jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

Here is an opening shot of my latest project. I was given this '72 duece and a ton of parts from when it was taken apart.

It has been a race car since at least 1977 and possibly as early as 1974. It has racing history in IMSA including a 12th place finish at Mid Ohio in 1977 in a 250 mile race, and a 6th at a 3 hour at Daytona in 1978.

The car ran for a number of years in SCCA as a B Sedan and a GT3 car after no longer being elegible in the RS series in IMSA.

So after all the years of abuse I ended up with it after it was offered "free to good home". The previous owner had taken it apart and found it was a bigger project than his experience and time could pull off. He had seen my work and decided I was worthy I guess.

If you read this part of the forum you've seen teddyrx2's thread on selling his duece. Its in my hands now and will be used to put this car back on the track in vintage racing. I'll be using the good body panels to make fiberglass molds of just about everything while the car is in progress. The race car will be all steel but since I can make fiberglass panels I figured I'd use this opportunity to help out others looking for straight stock style glass panels for their cars. That means hoods, fenders, trunk lids, quarter panels, you name it, I'll make a mold. I'll even do the roof if somebody wants one.

banzaitoyota

BIG Project!, Good Luck

Come on over to vintagerotaries.org

d0 Luck

That's good to hear. You have a lot ahead of you so hopefully you don't quit. Will you be able to make fiberglass pieces for the RX-3 and RX-4?

REPUZENTN

iTrader: (1)

I like your optimism and determination. That is awesome that you are willing and able to help fellow ole'-skool rotor-heads out by offering to make fiberglass body parts/panels etc. I'll hit-you-up on it.
Again, thanks for offering your services and good-luck on your project.

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

It looks like more than it is project wise. I've done a few cars from this level of tear down. This one is easy because its already apart. The best thing is I don't need all the little details a nice street car needs. It just needs to go, stop, and turn. Its going to look period correct for the racing it first did in the '70's so no flares or interior. It will end up pretty though, if I can't find any early pictures it will probably end up in the Car & Driver livery of white over blue. Sort of a tribute, and people know that car, they just won't ever see it on a race track again as far as I know.

I have to make a chassis dolly this next week that will bolt to all the suspension points. First I need to figure out where those points are supposed to be. After 30 years of being a race car I don't expect it to be straight. If anybody has a sheet with the chassis measurements for a frame shop it would save me a day of measuring.

As for other series car panels, I just need a fairly good example to use as a plug to make a mold from.

rotarydude

iTrader: (2)

i think that i have the original chassis measurement points in an Rx-2 manual somewhere it may take me a few days to find it after all i have quite a few manuals, i also am sure i have a copy of the sports kit parts manual for the rx2 as well. I also have an Rx2 racer although mine only lived as an scca GT-3 car it is in very similar shape so any pics and information i would be willing to share

DAVE

Ita15

I am looking forward to following your progress. I am involved in a similar project restoring a Rx3. Mine starts as an IMSA RS car and became a GT3 car. It is more modified so vintage would seem to be out of the question. It will come back as a GT3 or maybe a GT Lite car. Please keep us updated.
Dick

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

rotarydude, those measurements would be great. Good luck finding them.

Ita 15, Your car could still run in vintage in at least SVRA/HSR. They have a group that includes the old GTO/GTU cars (iirc grp 10) so even with it being a "floor pan car" in SCCA rules you could prep it for GTU. Anything in allowed in GT3 rules would be allowed in GTU.

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

That deuce could run in vintage B Sedan.

4 words come to mind. Acid dip + epoxy primer

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

How about "soda blast+epoxy primer" lol

B sedan is where mine is going. Its going to be a Grp 8 car to run against all my friends with their old Trans Am 2.5 challenge Alfas.(four of them are the actual cars from the series, two Horst Kweck cars, one BOBCOR Alfa, and one that was run by Lee Midgley) I've already warned them about the HP I can get from a 12A bridgey. They didn't sound too happy...

Ita15

Group 8, Trans Am cars, sounds like a worthy goal. It is a really cool group and you could have a real giant slayer.

karism

Excellent!

*signing in*

Karis

OneRotor

iTrader: (3)

looks like a hell of a project. good luck.

*subscribed*

hellabad

It is really neat to see the old cars. The Dennis Golden RX3 used have a better paint job (IMHO) one year where it was gold and white Miller High Life sponsored. Sweet car, but I am biased towards Miller High Life.

Dennis is still around, and may be willing to help.

I don't recognize the RX2, but if anyone thinks that is a difficult resto, check out this link:

http://www.mat.fi/project1984toyotacelicaturbo.htm

Jay

MadChad

holly crap batman.

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

I started sorting through suspension parts and hanging them on the car so it can be moved around easier. There are a few little tricks I thought the crowd might like. The front brakes had to be stock diameter, no mention of anything else. Here is a shot of they did to get a 1 inch thick rotor on the car.


Here is the inner control arm bearing they installed.


Here is the front dual sway bar set up with the car on the ground for the first time in years.


There is only about 2 inches of clearance under that second sway bar. I plan on calling my old friend Jim Susko to get some strut spacers to improve the geometry but I'm going to have to change the sway bar set up to use them. If I lower that control arm at all the bar will be making grooves in the track.

I found a person that has all the sheets for crash repair for the RX2 on ebay. If nobody bids them up I'll scan them and pass them around here. I was going to start measuring today but since I found the crash sheets I'll wait until I get them before I make the chassis dolly.

banzaitoyota

Billy already makes the spacers http://re-speed.com/

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the link banzai. Jim Susko(GForce Eng.) and I used to be business/racing partners years ago so I'll end up with his stuff all over the car. In the vintage rules I can change to any strut so I'll end up with later ones or modify the stock ones to take a larger diameter insert

Re-Speed.com

iTrader: (3)

Great project! Keep us updated.

I really want to find an old RS car and rebuild it. Maybe once I get the current projects out of the way.

BTW, Jim is currently rebuilding one of his old RS cars and one or two of the Gatorade cars are on the boat (From Mazda) heading to his shop for rebuild. He may have some info he can spread your way if you need it.

banzaitoyota, you want to part with the 3?


-billy

banzaitoyota

I'd part with the RX-4. The 3 would cost alot

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

As long as I get my "original thread starter's commission" on the sale.

meteoro

is too speed.................

buzz

Looks like you have some work ahead of you fixing the rust in the sway bar mount.

How does the lower sway bar connet to the upper one / lower control arm? Is that chunk of steel you can see bolted to them both?

jgrewe

iTrader: (1)

Its some kind of link with spherical bearings on each end. It looks like it was made for something else because it has a slight kink in it. I would've just used a male and female spherical bearing assembly if I had done it.

The mount itself is pretty solid. Those holes were put in there with a hole saw and a torch respectively so they could access the nut to keep it from spinning after the stock insert stripped.

One of the owners along the line when it was converted to GT3 only had two tools to cut/trim things. It was either a torch or electric beaver(maybe a gas powered beaver, I can't tell). Some of the hack jobs that were inflicted on this chassis are going to take a lot of time to fix. Rust repair is my specialty though, I grew up in Ohio and raced a FIAT X1/9. For those of you who don't know, FIAT didn't invent rust, but they perfected it.

banzaitoyota

As a former X 1/9 owner I empathixe with you, but I do miss my PBS Stroker Engine