Rapom's Rocket - just another Duster build thread

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w2 stroker said:
is it done yet lol. looking good Ron!!!!
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are you coming up for goodguys again?
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I'm still here, just lurking in the background. Not much happened over the winter as I've concentrated more on the shop than the car. Spent November building a floor with two trap doors up in the attic, then organized the three cars worth of parts I had stuffed in the rafters and piled up on the shop floor back upstairs. After that I insulated the celing. What a miserable job that was. Then I replaced the 30 or so overhead lights, half of which were burned out, with the brightest LED's I could find. Man what a difference having bright light to work by and all the crap off the floor and out of the way. Also spent time researching heating alternatives and cost.
BUT... It's not like I haven't touched the car at all the last 6 months. Finished up some incomplete wiring in the engine bay. Planned out the connections and routing for the fuel injection wiring once the motor is in place. Replaced the hard lines for the front brakes with the kit given me by W2stroker ( thanks again Marty) but unfortunately the master cylinder lines were not for power brakes so I ordered up a set through Dr Diff. Cleaned up the rear frame rails and battery mount area and painted them chassis black.
Pics 1 & 2: Took the motor off the stand, set it on the skate I built, then assembled the clutch, bell housing, transmission and hydraulic clutch goodness.
Pic 3: Ready to slide under the car.
Pic 4: Now, in order for that to happen, the front of the car has to be raised up for clearance. Most who have installed a motor this way lift utilizing the front bumper mounting points but I still have the whole front end/bumper/chin spoiler mocked together and I don't want to disturb it until I get it all finalized, but, I need to get that motor installed to move ahead on a hundred other items that need to get done. I mean to attempt this a little differently by lifting , very carefully, by the upper shock mounts. I whipped up this spreader bar set up to work with the engine hoist. Being basicly a body shell still I don't anticipate there being enough stress to cause any damage doing it this way. We shall see.
Pic 5: I spent a whole bunch of time on my back with a tape measure and a pair of 15x10 steel rims experimenting with spacers to get the backspacing and clearances right where I want them for the new rim order. Yes I have, after literally years of dithering, finally settled on my rims. In my defense I knew I'd need a custom built rim from the moment I realized 15 inch performance tires were esentially non existent. Until I had some reliable measurements it was pretty darn hard to narrow down candidates as that shallow backspace requirement was a deal breaker on many of my favorites. And the front rim specs muddied the waters even more.
Pic 6: These showed up two days ago. So what did I pick to wrap these puppies around?
Pic 7: American Racing Custom Shop VN 405 Torque Thrust 2s with gloss black centers. Sorry for the fuzzy ad photo.
 
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rapom65 said:
I'm still here, just lurking in the background. Not much happened over the winter as I've concentrated more on the shop than the car. Spent November building a floor with two trap doors up in the attic, then organized the three cars worth of parts I had stuffed in the rafters and piled up on the shop floor back upstairs. After that I insulated the celing. What a miserable job that was. Then I replaced the 30 or so overhead lights, half of which were burned out, with the brightest LED's I could find. Man what a difference having bright light to work by and all the crap off the floor and out of the way. Also spent time researching heating alternatives and cost.
BUT... It's not like I haven't touched the car at all the last 6 months. Finished up some incomplete wiring in the engine bay. Planned out the connections and routing for the fuel injection wiring once the motor is in place. Replaced the hard lines for the front brakes with the kit given me by W2stroker ( thanks again Marty) but unfortunately the master cylinder lines were not for power brakes so I ordered up a set through Dr Diff. Cleaned up the rear frame rails and battery mount area and painted them chassis black.
Pics 1 & 2: Took the motor off the stand, set it on the skate I built, then assembled the clutch, bell housing, transmission and hydraulic clutch goodness.
Pic 3: Ready to slide under the car.
Pic 4: Now, in order for that to happen, the front of the car has to be raised up for clearance. Most who have installed a motor this way lift utilizing the front bumper mounting points but I still have the whole front end/bumper/chin spoiler mocked together and I don't want to disturb it until I get it all finalized, but, I need to get that motor installed to move ahead on a hundred other items that need to get done. I mean to attempt this a little differently by lifting , very carefully, by the upper shock mounts. I whipped up this spreader bar set up to work with the engine hoist. Being basicly a body shell still I don't anticipate there being enough stress to cause any damage doing it this way. We shall see.
Pic 5: I spent a whole bunch of time on my back with a tape measure and a pair of 15x10 steel rims experimenting with spacers to get the backspacing and clearances right where I want them for the new rim order. Yes I have, after literally years of dithering, finally settled on my rims. In my defense I knew I'd need a custom built rim from the moment I realized 15 inch performance tires were esentially non existent. Until I had some reliable measurements it was pretty darn hard to narrow down candidates as that shallow backspace requirement was a deal breaker on many of my favorites. And the front rim specs muddied the waters even more.
Pic 6: These showed up two days ago. So what did I pick to wrap these puppies around?
Pic 7: American Racing Custom Shop VN 405 Torque Thrust 2s with gloss black centers. Sorry for the fuzzy photo.
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I'm glad to see you're still at it.
Tires/wheels and seats have been the two biggest hangups for my project, it shouldn't be this difficult! I'm currently planning 15x10 circle track steel wheels (5/8" studs) with Hoosier TDS's but I'm very interested to see your car with 18's.
 
