Thread: The Roofus Special

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Originally Posted by 39Deluxe

Here's a few Miller pictures .One is a rear wheel drive. There may be an idea here you could incorporate. Also a torsion bar set up.

Tom

Thanks for all of the pics.

I haven't had much chance to put any quality time in on this one recently...hope to this month.

A straight axle would probably be a lot easier to do, but I want to use the jaguar hubs so I can keep the knock-off wire wheels. I also want to use the jag front disc brakes.

I think I will HAVE to go IFS to keep those parts.

The Rally cars are really doing something for me. I found more pics.

One with fenders!

I finally found one parked next to something that I can use as a size referrence... a Bugatti! It does appear to be really close in proportions.

I dig the low headlights. It looks like a hot rodder got ahold of this one.







I really want a hood and radiator shell in this style for my car.

Now back to my build.....here is where I started the day. A clean table from the firewall forward.



I had to come up with an idea for a frame that would accept an IFS and look good fenderless. Follow along as I work through this thing and see what I finally came up with. ....all of the blue tube is 1.5"

Making a second top rail



The two outer rails will get boxed in and become one.

The lower control arm is going to be mounted on the straight piece that runs parrallel to the motor. The upper control arm is going to be mounted on top of the outer frame rail. The spring is going to be a 1933 ford transverse leaf spring.

My goal is something along the lines of this car except the front suspension will be 5-10 inches farther forward so that I can get the spring pack out in front of the grill shell. I will probably do the splash aprons too (but only in the front, the "framerails" will be exposed).

Anybody have toughts on exhaust pipes?

The stock manifolds are already split and are very header-ish, but they point down. Exhaust pipes would go underneath the steering shaft and then exit the body. If I use the stock manifolds, I think I have 3 basic options:
1) merge into one pipe under the hood and exit through a hole in the famerail and run a single pipe down low on the body.
2) don't merge, run one through the frame, one above the frame like harley drag pipes
3) don't merge, run one through the frame, one above the frame and merge into a single pipe outside of the body

The other option is to ditch the factory manifolds and build headers.

This thing only will have a 210 cubic inch or so inline six in it so it doesn't NEED really big pipes.

Stock manifolds. FYI the tubing scraps between the framerails at the firewall are just spacers for mock-up.


This car is close enough to use as an example for photoshops if anybody is so inclined.

Got my frame rails mostly welded on and the center frame rails cut to length. There will be a round tube spreader bar installed at the very front. Still have to encase them in heavy sheetmetal.

And started on my front suspension.

I found a pretty cool raw material in the junk pile....Uni-strut. I like the factory punched, ebenly spaced oval lightening holes. I cut it down to 1 1/2 x 3/4 channel.

The round tubes that hold the bushings are tractor link bushings from TSC.

The tapered hole for the lower ball joint is from the jaguar parts car.

Way more work than I thought it would be. with all of the trial and error, it took two days for me to figure the first one out.

First I-beam


donor tapered hole


With tapered hole installed


Turning it into an a-arm

Making a unistrut gusset. No lightening holes for the gusset.


Gusset welded in


Tractor bushings cut down to size


The rear bushing end got reinforcement...the holes line up too!

One down. ....three more to go.







Passenger side "kit"


My daughter driving Roofus.

My motor mounts showed up. I ordered 56 chevy V8 rubber biscuits from Rock Auto. The big ones were $.58 each and the small ones were $.54 each (I ordered 20 of each!....less than $33 to my door for all). I plan on using these everywhere I need a rubber mount.

That's alot of rubber biscuits! Keep posting, can't wait to see this one take shape. Cars from scratch must take 10 times as much thought and research as working with a existing donor. Sort of like the difference from hotrodding a vehicle, to restoring a stock one. I have restored two stockers, which is pretty straight foward. My truck has parts from a ton of different vehicles, years, etc.. making it a big challenge! Anyway keep posting this is a fun thread to follow and Merry Christmas!