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HybridZ

35 Dodge Hot Rod

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About 35 Dodge Hot Rod

  • Birthday January 24

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Wisconsin

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  1. I posted here about 7 years ago, with high hopes, wild dreams, and lots of ambition. My project however figuratively hit the wall, hard. I have to own it, however I'll gladly lay plenty of blame with the now defunct Thunder Ranch for screwing around with me. I'm not necessarily a spiritual person, but I do know the bad start and feelings didn't help this project out one bit. Bad vibes. To make a long story short, life changed quite a bit and the project has sat. That ambition instead has been funneled into building my own house (actually myself, not hiring someone like most people do when they say "they built a house"), acquiring a long time dream cabin property that never in a million years thought I would be able to purchase, improving my machining and welding abilities, building a few garages and garage additions for friends in my "spare" time, and buying, selling, and upgrading my old Ford car projects. My next 2 years are going to be fairly booked up with work, 4 semesters of CNC training, sleep in between, mowing, plowing, & property maintenance on weekends, and trying to squeeze in building myself a proper shop to actually work in somewhere in between. I've been kicking this Z project around, weighing if I should send it down the road, or keep it along with my other 3 major automotive projects, boat restoration project, and now an ultralight project. I was going to put it up for sale in March, figuring that if it sold, I would put the money into my other projects and free up some space. As I put it up it brought back a certain young nostalgia, and I got fired up about it again. I forgot how cool it was to sit in the drivers seat in that pile of Z car, and I just imagined how much better it would be with the body reworked. I walked through a few local junkyards in April searching in vain for a good donor vehicle to supply me a rear window glass. I've actually discovered that a late model Chevy Astro van has a potentially suitable window in the sliding side door. It's the closest thing I've found for a piece of glass without resorting to a custom (and very expensive) glass maker. I know, call me crazy but the idea of a plastic rear window just never sat with me. This is a choice that I alone have to ultimately make, but I would value any input from any members here who have completed one of these projects. I know this would be a big project, but it may help to actually hear a bit more of a detailed scope from anyone who has gone through it.
  2. Today, January 20th 2010, the remaining parts arrived for my GTO body kit from Thunder Ranch. Good, right? Yes and no. The quality of the fiberglass body panels is decent, and will work up nicely for paint, however the company that produced it has no business being in business. I ordered the full kit with optional headlight covers, aluminum grille ring, and door buttons back in mid April of 2009. The terms of the contract sent to me were half the money down up front, and the remaining balance including shipping due upon completion of the kit. That sounded reasonable considering I had only read and heard good things about Thunder Ranch. I wasn't afraid to send a $2000 check with nothing more than the reassurance of past performance. I was excited when I got a phone call in the second week of May 2009 from the secretary at Thunder Ranch claiming my parts were done and ready to ship. She gave me the total balance due with shipping and said as soon as they were paid the parts could ship. Excellent I thought, and had the check in the mail by the end of the day. The check was cashed in the middle of May, and I was waiting for some notice that my parts were on the way. After nearly four weeks of nothing, I called Thunder Ranch and talked to a different person and was told my fiberglass parts still had to be laid up. Red flag if there ever was one. I was specifically told in May that the parts were done and ready to ship, now it was a completely different story, and they had all my $4500 and I had nothing but a lie. This had me worried to no end, and being in Wisconsin it's not as though I could do much. I spoke to Tom McBurnie himself, and after he seemed to show genuine interest in my project and what I was going to be doing, gave me his word he would finish up the parts asap and get them shipped out. After another few weeks and no word I called again. The parts were done and all they needed to do was build a crate. Tom was going to get right on that. More time passed by, and then finally I recieved a phone call with a tracking number for a freight company with my parts. The crate showed up on the 23rd of July 2009. Two months and eight days after Thunder Ranch was paid in full for supposedly built parts. Every major part was there, except the lights, headlight covers, grille ring, and door buttons. All of the expensive little things that are important to the cars look. I called and was told those parts would be shipped by UPS separately and very soon. To make a long story short, I got the lights, headlight covers, and grille ring in the first week of November 2009. It only took perhaps twenty long distance calls to the jokers in California. And I still didn't have my door buttons. More calls, more bullshit. I can't even remember how many times I was told the parts were going to be shipped in a day or two. The thought of a friendly visit to California was becoming a very serious possibility. And then finally, after calling twice that week I got a call that the door buttons were done and going to be shipped out. I didn't believe it, but the parts showed up today the 20th of January 2010. All I can say is a company is only as good as its service. The quality of the fibeglass was decent, but that is beside the point. Had I known things would go like this, I would have kept my parts 260z and made that into a buck to mold my own fibeglass GTO body. I wouldn't recommend anyone waste their time with Thunder Ranch, there's definitely some problems with that company to put it lightly. I'll get back on track, but so far these dealings have taken all the fun out of the project.
