Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Love the build. You are going at this from a completely different angle than any other truck or blazer than I have seen or heard of. I would not have the intestinal fortitude to go for a build anywhere close to this caliber. What do you do as a day job?

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

OK, so I've been kind of a slack about updating this thread.

My chassis has been at Porterbuilt for almost a year now so they could get their stuff to actually fit the 4WD frame. It's supposed to be completed this month, but then again I've heard that several times before. The delays in the chassis have halted everything else, and I've stopped shopping vendors for the rest of the project right now because I've gotten too many interested in parts of the project only to have these delays cause the resources to evaporate. So until I have a rolling chassis to work with I am kind of stalled out, it's very aggravating and makes me look like a total flake.

I do really appreciate all the encouragement on my project, to answer your question Abe, I am a computer infrastructure architect, I design large scale computing systems but I am currently between gigs so cash flow is a bit lacking at the moment anyway.

In the meantime I plan on starting to develop some of the electronic controls soon using these little Raspberry Pi microcomputers:

Attachment 1426717

I plan to use several of these to control various things in the truck like the seats, windows, and well, stuff. The cool thing about these is that there is many display options for them from simple indicators to small little text displays and full color displays from small cell phone sized to your typical SatNav sized.

I also haves several of these:

Attachment 1426731

...which are a simple little spinning turn dial that essentially acts like an up arrow and down arrow on a keyboard and when you push it it's like the return key or a mouse click, meaning you can use it with a real simple webpage running on the controllers to create simple interfaces with a cool spinning knob.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Cool ideas here. The wait from PB will be worth it. The rest of Blazer owners will appreciate you as well, when there is a true 2wd conversion available.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

found this glass dash for in a car it includes everything a normal dash has like the oilpressure warninglight indicator hi beam handbrake brake warning indicators that other systems needs to have leds added for
https://plus.google.com/+VenatorDashboard/posts
guy uses android a small anolog to digital box and some software he builds himself
and these tft screens with a tft to vca adapter
http://g01.a.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1M4ZWH...-font-font.jpg
the russian car computer website has a lot of info and most of the program on it and once you hit google translate you can understand most of it , you might want to look intoo it
contacted him a while back and he just about ready to sell the stuff in beta/kitform with the pull down menu's in english
the price he quoted me was between 500 and 600 dollar

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

The display dash is pretty cool stuff, probably a bridge too far for me though. I do want to keep the actual gauges a traditional needle and dial affair, though I do realize that the gauges I plan to use (Speedhut) are still microprocessor controlled, so the reality is that they are really sort of the same deal as electronic.

Dakota Digital makes a little all in one vacuum fluorescent display for motorcycles that I am planning to incorporate into my cluster. The DD unit has a graphical tach, digital speedo, odometer, signal and high beam indicator, and a speed vs rpm based gear indicator as well as a clock, fuel gauge, and some programmable idiot light functions. Though I plan to have all the gauge functions repeated as "analog" gauges.

Attachment 1426923

I do not plan on using the casing at all.

It really has to do with the gear indicator and odometer than anything else, The Speedhut speedometer has, like most electronic speedometers these days, a cheesy LCD display for the odometer and since they do custom, my plan is to have them do one dial face with the LCD area open so I can set the gauge up the first time and another without the window and just bury it under the dial. Having a Vacuum fluorescent odometer incorporated into the cluster but separate from the gauge, to me, feels a bit more OEMish. Also my 6 speed 4L80E and paddle shifter doesn't really lend itself to anything other than a speed based or some TCU programed method of indicating gear and I really want to have an indicator that tells me what gear I'm in vs. what is selected.

The dash is a whole thing unto itself which I've not gotten into in this thread much. I plan on doing a machined gauge cluster with the gauges mounted behind a single pane of acrylic in a layered array. I've measured it all out and I should be able to squeeze 2 4.5in gauges, speedo and tach, with the tach a reverse wind, and both with rotated faces so they land with the needles pointing at each other. With the corners slightly tucked under the 2 big gauges I should be able to fit 3 2.25in gauges outside of those and another 3 slightly tucked under those on each side. This gives me a total of 14 gauges in the cluster, 6 of which (on the left) will be individual calibration vacuum gauges for the individual throttle bodies.

