Hoopty no longer a "projekt"

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
You really did an amazing job.

Now is time to make a video of Hoopty so everybody can see it running.

The little pieces are steering rod, and the bigger ones are 1.5" tubing beint to the oval we needed for the exhaust ports. There's a 20-degree flare outward on the heads I've got, so a standard header configuration would not have worked.
These pieces got put together at the beginning of the exhaust project in order to have the whole thing go together smoothly. I'd have been stuck, otherwise.

The first shot is the oval port flange in place on the head. The copper gaskets fit perfectly, and the rest of the system was predicated on this one port.
In the following pictures, you can see the exhaust growing, but this one anchored the collector while the rest was being cut and fitted. In the third shot, the tack-welds are pretty bvious; the flex they allowed later was invaluable.

This project ROCKS! Way to go Cory! angela

The Spam can was the real pain in the a** on this whole thing. It doesn't look like it from this shot, but the framework the back of the body sits on didn't make it all the way to the pivotal balance point because of the way the can sits inside -- we forgot to fit the body to it and THEN hinge it up. Ultimately, the recip saw got used to trim the body -- and we moved the muffler again.

Man I can't wait to see that beast in person! Cory, It looks AWESOME! I bet you are having a little trouble sleeping at night.

The exhaust pipe is three inches across. The cut in the pipe is shaped the way it is to allow the body to swing past it as it goes up and the rear edge comes back, in and down on the hinge bolts.
The middle picture is the completed header, tack-welded in place, from in front of the passenger's side rear tire. The bottom half of the muffler is the lowest point on the car, and the pipes -- as they make their run to the back end of the engine -- are at the same height as the transmission mount. That muffler may, eventually, get replaced with something more ... streamlined.
The third one is The Wrench tightening one of the hex-bolts holding the flanges to the heads.

This is the first three gallons of fuel to be added to this car since November of 2004. Felt good to pour it in and turn on some switches for real. The first switch is 'master power' to the coil and such, and the second one is the fuel pump. If the key in the front is on, the fuel pump will run independently of the coil being hot. Neat, huh?
And the third is the engine firing without being timed. It was literally just a test-fire. Sounded like a Cessna.

Artsy-fartsy shots. No point, really ('cept for the Club badge).

The Wrench got the honors of being the first out of the barn. I wanted to take a photo of him doing the honors in case this is the last 'special project' he takes on.
He may or may not be hanging up the custom street hat for good, and working solely on flipping American muscle cars from here on out (gotta pay the bills, right?).
Time will tell.
The second picture really needed to have audio, but I found out last night that my camera doesn't shoot movies like it's supposed to. Who didn't know he'd do a burn-out on the way tot he driveway?
Number three is my "Good night, Gracie."

A couple side notes:
When the car was built by the previous owner, it was dubbed "Theresa," after an exotic dancer he (a retired Air Force doctor) had seen in Deutschland. I'm enough of a sailor to know you don't change a vessel's name (bad luck), but I'll still be callin' her the Hoopty.
But she's no longer a "Projekt."
And finally, thanks for all the support and encouragement, you guys. For all you folks who mailed me a little piece of something; fog lights, seat belt brackets, switches, the VS grille (or whatever the crucial-at-that-point item might have been!), come to Carlisle '07 and drive the car.
I don't think it would be sitting here making me this happy if it weren't for you guys, and I can't think of a better thank-you than to offer a drive around the paddock to those who helped me deal with the problems of the last year.

Mickey, I must have walked enough circles around this thing last night to have stepped out a marathon. I even washed it with a damp rag twice.
I'm kind of glad to have a few more detail-oriented things left to accomplish, so I can really appreciate what's there in terms of fine points and tight tolerances. It hasn't sunk in that we just went from chassis to drivable car in less than five weeks.
The ten months' measuring twice and cutting once has really, really paid off.
Thanks for the chuck on the shoulder! When am I coming over the bridge?

Ricardo and Angela, thanks as always! When you're in town, c'mon by and drive her!

I used the help topic on door adjustment to line the doors up on the hinge plates, and wanted to put the photos up so y'all could see how well your advice worked. I appreciate the assistance (and the ability to do a search for CMC-specific topics as I come across problems).
The third picture shows the fit and finish of that plate behind the seats. That was an afterthought when we realized the tonneau needed to be closed in from below. Glad it was fabricated before we sent the car for powdercoat.

I'm going to use this thread to document the last couple days' activity. It might take me a while to post all this stuff, but I'm done with the build photos after this one.
That's a good thing. For the record, the Hoopty took its first powered 'steps' last night at about 10 p.m. EST. It's a few details away from done, but the initial drive was a burn-out -- out of the garage. If I add any pictures to this thread next week, it'll be the engine compartment's Lexan and probably the jewel box around the dash wiring.

