Chevy Van

I'm building this for the 2011 Scale Auto Cannonball Run CBP.
The rules are to build what you would use in a Sea to Shining Sea run across the USA - and it must appear to be street legal.
This year being the 30th anniversary of the original movie all vehicles entered must be completly 1981 or earlier.
I'll be taking a leaf from the Gumball Rally Acme Plumbing van's book and will be doing it non-stop thanks to a huge extra fuel capacity.
I'm building a Chevy Van (Revell Van + Race Trailer kit) with engine & running gear from a (Revell) '68 L88 'vette.
Deadline is start of December 2011.

So far i've changed my mind about the wheels 3 times, stripped the engine, tubbed the rear and scratched up mounts for the 'vette IRS. Here's a mock up.

That's going to look cool,

Nice one Fred - great theme idea. Good luck with the build.

its very 70's style with the back like that. would it be like that or are you going to drop it? and those keystones are nice on that van.

The back will actually be slightly higher than that.
The front won't be so low.
The image I have in my mind is the cartoon rear 3/4 view on the deals wheels VW kombi box art - big fat rears and a serious rake.

Should be awesome when finished, can't wait. Love those Chevy vans.

Appear to be street legal? I thought anything was street legal in the US?
Looks like a cool project, those vans are cool. Watching this one

Very interesting

It's going to look cool

Vans ROCK!

checkmate wrote:Vans ROCK!

Depends what you're doing in the back surely?

Bit more done last night. Worked out how to graft on 'vette front suspension. The main problem was that the van is much wider than the 'vette. Not an issue at the back due to massive tubs and huge rubber. However at the front i'm having to split the 'vette parts and graft in some filler pieces.

Awesome stuff Zenrat! Cant wait to see some progress
Adam

OK, so i'm crap at posting WIPs - i'd rather spend my limited time building than setting up to take pics and then fiddlarse around putting them onto the interweb.
However, this one needed to be documented for the SA CBP (the deadline of which is Dec 1st).
So, having neglected this for a while i've been hustling along.

Here she is up on her wheels.

This is the view that inspired the stance - 3/4 rear view with severe rake & big rear meats.

Completed chassis (bar pipes). At the rear I scratched up a subframe for the 'vette parts while at the front I grafted on parts of 'vette chassis which also moved the engine back towards the centre of the van.

Completed Engine.

The trouble with van builds is that the engine is pretty much hidden from view. Especially if you have set it back. I had opened the bonnet but that would have exposed bugger all to view so I glued it back on again and went instead with clear panels on the engine cover.

RH drive was a must as I built the engine without realising that the alternator would get in the way of the drivers feet. The big metal box coming out of the dash is cold air ducting to the blower and the box on the left with the dial and the switches and lights is the co-drivers control panel for the long range fuel system.

Which is what i'm working on now. It will consist of four 44's plumbed into the stock tank with a pump to both lift fuel into them when fuelling and then pump it back when required (the stock, rear mounted tank acting as a header tank). The drums are to be mounted on stands (despite the fact they will raise the CoG) so that should the pump fail they will gravity feed the stock tank. Here is a mock up. I've painted the drums and when i've finished typing this i'll be off to the shed to fit them and plumb them in. There will also be 2 spare wheels mounted in the rear.

Brilliant work there Fred , love the detail of the cockpit

that is soooooooooooo cool, love it

Thanks guys.

Got the body painted now and the interior finished - the thing with the 4 black pipes going to it is a breather manifold that will fit up inside the van roof when I fit the body. Got to let the paint gas out now so nothing doing with this for at least a week.

Brilliant work Fred , hanging out to see this one finished now

The detail in that is...

Love the interior

Cool build mate, agree with every one else, the detail, especially on the interior is mind blowing, well thought out, i just hope driver and passenger are both NON-smokers with those drums in there.

that air ducting looks fanfriggentastic, the rest looks pretty danm good too

Thanks folks.

Dale - I thought about that hence the big vent I opened up in the roof (there was a skylight there). As long as it is moving then air should be drawn out of this removing fumes.
I'm thinking that the co-driver is going to have to balance the drums carefully as if he drains 1 side first it'll develop a significant tilt. Also, when they are all half full sloshing during cornering could make for interesting handling!