Update: Pro-Touring '75 Gremlin

[whitey02]

It's been quite a while since my last post (a year+), but I have finally begun some real progress on my Gremlin.

Here is the backstory: my Dad and I are building this as a father/son project. Right now I have just finished my first year at The University of Texas at Austin and we are hoping that we can get our long term project driving by the time I graduate (4 year plan ). We are making no compromises on chassis and suspension so I will not ever have to upgrade those components. We're building it right the first time!

We did some thinking about the direction we wanted to go with the car, and with seeing some of these amazing builds on this forum, my head has been filled with cool ideas along with some ideas that I already had on my own.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves as I introduce Project Barf Bag:



This build has officially begun with the installation of the AME Tri-4 Bar with a factory Ford 9" housing that I already had. First my dad and I had to put new tubes on the housing center section because of some factory ridges that were in the way of the triangulated links



Originally I was planning on cutting the factory frame rails out of the car and using some 2x4 bent rails left over from my dad's race car days, but as we discovered the factory rails are quite beefy (much more than a Camaro!!) so we went ahead and began building the 4-link on the factory rails. They are 2.25" wide and parallel from front to back. They were also in the correct place for AME's Tri-4 bar so since this is never going to be an all out race car, they will do just fine.





Here you can see the frame rail as well as the gap between the inner tub and the rail. The car will get the tubs expanded at a later time.



Here you can see where the brackets have been tacked on to the housing. Getting the angles correct on the triangulated links took a little bit of patience



more to come soon

[whitey02]

Explanation on the title of Project Barf Bag

"Suddenly, Teague had an idea...what if he took the brand new Javelin platform, and simply ‘chopped’ it off as short as possible to make it a subcompact?... Teague grabbed the nearest available piece of paper and sketched out the idea, and that very same piece of paper made it all the way back to the design studio when it was time to mock up a proposal. Never before had an air sickness bag played such an instrumental role in a new automobile program!" - http://www.gremlinx.com/Gremlin-history.htm


Short version: The Gremlin was designed on a barf bag! And any passengers that will ride with me are going to need one when I'm through with them! I'll have to get one for the glovebox

[deuce_454]

i love it!

but how will you get the stance right with the stock rails in place??

[whitey02]

Getting the housing squared up in the car



The top links are tacked into place onto the frame rails



Here is the front crossmember (not surprisingly another leftover from a race car) for the bottom parallel links. Already cut to fit



Here are the attachment brackets already boxed for the front mounting points for the parallel links

[whitey02]

Originally Posted by deuce_454

but how will you get the stance right with the stock rails in place??

The factory tubs are almost already there in terms of wideness, they will only be widened about 1.25". They also have a large amount of height. Where we have the rear end set gives us 2.5" of upward travel at a drivable ride height, I don't remember off the top of my head the exact figure because the car is at the shop. But these quick and dirty mock up pictures may give you an idea. The wood box is the ground, distance from the top of the box is ride height. It looked good

The wheel is a 18x12 with a 335/30 18R tire borrowed from another car for a second







sorry about the cell phone picture, I didn't have my camera on that day.

P.S. do you like the trailer light connection? It had a hitch on it when I bought the car, thought about leaving it there...

[detailing_dude]

They had unbelievable kick up in the factory rails; it was like this car was begging to be modified.

[ArisESQ]

Originally Posted by whitey02

That's with the stock tubs?! I'm shocked that much tire would fit under there! It'll be a perfect fit once you get them pushed in another half an inch or so!

[whitey02]

Originally Posted by ill steez

That's with the stock tubs?! I'm shocked that much tire would fit under there! It'll be a perfect fit once you get them pushed in another half an inch or so!

All that we're going to do is bring the tub in one more inch in the middle and square it up in the back, the back of the tub tapers as it goes to the back of the car. A lot of the things on this car have worked out very well so far in regard to measurements

[whitey02]

All four bars tacked into place

[whitey02]

Cutting out a section off of the bottom shock mount. The shock mount will be tied together onto the bottom link/swaybar bracket on the housing. I have a picture of the shocks mocked up into place, but none up close of the bracket on the housing







All the brackets on the car and the brackets on the housing are ready to be welded out and should be finished later this afternoon. More pics later