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RWD'ing my Reatta


Old Man Jimbo

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Hello . I realize that I am taking on a project that isn't going to be a piece a cake but I'm doing it .

I found and bought a complete suspention off an 86 Corvette and am starting this long process after extensive researchon a build like this. I realize that some of you maybe cringing already because this beloved car was not intended for such an abomination and I really don't need any negative comments as I already have a lot of $ invested in this journey. At this point I am asking if it is possible to put this car on  a  rotisserie or how would I be able to flip it over safely  for the ease of detailed measurments ?.I plan on drag racing this car and have contacted White Performance to build me a 610 hp stroker. I'm not crazy ( maybe a little ) , just driven to do this.

Thank you for reading

Edited by fd2blk (see edit history)
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Jimbo,

 

You won't hear a negative peep from me.

I'm fully interested in seeing how this project turns out.

Not having done anything like this myself, there's nothing that I can tell you about how to go about what you are going to do.

I'm curious about the rotisserie idea. I've always wondered about that myself.

I've always told my kids that you can do anything with time and money. (like what Ronnie said)

The more money you have, the less time you'll need.

 

Good Luck.

 

John F.

Edited by Machiner 55 (see edit history)
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Guest Corvanti

go for it!!! B)

 

the only problem i can think of is the Reatta body will need to sit higher for the driveshaft to clear to the rear end.

 

all things are possible with a good welder and a BF hammer! :)

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I'd figure the floor pan needs to be chopped and a drive axle hump fabricated and welded in unless you are going for the hi-jacker/big-foot look. That would in turn necessitate some interior rework, but the only real restriction on a project like this is budget.

KDirk

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Thanks for the possitive words guys. I will be doing detailed documentation on this project ( OCD ) and video . As far as the tunnel for the drive shaft I see no problem  being able to lower everything as I have tubbs for the rear already and those huge meats will sit right behind me and sing a nice tune. With it lowered of course the supercharger will stick out of the hood more ( SWEET ! ) . Interior ? , what interior ..... seats as I see it.

Now the rotisserie . I'm thinking that two 2x 4 thick wall tubes running from the rotisserie conected to the undercarrage until flipped over . Then remove them when body is secured . Wouldn't it be nice to work on a Reatta crawling , kneeling , sleeping , praying , from bottom side up ? .... haha !.

I have always told my Sons " they put a man on the moon , I can do anything  and so can you ! "

 

Happy trails !

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Yes Ronnie . I actually am a glass man with years of boat repair and boat design , I work with glass on a daily basis ( it's one of my passions ). I will be building a hood and probably a one time because building a plug is to spacious to store . I will most likelly build it out of kevlar to keep the vibration down and will add a scoop after the fact most likelly a cut out from a Vette . Beings I'm using a C4 suspention I believe it's only proper to keep it Reatta / Vette / GM ( OCD at it's best ;). The wonderful thing about fiberglass is that it is so forgiving and moldable without detection if done properly. The tubbs I have are glass and the tunnel for the drive shaft will be glass with steel re enforcements . I have so many saved fiberglass parts from years gone bye that will work for whatever aplication I run into. I am living , breathing and cosumed with this project to the point that I have posted on my garage wall the following..........

 

" Vision without action is a daydream . Action without vision is a nightmare " , This is my driving force !

 

To sum this post up about the weight of the factory hood , they should have coil over springs instead of gas cylinders to hold em up... haha

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Good for you for putting that much time and effort into a Reatta.   A friend of mine owns Allison Boats.  I use to spend time hanging out at his shop when he was designing his 21 foot bass boat. I'm amazed at what can be done with fiberglass.

 

" Vision without action is a daydream.  Action without vision is a nightmare " Now that's a good tag line!  One that I will have to remember.

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Guest Flyer1

Having only been here a short while i sort of see/read a bit on these little cars , may i ask without being offensive :) , what makes them a special ?

 

On the rotisserie side of things , what a lot of the mad mob do over here is use the front/rear bumper mounts/front/rear chassis rails as the mount points to spin it once  it has been gutted , seems to work out ok .

 

sounds like an awesome bit of gear in the making.

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Having only been here a short while i sort of see/read a bit on these little cars , may i ask without being offensive :) , what makes them a special ?

 

They are a 2-seater like a Corvette. - They look sporty like a Camaro. - They ride like a Cadillac. - They get gas mileage like a Honda Accord. - They are about as scarce as an Edsel. (The most commonly asked question I get at car shows about mine is; "What is that?") - Special people own them because they make you feel special when you drive them...

.

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They are special because GM, once upon a time, dared to try something different. The idea was great, the execution was good - if slighty lacking in a few spots - and the sales were dismal (well, relative to their expectations). So, an unusual car that defied the odds to even get off the drawing board was made by a unqiue build process in limited numbers. It was misunderstood upon it's arrival and so was not embraced by the public (which usually doesn't know a good thing when it sees it) yet 20,000 some odd examples made it out the factory door depite all of that.

Some years later a few people took notice of it's value, and over time more people did the same. Now it has a quarter century of having proven itself to be an enjoyable, reliable car that was well ahead of it's time. Very few are seen on the road, and they generate curiosity and compliments among the uninformed when they are seen.

KDirk

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Well put KDirk . That is one of the many reasons I decided to do a radical build on my Reatta. I could have went Camaro , Duece , Bird or Oscar Meyer hot dog mobile ( pop that dog off the chassis ! ;) ... I decided the Reatta because it is what it is ........ Mine !

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Guest Flyer1

Thanks , sounds a bit like the story of some of the cars made over here,not many wanted them from new, but now try getting one (even though the numbers were higher).