The center of the dash and falling into a center console will be modular panels so the electronics can evolve over time, each panel I am planning to be about 1"x9" or some multiple of that (2"x9", 3"x9", etc..). This way I can put in DIN and Double DIN pieces, or switch panels, or AC controls or vents, or whatever.

Parking brake will be an electronic unit as will the main P-R-N-D selector with the paddle shift manual override. The selector is a standard piece from Powertrain Control Solutions, the same company that makes the 6 speed TCU I'll be using (they also made the valve body). Here's a pic:

Attachment 1426946

...and the E-Stopp electronic parking brake which simply pulls the parking brake cable when you push a button:

Attachment 1426947

I think I've also mentioned in this thread somewhere that the exhaust will be incorporating an internally by-passable muffler and I'm using the Ridetech Select series coilovers which are also electrically controllable.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Yikes. You're not supposed to talk about that on a car site. Because it's all subjective, right? None of this is worth it really. I mean why go with an inline six when a v8 would be fine? Probably cheaper and more aftermarket support. But is that old truck worth it? Why not just buy a sports car? The "what's the point" or "is it worth it" argument is to be avoided at all costs. It's the only reason my grandpa's truck isn't scrap metal already.

Still looking forward to updates on this very cool project.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I wanted the E-STOPP brake system, but I heard it takes (relatively speaking) forever to engage... almost 10 seconds. Its about $500. too....

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

You're right, of all people I shouldn't be one to critique another's idea when many of mine are pretty off most peoples sanity map. And I'm not sure why It didn't really dawn on me at the time but the DOHC thing has actually sort of been done already by GM with some assist from Ryan Falconer:
http://falconerengines.com/images/fa...coner_l6_1.jpg

I understand that this engine was actually loosely based on the 292, though there isn't much left of it. This engine carries a starting price of $45,000 and does have a bit more potential than the Trailblazer engine, but not as much as you'd think. GM used both of them in the Baja trophy trucks as well as for Pikes Peak hill climb racers. The Falconer L6 I think caps out around 5 liters and the Trailblazer could probably be pushed to 4.4 liter by using the sleeves from the 3.7 Liter I5 Canyon engine and maybe a bit more with a stroked crank, but not much. In the Trophy Trucks, they ran 5.0 and 4.2 respectively both 24 valve DOHC and both turbo charged and the Trailblazer engine in race trim was lower in HP but actually slightly higher in HP/liter.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

The E-STOPP is actually only one of several aftermarket solutions and there is OEM parts that also do the same thing. That said, I'm not sure that a 10 sec engagement is really a problem for me given that the trans will still have park. I have probably set a parking brake in a car with an automatic trans less times than I have fingers and toes and the 'Vette brakes I'll be using use an internal parking drum in the rotor that is, frankly, slightly less stout than the drums on my Honda 250 dirt bikes, which themselves are barely adequate for the less than 300 lb bike they are on. So, they really are parking brakes and not any sort of a real panic emergency brake.

My plan was maybe to just auto engage them when the ignition was off. My father drilled into me that the parking brake is either something you use every time or absolutely never use at all, because if you don't use it every time the cable gets sticky and doesn't disengage all the way and wears out your rear brakes. So if I did use the electronic version it would probably either be a button I never push because it engaged automatically, or a button I never push because I simply don't use it. Is it worth $500 if that is the case? I don't know, but it just seems like not having a parking brake at all just seems wrong, no? Especially since I already have all the parts at the wheels to make them work.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

you could look around at wheelchair adaptations for cars , some of them allso have these sort of thing for when the person operating it doesnt have the strength or feet to operate the lever
from wat the picture of the system shows its nothing more than a linear servo , you could add one to under the dash mecanicly pressing the brakepedal lever above the footpad with a small roller , prolly can use a smaller less powerfull servo for that
retracted it doesnt mess up the pedal feel and extended it keeps all four wheels locked
it does put some force on the hydraulic lines and stuff but it would brake better than a emergenc brake does
i would still keep the original emergencybrake setup incase the hydraulics let go

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

So why not just use a grab handle for the E-brake?

BTW, it's August. Have a chassis yet?

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'd stick with a manual brake, hand or foot operated. Unless you're some drifter or something I don't think it's purpose would be for "dynamic" use. If you're away from the house and had a differential failure, u-joint failure or something like that you'll want one that works.

