Low buck 68 LeMans

[Thumpin455]

The line across the hood is where the resin didnt fill in because of gaps around the stiffeners. I have a plan, its mostly filled in now. Been working out how to bond aluminum, wood, and glass together. Shaped the stiffeners that will also be the hood sides today, going to glass it tomorrow. Yes it looks like crap, but not for long, I've seen worse. Its floppy without the sides, but very sturdy with them clamped in place, they also fix the shape issue you can see with it on the car.







The mounts, and fuel pump showed up today, they go on tomorrow which means I can break in the cam and see how this thing sounds. Going to need a remote start switch for this thing.

[Thumpin455]

Dirt cheap lightness to make up for my largesse.




Yes it looks like crap, but for what I'm working with the body lines look surprisingly good. There are aluminum channel pieces goung into the sides, and one across the front to stiffen and add strength. Don't need it to fly off while driving. Once I figured out a system, it didn't take that long to make these parts, if I wanted them really nice it would take far longer. Spent about three hours glassing it this weekend, so with better materials this would be something worth doing. Really looks bad, but I like crappy on this one.

[Thumpin455]

Thanks Scott, appreciated. The allthread should be around somewhere, I'm trying not to buy more stuff.

[Scott Liggett]

That Eddy carb isn't on lone. I don't want it back.

You can get all thread at any hardware store in 1 ft and 3 ft lengths. I just use aluminum flat stock for a hold down.

[Thumpin455]

Put trim rings on, still looking for center caps, but I know there's a bunch of them somewhere around here. No they don't match, no I don't care, it adds to the pos thrown together by a novice look.





Laid up the hood today, have a plan for the edges once it's out of the mold. More screen door aluminum.

[Thumpin455]

Gasser stance has to go. Check out the rollers I had laying around, 255 70 15 for the rear, 205 65 14 fronts, cost $0.00.



The wiring is almost sorted, been dragging my feet on firing it for the first time, open headers for now, the E carb Scott let me borrow, and once I have the new mounts in it, throw plugs, wires, prime it with my modified busted up HEI primer tool, and hear it crank. Could start it now, but the mounts are very old and the important one is separatedalready.



I think it looks bad like this, just how I wanted it to look. Get the front dropped, the hood, nose, grille, and wheelwells on it, then put the glass back in. Something about satin black with a lowered attitude says sinister.

[Thumpin455]

Low buck and light, how they look isn't a huge priority, but thanks. I think I have somewhere around $25 in resin and cloth/mat in the bumper, the hood brings the cost up to around $200 total for the mold and a hood. Might pull a mold of the GTO scoops and put them on a second hood pulled from the mold. Have four cars that can use it, so why not?

[STINEY]

Having spent a bunch of years in the boat industry......those look very nice. That car is going to be light!

[Thumpin455]

Have some progress to document. Battery is wired in the trunk, grounded to the frame, custom length positive #2 cable. Need to find some all thread and drill some holes in a piece of flat stocK to hold it down. Holes are in the trunk floor already, so it's just finding stuff thats laying around. This is like a one man episode of junkyard wars, go digging for parts and throw em on. I dug up some tires and a set of Rally wheels rather than buying some slots for the rear.




The top is the mold, the bottom is the bumper. Added some material to it because it was a bit thin in places, tomorrow I'll trim it and sand the surface smooth. Came out better than I thought it would, gives me confidence for the hood, and for the front end of the 65 LeMans. I have a good system for laying it up now, had to eat a couple gallons of ice cream for the bucket, but it works great. I decided to try canola oil cooking spray as mold release, worked quite well and washes off with soap and water.

[G-Motive]

I've driven my Formula maybe 5 times now and the headers are already wasted. Those oval ports ain't cheap man, now you know why I didn't go with ceramic coated.

[Thumpin455]

In addition to building tools, I mounted the radiator in the screen door suport. Used scrap steel to hold it in, sliced fuel line down the long axis for a cushion on the bottom, and bolted some channel that came with farm sale stuff.





Use whatever you have laying around to build what you need. Cheaper that way. I think for now it's going to get Ralley II wheels instead of finding some 15" slots for the rear, eventually I'll get some with the right offset, but for now I just need the right size under there. Cant get the stance right without the tire sizes it will have.

[G-Motive]

Being a mechanic from MI I bet you can't count how many times you've snapped or seen someone else snap those shock studs. I know I've snapped a few.

[Thumpin455]

Got quite a bit done the last two days, and there is a wonderful severe thunderstorm rolling through now. Happy to be inside for it. Made a couple changes including the front support. It looks like its too big and out of proportion, but it's a decent copy of the dimensions. Holds me up, so really all I have to do now is get it welded. Very light and soon to be very sneaky. Even my mopar nut dad was impressed.




Nose is all the way up, lets me know it's considerably lighter. Sucks I have to pull the front end apart to do something with the springs, im not adding weight either. The 65s have lighter springs in them, this thing had a bunch of weight up there.




Something is missing.



This one came out, open unknown gears.



This one is going in, 3.08 posi 8.2 BOP.



Once everything is connected, it will get started. Then time to finish the hood and bumper.

[silver_bullet]

looking good!

[Thumpin455]

Work is progressing, invested in other projects this month because opportunity presented itself. Probably the last order from summit is going through tonight, fuel pump, engine mounts, and a battery relocation kit that I may or may not use. I've been digging up parts to use from the farm, scrounging things I can repurpose into lightweight car parts. Today it was a storm door frame that is reconfigured to hold up the front fenders, hood, and radiator. I have some thin sheet that will act as filler so you cant see past the grilles, fog it all black and you'd never know it's there. Now the front end is so light I can stand on it and it's still on the snubbers, but I bounce and it moves. Might need to cut the springs a bit since trick springs cost money.

Finished off the rear end too, had to order a $7 hardware kit for the brakes, then filled it with 90wt and posi additive. It goes under the car tomorrow, and I'm working on a set of wheels for the rear, then some tires. All kinds of stuff is laying around here from years ago, even a functioning tach that I got in the trunk of a parts car, and some gauges I never installed. There is enough stuff here I can put another engine together with stock stuff if I get a crank turned, it will go in a Formula or the Ventura. Might as well, right? Having cars able to move under their own power is a huge advantage for moving them to my land. Then I still have the 350s and Olds engines, and three bare 400/455 blocks. It's getting to be like a one man version of junkyard wars.