Projects 49 Prefect - "Altered" Style Build

Your doing a 4 door proud...lol That cage looks pretty good and the tin work not bad either.

 

"Metal damage... brain damage..."
The Night Rider

Took a break from the mind numbing drill, rivet, drill rivet routine and decided to address a couple of issues that have been bugging me.

After I fabbed up some new seat mounts to give us the layed back positon we are looking for, I decided that I was tired of opening the doors with vice grips (Some little clown stole our door handles while the car sat outside) so I fabbed up some crude but effective replacements. They are throw away but may end up being a template for a lighter, more permanent version.

Once I was done with the fab work I decided to start destroying stuff and cut out some of the rough edges and unnecessary sheetmetal from the ugly little beast. So I pulled out the angle grinder and the stack of cutting discs. I started by trimmed the rusty and ragged edges left by time and the cutting torch on both rear wheel wells. Trimmed the floor board edges where they protrude into the wheel well and then cut the splash gaurds from the front sheet metal.

I wanted to set the front end onto the car to see what I had to play with for the radiator and fuel cel. There is more room than I thought. To get the sheet metal to sit properly I sliced off about 2 inches off of the frame rails. (More sparks... yah !!)

So after an afternoon of damaging metal, inhaling all the cut off dust and going though 12 discs I have a small pile of debris and the car suddenly has a front end.

 

Cool!. Love the updates!

 

I'm a fuel injected suicide machine.
The Night Rider

All builds have certain reality checks. Milestones in the build where you get to step back and realize how much you've done and / or how much more you have to do. In my opinion, having the car on it's wheels for the first time is one of those milestones. For the first time we got to see what this thing is going to look like... and we like it... a lot !!

We needed to shuffle some cars around in the shop and put a long term assignment onto the project hoist. Needing to move the Ugly Beast gave us the excuse to order in the slicks and get the car onto it's own 4 feet. The narrow rear end and narrow(ish) slicks give the car a very comical look. Adding the fenders makes a huge positive difference. (Rear shot coming)

My brother has the floor 90% complete and has just about finished the final mock up for the steering.

For me ... I've come to realize my mediocre fabrication process comes in 3 parts.
1) Concept and Template. (Lots of cardboard and tape)
2) Fab up the ugliest prototype possible by doing it all wrong
3) Figure out the better way and then do it right (ish)

After fabbing up the front end support and the tilt front assembly (Ugly prototype... very ugly) I tore it all out and did it again... much better. We'll bolt the whole front end together and sort out what we need to make it work very shortly. For now I need to stop screwing around with it and move onto more important stuff... like final install for the cage, headers, front shocks, shifter location, gauges and electrical... etc etc etc

More crappy BlackBerry pics.
I really need to invest in a cheap camera and keep it at the shop...

 

Oh my God ! I can't believe you dare show that front rim, certain police will be straightening you out shortly...lol

Seriously, the car is coming together and looks good as a roller. What width are those rear rims ?

 

Not sure what the problem with the front rims would be... They have been on the car since the start and no-one has said boo about them. They may not be gasser friendly but we've changed that direction a long time ago and have been calling more of an "Altered" style build. If someone has a problem with a modern 10 spoke version of the old school 12 spokes - then they can feel free to send us some replacements that won't offend their sensibilities.

Seriously, just like the slotted rims on the back... we got them cheap... We got 4 of the slotted rims for $100. The rears are 15x8.5. We wanted 15x12 and wider rubber so the tires would stick out a few inches past the fender (just like in the good ol days) but we're making do with what we have... or what we can get...cheap

All donations welcome...

Cheers

 

amen brother.........

 

looking good, like it.

 

ha ha, well said

 

Saxon, its looking good mate

 

Some better pics including the "humerous" rear shot I mentioned earlier.

Also... a "rear shot" of my brother Paul. He ownes the shop we are building in and will be the primary driver of the "Ugly Beast"

Long way to go but we have a date with the Meltdown 2013 event.
Sure want it running (and running well) by then

 

I've got a set of window mldgs for your Prefect. Need some glue, but cheep. Best of luck, great,fun hot rod.

 

We added some reinforcement to the flip front hinge and added some bracing to the whole front assembly. Then took a couple of hours prepping the hood and fenders for assembly. The hood is bolted on and the fenders are mocked up.