I had an '07 GTI and never used the hand brake. When wifey parked it in the winter she'd yard on the handle and it'd always be frozen ON in the morning (moisture in the cables). Her '09 Tiguan has an electric park brake that operates all on it's own, every time. It also has a selectable feature where it sets when you come to a stop in gear. You can let your foot off the brake, then it automatically releases when you push on the gas pedal. My '12 Silverado has a similar feature (not selectable) where the brake comes on if your rolling backwards in drive. It holds you in place if your stopped, facing uphill.

The electric actuator kind of falls in line with the rest of your tech, but unless you're going to automate it, I'd keep this one simple and reliable.

$0.02

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I don't know, seems kind of wrong some how to have a grab handle for the brake but not have a shift lever. Also the best I could come up with for a lever I liked the look of was to adapt one from a Jeep, most of the aftermarket brake levers just looked cheesy to me.

And in answer to your 2nd question, um nope.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

maibe just use a line lock system on the rearbrakes

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I had originally grabbed a brake lever out of an early 2000 Range Rover. Well built with a nice handle and leather boot. My problem is the mounting location. I kept changing my center console design, and may end up going with e-stopp so I can just have a button on the dash... They did have something in the works with UPS so that the brake automatically sets when you put the vehicle in park...

I also always use the e-brake even with an automatic. I would rather have the have the pressure of the car (on an incline) on the brake, rather then the parking pawl in the automatic transmission.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

What's the latest from PB?

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I've made some pretty wordy posts in this thread but a picture's worth a thousand words, so here's a couple grand worth:
Attachment 1440902
Attachment 1440903

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

...and with the top:
Attachment 1440909
Attachment 1440910

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Looks awesome! If you can pull it off it'll be one of a kind in so many ways.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Nice renders ;) :P

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Yes, yes they are. you'd a man!

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Very nice! That's also a sweet looking rendering, who did that for you?

EDIT: hellaflush3d, i assume. Great work.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

You assume correctly. This one is actually my favorite of the renders he did:
Attachment 1445962

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

What a great build! Really fun to watch.
:gmc2:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Thanks, always appreciate the kind words.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I'm looking for an opinion here, a lot of the '60s-70s convertibles had the windshield frame clad in stainless trim, I'm considering the idea of going with that look by nickel plating the frame, the vent window door supports, and of course the vent window frames. Here is 2 renders I had Chad the render master do, the original with the blacked out windshield/vent trim and one with those pieces plated (as well as the mirrors and wiper arms). Which do you guys like better?

Blacked Out:
Attachment 1450682

Nickel Plated:
Attachment 1450683

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I get the cleanliness of the concept, and it'd be cool as hell but I like the look of the black frame better.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

might look better if you slant the sides inwarth a bit
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog....ble-review.jpg
will give you problems fitting the side windows unless you dont make them roll down but more of a canvas pull out style

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I like the black and it's certainly easier to pull off, the nickel option isn't easy at all, I'd probably need to slice the whole frame off somewhere across the firewall, have it plated then weld it back together with enough distance that it doesn't blue the plating. thought about just making the sides and top a bolt on piece but I'd bet that body flex would crack the windshield. Also it has to be all metal and really clean to do it.

hmm, probably a bridge too far, I like the idea and I have thought about laying down the windshield a bit as well, but all this screws with the vent windows, the fitment of the top, etc, etc. I am building this to be a daily driver, and even though I plan on modifying virtually every panel, it's still something that could be repaired if it ever needed to be without huge effort.

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

I vote black.

:gmc2:

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Whats the latest?

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

kindah interested too , aspecially at how far you gotten with the engine
been looking intoo some problems of my own with the jaguar inline 6
the engine is normally mounted at a 21 degree slant and i want it straight up in the truck
problem is the automatic trans , could make an adapterplate rotating the mountingholes or make a new engineplate where the trans mount too doing the same thing
but the starter cant be moved and i have doubts it will clear the bellhousing if the divit for it has rotated 21 degrees away from the starters nose
might need to cut a hole for it in the side to get everything to play nice again , i wish the bellhousing was bolted to the trans but it isnt unfortunately

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Anything new on this build?? Been about year now,. Curious to know how things with PB played out

Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT
 

Yea, I'm getting ready to do the same 4.2L vortec and 4L80E swap into my C50. Probably going to buy the pre- machined pump face and adapter ring and cut the bell off myself.

Any progress?