The Stickman's Custom Cruiser Build thread

I've got a Fairmont hub that would fit! I kept the black leather-like Futura wheel for mine. Yeah they're comfy and warmer to hold in -30C, with gloves on! Looks great!

 

Well parts have been arriving pretty often lately. I now have a TransGo 200-4R HD2 shift kit for my 200-4R transmission. It will give me either full manual control up or down thru the gears for 1st,2nd, and 3rd gears. Or I can stick in in OD and let it do all the work.

Today I recieved my new shifter. It is made by Brian Kilduff and is one sweet piece. His shifters are made to order so you can't go wrong here.

 

Now if I am going to run a floor shifter I have to replace the bench seat with a set of bucket seats. And I had a few options. I could have found some comfy buckets so it would be similar to what the bench feels like. Or I have a bunch of Fiero seats I could have had recovered. But since this car handles great as is and will only get better to the point I may want to do some track days with it I felt that something closer to a competition seat should be in order. So I found these off of Ebay and it so happens they were fairly local so it saved me some cash. I really like the look. Wait till you see what I do with them.

 

Love the shifter!

 

Ya know I loved the look but was worried about the comfort. I know how comfortable my bench seat is and was worried I would be paying for the looks in ride comfort. But I have been sitting in one in the living room to see how it would be for long trips and they aren't bad. They really do hold you nice and tight. And while they are extra firm they aren't uncomfortable.

Yea it is really trick. It can be used as a ratchet shifter or in regular detent mode. It is handbuilt and custom made to your specs. There are 2 types of cases/tops. The top plate has the numbering for the type of trans be it 2, 3 or 4spd. You can also get 2 different lengths of shift levers. A tall and short.

 

I noticed that little door knob XMAS decoration. Santa was real good to you! Nice stuff!:2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Yea I have it good that way. I just got back from talking tires at a shop my friend knows. It looks like I will be using 275/40-18's all around. But because the wagons axles are wider the bodies are even wider. The wheel I have are 18X9 with a 5 inch backspacing. So I may go with an inch or two bolt on spacer to bring them out to the edge of the fender. And I also plan on putting the F41 springs back in the wagon. The Eibachs didn't lower it much and they feel softer to me. So I will cut a coil or so off the fronts to bring the nose down a bit.

 

Have you changed the springs yet?

 

Not yet why?

 

Well more parts have been recieved for my build(s). I found two distributors off of Craigslist. The first one was a Mallory Uni-Lite vacuum advance distributor. It is used but looks ok. I paid $100 and the guy threw in the MSD wires and Blaster 2 coil.

The second distributor was a brand new in the box MSD Pro Billet unit. This I got for $175 which I thought was a steal. So much so I didn't even try to haggle.

Now why 2 distributors? Well the MSD distributor must be used with an MSD box. Now I have a used 7AL-2 unit. BUT it happens to be a 4 cylinder only part. So I am trying to find out what I need to do to send it back along with this coil to have rebuild at a fraction of the cost of new.

Note the coil has an aluminum heat sink around it. This will not only look cool but I have yet to see one on another car. So I can't use the MSD distributor until I have a box and coil to use with it. So I can use the Mallory until all that get's figured out. I hope to have the Mallory in this weekend depending on the weather. It should improve my spark and timing. The Mallory has to be a vast improvement over the tired old HEI unit. And once I have all the parts I need to use the MSD distributor the Mallory can go in the wife's car providing we find an Olds engine for her's soon.

 

Looking good man! that cars not only going to lok cool, but sound great and performe awsome as well!

 

Ok the wife and I worked all day on getting the old bench seats out and the new buckets in. We had to(ok ok she had to)custom make the brackets as there was nothing to use. I did get sliders with the seats but needed a way to mount the seats and sliders to the floor. We ended up making some nice brackets using nothing more than scraps we had laying around. We did use the outer studs that the bench seat was orginally mounted to. We only got one front seat done but the other one should be a piece of cake now that the first one is done. And the wife did take a good bit of time getting the welder back to where she wanted it as it has been sitting for a long time. Anyway here are the pics. Let me know what you think.

 

I'm really anal when it comes to seat brackets on the floor. I saw the little angle-'dimples' on the stand-off brackets. The look a bit small, but its a clean job. I would have put in a 1" X 1" web angle. (Equilateral triangle, braised/tacked up in the inside face. You don't want to hit the brakes and find that they bend down to the floor.

They sure look like fine seats.

 

Actually we will be adding some gussets tomorrow to the inside brackets. The one closest to the door is much better. The hard part is going to be the rear seats. but the cool feature of them is they will be a bit higher kinda like theater seating. Once I get them all mounted then work on the custom full length console cam begin.