What would you buy?

[greenmeanie]

Ah Matt,
I had that discussion and decided that I'm one of these freaks that just likes leafers. Anyway, by the time I am done with my 67 NADA 109 it will eat that 110 for breakfast!

She'll be a bitsa with Chevy, Ford, Jeep and Toyota packed in the mix plus some other aftermarket generic goodies. Now, if only my 101 would work.

Cheers
Gregor

 

[Yorker]

Ah Matt,
I had that discussion and decided that I'm one of these freaks that just likes leafers. Anyway, by the time I am done with my 67 NADA 109 it will eat that 110 for breakfast!

She'll be a bitsa with Chevy, Ford, Jeep and Toyota packed in the mix plus some other aftermarket generic goodies. Now, if only my 101 would work.

Cheers
Gregor

hehe I like leafsprung freaks...


Your '67 will be pretty darned cool. That 292 with a NP435 will be a torque monster!

 

[TeriAnn]

I had that discussion and decided that I'm one of these freaks that just likes leafers. Anyway, by the time I am done with my 67 NADA 109 it will eat that 110 for breakfast!

She'll be a bitsa with Chevy, Ford, Jeep and Toyota packed in the mix plus some other aftermarket generic goodies. Now, if only my 101 would work.

Cheers
Gregor

Hi Gregor, :wavey:
Would you care to elaborate a bit on what you are building? I'm always curious as to what others are up to.

My 1960 Dormobile has:

- 1970 Mustang 302 with 1991 Mustang EFI
- Borg Warner T-18 gearbox
- Series transferase with Ashcroft high ratio kit (65 MPH @ 2750 RPM & 70:1 low first)
- custom Great Basin Rovers font & rear propshafts with long slip joints & high angle U joints
- Rear Salisbury with ARB & custom Great Basin Rovers rear axles
- Front Rover axle housing with 24 spline SeriesTrek front axles, TruTrac, the stronger 4.75:1 R&P & Torrel Industries front disc brakes.
- Steering is a Scout II power steering box.

Show whatcha building?

 

[greenmeanie]

Well TeriAnn,
I recently bought a NADA 67 109 from Colorado. It's a nice core of a vehicle with some alterations. It's big attraction is that it has a Chevy 292 straight six with a Scotty's adapter mating it to the stock drivetrain. The odd thing is that it has a bolt on galvanized rear cross member but the rest of the chassis is perfect. The only tin worm is in the footwells.

Now having got the beastie home there are a few things that I don't like:
- The previous owner had rewired the truck using such things as domestic twist nuts for splices. There was no documentation with his work so I'm just going to gut her and start from scratch. The advantage here is that I will be able to base the new system round a Painless 18 circuit fuse box and use realays for those things needed.
- The Chevy engine is longer than the old LR 2.6 lump which pushes the radiator up over the front cross member. The PO had kluged in two radiators to fill the space round the steering relay and added an oil cooler. All of these were only wired to the truck and are connected together with a rats nest of hoses.

The build spec is to have a dd truck for my family that has been modernised to maximise passenger safety inside and had all the subsystems modernised/overhauled for reliuability. The truck will serve as my daily driver in competition with my '71IIA and my 101. It will also serve as the family camping vehicle and also as a means of hauling my downhill bikes and Malamute up to the mountains for some fun in the cooler air.

The build plan is something like this:
- Keep the Chevy engine but put better manifolds on it, bump the compression to 9:1 and add TBI fueling. That should give me plenty of power and get her as about economic as i can within a budget. I'd love a lump ported head but that's drag racing territory.
- Put on power steering ala Jim's truck. Pickings are thin on the ground in Phoenix so the choice of actual steering box will be down to what is available. I'll run a Chevy power steering pump.
- That will free up the area occupied by the steering relay leaving me a big square hole for a proper radiator set up.'leccy fans will pull the air through.
- Use a small block Chevy bellhousing to mate to an F250 NP435. Use an Ike adapter to mate this to my series transfer case. That should get me a pretty bomb proof powertrain with plenty of grunt.
- Add a dual aircon unit from hot rod air. This is a requirement from my wife for existing in Phoenix.
- On the chassis I'll be pulling that rear cross member, cleaning up the mounting plate installation and then securing it using bolts through a Pangolin hitch and two 3 ton shackle plates using grade 8 hardware. Should be plenty strong.
- Suspension will be Rocky Mountain Parabolics.
- For the interior I'm looking at the front and rear seat from a JK Wrangler. This is to be my family truck so high back seating and modern belts are a priority. Now I just need to bide my time for someone to wreck one of those 4 door jeeps. Like a vulture I can wait. I'll be putting a Tuffy console in between the two front seats. An alternative rear seat arrangement (I know I will not have more than two kids even if it involves a nasty accident with a bench vice to make sure.) would be to use four Bestop Trailmax pro seats (two front & two rear) and then have a console in the center on both rows. I'll see what is available when I get that far.
- Finally, as I said this is to be a family camping/exploration truck, I want to put on a set of Pangolin rock sliders which will greatly increase the side impact protection.

