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what is hot rodding to you? another newbie, with a unique project

24K views 77 replies 32 participants last post by  67Mustang Al. 
#1 ·
hello! another new guy, and i can't wait to learn here. i'm an absolute noob to the rodding scene, and i've been crash coursing hot rods and american muscle cars for the past 3 months to try and see if this idea i have is feasible. i'm starting to lose hope simply due to lack of constructive input (and people trying to rob me on fab estimates). i'd like to ask this forum for help, but i'm afraid of more of the usual responses. so before i even try, i would like to ask what this forum's stance is on non-american hot rodding? what IS hot rodding to you?

i personally feel what i'm attempting is hot rodding at its heart and soul, but so far i've just been stonewalled with doubt and jest. i mean, isn't it all about shoving a big motor into a car that wasn't supposed to ever get it? the more difficult, outlandish, and insane, the better? fat motor, small car, low to the ground, mean growl? i used to think that's what it was way before i ever even looked into the scene, but exposure to it's given me a much different answer. please tell me i'm wrong and i've come to the right place. because walking the same road as everyone else alone is no fun :(
 
#28 ·
boatbob2 said:
sorry,chassis has been sold
??????????? What chassis? Guess I missed that.

Anyway. What is hotrodding about? In my opinion it's about making something faster or better engineered than what you can buy, or making something that you like, and no car maker builds. I also think it's about doing as much of the build as possible yourself. Anybody can write checks and tell a builder what they want, but that's not hotrodding in my opinion.
Even if it takes years to finish as you learn, I think it's still best to do as much as possible yourself if you want to call it "your" hotrod.
Six months is a crazy timetable for this large a project, especially if you want it done right for a reasonable amount of money. I think it can be done for the price you quoted, but probably not in that time frame when you're paying someone else.
When I started stuffing a 327 Chevy in place of the tiny 20 hp flathead 4 cyl. in my old '46 British Austin I got some friends who thought this particular car was not a good choice for what I planned. Would have been much easier to have chosen a later post '48 Austin with it's larger engine bay, longer wheelbase, and wider body. But what kinda fun is it to do a swap that almost anyone can do? Moving the firewall back 12" and setting the front seats back enough that you sit nearly in the back seat to steer is way more fun!
 
#30 ·
see that's the thing, i don't ever plan on selling it, hard times or not. i'd sooner stuff it into a friend's garage before it had to come to that. i hope i'm not the only one that thinks that way :p

i don't have unlimited access to my garage for storing a car project, that's part of why i gave myself a tight deadline. it can go in there for a short time, but that's it. the fam isn't really keen on a dismantled car in the garage. i don't require it to do anything more than roll out of the garage under its own power. once it can be parked on the street, i can do further work from there. basically i just need it to turn over and stay running and driving(ish). oh, and the main bits mounted to the chassis. i also gave myself that timetable because my work slows down in the winter for a few months and project start should coincide with it slowing down. plenty of time to work on it then!

the street's close enough to run an extension cord out for tools, and safe enough to leave the project outside. so long as the hood's on nobody's the wiser.

i've been catching endless flak for choosing the del sol as a platform. personally, i take it as more reason to do it. 1971, i also have to set the firewall back, though probably less than your 12". i wish i had as much extra room as you to push the seats back, but if i run a rear mount trans axle, i'm almost 100% certain the tailshaft is gonna be by my elbow coming from the rear. that means i need to widen the rear part of my mini tunnel, which means less seat slide space :(. still think i can retain the power window though.

paid a visit to ye ol' S&S Speed Shop today, got a lead on a fabricator that works for moroso and is an nhra inspector of some sort. they swear he can beat the lowest shop's quoted price of 20k, and can do better work than that guy. we'll see when i call tomorrow, i guess.

on a side note, i've been reading that people have successfully mated an ls1 to the audi quattro system. i'd have to mount the trans in the traditional location, however. going to look into that further...

there is the audi r8 quattro system, but no way i can afford that :p
 
#31 ·
Can't imagine building a car on the street, but building one without a garage is not impossible, and doing it while working a job is not impossile either. I built mine working in a Costco 10'x20' canopy in the backyard. Started in Sept. of 2010, and was driving it in Mar. of 2011. But I worked every evening for 6-8 hrs., and all day on weekends almost every weekend.
Here's a pic of my meager work shop back then. Now that the car is finished I've moved my restored '71 Camaro to the canopy, and the old car is in the garage.

 
#32 ·
chevynut said:
I have to agree.Great pictures. :thumbup:
Thanks...our grandfathers and great-grandfathers were the pioneers of this hobby. When you see an older gentleman stooped over with arthritis and various other issues, try to remember that he may have been one of those young kids with a hot flattie stuffed in an "A" roadster burning up the post-war roads...
 
#34 ·
it's going to be tough, but it's no different than any other time i've had to work on my current car. our driveway is angled so the only places to jack the car up are in the garage or on the street. the garage is still family used so it's not always open enough to fit a car. tools can go in there just fine, and i don't mind lugging gear out 20ft to the curb.

the shed idea is great, except there's no way to get the car to/from the back without renting a crane. i was tempted, but no hah. i only decided to wait for my slower work season because come spring through fall, i have a very random schedule. could be lots of 4-8 hour days, then back to back 16-36 hour shifts. more importantly, lots of time to plan. but once i get going, i don't want to stop until it's finished. i'll buy a patio propane heater thing to work under if i have to.

mojo, that first car's bay looks tighter than what i have to work with!
 