72bluNblu said:
Looks great!!! :thumbsup:

Is that hydraulic slave going to clear the floor?
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Thanks blu, wish I was further along than I am but it's coming along, slowly. Well if my calibrated eye is any good it should clear the floor. Its in line with the outboard trans crossmember bolt. Had to hold it as high as possible as the header collector is right underneath it. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to fab up a small heat shield to go between the two. Just "one of the hundred" things to check and finish hooking up once the motor is in place.
 
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[QUOTE="phormula_s. I'm very interested to see your car with 18's.[/QUOTE]
I'll get pics up ASAP but its going to be 5 or 6 weeks before I'll have them on the car. Have to be built, shipped to me and then mounted and balanced.
 
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Meaningless update: Installed the new front brake and master cylinder lines. After unfolding them, from where they had been stuffed into a too short box, I found the rear MC line to be quite a bit longer than necessary. Had to completely reshape the loop in the middle so it would clear the booster.
I set the new rubber in the wheel wells and tried to take some pics for you all but the perspective makes them look goofy. Just can't get far enough away from the car. In person they look "bitchin".
 
Wow can't believe I haven't posted to this thread since April! ABOUT TIME FOR AN UPDATE!!

1st I know everybody wants pics of the wheels and tires but they're still sitting in boxes in the corner of my shop. I know, how damned lame can I get? Long story short is my boss just bought brand new tire mounting and balancing machines but had to get them delivered, installed and calibrated which took a couple of weeks. Then he tore his shoulder up and had to get surgery done. Once he recovered from that he decided to burn ALL his vacation time. Now he's back and I'm hot on his tail to get my stuff done. He's promised to teach me so that I can do my own wheels so the wait has been well worth it. HOPEFULLY they will be done this weekend. Pics as soon as they roll off the balancer.

The 1st engine install went fairly well but the spreader bar / lift by the front shock mounts idea did not work only because the engine hoist legs interfered just enough with the drive train skate that I could not get it into position no matter how many different angles I tried. Scrap that idea, back to more conventional means. Got it down now where I can get that sucker in or out in about an hour all by myself. So a number of issues came to light as soon as the body was lowered into position:
The firewall flange was hard up against the bell housing along the passenger side foot well
The rear brake line, right at the back of the proportioning valve, was against a header tube
Just as 72bluNblu questioned, the hydraulic clutch slave cylinder rubbed the floor pan just enough to bind up it's movement
The bolt heads of the water pump pulley where rubbing on a couple of the fins on the radiator fan housing
The steering column shaft is approximately 3/4" to long
My driveshaft appears to be a smidge too long but I may be able to adjust this out with the 4 link
And the biggest headache of all the shift handle opening in the 4 speed hump conversion is exactly 1" off from center (front to rear). I just don't understand how that occurred. As I stated in my "how to" thread on this the AMD hump fit the floor perfectly and that is where I installed it.

It's getting late and I have to work tomorrow so I will pick this back up then. Stay tuned, lots more to come with many pictures.
 
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I see the tool you made for lifting the body off the drivetrain. Slick!
Where does it bolt to? Shock holes in the inner fenders?
 
