Progress is still happening. Found a leak in the trans pump and had to pull it to fix it. Managed to cut one of the axles too short (DOH!) fixing that today and then it should be moving. Got the body work going pretty well, hope to get it stripped the rest of the way this weekend. Jaime came by with the rear seat all upholstered and I was blown away by how nice it turned out. I wasn't smart enough to snap a pic though...should have him back here later this week and then I will post it up.
Joined: Sat Apr 25 2009, 03:08AM
Location: Out West
Posts: 626
This conversion is really cool from an engineering perspective and the custom work needed to make it happen, done right. I give it very high marks simply from the "done it just because we can" viewpoint.
But at the end of the day, it's simply not practical. As was said, it will be a handful to drive, noisy and rough. If you are building a tow vehicle fine, but a pickup with the engine all ready in it and the weight to properly handle a big load behind it would be the correct approach. My '07 Ram is mildly modded to probably somewhere around 450hp and even with good suspension mods I have to be careful about traction in any conditions. Those things make just incredible amounts of torque and any chassis that small simply will not handle it in terms of gettnig it to the ground, I don't care what you beef up. You go hot rodding around in that and you'll be talking to the weeds before too long, for sure.
Well, I have a tendency for the extreme. My 2004 Ram makes 676 at the wheels (thats 1390 lb/ft) gets 21mpg and I drive it every day to work. Its not really a handful at all to drive, unless I want it to be. My toy car is a 2300# 1995 BMW M3 with a 500HP LS2 in it. It is a handful. I believe I have appropriately sprung the car to deal with the weight, and after I make a swaybar, I expect it to handle as well as any other land yacht, if not better. A set of CalTracs and maybe even a set of their springs are likely in my future, but I need to see how it works on the road first. Noise? Big blocks are pretty noisy too. Granted, its a different noise, but with the top down, what's the difference? This isn't a ride for everyone, but I plan to drive the hell out of it!
Bunch of new pics up on the blog. I got the seats back this week and they are looking sweet! Check out what Jaime did with the rear seat speaker grille. It is a scrap of stainless mesh from McMaster Carr that Brian had leftover from his Biscayne project.