another leap forward ok its been a while since I made any updates to this post following the build on my car so here goes. Ive made HUGE COSTLY decisions since the last update. Ive been saying this and that on other posts but I wanted to get it all together on one post. ok the progress has come a long way on the over all build of the car. the wiring is all sorted out and everything is connected and working like it should. the car runs happy when its warmed up. the back seats are done being reupholstered and they look great! I got new arm rests from a member here (thanks) and got them recovered already stitched up in black with burgundy stitching. now to the costly decisions as you guys know from the last update the original plan was 500 horse power well after spending a ton of money for all of the good stuff to go in the engine including a gurdle to hold it all together I took a step back and was kinda scared because I was having to buy parts to help hold the whole build together and would be putting alot of stress on the old block at 500hp so I decided to buy a NEW dart sportsman block $1800 then with the new block being SOOO much better than the old one and being capable of handling WAY more power I decided to go all in and shoot for 1000hp. now in order to get there I was going to have to do one of a few different things 1. go way up on the compression 2. run nitrous with high compression or 3. go with a super charger with tons of boost. I decided to go with a super charger kit ($3K) and Ill still be running 2 4 barrel carbs.($?) I know the 2 carbs arent necessary but I want to have the mean nasty look of two carbs I also plan to powder coat every part except the block ($?) while waiting for my interior to be done I decided to cut my own door panels from a sheet of aluminum diamond plate ($50) I still have to get them powder coated and put on. ($?) I got new door handles from the guy I got the arm rests from and I think I got a pretty good deal I think I paid like $30? for arm rests backing plates and handles? I forget what I paid but I thought it was a decent deal (thanks again) ok now for the 8.8 rear end from the explorer remember that? well my rear end shop says nope dont do it. its not money well spent. so now Im on the hunt for a 9" inch he gave me a rough estimate ($3K I think) for a full spool possi and he upgraded to I think he said like 35 spline axels with the new plan of 1000hp I need something stronger than the 8.8 so it looks like my kid gets the 8.8 for his comet. all of the lights are back in the car and hooked up. I havent put any windows back in and dont plan to until I get the car painted ($$$$$?) I dont want to spend money on gaskets and then take them back out and buy new gaskets again in 6 months or so when Im ready to paint the car. Ive stripped all of the paint off of the car front to back and found some evidence of a few different wrecks nothing major but I still want to repair all of that with no money for body repairs I just repainted it flat black with $1 cans of walmart paint things on the to do list yet in no particular order 1. I would like to replace both 1/4 panels (no rust just previously wrecked looks like jello) 2. get all of the body work done 3. do a mini tub 4. build a 9" rear end 5. get bucket seat tracks so I can get my seats finished and installed 6. install dynomat 7. install all interior 8. get sub frame connectors welded in. 9. have roll cage built and put in 10. have the car painted 11. cut hood for blower to stick out 12. install all of the interior 13. get all of the parts powder coated 14. front end swap to modern coil overs 15. get rid of shock towers 16. put windows in 17. what ever I missed on the list 18. get wheelie bars on 19. get some traction bars on 20. get new rims and tires (drag radials or slicks for the back and some skinnies up front and last but not least go racing!
This thing will be a beast whenever you finish it up. You should also figure on close to another $G$.. for tuning(engine and/or chassis dyno) too. Heavily boosted motors at those power levels can be hurt faster than you can even shut them down and you can't be too safe. Some even go so far as to run the motor in while in NA form before boosting.
I havent even thought about the tuning cost yet I still have to figure out where to take it. I want to take it somewhere they actually KNOW what theyre doing and not some corner rive rocket shop. I knew it would be fairly expensive but havent really thought about it too much since IM no where near that stage. cant wait though. its going to be scary fast thats for sure. and by FAR the fastest thing Ive ever even been around let alone drove
Post pics of how it looks with the walmart rattle can paint job. I am tempted to do that just to keep it one color until I am ready for paint. How many cans did it take?
