'73 Notchback Road Racer

[DrewP]

A gas soaked towel does wonders for getting that last bit of residue off the floors. Just don't smoke

Ahhh, will try that, that's what I used to get all the adhesive goo off the paper sound deadening around the inside of the rear wings, in the trunk, worked a charm there too. I always seem to forget gasoline is like.... the cheapest high quality solvent of all....

He's back! GO Drew!

Thanks Jason...

[Jordan]

A gas soaked towel does wonders for getting that last bit of residue off the floors. Just don't smoke

Ahhh, will try that, that's what I used to get all the adhesive goo off the paper sound deadening around the inside of the rear wings, in the trunk, worked a charm there too. I always seem to forget gasoline is like.... the cheapest high quality solvent of all....

Especially the nasty stuff you drain out of old gas tanks

[DrewP]

That even matches my paint!

[DrewP]

More progress last weekend.



Cut out factory seat mounts and handbrake ratchet bracket.








Smoothed out the center tunnel and outside rails. David got everything chopped out without hardly damaging the tunnels, just ground it smooth and will weld rails back in.





The factory front mounting bar that transverses the driver's compartment is normally in front of the rear shifter housing mounting bracket, you can see here where it was chopped out, all the little bits ground off of it, and we will re-weld it back in about 4" aft of where it sat before.





The rear mounting rail will mount the same way, except it's made of 1.5" x 1.5" square tubing rather than rectangular tubing, so it had to be notched into the center tunnel, and we'll probably perimeter weld it in.











With the rails that I have we found a nice driving position that we are gonna shoot for, and will use this position mockup to locate the steering column mount and pedal cluster. David is 6'2" - ish, and he has lots of space in the cage, seating is slightly lower than factory height. I am 5'9" and with the hood on it is just barely obscured by the bottom of the dashboard.









LOTS of head-room to acommodate padding and helmets, didn't want to chance anything there for street tests without a helmet on.






The 'Y' brace in the roof leaves a nice pocket for helmet clearance as well, and the kink we built into the upper braces touch nice against the roof skin, as well as provide a little more clearance. The outer longitudinal tubes are about 0.75" away from and alongside the roof sills.









Also lots of space on the driver's left alongside the door.









Drew

[airsweden]

Awesome work guys! Looks like a good candidate for the plastic doors, hood and trunk lid from Erik in Sweden?

[Luke]

wow looking great, looks like most of the real dirty work is done chassis wise. I was going to say its nice to have the heavy fab done before the winter but thats not so much an issue for you!

[DrewP]

Nope, not a problem, sun is out full bore today, like 15 mile visibility, 71*F.

We have all 4 seasons to make excuses why it's not getting worked on though!

Awesome work guys! Looks like a good candidate for the plastic doors, hood and trunk lid from Erik in Sweden?

Brother wants to make our own glass kevlar hood and maybe rear deck lid, the doors I chopped everything out of already, I need to get them on a scale, but I'd be surprised if they weigh more than about 12 lbs with hinges and the outside latch.

Shipping would probably kill buying them for me, and he has some cloth left over from some other projects, and if it'll be painted anyway we won't have to mess around with getting it to lay super nice anyway.


Drew

[Crazyswede]

be sure to check this clear again with a helmet on....looks to me like it will be very tight:

[DrewP]

I'm back at work and settled in to married life after the 3 weeks I was in MN over the holidays, and got a few things started back up on the 99.


Got the steering column half-way mounted, I'm re-using the 99 column and bearing assembly so I can put the signal and wiper stalks right back on it and the U-joints are in good shape. Still have to make the lower mount since the stock one bolted to the pedal cluster, which is not there any more.

It's just a simple U bracket, and I welded a pair of all-metal lock nuts for exhaust manifold studs to the back so I don't have to mess with holding a wrench on a loose nut to install & remove it, really easy.

Kept the steering wheel angle and position pretty much the same, just a few inches aft since the seat is a few inches aft of where it would normally be as well, and pretty upright since I won't have power steering in this car.

[V4_guy]

Very cool build! That is one hell of a cage.

Being a '73, it could very well be one of the cars in this photo.



The Cycle of Life: A Swedish Perspective

[Luke]

Wow, thats a great photo! I think Drew's is clearly the 3rd from left, 3rd row back and golfguru's is 4th row first from left, and thats without a doubt Pauls '73 copper metallic EMS front and center.

[paulh]

Wow, thats a great photo! I think Drew's is clearly the 3rd from left, 3rd row back and golfguru's is 4th row first from left, and thats without a doubt Pauls '73 copper metallic EMS front and center.

Haha I was thinking the same myself, I think theres another one just to the right of it too, really a shame that likely 98% of those cars are long gone now. Notice none of them have mirrors? Must have stuck those on at the dealer.

Paul

[DeLorean]

The fact that none have mirrors explains a lot, as it always seems that no 2 cars have the exact same mirror arrangement / placement.

[Jordan]

It looks like the holes are there for them. Probably just for space saving.... I know how many times I've almost snapped mine off walking past since they don't fold.

[DrewP]

Wow, thats a great photo! I think Drew's is clearly the 3rd from left, 3rd row back and golfguru's is 4th row first from left, and thats without a doubt Pauls '73 copper metallic EMS front and center.

I found the car sitting right next to mine then, 3rd row, 4th car.

Another '73 LE hanging out behind another local SAAB shop -- this one has the green interior too.