Twisted Images Bagged, Body Dropped, & Rotary Powered 510

[twistedimages]

You're probably right- I'll look into some form of physical limiters for droop travel.

[twistedimages]

Time for a teardown!

 

It's been fun driving the car for the past couple of months, but there's a bunch of things that I want to change now that I've put some miles on it.  So, yesterday I started pulling it all back apart!

 

Last shot of the car in its current state:

 

With the way I have the front clip set up, getting it torn down to this point only took about 30 minutes:

 

I'm going to add some no-loss quick disconnects for the oil cooler lines so the only fluid I need to dump is water when the clip comes off.  For now, a tub and some rags get the job done!

 

 

With the front clip pulled, it was about another hour to get the engine out:

 

I'm kind of glad to be back in "project mode" again - with everything running well I didn't have a good excuse to tear the car apart!

[Stoney]

What are the reasons behind this teardown? What's getting upgraded, replaced, modified, extended, shortened?

[twistedimages]

What are the reasons behind this teardown? What's getting upgraded, replaced, modified, extended, shortened?

 

Here's a short list:

 

New shocks (QA1 or RideTech)

Sway bars front and rear

Brake upgrade

Engine rebuild (possible porting, haven't decided yet)

Harness bar

Sand and clear coat interior sheetmetal

Gauges

General cleaning, repair, and addressing a couple of fitment issues

 

That should make for a good jam session!  I have a show on September 25th that I'd like to have it back together for, so I'm setting that as my goal.

[twistedimages]

Oh, and I just got confirmation this morning-

 

My car will be at SEMA in November!!  Air Lift Performance was generous enough to give me one of their feature vehicle spots!  Hope to see a bunch of you guys there!

[sedition88]

That's pretty badass! Congrats!

[]2eDeYe]

Congrats :cool: 

[Ranman72]

congrats on the sema spot that is awesome 

[mrbigtanker]

Awesome on the SEMA spot. :thumbup:

[Mattndew76]

Oh man I want to get a SEMA spot some day.

 

Cool score!! 

[Filthy_]

Damn player, headed to the big show?

[twistedimages]

Thanks guys - you've all been excellent motivation in getting this car together.

 

Now I've got a big expensive list of things to get done in the next two months!

[fisch]

Freakin Super Bowl. Congrats! And I bet your ride gets more love and smiles than $1,000,000 Ferrari's. Next stop, Leno's Garage.

[twistedimages]

Freakin Super Bowl. Congrats! And I bet your ride gets more love and smiles than $1,000,000 Ferrari's. Next stop, Leno's Garage.

 

Thanks man - I don't know if it's going to make that big a splash, but I'm excited to have it out there nonetheless.

[twistedimages]

Last night I started working on the front brake upgrade.  The stock Toyota calipers locked it up alright, but they don't look cool... and since I'm upgrading the rear brakes to Wilwoods, the fronts should really match!

 

The mounting ears on the Toyota spindles don't line up with anything, so I'm making a new bracket to mount the Wilwoods.

 

 

I may have to cut the top ear off entirely, and use the lower as an additional anchor point for the caliper bracket.  I designed a template to test fit this afternoon- I'll cut it out of 18 gauge steel for now to check hole locations, then the final bracket will be 1/4" or 3/8"

 

 

I like these new calipers a lot- the pads have the perfect surface area for these rotors, and they'll clear a 14" wheel if I find the right set someday!

[Abe Froman]

I had a question, I keep looking at photo's of your car and wondering if you are leaving the Cactus green front body parts green on purpose ? I was just thinking that if the different color parts were rattle canned with a flat or gloss Rustoleum white or a cheap Kylon white that could age in to the rest of the old paint job and not look like such contrast in color.

 

   I understand that you didn't get all the matching body parts with the car and I love the paint job on the car and would not change it, I was just throwing the idea out there.

[twistedimages]

I've avoided touching the other panels up to this point, because I'm not generally a fan of "faux patina"- I wanted the car to be exactly as I found it.

But I agree- I LOVE the stripes, and the green definitely doesn't go with the rest of the car. To make things worse I've got an ORANGE hood- it looks hideous on there!

 

I've searched for an OG white fender and hood for a while now, but nothing has turned up. So, while the car is apart I've got a good friend taking a crack at paint matching those panels to the rest of the car! He's pretty confident he can make it look proper, so I've got my fingers crossed!

[Lockleaf]

I hope he can. If he pulls it off it will look fantastic.

[LTJ]

Great thread, amazing car!

[twistedimages]

I hope he can. If he pulls it off it will look fantastic.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic.  I know he's capable of very nice body and paint work, but I've never seen him do anything like this.  Worst case I hate it and just semigloss white it all for now...  even that will be better than the green!

[tr8er]

I'm cautiously optimistic. I know he's capable of very nice body and paint work, but I've never seen him do anything like this. Worst case I hate it and just semigloss white it all for now... even that will be better than the green!

The whole car? Noooooo.

[twistedimages]

The whole car? Noooooo.

 

No way.  Just the hood, fender, and front valance/spook.  The rest of the car is staying exactly how it is until I'm ready to drop major money on rust repair and body work!

[tr8er]

No way. Just the hood, fender, and front valance/spook. The rest of the car is staying exactly how it is forever!

Good to hear.

[twistedimages]

Good to hear.

 

With the ninja edit on my post- nice!

 

And realistically, possibly true.  It would be about $15k to get it to the point I'd want it- new sheetmetal, trim, chrome, glass, rubber, paint... it adds up quick!

[twistedimages]

Quick update!

 

Engine is already back from being rebuilt- I actually grabbed it last week, but haven't had a chance to throw it back in the car yet.  I really want to clean up the engine bay a bit before it goes back in- with no wheel wells everything gets dirty pretty quickly.

 

The front caliper brackets came in from laser cutting, and they fit great.  I needed to trim off one of the original caliper mounting ears to make room for the Wilwood caliper, but otherwise it's a bolt-on affair.  I'll get that installation finalized in the next week or so and get some pics posted.

 

But the BIG news for today is paint!  My buddy Scott from Clean Concepts texted me the other day with this photo:

 

 

He said something along the lines of "paint looks like a match- now to make it look 40 years old!"

 

Well, today he texted these photos:

 

 

 

I think he nailed it!  He's still playing with the hood, valance, and spook, but if this is any indication I think he'll get them dialed in pretty quickly.  I can't wait to see the car back together now!!