The 510 Realm

Glad to see you received your parts quickly... We specified the scissor jack in the fitting instructions as very few home builders have a portapower kit. The width of the cover is deliberately slightly narrower. Pushing down on the cover will result in a tight fit. If it hits the transmission, that's out of the ordinary....

Another Saturday at the shop checking on Project Miracle Whip....

Center mounted e-brake is fabricated and welded in. Yes, that is from an s13.....





It looks a little "drifty" from this angle, but we just used this one to mock up. It was actually in a drift car and was modified. The final version will not do this lol...



Keen eyes should note that the Autopower Rollcage is in...



Welded in actually, just thought that it was the smartest and safest option...

We also managed to swap out the throttle linkage to s13 too. Wilwood pedals are coming in soon for brake and clutch pedal.





An unnecessary and gratuitous cage shot inside the car...



Then it was seat placement and height test fit time. I am going to go with NRG Carbon Fiber seats since I could not find a vintage one for a reasonable price. Really wanted AutoLook, but just can't pay that for it. I'm also super tall and they didn't look too comfortable or practical...



Next was a quick suspension mock-up. Good news, everything fits. Bad news, brakes are going to have to go. At least new pistons for the front and a rear mounted rotor. Not to mention the bracket didn't line up. ARGH!!!!







I'm also 90% sure I am going to pull the trigger on an MR2 manual rack and pinion conversion. It would actually be relatively cost effective as I need to refurbish my steering box...

Anyway, let's check on the progress of the fuel cell and the false floor...

Here you can see the basket is removable for when life calls for chaos...



Basket in..



Fuel cell in...



I also made the executive decision that the hinges suck painted. Going to strip them, plate pieces of them, refurbish them and then have them painted matte black... just seems a better long term strategy..



Until next time....

Great work! Inspiring to say the least

dscottdatsun wrote:Great work! Inspiring to say the least

Thank you! It feels good to hear someone else thinks so. Fabrication is not cheap.

great work! always love contrast on between the cage and body

I think extra work on the hinges is worth it...should have gone black manganese on the pins.

RMS wrote:great work! always love contrast on between the cage and body

I think extra work on the hinges is worth it...should have gone black manganese on the pins.

Those look really good! Making me jealous over here. I want to do the exact same thing with a matte black color. Also considering doing the hood and trunk hinges.

Thanks for the compliment on the contrast with the roll cage. Black and white is so timeless and simple, I didn't want anything outlandish.

Also would love to know where you sourced the hardware.

Been doing a lot of traveling lately, but rest assured, the project continues. Project Miracle Whip is like a lot of projects here and things tend to change once the reality of installing them gets close. This post will require a little more input from you. I have so many questions and I do care about the community's thoughts. Pictures and comments to follow....

I was going to recover carbon fiber NRG seats and use 4-point harnesses; however, these bad boys arrived damaged and went back to the shipper. It was a blessing in disguise though. I'm 6'5" and about 220 pounds these days, so large seats don't fit right. Bolsters really shouldn't be larger than 24" for proper fitment. I really wanted carbon backed buckets, but that might not be a reality. Anyone have a line on vintage Recaro LS seats I can have recovered?



One disappointment gave way to another sad moment. We found some rust on the firewall. But, we made lemonade. We decided to go with a Willwood pedal setup and a custom firewall heat shielding. We are going to cover the aluminum panels in gold heat shield.







I don't have pictures of it, but we ditched the Datsport SR20DET kit and went with a JB crossmember and Techno Toy Tuning steering bits. I already had their coilovers, so it kind of made sense. Plus, we are going the MR2 manual rack and pinion conversion. That gave way to a custom steering column too. We went super high end on that piece. Good news is that the 1968 (and 1969) Canadian dash had the key on the dash and not the column.

Then it was time to deal with the jacked up red color of powder coat on the valve cover and air plenum. That proved to be a massive pain to get off. It took a miracle, but Jen and Nick got it done. In my 6 years of working on this project, my style has grown to be much more understated. No more blue and red Greddy bits, went with a gunmetal. All the red? Gone. In its place, a nice dull black. Yay!





Since parts were going to powder, we stripped all the shine nonsense and matched the colors to the rest of the parts. Black and gunmetal...

The engine is almost ready for final assembly, so I knew I needed to get moving on some detail work...





So I picked up a 350MM Deep Corn Nardi in triple black..... Went with the perforated leather... sexy right?





Then, those of you who follow the build know that I did the unthinkable. I tore apart my grill to restore it. Well, I didn't completely destroy it. Who would have thought?







So, I have been tossing around the ideal of carbon fiber bolt on fender flares. I just haven't seen a well executed 4 door with them. But it would allow me to go much wider on the tires and perhaps a five lug conversion. I know this is a pretty intense topic, but i want opinions and thoughts. I do have immaculate sheet metal and it would be a bold move. I'm very conflicted.

Wow, not sure how I missed this build but I love it!

you need to cut away much meat to warrant flares. a 205 65 r13 requires a roll on a 69+ rear sub frame. if you want to run 215 or wider on a lowerd car you need to modify the inner or run crazy camber. the how to book says 34 hours a side for sheet metal work.


I think @ 6.5ft you will find your roll bar to be too close..... have you mocked up your seating arrangement with the dished wheel and hub ?

you may find the roll bar needs to sit on the rear seat riser. can you operate the Ebrake comfortably with such large bolsters and the seat forward of the arm rest?

I hear what you're saying. But the roll bar is already welded in place. Not sure I can do much to change it easily. We did test fit the seat, but not with the wheel and column in place. The problem is that we have a completely custom column and we are converting to a manual rack and pinion setup. So there is a ton of adjustability there. I don't have the final seats yet and that will change things. So I am going to hope and hold out that the final seat position will be adjustable enough....

wowww what a beautiful build.
Was wondering where did you get the centre console from as I want to fit one to my 71 sedan..
just something to place between the front seats

cruisey

Been a while since the last update.
You mentioned in another thread that you were going the Hakobird route - did this pan out?
Love to see an update as to where you are at now.

Byron