Looks like I'll be bringing the car home in a few days...I'm glad to have a new project for the winter. The '32 Ford will be out of the garage (it sold) so I'll have some room to work. I need to come up with an upgrade/mod plan for the car so that I can build it as efficiently as possible...here's the list so far:
-Safety
One of the first things I want to do is to add a rollcage, proper race seats and belts. Adding the cage will mean gutting the car, so I guess gutting it is actually number one. I need to aquire the seats before I really start gutting the car so that it is still semi-drivable if I need to take it to the fabricator. I'm thinking about the Kirkey Aluminum seats...light weight and reasonable cost. Plus, Summit sells them and they are close by. Hopefully the sale of the interior will help offest the cost of the new seats.
Once the cage is in, I can add a fire system and emergency electrical cut off. Undecided on the fire system.
-Performance - Stage 1
Brakes will be the most important upgrade to the performance of tha car, and should probably be considered a safety item. These are the brakes I'm considering- http://www.uucmotorwerks.com/PBC/fitments_E30_325_318.htm
I'll upgrade to steel braided lines at the same time.
I'm still undecided as to what size to get. if I run the 11.75" rotors, I can use 15" wheels (light weight, lots of tire options), but the 12.19" kit is nice too...I'll just have to run larger wheels. I'll call Tirerack and see what kind of wheel options I'll have either way. I would like to run an 8" rim width (or more) so that may put me into a larger diameter.
Wheels and tires will have to be purchased before or at the same time as the brakes. I would like to use Kuhmo v710s on the lightest and widest wheel possible, maybe Motegi Traklites or OZ ultraleggras. Wide wheels may require the use of bolt-on fender flares, Ireland Engineering has a set for about $260 I think.
The next performance aspect to consider is making the car as light as possible. Gutting the interior will be a good start...then I'll see about removing the AC and possibly the power steering. There is a steering rack conversion that I read about that takes the steering ratio from about 4 turns down to 2.7 or something...I'll have to find that later.
The rear side windows can be fab'd out of lexan. Should be easy and will save a few pounds. Plus it looks cool :) The sunroof can be discarded and the hole plugged with something, maybe carbon? I've been looking for an excuse to get out the Aircraft Spruce catalog and start ordering! A complete carbon roof would be awesome, plus it could help lower the center of gravity by removing some weight up top. I'll have to calculate how much time and materials will be to see if it's worthwhile. It may be worth it just for the look!
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