The chasis kit came from chasis engineering. I did all the noching fiting and welding, with the help of a few freinds. I got the car from a wrecking yard that one of my customers owned. I traded him a valve job on a set of big block chevy heads for the car, about a $125 value. The car came from oregon.

 

Now you are really making everyone jealous.

 

Sick to my stomach about what I did. Made the header all nice and pretty everything fit great. The wastegate was nicely tucked away, so I thought, until I went to put the steering on. And then I found out that the idler arm and the wastegate cant fit in the same spot. It was either steering or boost, and after a lot of thought I decided on steering. I even had it coated. Well you know what they say two steps forward one step back. Live and learn.

 

Is the rear end gonna get brakes?

 

Yeah, I have a set of wilwood 4 piston disc brakes on the kitchen floor as we speak.

 

That sure stinks. That was a nice simple looking manifold. The steering box and arm dont leave much room in there to work with. I had to put some funky bends on my N/A header in my RX3 to get it to clear the steering arm. Bummer dude.
Question. What have you decided to do for front suspension? Factory stuff? Cut it out and put in custom coil overs?

 

Another question. You never did say what kind of trans that is. A lenco correct? You called it a street car, and I wonder how you will be driving it? I was always under the impression that once you let off the power in a lenco, it goes into neutral, and the car has to be stopped before it can placed into gear again.

 

They do sell a Lenco "street" version but this is not one of them. On a different thread he stated that he is using a Dough Nash 4+1. I don't know how streetable this transmission is.

13B-RX3 "I live in kerrville. It is about 60 miles northwest of san antoino. The transmission is a doug nash 4+1 race trans. Straight cut gears non syncro."

 

Ok, so, from what I understand, a doug nash is a richmond box. Correct? I went to Richmonds website, and downloaded the PDF for the 4+1 "street" box, and the diagram show helical gears and synchros. I cant find a straight cut version. I would assume 13B-RX3 desired the straight cut so he could shift without lifting (as would I). Another thing, what is the shifter gate like on these boxes? The Richmond diagram shows a gate that is the same as a factory top loader style. 1-2 to the left, 3-4 in the middle, over to the right to find 5th and reverse. Do they make a shifter that would simply ratchet? Missing gears is no fun. Sorry for all the questions, I am just starting to discover this sort of thing. Watching too many PR nitrous car videos has got me hooked.

 

Do you know how to use that tranny? Many racers ive seen grind the crap out of it because they dont know how to use it.

 

Could you explain the best method to use one of these? I'd really like to get some more info on these boxes.

 

The suspension on the car is stock rx3 with gen 1 rx7 springs and struts. Cut the top off a rx7 strut and welded it onto my rx3 lower. Now I have a larger selection of spring and struts.

The trans is a doug nash 4+1 race version. Doug nash originally only made a race trans and richmond adapted it for street use by adding helical gears and syncros. The cases are very close justthe guts are different. It is not really a clutchless trans, they call it a clutch assist. The easiest way to describe it is just like a motorcycle trans in the way it shifts. That means if you can get it out of gear it WILL go into the next. If i rember right this is the same trans crispeed is running in his gen 2. As for the shifter your dreams have come true. All you have to do is put it in neutral pick the t handle all the way up and push it forward. Now you are in first gear, after that it is just back and forth trough the gears. The only thing bad about that shifter is it is hard as hell to downshift. You can pick up those transmissions pretty cheap. I bought mine for $1000 with shifter. Just make sure it is the race not the street .

 

Do you have any pics of the modded front struts? I was under the impression that the gen 1 strut was shorter, so it lowers the car 1.5 inches, but also totally ruins the camber. So I am lost as to how you are making this work. Are you cutting the flange off that supports the spring, and moving it down? Sorry about the dumb question. I'm interested and here is why. After I installed the 9 inch in my 72 RX3, the car sat slightly lower in the back. The pads are taller and the axle tubes are bigger as well. Then, after installing pinion wedges, the car sits noticeably lower in the back than the front. I'd like to level the car back out without cutting the springs or destroying the camber.

 

Went trough a lot of trial and error for that mod. Contrary to popular belief you cant run gen 1 strut assemblies on a rx3 without lots of mods. What I did is to cut the tube on both rx3 and rx7 struts just below the spring seat . Swaped the tops and welded it back together. So it is rx3 on the bottom and rx7 on the top. Works great and looks stock.

