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Just looking at your last pic. Is there room for a headlight bucket between the grill headlight holes and intercooler? What's your plan there?
EDIT: Or is it just the angle of the picture?

_________________
Perry

'If man built it, man can fix it'
"No one ever told me I couldn't do it."
"If you can't build it safe, don't build it."

Perry's Locost Super Che7enette Build
Perry's TBird Based 5.0L Super 7 L.S.O
Perry's S10 Super 7 The 3rd
Perry's 4th Build The Topolino 500 (Little Mouse) Altered
Perry's 5th Build the Super Slant 6 Super 7
Perry's Final Build the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle

Thanks mate, I think it's just the angle of the pic because there should be enough room.



The lights I have bought are LED as well, so they don't have much of a backshell. I'm not sure how I'm going to do the angle adjusting but I'll figure something out



Aaaand finished off the top intercooler mounts, cross them off the list!

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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Onto the rear bumper; the original Willys looks like this which I'd guess is roughly 100mm tall.



I have some 150x50 left over from modifying the centre crossmember, as well as some 100x100x6 angle for mounting the bumper to the chassis, so I'm making the bumper deeper than the original for some extra stiffness and crash protection.



I previously welded some thick wall pipe into the rear of the chassis for mounting the rear bumper, so the angle iron will get holes drilled in it to match.



I'm planning on adding a trailer hitch under the bumper so the extra stiffness of the 150x50 will also help with tongue weight from the trailer. The hitch will be bolted straight back to the rear crossmember with some thick plate steel.

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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Made a little more progress on the rear bumper this weekend





I still need to trim the angle iron mounts to fit within the bodywork and tie the hitch into the rear crossmember.

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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The donor and frame choice make a proportional but oversize body seem like the way through the registering process to be considered a "replica". Not too late for that. Hopefully you can get through the process one way or another before the rules change again.

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Miata UBJ: ES-2074R('70s maz pickup)
Ford IFS viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13225&p=134742
Simple Spring select viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11815
LxWxHt
360LA 442E: 134.5x46x15
Lotus7:115x39x7.25
Tiger Avon:114x40x13.3-12.6
Champion/Book:114x42x11
Gibbs/Haynes:122x42x14
VoDou:113x44x14
McSorley 442:122x46x14
Collins 241:127x46x12

Thanks mate, I did originally look at a wide body to fit over the wheels but the CAD models looked absolutely awful, and I wanted to end up with a small car at the end of it. I've had more of a think on it and nobody bats an eyelid when a Ford Model A gets cycle guards, or similar with a T-bucket, so I can't see how adding squared off guards to the rear of my build wouldn't be the same thing.

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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[quote=Harv post_id=723605 time=1701837349 user_id=10038]
My EK wagon went through engineering in NSW with a factory towbar on it. No stamping or markings at all. Passed OK.

Cheers,
Harv
[/quote]
Sounds very promising, from my research only vehicles past 1991 had the requirement to label the towbar with the rating.

Not much progress lately but a few of my black Friday purchases have arrived. firstly an Aeroflow 7" dual diaphragm brake booster. This should easily fit under the bonnet and give a bit more clearance for the brake pipes, I just need to make an adapter to go to the Toyota master cylinder and a new front plate for the firewall to bring it closer to the driver.



Then my idea for the exhaust - I want to make a 3" straight through glasspack with ~30mm around for packing, which means the outer shell is some 6" tubing. My idea is to use a 6" truck stack as the body of the muffler and the kickout combined, with the perforated tube and packing slid in from the end.







It just didn't quite click how big the tip was going to end up! Oh well, if I don't like it in the end I can cut it off and weld on a more normal looking 3" turnout... hot rods are meant to be ridiculous, right?

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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This weekend I started attaching the top rail to the rear of the body in preparation for making the rear guards





I also stripped the rear seat I'll be using to modify it with different mounting points. The original seat could fold flat and then rotate, where I just want it to be able to fold flat, so I'm able to take out a bunch of weight and complexity by removing the rotating and locking features.



