Wilhelm's build - Yet Another Machine (YAM), A build starting summer 2008, So how longs this gonna take? Options

[Wilhelm]

So its time to quit making parts and start building my car. My true goal despite a bunch of design ideas is to have something I can drive, enjoy, use, and convince the wife to ride in, making it worth the all effort I'm putting into this. I've started with a 74 yellow CA car with fairly mild hell hole rust. The first step was to strip the car of everything, steal all the one-quart freezer bags from the kitchen and label and bag everything I could think of. I threw together a rotisserie out of a bunch of rusty scrap pipe I found in a field. I had the wheels kicking around for years from Harbor Freight. I built this so I could have an off road rotisserie and get the car outside to sandblast it. When all is said and done the sandblasting took about 10 hours with about half that time devoted to heating up the seam sealer with a mapp torch and scrapping it out with chisels and picks. I probably spent and equal time sandblasting remnants of seams sealer to the the time spent on the entire remainder of the car.  One thing that really sped up the sandblasting was to pre-prep large areas with paint stripper; the paint would come off very easily. None of the stripping is fun. Sandblasting requires a respirator, hearing protection (horrifically loud) and eye protection. I initially was wearing a tyvek suit and still got dirty. It also was about 100 degrees out and it got pretty ripe in there. I spent the remainder of the time dressed like in these pictures and all was well and good till the air hose separated from the nozzle and blasted the back of my upper arm. Really friggin hurt and looked like road rash. For eye protection I used the hood shown, then tried a full face shield. What worked best however was using an old welding helmet with a clear lens. The clear lenses would last about 1-2 hours and only cost $.49 to replace compared to a few bucks for the hood and 15 bucks for a shield neither of which had a longer life than the $.49 lens for the welding helmet.




Design goals:

Sheridan front, end narrow body
959 style rear fenders
916 rear bumper
Carbon fiber look top
Monowiper (yeah like rice-a-roni)
Though the hood radiator vent (wbergtho-style)
Front hinged hood
Turbo twist style wheels (8" front, 10" rear)
911 front end 5 lug
928 rear hubs (see my build - 928 Hybrid trailing arm )
Tilt wheel, smaller diameter, thinking from a jetta
Power steering
Move the stereo to where the heater controls are
Air Conditioning with simplified HVAC controls
Coffee cup holders
930 transmission (already have)
Engine- either 327 (already have the 327) versus an LS2

[JRust]

Making good progress! I'll have to find out where hooterville is & come by some weekend to see it up close (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Maybe I can even drive my 914-8 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

[So.Cal.914]

Making good progress! I'll have to find out where hooterville is & come by some weekend to see it up close (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Maybe I can even drive my 914-8 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/driving.gif)

You know 'Green Acres' , Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Nice work so far, couldn't you find a bigger engine? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

[Wilhelm]

Nice work so far, couldn't you find a bigger engine? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/av-943.gif)

Hmmm. A bigger engine, you mean like an LS7? Now that would be overkill (IMG:style_emoticons/default/happy11.gif) .

Yes, a side shifter 930. Time will tell how well it works. Alot of people have said the Vellios set up is rather dodgy and a partially machined piece.

On a serious note, you were all gonna let me die, weren't you? While the car is pretty well supported, the front end gets a bit light with the engine attached and kind of wants to point up. I'm gonna have to put some supports in the ass end of the car before I let it take the full weight of the engine.

[stephenaki]

On a serious note, you were all gonna let me die weren't you? While the car is pretty well supported, the front end gets a bit light with the engine attached and kind of wants to point up. I'm gonna have to put some supports in the ass end of the car before I let it take the full weight of the engine.

I was wondering about that as I perused the photos and saw how you had the stands set up. Question, how thick is the floor, what is supporting it and, whats the plan to get the sucker down? Just curious.

[Wilhelm]

On a serious note, you were all gonna let me die weren't you? While the car is pretty well supported, the front end gets a bit light with the engine attached and kind of wants to point up. I'm gonna have to put some supports in the ass end of the car before I let it take the full weight of the engine.

I was wondering about that as I perused the photos and saw how you had the stands set up. Question, how thick is the floor, what is supporting it and, whats the plan to get the sucker down? Just curious.

The floor is 3 x 12" boards with 2 pieces of strand board over the top. Strong enough. I'll get the car down the same way I got it up. Used a cherry picker attached to the 4 shock towers with crossed chain and picked up all at once. Of course when I put the car up it had no engine or trans. I suppose now I will need to let each end down a bit at a time not to exceed the 2000# capacity of the hoist.