rat_rod_russell

I know this is what you all really want.















-Russell

Chevy-art

iTrader: (4)

Saw some of you work in New Braunfels. Awesome.

rat_rod_russell

Thanks a lot, that's a hard swap meet for any one to miss. I wasn't there but Jim and my little brother Billy were representing the shop.

Here's a quick vid for the guys followling along our build and our race to SEMA and the Optima Battery Ultimate Street Car Invitationals.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/H...EMA_720229.htm

-Russell

rat_rod_russell

Thanks all, we're working out the little tuning issues and I'm learning the STACK ST700 Tack, this this is nuts with all its features but I think I might be able to get it to cook dinner for me too, lol. Progressive Sequential Shift Lights, maw hahaha.

Here's my interview with Hub TV, sorry I look so hunched, Amber must have been 5 foot even and the camera was right there so I had to come down a little to make up for it.

http://www.hubgarage.com/hubtv/channels/18/videos/382

-Russell

rat_rod_russell

We've got a booth in the Swap meet this year (SEMA drained the coffers). We're bring out the PT-57 and one of our TriFive Chassis that's going to go under a 56 Hardtop with Twin Turbos, LS1 and a 6 Speed.

I don't know where we'll be but look for the army green truck painted up like the Flying Tiger's P-40.

-Russell
Hot Rod Jim's
http://www.hotrodjim.com

rat_rod_russell

LOLOLOLOL, A buddy of mine turned me into Silent Bob with two swords a SAW and no hat and the sad thing is that I feel like putting on weight to pull off the look. Then there's Kendall, he's in good shape for 60, and he's got a bazooka. My buddy Tyler Richlen stopped by and saw the truck, then he emailed this to me a few days later.

Click it for the large version.



-Russell

rat_rod_russell

hehe, Got to drive it sometime right.

-Russell

bonecrrusher

iTrader: (1)

omgz a show car is dirty!

Glad to see you got the bugs worked out... now some 1/4mile times?

rat_rod_russell

Haha, maybe later. I'm not big into drag racing. I'll get out to the road course first and get some in car video. The rear is setup like a corvette so it doesn't launch like a drag car.

-Russell

digitalsolo

iTrader: (24)

Very cool to see it gets driven properly.

Very nice work and details.

rat_rod_russell

Sorry for my long absence been busy catching up the customers projects and getting sick for almost 2 full weeks doing nothing but sleeping and now I'm trying to recover my strength. Nothing like knowing a month ago I just picked that rear end up and put it on the table, now I can't budge it.

For those who missed it there was a little article on the PT-57, lots of its wrong but hay who's counting.
http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/01...od-pickup.html


For the fans, I just got around to taking these today so you all can see how she's come out so far. I'm still playing with the HDR's.







I'm still experimenting with differential mounts and brackets so I haven't gotten a chance to put it on the track yet. I'm also going to do a major renovation of the firewall, steering column, steering linkage, and pedal system.

The steering column ended up a little lower than I would have liked so we'll be moving it up to better clear my huge size 13 feet and I'm going to give a little extra because I have 2 friends / customers who wear 16's. I want a little more leverage on the brakes, I can just barely lock up the street tires the way she sits now and that mean's I have some grip I'll loose out on with the Slicks so a little more leverage on that end and a little different pedal design too.

The fire wall is going to get a different look to make it more of a factory design instead of the overly common slick everything. I want to make the motor compartment look and feel more like the inside of a bomber / fighter than a tricked out show car. We're also going to ditch the inter coolers since they only show very little cooling compared to the intake air temp. On the dyno the ITA was only 5+ ambient and that was no air moving across the rest of the mandrill tubing under the car. The pyrometer on the end caps was only showing 8-10 degrees drop across the IC’s and they had a fan blowing on them directly so they go and with it some weight too.

Later
-Russell

ChrisBorsheim

iTrader: (3)

I saw this truck in person at a car show. Amazing work, super nice guys.

Wicked Mayhem

saw this thing at autorama.. looks ****** sick!

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Very nice work! I loved watching the build of this machine. I'm glad to see someone driving their hard work instead of letting it collect dust.

rat_rod_russell

Thanks guys, if I stop braking the diff mounts (3 all in different spots at different time) then I'll get a chance to take her out to the track.

I have a question for you guys

A guy came by the shop today and told me he saw the Pt-57 in a magazine. I have no clue what he's talking about. Has anyone else seen it or did I just waste 3-4 hours looking for it?

Thanks
-Russell

danbap

iTrader: (6)

very nice work that truck is amazing! what where the dyno numbers? or did i miss them?

rat_rod_russell

the base tune was 576 RWHP and 506 RWTQ but that was a base tune on only 5 psi and she was super rich, almost 9:1.

