Kyle's orphan 220 amazon wagon

[MikeJr.]

That pedal set up is nice

 

[matt b]

Just curious: what will you do for steering and front suspension ? Can a stock 122 engine sufbrame handle a 5 cylinder gracefully ? Or can you use a Mustang 2 front end (modified to fit) ?

Nice work, I like that you're going all out on this thing.

 

[stick70]

That pedal set up is nice

Man I really dig it. I was worried about the steering column room but it worked out ok. Not to say is isn't tight, because it definitely is. I wanted a floor mount set to begin with, but its just not worth the work it would take to get it in there right.

Just curious: what will you do for steering and front suspension ? Can a stock 122 engine sufbrame handle a 5 cylinder gracefully ? Or can you use a Mustang 2 front end (modified to fit) ?

Nice work, I like that you're going all out on this thing.

Thanks!

I'm kind of just hoping for the best honestly with the stock stuff . I looked into the mustang 2 front end but its really out of my realm of possibility right now. I've got a few steering boxes to choose from and I'm just going to re-bush as necessary. I thought about doing a steering rack, but I haven't ventured down that road. Honestly if I ditched the steering box it would open enough accessory room for an air conditioning compressor...that would be sweet.

Suspension wise I'm looking into the bag over strut setups currently. I really only expect like 200 hp out of this thing, so I think the 122 frame and box will handle it well enough with new components. The center line of the engine sits just behind the cross member, and it doesn't weigh an absurd amount, so it's fine?

 

[moise]

nice project

 

[matt b]

Cool Andrew, that's awesome. I've looked at the bags over strut set ups before, I'll be curious to see what you come up with. Seems like the best of both worlds.

 

[stick70]

Got a little bit done this weekend. I started by putting new bands in the front seats. I was worried about doing this but it was really really easy. The backs were a little more difficult because you have to remove the upholstery but it really wasn't that bad. I thought about using elastic since VP lists the bands for so much, but I was able to find Pirelli rubber bands by the foot on ebay for a reasonable price.

One thing to note, the bottoms are 2" wide bands, but the backs are 1.5" wide. I wasn't able to find the smaller stuff, so I just cut the 2" to size with a razor blade and it worked out well. I still want to install some headrests I have but that'll have to wait for another day. The seats are really comfortable now, I don't think I've ever sat in one that wasn't sagging.

I worked on the radiator fitment a little too. I cut the upper support to fit, its about 90% there now. I also installed the flex-a-lite fan made for the scirocco style radiators, it worked out really nice.

I started getting the rear cleaned up and placed for the 4-link also. It took forever to get the brackets off, but I did it. I'll have to get different gears though, this p1800 rear was out of a manual car, and they have a 4.30 rear gear.

Worked on setting the ride height too. My wheels still have not come in, but I found a FWD wheel lying around that was the right diameter. This isn't going to be the rolling height, but when the car is parked it'll more or less sit there.

I'm happy with it, and that's a good thing because the rear hits the frame rails, and the trunk floor. It'll be fine with some bump stops, driving height will be a solid 2-3" higher.

I had to cut the floor under the seat some just to get it that close. The wagons have plenty of room there luckily, so I don't think it'll be too big of a deal.

Hopefully the next step is welding in the 4-link. I have to make frame brackets for the lower trailing arms but I think the rest will work aside from some arm shortening.

 

[matt b]

Talk about laying frame....

 

[stick70]

The cross member will sit on the ground

The wheels came in today so I threw one on the front. It's going to need a hefty spacer, but I'm super happy with them. The rears I'm almost positive I'll have to flare the arches to get them to clear, but I won't know until I order a couple of adaptors. I'll try and get that rolling.

The quality isn't phenomenal, as in there are some paint flaws etc. But honestly to be going on this car and only costing ~$130 each I really couldn't care less.

Also as a side note these things are heavy as ****.

 

[matt b]

what do they weigh ? I really like the polished lip over the white face.