As for the photo details, the first one shows an addition of a couple gussets into the front hinge bar. I thought there might be a little too much potential for droop over time. Better to prevent that now.
The center caps on the front axles (second picture) are just cosmetic. I'm not using a speedometer, so I don't need the speedo/odo pickup -- but there is potential for me to need it later on down the line. Might as well keep them, and keep the threads from getting messed up with grime.
The dash (third) is not finished underneath, but when it is, it will have a bed-liner material up there. It won't be this ugly for long.

Unf'n real Cory!! The funny thing is that it looks good silver as it is; I know you want to paint it in two tone but your budget (if I remember correctly, was it Maaco?) silver paint job actually looks good.

One more photo ... until the tins are done, lights connected, blah, blah, blah ...

(And Ricardo, I think it may stay silver and primer until right before Carlisle '07.)

No driving for me Cory, but I'd love to go for a Hoopty ride! I'm pretty afraid to drive other people's cars. Actually never ridden in a speedstah, though. Love to try it - so next time in town, I'll give ya a shout!

By the way, thanks for letting me hear the engine run. What a knarly sounding little beastie! angela

Cory, my Project-completing, fire-fighting, look-out Carlisle, maniac!!

I SALUTE your perseverance!! You car looks awesome - hope to see in person someday!!

Peace - Out!

My hat is off to you mucho' congrats !

Of COURSE, it's just beyond belief ! !

Time to tuck it away for the Winter and consider your next projekt? The only sorta sad part of the whole roller coaster ride that was your build-up is that we may never have gotten the chance to "meet" you or get to be friends or share in all of it, had you discovered Spyders before you purchased the Speedster.

Just a small twist of fate and you became OURS rather than THEIRS.

Funny and kinda scary. All of this would have never been. but for . . .


Don't sell it for a while, OK? Keep it and stick around, we don't wanna lose you to one of those OTHER forums . . .

Luck,

TC

Hey, he can come over with us spyder dudes/dudettes anytime! In fact, he doesn't even need a spyder to hang with us!

Only problem with being friends w/Cory is that I am more tempted than ever to drive the spyder to Carlisle. Cory would really like the spyder. angela

Angela said, "Only problem with being friends w/Cory is that I am more tempted than ever to drive the spyder to Carlisle...."

Go fer it, gal!
Hoss

Cory -- CONGRATS! The only bummer about this milestone is that this build and its respective updates is coming to an end. You should archive these pics into a short film!

Cory, that's just Too Cool (Maybe that's TCs real name?).
ed

Another update.
4200 rpm in fourth translated into at least 100 mph tonight.
Thirty-nine degrees out and dry.
Everything worked perfectly.
Some aluminum work remains to be done, but the wires and nit-noidal stuff is perfect. Back hatch has minor alignment issues, torsion is too low and the muffler has a couple new scratches in it.
More later this week, including pictures from tonight.
An Oregon Spyder at Carlisle? Woo-Hoo!

Drive it like ya stole it Cory! oops, looks like you already did...

angela

Cory-

Wow. I mean, really-- Wow.

Congratulations on your vision, perseverance, and execution of this undertaking.

Wow.

Cory..
everythings been said..
Thats one individualized car....and I think its incredible..

Tell me when you get your "Texas sized" thank you..

Michael

Did'jall hear it?
I opened that bad girl up last night on Interstate 97. Ooooooooh.
One of my pals here is going to video clip the next shakedown for You-Tubing purposes. He's got audio capacity, too. Should be fun.

Michael, I'll keep checking the mail. Thanks in advance, whatever it is!

Bro; I'm looking forward to that video!!!!

I'm going to turn the speakers WAY UP!!! angela

hoopty much hokay!
Very happy for you I am...have you weighed your completed car? I was looking at your pic underneath and it looks like one solid set up and I was wondering if there is much difference weight-wise between your well engineered car and an average replicar, tube or pan.

As much as I love all your orange detailing, I think I'd pad the roll bars and tape 'em up with black tape.

Definitely Paul, Joe Soltis, Michael from Texas and Cory are the originals here.... Hope I haven't forgotten any of the other looneys out there...and I mean it in a good way! Dare to be different!

Paul, I'm going to try to get it on a truck scale this weekend. We never did weigh and add as we built, but we're conservatively estimating 1,500 lbs. based on a pretty educated guess. I appreciate the comment about 'well engineered,' too. A whole lot of math has gone into getting this right, and it's designed to look deceptively simple. It means a whole lot coming from you and the other folks here who have so much more experience at this stuff.