-Russell

rat_rod_russell

I BROKE IT AGAIN!!!! :1st:




This time I killed the two bolts holding the dif plate into the car. They were grade 8 1/2" and they both snapped after 2-3 days of long hard burn outs on the Pilots playing with various rear shock settings. Then the next day, I'm leaving a parking lot and bam. The rear end is jumping up and down. With the front two bolts snapped the rear rigid mount I built as a replacement quickly with scrap from around the shop (during breakage #3 when I snapped the OE Corvette mount) this was the only thing holding the diff in the car and the CV's kept it centered so I could get stopped.

Now I'm sure everyone is wondering why there's a strap on the diff, that's how I got home, with a ratchet strap holding the diff down to the frame and X'd to keep it centered. I was about 20 miles from the shop and it was one of those days where everyone was gone along with my truck and trailer. So I had to drive it home, very, very slowly.

So on to the real fix now and what will hopefully be the production mount. I kept patching the old system and prototype adapter to just see what, and in what order, things would break when we take away the torque tube and transmission from the system. Obviously the first thing that needs to be addressed is the lack of support that would keep the differential from rotating around the rear axle center line. Just like the diff on a live axle car the IRS diff is forced up from the pinion yoke rotating backwards around the rear axle center line during positive acceleration. So instead of a rear lower mount (like a stock C5) I'm going to give the diff a mount up top so it will be pulling down against this new mount instead of trying to crush it. Then on the front I'm going to keep the two bolts and bushing into the adapter plate from the bottom for support during negative acceleration while the clutch is engaging the motor and the transmission is in gear. The diff at that point is hammered into the frame or in this case into a pair of rubber bushings. But I'm going to add two lateral bolts on top of the diff plate to give these two bolts more mechanical advantage over the differential case and keep the nose down under positive and negative acceleration. We will now have a grand total of 6 bolts (4x 1/2" and 5x 5/8's) holding the diff in place and set up in a way that different bolts will all be loaded a little differently and spread the force out. Take a look at the pretty picture soldworks made for me, lol you can also see the new lighter plate with a little Hot Rod Jim bling,



What’s this mean about the truck, she goes on the lift. The bed comes off, most of the rear suspension, gas tank, turbo’s, exhaust, several lines and more. And we get to play setup on the new diff mounts. I'm also going to fix up several other things that have been peeving me and add in some quick disconnects on the wiring so when I get the new frame banged out the body swap will be quick and painless. So let the fun begin.

-Russell

rat_rod_russell

BIG NEWS, ITS DRIFT TIME
What better racing type to make an attempt to break my new differential combo. We'll be in Houston on March 28th at Grand Sport Speedway sliding around with the best of them and of course I'll have as much video as I can get. You can read more about it here.

http://fabricatedmotorsports.com/for...p?topic=1413.0

-R^3

rat_rod_russell

So we didn't make the drifting event. I started fixing thing, one thing led to another and we ended up not making it. Sunday morning at 3:30 My buddy Kelly and I sat down, made a list of what we needed to do and at the very least we needed 10 more hours worth of work. Had we not been awake for 20+ hours at that point we would have keep banging on it. I didn't want a repeat of Optima where I get the car together then bring it back and have to rip into it again to fix something that was half assed of overlooked because we rushed it.

Prototype parts are one thing but I found pinched lines from the oil back on the turbo, the shaft pivot had been installed with a grade 2 bolt and had twisted, I see 10-15 pounds worth of steal on the front that made up a last minuet radiator support and gussets that can all go, and I want to get my inner fender in finally.


So onto the rear end. And the mods I was working on for the truck to make it a better street car and way better for drifting.

-Steering Arms
The truck only had about 46 degrees of turn in, good for smooth course racing but it was a little tough in town making tight corners. So I made up a new set of steering arms that moved the rack back .5" inches increasing the steering angle to 57 degrees.

The old arm is shown here on top with the new arm on bottom, notice that the lower plate on the new are is also clearances to allow the outer tie rod room to move up into and clear the steering under real hard cornering.



The pile of inter cooler just that came out.



For the diff and the race I decided I really wanted to get in there and see what things were doing, so you can see almost everything that ended coming off.





-New Diff Mount

The old diff coming out weighted 92 lbs. You can see the new rear mount on the diff. The old system tried to use the OE corvette mounts and added a few, that failed honorably. So this is what I've come up with to fix it. The rear plate is the big difference but I've moved the front upper mounts too and upgraded to 5/8' hardware. The rear we drilled out the threads since all but 1 of the rear plate holes go through the aluminum and captured the bolt on the other side to ensure a much better hold to the case.









-Whats next

I'm going to get the turbos coated and mod the exhaust a little. Some of the wrap was getting ripped up on bottom with all the gravel in the area.

Gas tank mod, it had a little leak, lets just say I got a little full of my self with the tabs and slots and made an awesomely complicated section that I couldn't weld all to well and now it leaks, a lot.

Wiring, I'm re arranging some of the ISIS boxes for ease of access and changing some of the wiring to more secured locations.

Brake cooling ducts, with the inner coolers out of the way it'll be easy now the back is getting a neat trick too.

Finish out the roll cage

Later
-Russell