 

beautiful

 

Looks great can't wait to see the finished project. Look under my name to see me rx2 that I am working on. Oh yeah, PM sent.

 

I have had a lot of people PM me asking me how I streched the wheel wells. I figured I would share this with everyone.




I would be glad to tell you. You need to fab a protractor and mark the arch of the wheel well onto the quarter panel. I made a protractor from a pair of channel locks, just tighten the pivot down to where it doesn't slide and tape a sharpie to the shorter of the two ends on the pliers. Mark the quarters about 6" up from the wheel well opening, that is the measurement that I used to avoid any sharp body lines but your car may require a different measurement. After marking the quarter you need to cut the entire wheel well out. The ONLY way I would recommend cutting the sheet metal is with a plasma cutter. Any other way you cut it will either warp the metal or leave too many gaps to fill when welding. If you don't have a plasma cutter you could take the car to a welding shop and for a small fee they can cut it for you. When you make your cut just remember to keep the torch moving at a fast and smooth pace to avoid any hot spots that will warp the metal. Take the piece of the wheel well that you just cut out and split it in half as close to the center as possible. If you want to open the wheel well up 3" move the front forward 1 1/2" and the rear back 1 1/2" this way you will keep the stock wheel base. This is where it gets tricky, on the rear portion of the quarter the bottom and the body line are tapered so as you move the well back the lines come together. You will have to make another cut horizonally and bring the two haves together until they line up. You will end up with three cuts total per side. Now to address the 3" gap that is left. I cut a strip of metal from a spair front fender that I had laying around. I cut it in a way that the contour was close to the same so I had very little forming to do. You might have to make one from scratch, if you do make sure that it is the same thickness metal. Use a mig welder to stitch the metal back together using a series of tacks. Don't weld contenuisly or you will warp the **** out of it. Weld in a spot and move down about 6" and weld another spot and so on until all the gaps are filled. Then very carefully grind down all the welds, once again not getting it to hot and warping the steel. Get it as straight as you can with a hammer and dolly and bondo the rest. When I did my car there was no inner panels and I could get to both sides of the quarter to weld and cut and there was also no trunk floor. I welded it from the inside so there was less welds to grind.

 

If you were in California, I would be dropping my car off tomorrow.

 

I really can't take all the credit here I had a lot of help from some really great friends and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them. Pam,Chad,Travis,Joey,ayala,dave,joser,JR,Tommy,Kev in I couldn't have done it without you.

Also a specal thanks to Paul for not bitching too much about all my crap being in your shop for 3 years.

If I forgot to thank anyone...... They didn't help me enough.

Chad should be posting some pics before too long. I am helping him build a Datsun 1200 with a 20B.

Also thanks for all of your help and support here on the fourm.

 

Now that's my dream a 20B in my Datsun 1200! Oh well for now I gues I have to make due with my 13BREW motor. Post some pics of that 1200 I want to see it.

 

Talk about awesome. Those are my two favorite old school imports. RX3's and 1200 Datsuns. I wish I could have both, I can barely afford one.

 

WOW that amkes it so worth my while when i see m yself taking a week to complete A SIMPLE task on my 77' sp. your work looks real clean and its a real crowd pleaser too when we get to see a car done up and gave us insight on the "how to" . I know i appreciate it and am looking forward to seeing more done the right way, as I will be as excited when I get my feedback when I finish mine. thanks for the insight on the wide quarters as my Tii's quarters will be getting a dose of that soon. thanks again for a bitchin thread.-erik

 

oh yea can we get more biggie flix like the one on the first page please?!-erik

 

No problem erik in my opinion that is what this forum is all about. If you would explain to me what biggie flix are I will see what I can do. I wish when I sat down to build this car that there was a wealth of how to info but there was not. That is why I try my best to answer any questions no matter how small, so mabe I can help someone learn from my experiences. Thanks-Allen

 

Sorry for all the ?'s, but I was curious how the rear frame rails attached to the frame. Did you use a dropped crossmember, or did you attach the frame rails to the factory crossmember right behind the seats? I am just trying to plan out my tub job and I figure since you have done it, that you would be a good person to ask. You had mentioned that you had some close up pics, if you could get those for me that would be great. So what was your experience in installing the rear frame kit? Anything that you ran into that you could pass on to someone that is doing the same thing? Like I mentioned before, great job.