Gar

Modern Dino

A no-plans, ground-up build using Contour drivetrain and an old Kelmark replica body of the Dino 246.

Young Me

Dad had too many kids to ever be the racer he'd dreamed of.... so he built us a go-cart. A 5 horse, Crosley three speed with no syncro. We all learned to drive very young.

Convex Driver Mirror

Easy mod for later cars, impossible for earlier ones.

Possible rad vent grill location

I toyed with different approaches, and for now, this is the leader. The grill will follow the surface curves, and will have formed edges that mount it from the inside so it's flush on the outside. I have lots of nice hex...

001.JPG

Much nicer throttle foot clearance.... now back to work designing the next solution to whatever the next problem is. I'm thinking I might like to consider a hanging throttle pedal instead of the floor mount.

001.JPG

Almost done. I have a couple more flanges to add and ought to have that complete tomorrow (vacationing) I can fab stuff in metal in minutes.... this fiberglass jazz takes like days. Once this pain part is done I can get thin...

Heater box mod

My sporty project is a little more narrow, and the wheels more aft of Contour, so I ran into an issue with pedal room. I need just a bit more space on the tunnel side of the throttle pedal so I've chopped the heater box to...

The Go-cart.wmv

notch.jpg

Here's the frame notch needed to clear the steering column. It's not pretty, in fact it only tacked for now. I have feet of bead to lay, but I'll wait till everything is torn down next time to tidy up and finish a...

Pedal Box

What's to say? I bailed on the short Wilwood pedals and bought the long ones. I made a throttle pedal that will be floor mounted. I think I'll cut an acess door in the hood to get at the reserviors. It will make the...

Heater and AC unit

I marked and drilled the dash support panels that also reinforce the door hinges so I could locate the dash with the body off this week. Now that the steering is connected I need to fab the pedal mounts. I mounted the heater/...

Steering Coupler

I'm using the Contour steering column with a mid 90s T-Bird rack for it's ratio, and it's fit to the Pinto/MII spindles set wider than Contour, but the two cars are different. To make the transition, I bought a bar...

Attached body to frame

Both my brothers came down for our annual Carlisle Kitcar weekend and we made progress on the project. We mounted the doors because I was concerned that the body may need tweeking where it meets the frame. It's been a lon...

New frontend Attached

I snapped this one just to evaluate the looks of the front track since using the Mustang II based IFS. I think I'd like it an inch wider to match the rears, but need to determine how this will upset the scuff. The rims I...

Center Console

I finally decided that I had to locate the parking brake beside, rather than behind the shifter to allow both room to pull the brake, and to keep my elbow from whacking it while shifting. The shifter knob ends up at the 3 o...

New Front End

Finally here. The old VW beam wouldn't work well enough for me with the end-loaded rack and pinion. Center-loaded racks didn't have a driver side pinion, so... do-over. These spindles are Pinto using the MII design (...

Shifter positioning

After a rather long break from the project I'm back. I was making a mold for a headlight lens... more on that later. I want my shifter right up next to the steering wheel, so that meant putting everything together again t...

Parking Brake Lever

I only got the parking brake lever mount done this week after traveling to visit Mom. The cables are custom from Madison, the lever is from a Suzuki Samurai. It's not in position just yet. I have to sink some threaded in...

Shifter Bracket Glamour Shot

Okay, I'm proud. This is another show-off picture of the stationary bracket for the shifter cables, eight pieces of 3/16 steel.

Shifter Cables Bracket

I'm now using the cable operated tranny that Terry built up for me. With it back behind me now, rather than in front, I need long cables. I want to minimize the lash, so my fab parts are made husky. Determining how to ma...

HMS Tranny & Motor Mount

Since changing from rod to cable trans, the upper engine mount I'd made didn't cut it any more, so I took the opportunity to make a beautiful new one. I had some bad threads that I Helicoiled for the front roll restric...

Some new controls

While I'm waiting for my new front suspension parts, I took vacation this week and started on plumbing the rear brakes and some controls. The shifter is from a Celica, turned around backwards since that trans was in the fr...

It's low and wide

Here's the butt view that shows just how wide it is relative to its height. The axles are about an inch and three quarters longer than stock Contour, so overall it's about eight or nine inches wider that a Tour with th...

Sorting out brakes

I had to figure where to route the brake lines. The rims are so deeply dished, the stock bits would have rubbed the tires. I got the braided lines made at Godman's, but since then I found Bonaco, and saw thier work... it...

Steering column

I'd fabbed large steel panels that serve to tie the frame to the hinge area to improve door fit and feel. I cut a little width off the end flanges of the Contour dash cross member, and it fit right in. Built mounts to wel...

Old vs New

Here are the two passenger mirrors side by side. You can see that on the new mirror (left) the entire gimbal is now part of the shell mounted mechanism. The mirror backs between left and right are close enough in form that yo...

Pointless to try

Here is the motor turned roughly how it would need to be for the convex mirror since that mirror also has the gimbal turned 90 degrees to match the motor on the passenger side. The problems are: the mounting holes don't l...

Same motor, both sides

The same motor is used for both sides. It is turned 90 degrees from one side to the other. My intent is to use the convex mirror on the drivers side also. Here is how it is normally mounted.

Early mirriors

The differences in the early to late are substantial. Early ones are metal frame, and the gimbal is part of the mirror backing. Even the shell is slightly different where it meets the sail piece. Here are the left and right...

Dashboard, what a job

I had a devil of a time getting the dash out of the donor, but the effect of a modern dash kicks butt in my custom. It was the right width, and I believe I have just enough height to get the heater/AC unit all in there. The c...

Exhaust mounted

Sure, it's held up by boxes for now cause I need to work out the hangers yet. This side's upper motor mount has to change for the cable operated trans that replaces the early rod shift trans I started with. The rear su...

Cool SS exhaust

It's a very short trip from engine to the back of the car so I had to fabricate an exhaust system that was compact. I've got MSDS headers, and modified the TrueBenz Y pipe to use a ball and socket joint rather than the...

Nuther engine view

There were so many views of the engine shot I posted, I'll put up another. Obvious, this is from the cockpit looking back. You can see the tranny side engine mount I made (probable change for the cable trans I'll use)...