all of the flat black is $1 walmart rattle can and the burgundy is krylon satin I dont remember how many cans it took as I was buying as many as they had from any walmart around for about a month I wanna say it took around 8 cans for each fender and a ton for the rest of the car. I would roughly guess 50 cans. if I remember right the 50 cans were over kill but that was for the whole car inside out and the bottom. amazingly the paint sticks over grease and dirt and grime
yep came out nicer than I had hoped. the dark fenders are from wet sanding and repainting them a couple of times the burgundy was a pain with all of the coats I had to lay down to get that coverage. when I peeled the tape back from the black meets burgundy line there was a very obvious raised layer of paint and really it needed a few more coats but @ $4 a can they add up 4 x's faster than the $1 cans
good job there! I've done several rattle can resto's through the years and if they're buffed out well.. it's tough to tell the difference from a spray gun job. Not very thick in comparison.. but still gets the job done quite nicely. I plan on doing a quick rattle can resto on my Comet this year too. Bondo'd paint chips with spot primer and all. I'll post some close up pic's for any of the neighsayers out there too.
ok no big news this time just been chipping away at the build cost. the block is finally paid off and the afr heads are paid off now its off to the super charger. I dropped off $500 thursday to put a good dent in the $3k bill otherwise Ive been learning alot from my other post "what trans are you using and why?" and I now have a direction to go in for my rear end and front suspension upgrades. I recently visited chris alstons shop and its all work there. they have a small show room but they have a MASSIVE shop. they gave me a catalog and told me about some parts I knew I needed and some very important safety parts I didnt know I wouldve needed had it not been for visiting there shop. the next stop is the header shop to get their take whats best for my build. so things are making progress and faster than I ever expected but thats a good thing. I was hoping my car to be done before I was too old to drive it but now it looks like Ill have PLENTY of time to drive the out of it
You had to be like a kid in a candy store visiting Chris Alston's shop - I would love to have the opportunity to visit that place some day
sounds like your on the right path and finding the right companys to make sure your car meets all your expectations.
you know thats what one would expect but no it wasnt like that. they had a few different frames in a room but you dont see any cars or projects that theyve actually done. they have just showcased the parts that can be used not specifically on what vehicle. vintage ford is WAY cooler and all they do is sell parts. chris' place was all business and no wows to be seen atleast from what I saw. I thought it was going to be awesome going there and seeing a few cars that would be on showcase or in the works but no you walk into an air conditioned sales office with a few front sections and a couple of rear sections and you see a couple of different size and shape rear ends then the cross member displays otherwise it wasnt the wow I expected to see. they have a HUGE HUGE building and a small office kinda reminded me of a car lot sales office. I can positively say theyre knowledgeable and I dont know who the guy was I talked to but he was a nice guy
ok heres another update Ive been steadily chipping away at the engine build cost dropping of a couple hundred one week and then dropping off 3 4 or even $500 another week depending on how work went and what things did or didnt get broke while working. Im not sure where I am in the whats left to pay part of the bill right now I know right now Ive been paying on the super charger kit. after talking to a few people and reading alot of different articles and asking tons of questions at the machine shop were considering running ethanol E85 for fuel and bringing the compression up from the 9:1 we had figured. I know it takes more fuel to run the e85 but its supposed to be easier on the motor and super charger and allow me to run less boost. we figured on running somewhere in the area of 20lbs of boost at 9:1 compression we already know Im going to run two fours havent gotten to paying on any of that yet. I did get all of the powder coating back as you guys already know but I have everything put back on now. when I went to the car show in placerville I threw my back seat in the car and it looked even better in the car. so I had to pull out the powder coated dash and put it in. then I had to have some new tires before showing up (cant show up to a car show looking all raggedy riding on bald tired with cords hanging out) that set me back $200 out the door mounted and balanced for a set of falkans (sp?) well yesterday I got busy and screwed my dash down and had mike wash the car and wipe everything down nice and clean then I siliconed my windows in place and went around the car with a can of paint touching up the oopsies that have happend since the car was painted last. then loaded it up and went out and headed for the local street races WITH MY CAR the rest was quite the adventure with the cops showing up right away and everyone taking off in different directions and my car getting dropped off my trailer but all in all a good time even though I have an even bigger dent in my rocker panel today we adjusted the hood and fenders to try and get it to latch properly without hitting the fender or the cowl. weve managed to get the hood to not hit the passenger side fender but the gaps are still off and the hood has a bit of a upward bow to it about half way from the top to the bottom so were going to try and fit another hoof tomorrow and see if it fits any better
