Finaly it's home!

I finaly brought the car home to my place from MANLAND. I have hooked up the steering for the time being with tack welds just so I can steer it around a little easier. I have also started to install the exhaust system but ran into some trouble. The original system that T/R sent with my kit was made wrong and required me to send it back to them to have it fixed so the collector hung a little lower to clear the frame. otherwise the J tubes coming back from the forward cylinders could not be inserted into the collector. Anyhow I sent it back and they fixed it but since I couldn't fit the J tubes in the first place to check their fit now I have the back part in place and the J tubes are not right. Soooooo back to T/R they go to be exchanged for a new set. Hopefully this fixes the problem.

Just a few pictures

Just a few shots to show how the kit looks all uncrated and on jackstands. The crate is pretty sturdy and takes a while to get it all broken down and it makes quite the pile of stuff to haul to the dump.

The Motor

The Motor for the car is a brand new 1776cc dual carb (kadrons) with a Engle 110 cam. I'm shooting for reliability in this car so I didn't want to build a hand grenade motor. I'm pretty sure the 1776 will do the job in a 1300lb car!

More Power

So you have probably noticed that since I have the wheels on the transaxle must be in the car. Well your right. Again like I said I deviated from the instructions a little bit since my first goal was to get it on it's wheels. I will say this, I think it would be much easier to put the engine and trans. together first and then mount it in the car. The reason I say this is because after the trans. is in getting the motor in between it and the chassis and firewall is a tight squeeze. It can be done but you have been warned! You can see in the pictures the scratches on the frame and firewall that happend when I wedged it in there. Once it's in bolt it to the trans. and your good to go. DO NOT FORGET THE THROWOUT BEARING!!!!!! In case you are wondering no, I did not forget mine but I know someone who did and he had to remove the engine to install it. This isn't something you want to do twice especialy if the car is painted before. You don't want to risk damaging the paint do you?

Wheels of steel

So after all the hassle with the front end the rear susp. was pretty easy. There is no right hand left hand etc... marked on the parts so make sure you get it right the first time. The instructions are very clear about the measurment from the upper shock mount to the end of the spring plate. I used what the manual says 11 1/4" inches and I think the car sits just right at this height. As far as getting the ends of the spring plates pushed into the bushings, do yourself a favor and use long old bolts or all thread to pull it all together and then replace them one at a time with a bolt and nylock after you get it all snugged down. The spacers between the spring plate and the mount are approx. 5/8" it does not mention that in the instructions and that is the measurment I got from T/R on the phone from Tom, he should know he has built a few of these. The spacers are just tube steel. after that pop on the wheels drop it on the ground and adjust your front ride height. The two adjusters up front give you about 2" up or down each. Here is my car on it's wheels for the first time.

T stands for trouble

So Like I mentioned I had a few quality issues to deal with when I first started. I chose to do the front and rear suspention first so the car could be rolled around as needed. The T/R manual kind of follows a rational path but I have deviated from that path a little as I am a guy and guys don't follow directions very well. Anyways back to the Issues. First thing was I found a broken bearing shell that had been powder coated over on the front beam and when I was cleaning out the upper tube I found what was left of the bearing rollers. There was also a punch hole that looks like it was made with a screw driver next to the tube on the shock upright. So after much grinding prying and cussing I got the remains of the old bearing out. So on with the assembly right?.....Wrong! in the left lower tube I found a bugpac urethane bushing that was pushed way back into the tube. I found this out when I was finishing up the front susp. assembly and of course the last piece I was putting on was the left side lower trailing arm. So, I had to dis-assemble what I had done on the lower beam and figure out how to get the urethane bushing out as I could not get the trailing arm to seat with it in there.

Long story short I ended up pounding the trailing arm in as far as I could with a deadblow hammer and then using a slide hammer was able to pull the bushing closer to the open end of the tube. I then took a large soldering iron with a long flat tip on it and was able to cut the bushing into four pieces and pull it out. After all that I welded up the punch hole and the rest went together per the instructions, took awhile to get it all done though.

Where to start......

First off let me start by thanking my buddy Jamie. He allowed me to keep my car at his place for far too long not to mention "MANLAND" as it's known to all of us is a great place to work on stuff. Here are a few shots of what a T/R kit looks like in it's crate. Mind you the shipping company carries these crates on their side to save room so when you go to pick it up and have to lay it flat on a trailer for transport better bring a couple strong friends to help out or you might have a problem. I actualy had the guy at Freight Forward just drop it on the trailer and after a few minutes of trying to figure out how to lay it down he just got into his forklift without a word to me and drove off. I thought he was going to get some help but he never came back. I asked a couple other guys if they could give me a hand and they didn't seem to interested until I told them I would just leave the truck where it was blocking their ramp until they helped me get it into a transportable condition and were actualy pretty cool about it once they saw how the other dude left it.

Let's get started shall we?

So here it is, I planned on starting this when I first got the kit. I will attempt to detail the build of my Thunder Ranch Porsche 550 replica here. I bought this kit almost two years ago and have kind of worked on it in fits and starts. It really should be finished by now, but I am going to attempt to finish it by this summer. I chose the T/R kit after doing some research and for the most part I have been happy with my decision. I have had a couple quality issues with my kit and T/R has been for the most part good to work with and they do seem to care and stand behind their product.