Car project ideas

[gpnewhouse7]

[cnrcpla]

I'm in the same boat as you man. I love restoring old and new bikes but even the blown up, flogged out, seized up bikes are worth more than I am willing to pay. I had never considered doing cars though. I'm a pretty good painter and a pretty good welder, but I have no room to make a car project. My own 01' taurus was a big enough project to make drivable, but I got it for free. Anyways, a good car project that I personally would like to see done would be an old 70's mustang or camaro brought back to life. I always liked the look of the old muscle.

[msmola2002]

I played with cars before I got into bikes.

I had receipts from the previous owner for my E30 323i for close to 20k AUD, and I managed to piss away invest close to another 10k on the thing. Without trying.

Same with my 02, probably  between 5-10k went into that nugget.

trust me - bikes are waaaaaaaaaaay cheaper.

[Super Trucker]

Get a 1977 Trans am  make a black Bandit out of it, or go cheaper get a firebird and make a 77 TA out of it.  Elcamio,s  are also very cool, along with older Lemans.

[citabjockey]

I can't believe that you are considering a car project because a bike is hard on the pocketbook? Good luck!

[gpnewhouse7]

American muscle cars are out of the picture due to their rarety over here unfortunately.

My idea with the price was that if it only had a low initial cost I could sort out the inevitable bodywork issues and fix the cheaper things now and then buy upgrades bit by bit as the money comes in and then in a couple of years I could sell my current car put the money from that into finishing the project car and then have a pretty badass second car.

[dogger315]

If you're into turbocharged cars, I'm hip deep in a 1980 Porsche
935 Kremer K3 restoration.

The car was a write off after a crash at the 24 hours of Daytona,
I bought what was left of it a few years ago.  The drivetrain was
removed so I had to start from scratch with the engine and
transmission.

I found a shop in Europe that specializes in this kind of work and
they built me a new engine using a combination of OE, aftermarket
and reproduction parts.  Spezial Motorer will build anybody one of
these little monsters, all you have to do is take out a second
mortgage on your house to pay for it 

The engine is a 3.2L 935/80 with some "upgrades" and produces a
little over 950 bhp at a turbo boost setting of 1.6 bar.  Normal "race"
boost is 1.4 bar, which would yield around 800 bhp.

Due to parts availability and cost, I expect this project to take
2-3 years to complete.  msmola2002 is right about bikes being
cheaper.  The mechanical injector pump for this engine cost more
than my CR500.

Here's a video of the power certification dyno run done on an
identical engine.  The guy in the video is named Micke, he owns
the shop that does the work and is one of the best IMO.  All
the crap surrounding the engine is there to feed the intercoolers
and provide paths for intake and exhaust.  The engine is much
more compact in the car. I've attached a picture of just the
engine below the dyno video.

Admittedly, this is not the budget project gpnewhouse7 had
in mind.  Come to think of it, I can't think of a way any car
can be restored to anything above demolition derby quality
for less than a bike.

dogger



 

[msambuco]

I am looking for a 68 Firebird 400 4 speed myself. Need a non collector car cause I want to drive it. I have a pair of 1968 1/2 Ram Air 400 heads so that's why it needs to be a 400. As for the OP why not an RX-7. Close to being at 2T.

[_X_]

i have the solution...

[monsteryz125]

Ive got an 80 T/A and a 79 firebird, (same bodys as a bandit car) id suggest a 301 auto 79-81 firebird, i dont know where you're at but around here a 301 auto car isnt really pricey, maybe 2-3k tops for a decent body if you're patient

[msmola2002]

Nice vw dogger 




Couple pics from the indy museum - only one I've seen in the flesh

[gpnewhouse7]

I am looking for a 68 Firebird 400 4 speed myself. Need a non collector car cause I want to drive it. I have a pair of 1968 1/2 Ram Air 400 heads so that's why it needs to be a 400. As for the OP why not an RX-7. Close to being at 2T.

I haven't had any experience with rotary engines at all though, how are they to work on in comparison to a normal fourstroke car engine?

Ive got an 80 T/A and a 79 firebird, (same bodys as a bandit car) id suggest a 301 auto 79-81 firebird, i dont know where you're at but around here a 301 auto car isnt really pricey, maybe 2-3k tops for a decent body if you're patient

I live in the UK so like I said American muscle cars are out of the picture, if did want one it would have to be imported. Besides do they not have really bad handling? All the roads around here are tight twisty country lanes.

[TMKIWI]

935  wow dogger that is some car.
Is it an original Kremer ?

Myself I am looking for a VF Valiant pacer. Couple around for sale. Might be a preesy from santa.

[SachsGS]

Here in Western Canada old cars aren't worth the fuel to haul them away while any offroad motorcycle brings a good dollar. Love the sound of those Porsche boxer sixes.

[dogger315]

Nice vw dogger

Yeh, it's one of your faster beetles.

Cool pictures of the Whittington Brother's car.  I'm more used to seeing the "93" car they fielded along
with little brother Dale:

A little K3 trivia for you.  If you look closely, see the body panel in the back that fills the gap between
the rear bumperettes?  That panel was removabale and many teams didn't run them because they would
get torched and melt during a race:

Is it an original Kremer

The car was/is a 1980 factory 935 (chassis number 00024) that was converted to a K3 later that same
year.  The Kremer brothers either bought 935s from Porsche, converted them and sold them, or teams
bought their own 935s and took them to Kremer Racing for conversion.  Or, you could buy a complete
conversion kit from Kremer and do the work yourself.  There were several versions of the 935.  The
factory cars, Joest, JLP, Kremer along with the odd one off.  Porsche lost interest in group 4 and 5 racing
around '79 and turned their attention to the ill fated Indy car engine.  They kept making customer 935s,
but the long tail "Moby ****" car was the last factory backed 935.  The Kremers are the best known
because they were the most dominate. 

This car was damaged extensively in the crash - all four wheels were ripped off and all four corners were
demolished.  The central body tub, interior, fuel system, fire suppresion system and air jacks are still
intact and in good shape.  The restoration is very slow going mostly due to cost.  The good news is there
is a lot of interest in vintage and historic race cars, so most parts are available.  The next item I need is
the transmission.  It's a model specific four speed that is mounted upside down to optimize the halfshaft
angles.  I found a company that restores and sells them.

The plan is to "drift" from two to four wheel racing.  I'm not getting any younger and MX is notoriously
hard on the body.  Since this car has a "pedigree", it's eligible for the many Historic race events that are
held each year.  I'd like to race some of those and whatever vintage class it falls in to.  I have already
completed a couple of "how to drive a race car" schools and I plan to put something together to compete
with and develop the necessary skills, until this car is done.

Love the sound of those Porsche boxer sixes.

Me too, especially when that sound pins you to your seat.

dogger