  3. I received the body panels on Thursday the 23rd of July. The shipping was fast since the parts were picked up in California on Monday the 20th of July. I'm still waiting for the miscellaneous lights and turn signals, door buttons, grille trim ring, headlight lenses, and headlight trim rings.
  4. I don't spread rumors around, he doesn't have any GTO body kits sitting around on the shelf. I've been patiently awaiting the shipment of my kit for two months now since I've paid for it in full.
  5. If you plan on using a Thunder Ranch body kit, you'd better plan early and order it a good 2-3 months before you actually need the body panels. He doesn't just have any complete kits sitting around on the shelf, you're going to have to wait for him to lay one up in the molds.
  6. I am a newcomer to posting on this forum, although I have looked at the postings for quite some time. My experience in cars is that of 1930's bodied hot rods and a bit of "muscle cars" thanks to my friends. I've had a 1970 240Z for a few years now, and finally I got my act together. First off, I removed the original motor and transmission. Next, I ordered the GTO body kit from Thunder Ranch. Basically my goal for this car is to make a nice streetable 11 second V-8 powered machine. The motor will be a bored and stroked Ford 302 with aluminum heads to better equalize weight distribution front to rear. With a 500 - 600 HP & Torque output, the transmission choice will be a TKO 600 5 speed. Carburetor(s) or fuel injection is trivial at this point. I don't much fancy the wire rims, and since this isn't an original car I'm going to go with a set of FFR Halibrand replica wheels. 15x8 front 15x9 rear 5 x 4.5" bolt pattern Thanks to my muscle car friends, I know it's not only possible, but easy to slightly reinforce a unibody structure to accommodate this amount of torque. What has me worried though is flexing of a hard launching unibody car with this bonded on fiberglass body kit. I plan to own this car until the day I die, and that could be decades, so obviously I only want to do the work one time. Conversely, the cost of upgrading the front suspension and brakes to 5 lug Ford bolt pattern is that or more than the cost of a complete aftermarket IFS commonly used on a hot rod. Since the R180 differential will not meet the needs of my project, what to do there too? I've read all about the R200 swap, and quite frankly I don't believe it's worth it. We're talking a ring and pinion gear only 20 mm larger - that's 7.87" vs 7.08". I've destroyed a 7.5" solid rear axle in my everyday driver with a 140 HP V-6 and street tires. An extreme case no doubt, but not something I wish to repeat in any vehicle. It was the ring and pinion that got shredded, my 28 spline axles remained intact. Through infrequently on this forum, there are people who have back halved their Z car with success. Yes I know the picture is of a Camaro and a three link, but it illustrates my idea. I may be a heretic for considering a solid rear axle, but with a 4 link setup and coilovers there is no reason ride quality has to be compromised. But now this project is getting costly. If I'm going to go to the trouble of welding in mounts for a solid rear axle, obviously subframe connectors will have to be made and welded in to stiffen the "chassis". What now? Continue the madness forward and get rid of the datsun front suspension with an aftermarket IFS? Or spend just as much money to keep the Datsun based front suspension but upgrade it? Where is this line drawn? But since my wheel offset is not something I can not change, perhaps I'm doomed to custom IFS. A cage or simple rollbar has not even been discussed at this point, but obviously either would help to stiffen the structure. What about a complete frame? Somebody was crazy enough (though in a good way) to have Art Morrison build them a custom chassis for their Datsun Z. I would like input from anyone who has similar thoughts and questions. Also, if anyone happens to have some quarter mile times they would be willing to share?
  7. I am just getting into Datsun cars, and I have acquired a 1970 240z. The car is in very nice shape, but there was one major problem - lack of a title. I solved this by finding a parts Datsun, a 1974 260Z. I am in the process of dismantling the 260Z and saving any usable parts. All that I have left to dismantle is the engine, transmission, front suspension, and rear suspension. This brings me to the question at hand. After looking in the Haynes manual, there are a few differences with the front and rear coils. The 260 is made of thicker material, and has more turns. The 260 has a rear sway bar, and my 240 does not. What I would really like to know is, Would it be worth it for me to take out the front and rear suspension from the 260z to install into my 240z, or is it a big waste of time. Note: I plan to install a smallblock Ford V-8 and T-5 transmission, along with a Thunder Ranch GTO Body kit. At the very least, I plan to swap the rear sway bar. Any information and help would be much appreciated.
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