1st gen tercel with fiat twin cam rwd convertion

In reply to Lomaxmotorsports:

This is so rad!!! My first car was an '82 Tercel (back in '88-94) so I still have nostalgia for them. They're all but extinct around here (RI), so it's great to see one getting heavily modified.

Shocks look good, Lomax. For what it is worth, I agree with your idea of only treating the areas where you do surgery on this. If it ain't broke, and all... Have you googled "how to estimate spring rate"? I saw several formulas that looked doable. I'd almost think, being in NASCAR country you might have some better alternatives (spring dynos, old, used springs).

Well now that the back is mostly sorted (I think I still may have to move the shock mounts up will see when hub adapters come in) I moved back to the front...time to get the steering rack mounted! I was able to get this rack from an mr2 and the factory tercel splined joint fit up to it perfectly. I did have to remove a stop on the tercel shaft and cut off about half an inch from each to make the assembly shorter as the rack has moved back a good bit from the stock location (going from front steer knuckles to rear steer knuckles)

I have read a lot and seen a bunch of videos about bump steer and stuff but still not fully grasping everything I just decided to "eyeball engineer" it. I made a mount for the drivers side and modified the stock tercel mount on the passenger both use the stock bushings.

If you do requests, how about walking us through the fabrication of the rear flares when you get around to them, please.

I studied suspension design from all of the big books, and consider my understanding somewhere between meh and mediocre if you want someone to bounce ideas off of. Lots of folks on this forum know bunches of stuff.

MR2 rack should steer like a boss. Always great to read the updates.

In reply to wheelsmithy: Glad to show the rear flares in detail when I do them...I have it in my mind how that will work but we will see when I start cutting :)

I do have a video camera I will make some video to share with y'all too.

I am willing to share any of my knowledge with anyone who thinks I know something lol. I like working with metal and have had a chance to learn some cool stuff from people all over but am always learning more.

Ok shot a video for y'all check it out

http://youtu.be/ay94y44ZP4g

Ok so the steering is sorted for now everything has to be finish welded but I think its going to work.

I got the alternator bracket modded to put the tercel alt on the fiat engine, I still have to make the adjustable top mount.

I'm kind of down about my build cause I am at the point i need money to get the remaining parts. I got a bunch of stuff listed on cl for sell so I hope something sells and parts can be ordered soon!

Right there with you on lack of funds.

Ok I'm not going to get down now I'm so close to being able to drive her!

I had planned to run motorcycle carbs, I have two different racks of them that would work if I built a manifold for it. But being on a budget and not having the money to rebuild 4 carburetors and get a flange cut to build the manifold right now I have decided that this factory setup is gonna work just fine for now with the Weber. I may have to run a small carb spacer to get enough room to run fuel line over the brake master cylinder.

And that brings us to brakes: I got this master cylinder and booster out of the MR2 I got the steering rack out of, I figure it would be an upgrade and being the MR2 has disc brakes all the way around I figure it will work the RX7 disc brakes on the back well too.

So my question is what is this flare called on the factory end? is it a bubble or a double flare? Also can I just use 3/16 line or do I need to get some metric line?

Looks like a standard double flare to me.

So I'm really waiting on money to get a fuel cell next, I figured out what I need and it looks like my fuel system is going to cost me about $260 so being I don't have the extra dollars right now I decided to work on something else

I stole these lights out of the Fiat when I scrapped it and figure they will fit in real good back here and be a little something else from the fiat to show through.

A little cutting and it's like they were made to fit!

That looks awesome! Nice work.

And the line is inverted double flare - very standard. And the line is 3/16 which is very very standard. I've never seen any metric line. The metric fittings are designed to work with 3/16

I found my old fuel cell I used to have this morning! I thought it had been stolen from my dads place when we had a guy that stole a bunch of stuff but when I was over there this morning I found it!!! It's not going to fit exactly as well as the one I had wanted but being I own it I'm going to use it to save the money!

One step closer!

and I got a guy supposed to come by my Lincoln tomorrow...he's going to make payments but at least that will be a little bit of money rolling in every couple weeks

Started working on the driveshaft tunnel today.

1.25" 16ga bent with my 20/20 compact bender from shop outfitters.

I'll weld it in tomorrow and then cut out the factory piece

Ok it's moving along, i got a little more done today.

Looks like I'm going to be about 10" short of driveshaft, the question is which end should be lengthed? http://www.driveshaftshop.com Is not to far away from me so I will send them an email tomorrow to see what they suggest as they will be doing the work.

Your making it look easy.

Keep it up man!

Wow, you don't mess around do you. Cool project.

Is your screen name anything to do with the British Lomax kit cars based on 2CV Parts?

Also you mentioned 8.8 Vs 10.9 fasteners up thread. I actually prefer 8.8 Vs 10.9 for suspension components as long as they are sized correctly. 10.9 can suffer from Hydrogen embrittlement. Most (not all) OEM applications spec 8.8 for long term durability for that reason.

I know these are Starlets not Tercels, but they used to be super popular in the UK for hot rod racing

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Lomax refers to my last name, I started using my profile name as an email address way back when I started my 1st email account and I have just kind of used it as my standard internet handle.i love those little 2cv based Lomax 3 wheelers though. Would love to get my hands on one someday

Cool info on the bolts, I'll keep all that in mind if I have problems with what I have sourced so far.

I love starlets! They are getting expensive if you can find one in good shape around here.

Yeah, Starlets are undeniably cool, but this thing is Unique. Hanging on every word Lomax

When I had this fuel cell in here before it was a lift the trunk an fill deal. Being the car often smelled of gas fumes I decided an upgrade was in order. I want to be able to use the factory fuel fill so I needed a remote fill neck for the cell, I wanted rollover protection but $120 seemed like a lot for something I could make. So now I have this! I need to paint it but the test fit looks good!

Ugh! Just got off the phone with the driveshaft guy and he didn't have any good news for me :(

Because of how the fiat shaft is he tells me it will have to be made with a slip shaft and I'm looking at 6-7 hours of labor at $125!

I'm at a point I think I may have to scrap the fiat stuff and go with a more modern powertrain.

This sucks cause it ain't in the budget

Any ideas guys?

Sounds like the driveshaft guy isn't working with you on this one. Perhaps you can find a drivshaft from another vehicle (with a slip shaft) and have him adjust the length and ends of that one? $700 for a driveshaft just doesn't seem right for this application.

Driveline specialties over in monroe always does me right. 704-282-0304

About the drive shaft. If you were to anchor the mid shaft bearing, and just take the rear shaft in to be extended, I fail to see where that is going to cost a fortune. I do know that around here it would be an easy $500 to extend both.

When I did this swap into the MG Midget, I lucked out because the Fiat rear flange bolted directly to the MG differential.

This build is wild! Such a conglomerate of different donors and fab skills. Very entertaining. Good luck, you've got another viewer!