Mods
Scratch-built floors, firewall, dash, visor, door panels, window panels, wiring circuit, steering wheel and shaft. 472 Cadillac engine with a Comp 270H cam, backed by a Super Turbine “Switch Pitch” ST400 trans. Line lock to rear brakes to lock them out. Custom built side pipes. Frame shortened three feet and bagged, one-off triangulated four link under the rear.
Build story
This started as a project when I was a sophomore in college, working out of a 24’x35’ storage unit. My then girlfriend was big into Crosleys, microcars from the 40s and 50s, but I prefer the industrial side of things. I ended up combining the two. On a broke college kid budget, we got the car, it wasn’t worth trying to restore, so I started chopping it up with an idea in mind.
A friend bought a ‘91 Dodge one ton as a donor for the Cummins and five speed out of it, so I bought the rolling frame from him and modified that.
I was looking for something big for a powerplant, original plan was a big block Chevy, but then I came across the 472 for sale a couple hours from me for the right price and I couldn’t say no. I went through it, freshened it up in my college engines lab, got the trans for free and went through it as well in my shed.
After that I started piecing it all together, made new floor structure and body mounts, built engine mounts and a trans crossmember and got those set in place. Since then really it’s been a lot of little things - shift linkage, detent, and bracketry, steering, brakes, wiring, plumbing. Built the exhaust out of a couple pairs of small block Chevy headers with 1.75” primaries, they go down into a pair of 5” Volvo truck stacks that I repurposed as side pipes. The exhaust hanger brackets are actually the park brake shoe arms out of the rear drums of the car, repurposed.
Up until a few months ago all I had was an old Lincoln buzzbox “tombstone” arc welder, so I did pretty much all my welding with that. As it sits, I have about $3500 total invested in the car.
It’s not far off from being drivable, just need to do a little more wiring, plumbing, finish out the floors, build a subfloor over the fuel tank and mount my battery box (an old Anheuser-Busch beer crate), compressor (which is concealed in an old jerry can), and air ride tank (an old 3-gallon torch bottle), then finish plumbing in the air ride. Throw some lights and mirrors on it and it’ll be street legal.
Update: SHE LIVES!!! First fire-up in nearly two years, and first fire on the new exhaust. https://youtube.com/shorts/0XKtKJlgj1U
Thanks for looking!
A friend bought a ‘91 Dodge one ton as a donor for the Cummins and five speed out of it, so I bought the rolling frame from him and modified that.
I was looking for something big for a powerplant, original plan was a big block Chevy, but then I came across the 472 for sale a couple hours from me for the right price and I couldn’t say no. I went through it, freshened it up in my college engines lab, got the trans for free and went through it as well in my shed.
After that I started piecing it all together, made new floor structure and body mounts, built engine mounts and a trans crossmember and got those set in place. Since then really it’s been a lot of little things - shift linkage, detent, and bracketry, steering, brakes, wiring, plumbing. Built the exhaust out of a couple pairs of small block Chevy headers with 1.75” primaries, they go down into a pair of 5” Volvo truck stacks that I repurposed as side pipes. The exhaust hanger brackets are actually the park brake shoe arms out of the rear drums of the car, repurposed.
Up until a few months ago all I had was an old Lincoln buzzbox “tombstone” arc welder, so I did pretty much all my welding with that. As it sits, I have about $3500 total invested in the car.
It’s not far off from being drivable, just need to do a little more wiring, plumbing, finish out the floors, build a subfloor over the fuel tank and mount my battery box (an old Anheuser-Busch beer crate), compressor (which is concealed in an old jerry can), and air ride tank (an old 3-gallon torch bottle), then finish plumbing in the air ride. Throw some lights and mirrors on it and it’ll be street legal.
Update: SHE LIVES!!! First fire-up in nearly two years, and first fire on the new exhaust. https://youtube.com/shorts/0XKtKJlgj1U
Thanks for looking!