I'd forgotten how heavy the rear seat is but it should be easily removable when not needed. Here's the old rotating mount vs. the new fixed one:





The rear floor is going to be a very interesting exercise to get enough legroom and not hit the rear crossmember, but I think I've come up with a way to go.

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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What decibel limit do you have to comply with? Following with interest as my custom exhaust is going to be a similar construction...

96 dB(A) measured 500mm from the outlet at a 45 degree angle, with the engine running at ~3,500 rpm... I have my doubts this will pass but we will see. Normal cars have to meet 90 dB so it may be possible.

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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Up until this point, I've cut all tubes with either the power hacksaw (which is accurate but very slow, time consuming to setup and oil, tedious to change the angle of the cut, and leaves a pretty serious burr on the cut) or I've used a hand held 5" angle grinder (which is super loud, needs lots of PPE, and is not all that accurate).

...But no longer!





I managed to pick up this Brobo Super 300 cold saw which seems to be in very good condition, it even came with a new 200 tooth blade which is almost correct for 2mm thick tubing... probably need a 260/280 tooth to do 1.6 and 1.2, but that can wait.

Anyway, I'm very excited to be able to accurately cut tube quickly and quietly (compared to an angle grinder )

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
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Lucky! Good addition to the shop.

Thanks mate, having used it for a couple of days I'm kicking myself I didn't look for one years and years ago - it's awesome.

I managed to cut out all the tubes for the rear guards in about an hour, all with different angles and lengths!



Then, given I don't have a proper flat fabrication table I made sub-assembles by clamping the parts to a piece of 200x100x3 I have lying around.





Then I tack welded these into the full guard



Finally mocked up on the car, again they look a little funky but I think once they have the sheet metal and much wider wheels under them they'll be fine.

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549

Great score on the cut off saw!

Nice work on the rear fenders. Couple of questions.......

Will the fenders be sheeted in aluminum like the side panels or something that won't show rock dimples when rocks are released from the tires?

In reference to the last pic, what happened to the guy in the boots? Or is Count Dracula helping you?

_________________
Perry

'If man built it, man can fix it'
"No one ever told me I couldn't do it."
"If you can't build it safe, don't build it."

Perry's Locost Super Che7enette Build
Perry's TBird Based 5.0L Super 7 L.S.O
Perry's S10 Super 7 The 3rd
Perry's 4th Build The Topolino 500 (Little Mouse) Altered
Perry's 5th Build the Super Slant 6 Super 7
Perry's Final Build the 1929 Mercedes Gazelle

Thanks mate! I was planning on using aluminium but honestly hadn't considered rocks being thrown up at them... might have to look at spray-on liner or maybe even double skinning those areas. As for the boots, they always seem to be in a different part of the garage when i walk in so... who knows?

I finally had a couple of days fully to myself with no distractions so I've made significant progress on the car!

First up I made the mounts for the rear guards.



The lower mount doubles as a mount for the body frame.





Next I made the battery tray.



I made a cardboard mockup of the battery I want to use and spent a while trying to find the best location for it. My options were at the end of the passenger footwell, waaaaay at the back of the car just in front of the rear bumper, or under the floor in roughly the middle of the car. I figured this will give the best weight distribution and won't require overly long cables to connect to the alternator and starter motor, though I'll have to make an access panel to get to the battery.



Once this was done I mocked up the rear seat. The main issue I was facing was lack of rear legroom so I decided to modify the rear barwork.

Initially I added a full length crossmember just at the front of the seat.



Then I cut and lowered the original crossmember to the same level as the front floor.



Once that was done I added some 20x20 support pieces to support the floor.



The rear seat mounts are simple equal angle and square tube construction.



... and the front mounts attach to the new crossmember through a crush tube.



Here's the finished product:







The seat has 2 recline positions, can fold flat, and with the drivers seat all the way back I can sit in the back seat comfortably(ish)

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Scratch built turbo V8 hot-rod in progress
http://locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=19549