I like the stance of that one. Bet it rides hugely better on the air.
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Stuff my dog says; on second thought I'll just build a race car
- Thread starter NashGTI
- Start date
Not for sale? Does that mean it's free?It's a 1968, but it's the best I can donot that it's for sale.
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*Bonus Speed Triple content
You'd have to pry that from that entire family's cold dead fingers. The owner had it fixed up and customized and his plan is to give it to his grand daughter on her 16th birthday (she's probably somewhere around 15 months old now). Of all the stuff we've done in the last 7 years I've worked there that is the one I would take over all the others for my own given the option.
Incidentally, second favorite was this Cadillac
I sure loved those cars back in the day. That thing is gorgeous!
Turn the sound up type video for anyone interested
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=882155962316423
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=882155962316423
So shit could be getting real interesting at work in the near future if things fall the right way. It's not motorcycle related but it is mechanical craziness related and that seems to be something everyone here loves. We've got an old Jeep Gladiator in the shop right now and we're going to pull the old hemi headed Tornado engine out of it to do a motor swap, which necessitates pulling transmission and transfer case with it. Owner just wants something easier in there and for a truck he just wants to be able to drive that makes perfect sense. Where this gets interesting is what's to be done with the old engine. We have to modify the frame to do what he wants and that basically makes the old engine no further use to the owner.
Our hope is that the guy just tells us to do with it what we want he'll just let us have the thing. Now I look at this thing and I see an old Grand Prix racecar. Overhead cam inline six with a cross flow head it reminds me of something you'd find in an old Fiat or Bugatti racer from the 30s. Interestingly enough one of the other guys at the shop also has a thing for (really) old race cars and we are talking each other into making a car from the ground up to house this ancient unloved hunk of Kaiser. Another guy just wants something goofy to tinker with so there are three of us on board talking of splitting costs and labor.
The technical challenges will be numerous, and we're trying to make it happen on a minuscule budget of course. The first of which is making the thing 2 wheel drive instead of 4 wheel drive. The engine and bell housing are super goofy and it makes finding a replacement transmission look like a near impossibility for our budget so we're looking at making a replacement housing for the main shaft and rear output housing of the transfer case to basically make it a single speed transmission behind the 3 speed transmission that we have. Also because it's supposed to be a 30s Grand Prix car it needs a twin screw supercharger so that's going to take some doing.
I keep looking at pictures of a 1927 Delage though and I'm absolutely smitten. With any luck the owner of the Jeep will play along.
Our hope is that the guy just tells us to do with it what we want he'll just let us have the thing. Now I look at this thing and I see an old Grand Prix racecar. Overhead cam inline six with a cross flow head it reminds me of something you'd find in an old Fiat or Bugatti racer from the 30s. Interestingly enough one of the other guys at the shop also has a thing for (really) old race cars and we are talking each other into making a car from the ground up to house this ancient unloved hunk of Kaiser. Another guy just wants something goofy to tinker with so there are three of us on board talking of splitting costs and labor.
The technical challenges will be numerous, and we're trying to make it happen on a minuscule budget of course. The first of which is making the thing 2 wheel drive instead of 4 wheel drive. The engine and bell housing are super goofy and it makes finding a replacement transmission look like a near impossibility for our budget so we're looking at making a replacement housing for the main shaft and rear output housing of the transfer case to basically make it a single speed transmission behind the 3 speed transmission that we have. Also because it's supposed to be a 30s Grand Prix car it needs a twin screw supercharger so that's going to take some doing.
I keep looking at pictures of a 1927 Delage though and I'm absolutely smitten. With any luck the owner of the Jeep will play along.
This what you're thinking of.... 27 Delage Grand Prix?
yep, the side profile shot is the one I keep staring at. There is a black car as well.
The overhead profile is gorgeous. That would be a fun build fer sure. I had an old Pontiac with the overhead cam inline 6 in it. Lovely motor.
My wife isn't so much enthusiastic about this idea. My garage is full of Pontiac Catalina and motorcycles so I won't have any place to keep this at my house, nor do I own a trailer to tow it anywhere and there aren't plans to try and make it street legal in any way. She said she just doesn't understand why I would spend money on it. My reply is it just seems like a fun thing to build.
Even the frame was a work of art on those things
Also this is a Kaiser Jeep Tornado engine if anyone is unfamiliar
Well, this idea came to an end in a hurry. The owner of the Jeep is saying he wants to keep the engine. I'd love to know what his plans are for it and may get the chance to ask one day, he was saying he wants the engine but we can have the transmission and differential. The differential appears to be the only piece of the three of them that would actually be worth something to sell, and the engine and transmission are pretty much worthless without each other because of the bell housing issue.
In any event, I came away having learned a lot about some odd ball parts of the history of the American automotive industry and have to be satisfied with that as an ending.
In any event, I came away having learned a lot about some odd ball parts of the history of the American automotive industry and have to be satisfied with that as an ending.
Had to do a Google search for more info. Interesting that this overhead cam engine, in at lest some vehicles, replaced a flathead six. Kind of a big jump in technology! But in some cases that is what happens in smaller companies compared to the way things go in much larger companies.
Now that I have a few years behind me, I may see your wife's point. I used to drag home everything. I had more cars and motorcycles than I could possibly get to, plus four kids, plus a house, plus shift work & overtime, plus.....
So, now I take my car to the shop unless I really feel like doing the job myself. My garage is cleaned up. The cars and some bikes are gone. I still have two derelict XS1100's and four XS650's plus an XS1100 that is a nice runner. That's more than enough to keep me occupied and less for my kids to deal with when I go for the dirt nap. I feel much better without the clutter.
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It's a real odd jump in terms of technology, but from what I gather they essentially took that flathead six and simply adapted it to the overhead cam head. The basic other parts of the blocks are roughly the same as far as the rotating assembly and pickup points of stuff. The cooling systems are obviously completely redesigned. It's certainly worth reading up on (I think at least having done it myself) if you have an interest in mechanical bits of history.
I understand your point, but it applies differently in my case. Right now I don't really have anything to work on as I'm not someone who hoards projects. Last time I really spent any time on anything was working on my XS and that's been a couple years ago now. My philosophy right now is what is the point of life if not to gather experiences and getting a chance to build an old race car, which old race cars are something I've always loved, seems like the kind of thing I will look back fondly upon once my years are up there.
That being said I've not had any real itch to do a 30s car in the past, this was just something that sort of came up. So while I'm disappointed it's not overwhelmingly so. What I really want to do is a cigar bodied F1 car from the late 60s, right before aero became a thing and the cars got ugly. I've nowhere near the financial capability to pull that off though and that's what made the roadster appealing. It seemed like it was doable from a money standpoint.
Well keep that idea in the back of your mind and an open idea of what would work. Who knows while working on something else at the shop you just might stumble on a motor and drive train that can be made to work. How about the early 1960's Pontiac Tempest or Firebird 250 overhead cam? think they were available with four speed manual transmissions?
I've never figured out where my legs would be in one of the front engined F1 cars. For that matter apparently I would never fit into one of the rear engine cars.