 

[stick70]

Thanks! I'm really happy with them. The white center is a little 60s-70s throwback, which fits great with the image I'm going after on the car. As far weight, the trusty bathroom scale says 30 lbs. Pretty hefty for a 16.

 

[stick70]

Small update, got the tires on the wheels. I ended up with Nexen N'Fera SU1 tires, which is quite a name. I don't need ultra super high performance summer tires on this thing but selection in this size isn't fantastic. These were cheap at ~350 a set so I pulled the trigger. The size is a 195/45/16, and I'm really happy with how they fit. The sidewall has a slight stretch but it's not ridiculous or so much that I can't drive it. Remember I've got to drive this thing around the country in half a years time. Judging from the front gap though I'm probably going to end up with something like a 30mm spacer on the front. A little much for my taste but I'll get over it.

I can only put the front on right now unfortunately. I decided to send the 1800 axles out to be filled and re-drilled to 5x4.5, the original pattern. I'm not sure when they'll come back but I expect a couple of weeks. I'm waiting on that to weld the 4-link in as well.

 

[Vol242vo]

Lookin' good! Love the direction you're headed here.

 

[stick70]

Lookin' good! Love the direction you're headed here.

Thanks!

 

[stick70]

Minor stuff tonight. The factory water temp gauge worked off of a capillary tube in the back of the head. I decided I wasn't going to try and use that for the whiteblock, so I gutted an electric gauge to work with the factory face. Credit goes to this article for inspiration: http://65brick.blogspot.com/2008/05/temperature-gauge.html

I tried using the Equus gauge as he used, but it was such a POS new that when I tried to verify its working range I found it was at least 20C off. I ended up using just a VDO vision gauge. I wanted to use a VDO cockpit gauge because they are easier to modify, but the seller on Amazon had the wrong name in the description. Anyways, I just used a candy thermometer in a pot of boiling water with a VDO sender to get my temp output. Once it was set ~100C I set the needle to where it needed to be.

The needle here is indicating around 95C I think. It'll be good enough for me to tell if the car is getting excessively hot.

And a view of what it looks like from the back.

One funny thing is that the screws for the gauge face lined up perfectly with the new internals. I guess VDO keeps some things standard. The needle was a bit big for the gauge shaft, so its packed with 5 minute 2 part epoxy to fill it up. I just kept the sender in the hot water and held the needle where I wanted it until it set up.

 

[cwdodson88]

That’s awesome!

 

[RolinOldies]

I used an old style 140 series gauge to do the same thing

 

[InTheWhite]

Realy nice project you got here!

 

[stick70]

Thanks guys!

I used an old style 140 series gauge to do the same thing

That might work better with a stock b20/b18 than this would. The way I did it the range is different from factory, but the factory gauge has 100C deep in the red. The whiteblocks average around 90, so I wanted to calibrate the needle for that.

 

[matt b]

Good call on the gauge. Did something similar on my 4 door and it worked great for the 3 years I had the car.

 

[stick70]

Good call on the gauge. Did something similar on my 4 door and it worked great for the 3 years I had the car.

That's good to hear. It's gonna be sort of vague, but it'll be as accurate as the stock one ever was.

I've been doing more brainstorming on gauges lately. I've got various tachs etc kicking around of different sizes, even one of the amazon accessory ones. I really want to steer clear of mounting stuff on top of the dash though, I love the clean look of the standard amazon dash. I found this, and I think I'm gonna follow these lines. I'm moving the lighter under the dash anyways, so a gauge would work great in that area.

I really like that package tray too.

Right now the plan is to mount a 52mm smiths tach to the steering column like so:

And then drill a hole in the dash for a racetech dual gauge of the same size. I'll have to swap on a chrome bezel but they are available.

Smiths makes those but I can only find them with water temp outputs. I might throw another gauge on the opposite side of the steering wheel but I'm not sure yet. The afr gauge will be as small as possible and tucked up under the dash somewhere. I can't find one with a good old vibe about it.