms
Wevo sway bar mounts (thanks Elephantracing)
Turbo tie rods
6 point cage. No A pillar, though. Just door bars. Welded to the b pillars for stiffness and safety.
Momo Protipio (backordered)
fiberglass flares, bumpers and duck tail
All of the aluminum trim has been powdercoated black. I would have stayed with the bright look, but PO had it powdercoated, so I'll stick with it.
Will have 17 fuchs like both of yours (Doug and Jack). Thanks for the link Jack! I left Linsey a vm today. Had a technical q for them.
New apbiz RS door panels and RS perlon carpet
All new lenses
All new seals (thanks Pelican)
2 new reproduction 73 style mirrors in black (also backordered from Performance. I called Pelican, but they don't carry them for the very reason listed above. Hell might freeze over before I receive them, who knows.
New headliner (Pelican) coming soon. Thinking about doing it myself, don't know.
Soon to be sprayed in Grand Prix white. Wheel wells and all. Cage will be simi gloss black.

TBD: seats. I really like old school racing buckets like the GTS classics that Pelican carries. Just having a hard time getting over the price!
RSR, polished paddles, or pure black Fuchs.
Bilstein sports or HD's. Can somebody please tell me which is stiffer?

[Spede]

Originally posted by CHILI
6 point cage. No A pillar, though. Just door bars. Welded to the b pillars for stiffness and safety.

Let's see some pictures of that cage! I picked up an OG Racing one from another Pelican.

Is yours custom fabricated?

[CHILI]

Originally posted by Spede
Let's see some pictures of that cage! I picked up an OG Racing one from another Pelican.

Is yours custom fabricated?

Yes, it's custom. I wanted something that tied into the car for stiffness. I also wanted something that was a little bit more stealthy (other than the fact that it has to have down tubes. What can you do). I will take some shots of it tonight. Randy and his son did a great job. I hadn't yet had time to strip the tub, so it was dirty and crusty. They dealt with it as if it was a clean racecar.

[1973911s]

Chili,

What are you doing with the 74?

[cbeers]

73,

he sold it to a fellow pelican who has since stuffed a hot little twin plug into it. I am sure he will post pics once it's done

-Chris

[DW SD]

Chili,
Smart list of mods.

Bilstein sports are stiffer than HD. You may want to look into custom valving. Smart Racing, Jae Lee down here in San Diego, Steve Weiner and others will set the valving for the weight of your car, intended use and stiffness of your T-Bars. Shock valving is not necessarily about stiffness, but matching the car's mass and the spring rate, as well as intended use.

Doug

[ted]

Hey Chili looks like a fun track/street car.
Keep us posted.
Your street car was detailed perfectly I bet you'll do a sweet job on this RSR too.
Do plan to track it, TT or DE?
Sent you a PM.

[CHILI]

Thanks guys. Yep, the 74 has left the building. I will miss it.

Doug, I will probably do that in the future. But, in the famous words of all of us.... I'm WAY over buget, so it will have to wait for now.

Ted, it will be mostly a fun street car, but I'm planning on doing some more A/Xing and maybe some DE's once I'm used to the car. I consider myself a good sport driver, but have never been one to jump in a car and be fast. It takes me longer than most.

I can't wait!

[Elombard]

Chili

I thinbk you can buy a set of used bilstiens (any model) and get them revalved for cheaper than buying new?

Originally posted by Elombard
Chili

I thinbk you can buy a set of used bilstiens (any model) and get them revalved for cheaper than buying new?

Thats what I did. They even changed all the rubber bushings and revalved them to what I wanted.

Bilstien
Poway, CA
Attn: Jack

[CHILI]

As requested, here's a few more pics of the cage. Obviously, it has a few issues that need to be ground down, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.

[CHILI]

Started working on the Project (yes, that's with a capital P) again. I recently tied the cage to the strut bar and included a knee bar. So, basically it's a full cage without any A pillar bars if that makes sense. Here are a few pics. You'll notice I ground down the welds a little and filled them with body filler to make them smooth. Way more time consuming than I had anticipated. I wouldn't recommend it.

Ohh, I also applied POR 15 to the floors and rear seat area.

[Joe Bob]

Good solid tub....I've built from worse.

[Chuck Moreland]

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder. That looks beautifull to me.

Are you doing a front hoop on the cage?

Looks like you did some filler to smooth the welds, ala Boyd Coddington hot rod.

[Kroggers]

I have the same q as Chuck, will you do a front hoop?

[CHILI]

Originally Posted by Kroggers

I have the same q as Chuck, will you do a front hoop?

No front hoop at this point. I wasn't even going to tie to the front, but I found some rust in the inner rocker at the a pillar. I just felt that this would stiffen things up in the event of an accident. Also, I don't have a tube bender. You'll notice all of the pieces I added are straight pieces. All I needed was a tube notcher. And of course a welding machine which you can see in the background. It's a stick, mig and tig machine. Very nice.

[ErVikingo]

Pretty cool Chad.

A concern (constructive criticism) I have though is that knee bar under the dash. It looks very low and too close to your knees in case of an incident. I had mine installed as high up as possible (see pic).