We put it all together to see how warped everything is... and of course to see how it looked. Surprisingly, everything lines up pretty well. The hood assembly needs to come back about an inch but we are hard against the frame rails and i can't trim them back any further. We'll have to cut some holes in the front for the frame rails.

Some time soon we'll look at cutting off the bottom of the fenders and mounting them to the body. This will help 2 ways. Clears the door hinges and gets them out of the way when the front is open. Kind of defeats the purpose if you keep smacking your head on the fenders.

Personally we REALLY like the look of how it's all coming together. It has this "bad hot rod" kind of vibe... in a really ugly sort of way.

 

Still putting a Moon tank up front and is it going into the grill or behind it ?

 

lookin good!

 

We have a 2 gallon Moon tank and we're thinking it might not be big enough. (Alcohol) we also have a 3 gallon plastic fuel cel that fits great behind the grill. My next serious focus will be the rad, fuel cel set up. We'll make the call on Moon vs. Cel very soon. If we go Moon then it'll go behind the grill. That nose overhangs far enough without putting a tank 2 feet out front.

You'll notice the grill is pretty beat up. I'm seriously considering swapping it out for an aluminum insert with some good old fashioned gasser style speed holes in it

 

Looking great Saxxon! That rear view really shows how narrow the rearend is! I ran into the same issue with lower fenders and my Austin when the frontend was tilted open. It really was a pain getting around the lower fenders, so I also chopped them off and attached them to the main body.
Used Datsun pickup latches mounted into sheetmetal welded to the fender:

 

Mine is 3.5 gallon and it is barely big enough depending on the track and where you pit if you plan on driving it to the lanes and back the return road. I lean the injection out quite a bit to try to get more mileage (or is that yardage?)

 

Thanks for the fender shot. Shows me everything I thought I would need to do. Saved me asking ...

The rear end is really a lot narrower than we wanted but as I've said a few times, this is a budget build and we are using what's at hand. It just so happend my brother had a set of axles at the shop that were destined for a RED but didn't make it that far. Rather than spending $600+ for axles my brother built the diff around what we had. (It's what he does)

We'll burn the narrow stuff to the ground and have fun doing it in the mean time we'll keep our eyes open for some 15x10's or even 15x12 going forward. That'll give us a bit of tire hanging out of the fenders, just like the old days. Then again, the inside look is kinda cool too.

As for the fuel cel... I agree about needing enough to drive it back to the pits. That's always been the intent. We would really like to be able to handle this thing with just 1 person. Our track isn't that big but it is really long. I'm thinking 2 gallons is just not enough. There is some thought to cutting up the moon tank (new version... nothing vintage about it) and making it bigger but somehow that just seems like too much work.

Cheers

 

You thought about having a bigger tank hidden and use a Holley float bowl on the moon tank and a small electric pump to keep it full? aka surge tank?

Look here.. note picture number 3. It says dual float bowls but you only need one. Use both of the tanks you have and you would have plenty.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/hrdp_1201_mechanical_fuel_injection_breakin_the_rules/

 

The little Prefect is really shaping up,,I like these things! HRP

 

looks great. if i missed it I'm sorry, what was done to the glide to get it ready to handle the HP for the motor? What converter?

I have a glide in mine and a spare core so i was wondering....thanks

 

She is so ugly ,she's cute!

 

Convertor is a 5800 stall. Powerglide is a 1.80 1st gear and it's getting an upgraded input shaft, heavy duty hi-flow pump, lightwieght drum with competition clutches, heavy duty band, upgraded bearings, racing servo and finned deep pan. It's also getting a manual valve body with a trans brake.

 

sounds great...thanks

 

I'm liking this alot

 

Now it's really official... First step in the self defined approval stage was to set myself on fire - which I did a few weeks back, now I've completed the 2nd stage which is to annoint the project in blood...which I did by bleeding all over the ugly little beast (That would be the car, by the way). In my history, that truly makes it an official project.

Using an air riveter when one of the rivet tails jammed. Took off the end cover to take it apart and accidently triggered the gun. Took the thumb pad almost completely off. Now I get to test the theory that finger prints grow back... Also reinforces the primary rule of cutting power when you are servicing equipment

Between the Scout and the Prefect we're killing ourselves trying to get both ready for the Meltdown event... don't think the Prefect will be 100% but there's a chance it'll be running

 

Ouch! That's gonna slow you down some!

 

You got that thing out of the woods yet ?

 

Great thread! The Hurst "Gasser Passer" is a real trip down memory lane. Best of luck with the build.