#38 ·
i have now. spent last night looking up the other system while working, and apparently comparing the two while sleeping. i think the 968 awd transaxle is a better fit and better for overall dd duty. since i'm not cutting or buying anything yet, i'm still going to explore both paths on paper until i'm satisfied with an outcome
 
#39 ·
misread some info. the 968/944 projects i was told about were never finished. there was a successful mating of a quattro awd system i need to look into though. in the meantime, i'm still looking into wedging a transfer case between the trans and corvette rear. holden out in australia has my answer for the front diff:







i worry about how much it'd stick out of my hood after, but we'll see
 
#40 ·
I might have a different thought on what "hotrodding" means to me. To me it is caring more about how your vehicle runs then how it looks. A vehicle can have blemishes, ugly paint, crappy interior... But if all the mechanicals are in good shape and she runs like a bat outa hell then She's still just as much fun to drive if not more fun then some show queen.
 
#44 · (Edited)
to me hotrodding is about STREET racing. the quickest car across the intersection, the eighth, the quarter, whatever. to some it might be autocrossing, road racing, off roading, standing mile, salt lake, whatever. and still, whatever kind of race car/boat/plane you talk about, IT IS A HOTROD if it races.

to that end there is a philosophy/definition of taking the largest motor and stuffing it into the smallest car. i still kindof hold to that. restoring a car to stock is NOT hotrodding to me at all, even if you are restoring a corvette.

like your avatar, my first hotrod after i sold my t bucket was putting a 327 into my MGC. it took alot of work, not that much money, and it didn't last long till i spun out and went upside down in a ditch, end of car. i basically ended up replacing every part in the car except the rack and pinon steering as i recall. that is when i built it. i never fixed it. i left it under a tree in okmulgee oklahoma with a brand new 307 hanging over it. i couldn't take another 100 degree oklahoma day.

hotrodding to me is the same as trying to get some strange. i dont have the money or the time, so i dont even try. i am selling all my vehicles. i dont have and haven't had the money to even get my heads out of the machine shop for the last two or three years and am lucky the various machine shops that have done the small amounts of work on them havent taken them from me during the time it has taken me to pay them for what they did.
and even if i did, the insurance hikes you get, and the fines, for speeding, would take all the fun out of having a hot rod because even here in the sticks, i know i would get nailed, then i would have to sell the car to pay the fine or wouldnt be able to drive it because it would be uninsured. times have really changed in that regard since i was a young buck. ESPECIALLY WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO YOU IF YOU GET CAUGHT STREET RACING. and plan on doing JAIL TIME if you happen to kill anybody doing it.
 
#45 ·
Rymel, how new are you to cars? Are you a mechanic or mechanically inclined. It certainly sounds as if you are familiar with the workings of vehicles but can you take an engine apart and put it back together again so it works, can you hook up that fuel injection on the Vette engine? Where will your radiator go what about the gas tank and fuel pump and return?
I'm just saying that your plan sounds great but I think your expectations are a little off. Build what you wanted but don't build in defeat. No one else is saying it but these things take years and thats for guys that have done it before. To build something like that in six months and use it as a daily driver, how thats a real tall order for some one who is brand new to the whole thing. It could end up turning you off. Please don't take offense to this, just my old guy advice
 
#47 ·
my friend, you must be a very competent mechanic to make this project a reality, only hooking up all the electronics involved will be a project itself.

I would of listen to the guy that said you should put the honda body over the vette's frame, I'm absolutely sure it will work and will be cheaper.

I bet you the vette's torque twists the poor honda body after 3 hard launches, and also it will handle like crap, tougth of bump-steer by using shortened front suspension parts?

man it would be soo cool watching the little honda ripping tarmac, but listen to me and transplant the del sol body over the vette's frame.
 
#49 ·
I installed once a Toyota 2T engine and trasmission from a RWD Corona into a FWD 73 Mini, it was possible thanks to the auto tranny because it was impossible to make room for 3 pedals once the engine occupied most of the driver and passengers room.

the passenger was roasted by the exhaust heat so damn close.

installing the rear axle was another horror story

once done it was very fast but handled like crap and was so uncomfortable.

it was nice to look at but a nightmasre to own it.

I sold it to a sucker and bougth another Mini, this time I swapped in a 3 cylinder engine and it's FWD transaxle from a Geo Metro, this was another story, one of the most fun cars I ever had, handled and raced like a go-kart.

Your project will end up like my first Mini.

the moral is, hotrodding takes not only guts but also brains.
 
#50 ·
Augusto said:
I installed once a Toyota 2T engine and trasmission from a RWD Corona into a FWD 73 Mini, it was possible thanks to the auto tranny because it was impossible to make room for 3 pedals once the engine occupied most of the driver and passengers room.

the passenger was roasted by the exhaust heat so damn close.

installing the rear axle was another horror story

once done it was very fast but handled like crap and was so uncomfortable.

it was nice to look at but a nightmasre to own it.

I sold it to a sucker and bougth another Mini, this time I swapped in a 3 cylinder engine and it's FWD transaxle from a Geo Metro, this was another story, one of the most fun cars I ever had, handled and raced like a go-kart.

Your project will end up like my first Mini.

the moral is, hotrodding takes not only guts but also brains.
A 2t in a mini would be a pita.
 
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