Project Tornado: A Natural Disaster

[joe231]

sweet progress

[83burban]

Nice work - just a note - shouldn't there be a crossover pipe on the exhaust?

[Lane]

Nice!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Man what ride that is gonna be...

[isdeleon]

nice progress, its looking sweeet

[muddpile]

Thanks guys, I'm really looking forward to putting this one back on the road in better working order than when I started.

To answer a few questions:
-I have no idea if it will do a wheelie. It has around 390hp/475tq, so the potential is there, but the old carb limited it heavily. Now there is nothing holding it back, so we'll see.

-I was going to paint it gold, but then realized red shows off chrome better, plus it seems to me the high performance Olds stuff was always red as well. I could be wrong on this one, as I'm not much of an Olds guy, but I've seen Olds engines in red, gold, and light blue metallic (this engine was originally the light blue).

-Yes, I do work like a maniac . I want to drive this unit this summer as much as possible, so I've been going as late as possible to get it on the road. It will be flat black this year with steelies and a bare interior, but it will be on the road. The chassis will be flat black as well, again just for this year. Still have not decided on a final color.

-I will take it out on the highway and punch it and see if the front end does anything it shouldn't. If it does I'll get a wheelie bar. I'm hoping I don't have to, as it makes it look that much less like a street vehicle. The entire drivetrain is out of a front wheel drive 1969 Olds Toronado, including the TH425 transaxle. The engine runs into the torque converter, then into that large chaincase you see at the back. It then spins a TH400 style transmission on the drivers side that runs backwards into an independent suspension differential setup. Because it is the front end of a car, it has 4 wheel independent suspension and 4 wheel disc, and that is also why the motor is basically centered over the rear wheels.

-The exhaust is only 7ft long per side, so I figured a crossover pipe wouldn't be that necessary, as it's pretty well straight through with minimal restriction, plus fitting an X or an H pipe would be tough in this setup. I really like the look it gives right now with the parallel glasspacks.

[protrash64]

That thing is really looking nice. It still blows my mind. I thought the exhaust looked like a VW header system on steroids!!!

[Iron-Butt]

looking good

[Captainfab]

WOW! this truck is already looking 100X better than it was. I'm curious as to how the wheels are kept from turning. I was supposed to do something like this to a '68 for a guy last fall, but he flaked out on me so I didn't get to do the job. I had an idea but I'd like to see what was done on this one. TIA

[greg64]

Captainfab, wouldn't you think it would be an in-board heim joint locked in place, attached to an outer tie rod end in the spindle? The threads would give adjustability for alignment purposes. Just spitballing here, I'm curious how it's done too.

[dieselarmy13]

Hey mudpile, I know you got something done this weekend, don't hold out on us!

[suzq044]

Originally Posted by muddpile

Firewall is done as much as I want to do it for this year. This winter I will be pulling the fenders and brake assembly and doing a full width skin.<snip>
The inner bed skins and fenders are tacked. Still need to make a front panel and a gate.

got a question; how are you going to do the rear end? Tanneu cover or no? I was thinking, what about making it like a trunk lid on a traditional car, but disguise it as a tanneu cover.. like so:


.. just a thought..

[muddpile]

Captainfab: The rear spindles have a tie rod/heim joint setup on each side to keep the spindles from turning like they would have on the Toronado.

Greg64: You've got it.

Dieselarmy13: You'll see soon enough Let's just say I drove it to get an alignment, and then to work after that. It's not near finished, but I'm testing the things I've done thus far. Oh yeah, it looks meaner now too....

Suzq044: I've actually got a dual quad intake for it and I'm building a wild set of headers and a scoop this winter, so I've decided it will remain open-engined. The rear end will be welded entirely shut, right down to a rollpan. The inside of the gate will be welded shut as well like the bedsides, as will the front of the bed. That tonneau idea you have there is neat, however, very creative!

[greg64]

Hey muddpile, maybe you need a huge tunnel ram on that engine. A first... a tunnel ram that didn't block visibility!

By the way, where in Sask are you hiding? If I pass through your parts this summer, I've got to see this thing!

[muddpile]

Half way between our big cities Regina and Saskatoon, little town called Nokomis. I'm a unique breed here.....

As for the tunnel ram, I actually have an Offy dual quad setup with a pair of 500CFM Carter AFB's for it. It's lower rise, back carb higher than the front, and looks very correct for this truck.

[greg64]

Well, can't say I've been to Nokomis, but I've been to both Regina and Saskatoon before.

[scotts62]

Very cool! And different

[ChiefRocka]

Man Mud, I haven't checked back here in a while...you indeed have made some awesome progress !!!

The red paint sets it off really nice, as to the covers and cleaner.

The floor/firewall came out sweet !!

Keep up the good work !!


Later...

[Captainfab]

Originally Posted by muddpile

Captainfab: The rear spindles have a tie rod/heim joint setup on each side to keep the spindles from turning like they would have on the Toronado.

That's what I was planning on doing also on the one I didn't get to do
I was just curious if there may have been a different way.

[D-CHEESE]

wow that is a cool projext man ...keep us posted on it ....very interesting

[muddpile]

Dash is in. The paint job is only temporary, as it was handy and fast. The gauges and layout, however, are permanent.



Grille and headlights are mounted, no more squares...



Wide Whites and fresh paint on the steelies

[joe231]

looking sweet!!!

[FRENCHBLUE72]

Damn what an improvement...

[greg64]

Great work muddpile! It'd be interesting to get that thing on a scale so we can see what the front/rear weight bias is.

[dieselarmy13]

LOOKING SWEET! Love those Moon guages. Did you get your tires from Coker?