The area open to debate on my spec is the axles. For some odd reason I would like front and rear Slaisburies. The problem is getting them to Phoenix as I need someone with a container going trans Atlantic. THe other, most likely much cheaper option, is to go the Toyota axle route, either a full swap or some falvour of Series Trek set up. Brakes will remain an open item as well until I make an axle choice. I will, however, be putting in SIII based dual circuit, servo assited hydraulics.

As I am a desert dweller I will save some money and go against the current convention of galvanised chassis and bulkhead. It's just not necessary. POR15 on the outside and Waxoyl on the inside will be fine.

The finshed truck should maintain the overall appearance of the classis NADA wagon but have considerably modernised and strengthened systems for reliability.

The other area open to conosideration is the paint. Original sage green or marine blue. That's my wife's choice.

I'd say I'll take plenty of pictures but my garage is not a healthy environment for a digital camera.

Cheers
Gregor

 

[stevenmd]

The problem is getting them to Phoenix as I need someone with a container going trans Atlantic.

Contact Eric (norcalrelics on lrrforums.com). He is heading across the pond in a week or two. He has a few vehicles that he is bringing back, plus some other stuff. I'm not sure he is packing the container this trip or next. Either way, he always has something up his sleeve. I'll PM you his number too.

 

[TeriAnn]

Well TeriAnn,
I recently bought a NADA 67 109 from Colorado. It's a nice core of a vehicle with some alterations. It's big attraction is that it has a Chevy 292 straight six with a Scotty's adapter mating it to the stock drivetrain.

Brad Blevins has (had?) a sage green NADA 109 basically identical to yours that I rode in. It had lots of power but Scotty was rebuilding gearboxes for him almost yearly. Scotty always recommended against using that engine in front of a Series gearbox because he felt the gearbox wasn't up to the torque. I think your move to the NP435 gearbox is a needed upgrade as well as stronger rear axles. Scotty's instructions specify the Chevy Iron Duke, 153 cu. in engine as best for 88s and the Chevy250 cu In inline six as being best for 109s.

- The Chevy engine is longer than the old LR 2.6 lump which pushes the radiator up over the front cross member. The PO had kluged in two radiators to fill the space round the steering relay and added an oil cooler. All of these were only wired to the truck and are connected together with a rats nest of hoses.

Cooling was always an issue with the inline Chevy six in a Series rig. The mechanical fan sat too low to properly cool the radiator and people tended to use too small a radiator. The conversions were mostly done in the 1970's when custom aluminum radiators were not easily available to most home mechanics. Scotty's installation instructions recommend a cross flow radiator sitting on top of the frame. He said the back of the right side headlamp bucket needed to be cut but the radiator could fit without cutting the left side bucket. According to the instructions for a NADA 6 LR, an 18 inch mechanical fan could be bolted directly to the water pump (no extension block) without modification.

The problem was that an off the shelf cross flow radiator small enough to leave space for the stock steering regulator often left the engine overheating on long hot desert runs. Loosing the steering relay allows you to use a wider radiator and much better custom aluminum radiators are available today.

Sounds like you have plans for a reliable rig with plenty of power to get around in.

Brad's 109 used 3.54:1 R&P to obtain highway speeds. I suggest ether that or an Ashcroft high ratio kit. The high range ratios, measured at the axle) are almost identical between the 3.54 & Ashcroft conversion. The difference is low range. The Ashcroft conversions keeps your low range ratios low while the taller R&P gears raises them a lot. I'm running an Ashcroft conversion behind my 302 so the gears are plenty strong, but a pair of diffs out of an early RR or Disco I being parted out can be pretty cheap.

Take care,

 

[greenmeanie]

Oh dear, my bank manager will be very unhappy then. Thanks for that, I'll make contact with the man then.

Cheers
Gregor