And credit where it's due, Jimmy The Wrench is a damned genius. None of the Hoopty's modifications would have been possible without that guy's 20+ years' experience with drag cars.

I may do the roll-bar padding in the spring, but I want to get used to the limited field of view I have first. I can't see out my rear-view unless you count the top of the car directly behind me -- but I'll be making a new, taller, mirror stem out of a ball bearing and a pushrod.

If I look over my left shoulder, I can see from about the eight o'clock position back to the four o'clock as I pan my head to the right. Padding the hoops would limit that to being almost a straight right-hand three o'clock view because of the narrow slice of tubing that I CAN see through as I look back and right. That slice would be blocked by the addition of another inch or so outside tubing diameter.

I did read the piece on the PCA site (talking about SCCA roll bar padding advice, merits and demerits of roll equipment in street cars and the driver-safety commentaries) as we were designing the hoops and placing them, so they're far enough back that I can't possibly hit my head on them when I have my five-pointers on.

Where does your mellon sit in relation to the tubing on Butch? -- I know you didn't just do that roll bar for looks, so I'm assuming the padding's there because of the same concerns?

The photos:
The first one has the marker lights on it and the fogs adjusted for height and angle -- owed those to Todd Sharp and TC.
Second, you're able to see the frame is only left-right horizontal under the seats. If you look at the tranny bracket, you'll see it's at exactly the opposite angle as the roll tubing under the very nose of the car. I don't know if that's a combination of CMC's efforts at adding the two-inch box around the old pan seams, or if it sat unevenly on jackstands while we welded it up last winter. I only just noticed that, and there's a distinct possibility it's a combination of both.
Everything looked plumb when we were welding, but now the body's got minor alignment issues where the Dzus fasteners meet their sockets, and I think I can see why -- although it runs a good, straight acceleration line. I've still got to tweek the toe, camber and castor, but for something that just got back on the streets ... I'm not even going to worry about it unless it becomes pronounced over time. It works, but that bend is really very obvious in this picture, so I thought I'd include it here.
The third shot is the genius. Note the SEG?

Nope, Butch is a poser!
The rollbar is strictly cosmetic. In fact after buying the rollbar from John Steele, I was out shopping with the Mrs and saw some cheap-ass dinette set that had chairs whose backs closely (too closely) resembled my new rollbar! Same arch/curve, same approximate thickness. I could see the furniture company having a little office in the corner for racing parts!

Anyway, when I'm in my normal driving position the rollbar is of little interference and my windscreen mounted mirror has a little concave add-a-mirror stuck to it, so I can see fair. Most of the time my head is either on a 360degree swivel, scanning the roadways for cops or I'm stretching up to see where the hell Bates disapeared to!

Poser my hiney. But the roll bar is only bolted in? Sure doesn't look like it in the pictures!

One of the most disconcerting things I discovered about the Hoopty was what little metal there was under the fiberglass when we first hit it with the recip saw.
There were four posts at the corners of the pans, and that flat trapezoid of two-inch box tubing that surrounded them. The front pair of uprights connected at the dash bar, but the back two just stuck straight up about a foot or so!
As poorly as my car had been built (garage job, elderly man), if I had gotten into serious trouble in traffic, I'd have been wiped clean off the pans by even a Saturn's bumper.
I think the body would have disintegrated, and I'd have gone with it into the next immovable object. Ouch.
I had no idea about any of that when I bought the car, because it looked, quacked and walked like a solid vehicle for the first few months. I wonder what other makers do to remedy that? CMC, apparently, didn't care.

Hello All! I'm Chris, Cory's friend and coworker. I'm here to present videographic evidence that the "Hoopty" is in fact a real vehicle. Follow the links below to Google Video or click on the embedded "Play" button. Bravo Zulu!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2182680704587789162&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=993071106854289540&hl=en

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3544048112312329387&hl=en

Congratulations Cory!!

THAT IS SO FRICKIN COOL!

Cory, my Code-3, Hoopty-hood-flipping, fire-stomping, unda-cuva-brutha!!

That engine sounds AWESOME!! Better than I coulda imagined! Looking forward to seeing it in person some day!

Peace - Out!

I have a faint hope that Angela or Steve will pass those clips on to Gary and company.
The video demo had an unfortunate consequence, though.
I was in such a hurry to show off for the camera that I pulled the wires right out of the quick-release connections on the hatch side. I was left with running, brake and turn wires dangling from the underside of the engine compartment frame.
So, me being me, I lowered the hatch again and hard-wired them back into their sockets -- for now. I also painted the international electric shock symbol onto the top of the fan shroud as a permanent reminder to make or unplug the connections in the future.
All in all, I'm still very happy. Glad the videos are up. Thanks, Chris!