The "Whatever" Project

[DanStokes]

Wanna come and clean mine? I mean, as long as you're in the mood.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Cleanup mode is over. Back to making a mess. And floors! I'll start with pictures of the progress and expound upon such as needs explicitly.
Not much to discuss here. This is the shape of the opening in the nose after making a grill perimeter piece. I'm happy with the results and next is to make 1 horizontal cross bar and 8 to 10 vertical bars. That's bench work for when my back is bothering me.

Next post, floor stuff...

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Doing this in smaller bites because the picture file sizes seem too big. Next pictures:
Most of that new steel between the main frame rails and the transmission is floor support structure and basis for the driveshaft blast shield. I still have diagonals and braces to add, but most of the structure is tacked into place.

Next post will tell the rest of the story as Paul Harvey used to, about the floor mockup.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Last batch of pictures for today. It's just the posterboard templates for the floor. It should save me from destroying the aluminum tread plate I was given for the floor.
Picture if you will, a heavy steel tunnel bolted to the 2 hoops over the driveshaft. And some significantly sized bar stock under the floor just behind the front u-joint. Yeah I don't think I'll have any problems if I should ever break a universal or destroy the driveshaft. I'm going to have to get a transmission tunnel rolled out of something, so that is another template I need to make.

Progress!

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Pictures of today's progress.
Cut the floors out today. Got it roughed in to see if there's room for my feet on the clutch and brake pedals. Yes! And a spoon gas pedal to the right of the brake pedal over the bellhousing.

Next was to put the radiator mockup in the nose and see if it clears and will get all of the airflow thru the nose. The way I envision the side panels and hood (remember the paper hood from earlier? ) , it should work just fine.


Found a couple clearance issues. One was a bind every half turn of the steering wheel. It was the connecting shaft. It was a little bit too long, and the cross was hitting the end of the shaft where it stuck thru. Easy fix, just shortened the shaft so it's flush in the u-joint. I created this problem when I was fussing with the steering column support a while back. I hadn't turned the steering thru any angle since then because the whatever is up on jack stands. Oops... all fixed!

But I found that the pitman arm just touches the lower frame tube at full lock to the right. I'll come up with a solution, either notch the tube to clear the pitman arm, or add a crossmember that will act as a stop. What I don't want is for the pitman arm to get wedged over the tube and lock up the steering.

It does keep the tire from hitting the hairpin tho...

So there's a problem to be solved. Nothing difficult this time. Probably should make a stop for both directions. I can steer it to about 45 degrees either way.

[DanStokes]

One of the bad things on Mutt the Race Truck is that with the notched Mercedes pan the cross link will only go just SO far 'till it hits the pan. There's no really good fix and if it was street driven it would be an issue but as a track-only truck the large turning circle is acceptable if not ideal. Sounds like Whatever is way ahead of that. BTW, part of the Bonneville tech inspection is to check that the steering can't lock up at full lock as they tend to run a ton of caster.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

It's a sickness! A SICKNESS, I tell you! Yesterday after visiting my dentist for a chipped front tooth (all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth...), I stopped by the garage that does my dd service. Got talking to another one of his customers, and found out that guy is also building a t-bucket. But that's another story.

I'm getting a V-8 Camaro T5 from him Monday or Tuesday. $100! Now I have 44 different transmissions, and only need one. Of course parts will be swapped between the 2 T5s to get good V-8 gearing with the S10 T5 shifter location. And I will have an S10 T5 with a Camaro tailhousing...

And 2 T10s! It's a sickness, I tell you...

[DanStokes]

It's a sickness! A SICKNESS, I tell you! Yesterday after visiting my dentist for a chipped front tooth (all I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth...), I stopped by the garage that does my dd service. Got talking to another one of his customers, and found out that guy is also building a t-bucket. But that's another story.

I'm getting a V-8 Camaro T5 from him Monday or Tuesday. $100! Now I have 44 different transmissions, and only need one. Of course parts will be swapped between the 2 T5s to get good V-8 gearing with the S10 T5 shifter location. And I will have an S10 T5 with a Camaro tailhousing...

And 2 T10s! It's a sickness, I tell you...

Here, take your medicine and all will be well........

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Take two T5 transmissions and call me in the morning...

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Body back on! Got some fettling to do to get the roll bar support hoop to fit back in. And I haven't decided how much to cut the body for the floor boards to fit back in. Or the drive shaft blast shield. And then there's a bit of bracing for the firewall assembly and the body. And more body mounts. And the turtle deck needs some support. And I haven't made the back nerf bar yet. And...

Dan, we aren't going to be painting it before next summer at the earliest!

[DanStokes]

Dan, we aren't going to be painting it before next summer at the earliest!

Good thing. I have my own personal Hell.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

British water soluble steel! You have your hands full with that...

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Picked up a v8 Camaro T5 today! Now I have more transmissions than cars total. Tonight I'll see if it's nwc or wc. Doesn't matter either way, it's in good shape and will definitely have better gearing than the S10 T5 from a 4-banger truck.

[silver_bullet]

There are several articles out there for installing the s-10 tailhousing on the camaro T5.... Gets rid of the 18 degree tilt on the rear mount....

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

There are several articles out there for installing the s-10 tailhousing on the camaro T5.... Gets rid of the 18 degree tilt on the rear mount....

Thanks for the videos. Hadn't seen those 2 yet. I've got to get my pressure washer out before it gets cold, and a couple of cans of degreaser/easyoff oven cleaner because both are a bit filthy. And I still have to obtain a shifter! This is the 2nd T5 that doesn't have it's shifter. I'll probably end up spending more on a shifter than I have in both transmissions! But that's not a big deal.