Exactly....it worked just fine too. Unfortuneately using an engine hoist as the means of lift put the hoist legs in the way of the motor. Really need an over head hoist or other means of vertical lift to raise the nose of the car high enough.
 
Man I can't wait to see this on the road. And I am close enough I might actually get to see it in person.

With blu in north Cali, maybe he could drive up to your place someday and I could come over and see them both in person.

:lol::thumbsup:

Mine won't ever be of the same caliber of these, but I am working on it and would even try and drive mine there.

:rofl:
 
Would be great to meet you Dion. Hopefully I can get this thing on the road before we all die of old age.
Been working on the dash wiring lately trying to button it all up and recheck that everything is connected where it should be. Now I remember why I decided to put it aside and take a break from it (a couple of years ago!) Next is to test all the circuits before throwing power to it and watching it go up in a cloud of smoke.

It took some time to download and resize all the following pictures but its done.
What should we look at first...?
Bell housing up against firewall flange. This was a simple trim job with the cutoff wheel once I dropped the motor back out.

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The FITech injection includes this plate to mount the O2 sensor in the exhaust. I installed it on the passenger side just aft of the collector but it was a bit too long for the adapter I bought as part of the exhaust kit. Trimmed it off at the marks and welded it over a hole drilled with a 5/8" hole saw.

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I bent the rear brake line where it screws into the back of the proportioning valve by using a socket wedged between the line and the frame rail to act as a form. Worked very nicely and I now have 1/2" of clearance between the line and header tube. No Pic.

Broke out the caulk gun and seam sealed the scoop to the hood, hood skin to the under hood bracing (because all the factory adhesive globs had separated ages ago), the box I installed in the passenger inner fender for the fuel injection sump and the modification to the 4 speed hump I had to do to center it on the shifter.

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So I had to cut the hump in half right in front of the shifter hole, drill out all the spot welds on the rear half, cut the floor pan back, reshape the whole back edge of the hump to go over the ridge for the seat mounts, weld in a 1" strip of trunk skin (man that trunk lid has come in handy), re-weld all the spot welds and grind, seal and paint everything again. Still can't figure out why it was off in the first place. Friggin headache.

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So now that everything was centered back up I made a bracket to change the angle of the E body Pistol Grip shift lever. Just copied the lower portion of the handle on 1/4" plate, cut it out and drilled a couple holes. Bingo, feels great and puts the handle right where it needs to be. I do get lucky sometimes. Brewers has this A body Pistol Grip shifter boot so I ordered one up to replace the round hole version I had on hand. They always tear when trying to stretch it

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over the rectangular PG lever.

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Pic of the painted fuel cell/trunk floor structure and a couple of the front suspension from different angles.

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I try to let ya all know when I fail along with the successes. Well I discovered a major fail when I test fit the front spindles, rotor and rim. No way in hell are my brake cooling ducts going to work. The inlet tube of the ducts are aimed right at the lower control arm bumper stops and the tire/rim aren't going to let anything get between them and the frame. Good thing I hadn't cut the holes in the chin spoiler for the ducts!

The steering shaft has been shortened 3/4" and drilled for the coupler cross pin.

The radiator fan housing has been clearanced for the water pump pulley bolt heads by removing a couple of fins and narrowing a couple of others. Probably wouldn't have been an issue but it certainly won't be now.

Discovered the 1-2 shift rod binds up against the top of the trans mounting bracket when shifting into 2nd. A little round file action solved that problem.

I added an extension onto the hood release lever so it would be easier to reach.

Filled the tranny up with oil a couple of months ago. No leaks!! That is encouraging as I kind of buggered up the tail housing gasket when putting it back together during the rebuild. Was very concerned I'd have to tear it down again to replace the gasket.

Cut the starter cable to length and soldered on the cable end. Ditto for the alternator cable.

Welded up and finished the remaining unused holes in the driver's inner fender and the old mount holes for the remote clutch master cylinder reservoir.

That's it for tonight, more tomorrow.
 
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Not tomorrow but here ya go.

Photographic proof that the motor is in (2nd time). Lots of stuff to do but what's been done so far?

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Check out the remote oil filter lines. I was 100% sure I was going to have to get longer ones made but once the motor was in they treaded on to the filter head like they were made for each other. Miracles do happen!
 
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