 

Bit off topic , but GM (GMH over here) did some really strange things at times (even stranger now) :)

 

A couple of pictures from a 1969 "prototype" , this thing had camera rear view with screen on dash , oil cooled front brakes,adjustable pedals to suit driver ,an early form of "find my way" (navigator setup) , 253 cubic inch V8 making 253 bhp plus a myriad of other subtle things.

 

But who would have wanted one of these in "69" or beyond ?

post-151061-0-76453900-1436165332_thumb.

post-151061-0-61155900-1436165357_thumb.

post-151061-0-32861900-1436165393_thumb.

 

Be good to see some pictures of the build in progress....should be interesting..thinking outside the square has always intrigued me for

some strange reason. :)

Edited by Flyer1 (see edit history)
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GM always has had "prototypes" going back to the '30s (not sure if should count the "copper cooled" Chevvys) some of which made production (53 Buick Skylark, '57 Caddy Eldorado Brougham - in 69 it was the Vega/Astre). Seem like about every 20 years they would let the designers/engineers off the leash. Rarely a commercial success (66-7 Toronado/Eldorado and exception).

 

Consider the Reatta: in 1988 competition just in GM was the Corvette, Fiero, & Allante - all four 2-seaters with different targets. Four different specialty cars at the same time. Amazing.

 

One major difference: wide open spaces with miles and miles of miles and miles & cheap gas has always made American cars a bit larger than places where taxes were higher. Just is.

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Guest Flyer1

I am starting to like the Reatta ,3800 rwd would be good enough for me,but the steering wheel is on the passenger side :), but on the point of being able to spin it , this is a not finished rotisserie, just for an idea (still looking for a pic. of a 2 door on one).

 

post-151061-0-17165100-1436254852_thumb.

 

 

The reason i mentioned the front/rear chassis rails as a mounting point is because they are generally COG when the car has been gutted , but not knowing what they have in terms of chassis rails it is hard to tell , may need to make up a specific adapters somewhere 

along the way.

 

From what i have seen the little Buick looks quite "small" and light...can i hazard a guess without going google and ask how heavy they are ?....2700 pounds or less or more ?

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GM did a lot of mixing and matching of styling cues. Ford Probe is also similar at first glance.

 

unewycoqzkgnycl7nkht.jpg

Reatta is medium heavy at 3300-3500 lbs. 'vert is heavier than coupe,

Firewall and dash is identical to the same year Riviera so if you could find a RHD one it would just be a swap.

 

One issue with converting to RWD is that the "transmission tunnel" is full of electronics (less in 90-91). What is one module today was many in the '80s.

 

"Chassis rails" are formed elements of the body pan. Those on a convertible are much larger than a coupe. Front subframe is similar to an F body.
 

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Interesting project. I have a 1989 beater/parts car and toyed with the idea of transplanting the whole front subframe and stock drivetrain to the rear for a mid-engine design. Straight axle up front for a gasser look.  I remember seeing a Buick V6 powered twin engine setup in a similar car (maybe a Toronado?) One up front and a second in the rear. Well done. It would run with either engine or both although not sure how the power was balanced for that. Beyond me.  

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I can barely believe that prototype dates to 1969. It looks great, andalk about forward thinking. If the hurricane had been built and sold it would be a collector car now, no doubt. I'm especially impressed with the rear view camera. Video cameras were still obscenely large in that timeframe, so wonder how they built one that could be concealed in the rear fascia so well.

I'll keep it at that to avoid a long OT post.

KDirk

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Guest Flyer1

Hopefully the links work just to give an idea on a "smaller' size 2 door looks like underneath on  rotisserie & mount points , (the pictures are of a GMH product that was available over here from factory with a 308 cubic inch V8 (rwd) ,weighed in at 2700 pounds)...from the late 70's,although not a Reatta i hope a bit of an idea can be gotten  of the idea of the rails?, sure beats crawling around underneath, and simple-ish enough to construct?

 

 

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/sirpsychosis/Car%20Rotisserie/DSC04084.jpg

http://s5.photobucket.com/albums/y184/sirpsychosis/Car%20Rotisserie/DSC04077.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v426/Yella_SLuR/Race%20Car%20Under/Image001.jpg

 

If i ever get the chance to own a Reatta (dreaming of course), which would certainly be different down under,it would be gutted and converted using GM running gear , put transmission tunnel/rear suspension mount points etc. in it :)

 

 

 

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Flyer1,

Thanks for taking the time to post those links. For now my plan is to buy two Pittsburgh foldable engine stands to save time and space ( I see I went bold on my type here <------  Ha !. ) and I have a few ideas as to doing some mods on them to make them more stable.

I began disassembling last night with the hood and discovered the hood is not as heavy as it felt when attached to the struts. Got the suspention up on two steel saw horses that I bought on Craigslist last week . I am impressed with the design of the Vette suspention.Upon looking close at what I want to do in terms of freshening up this suspention to make it new , I decided I better go to work today instead of taking today off.

Sorry about my spelling , I don't know how to spell check yet on this format and I need spell check !

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Guest Flyer1

^ sounds good , hav neva seen a vet susp. set up ? sort of might be based on the vel type of thing for models of same Gm group made on a lower scale in other countries...don't know ?..could do with a bit more metal between front/rear to stop the things from twisting up like likorish ?

 

ps... the CCT rear view on the Hurricane  was in monochrome and although largeish by today's standards,very few details available. 

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Okay so I did an all nighter that made me happy to be doing what I'm doing and some of you know what I'm talking about, Started tearing down the C4 front suspension to new everything as I feel needs to be done, went to RockAuto to price out new polyurathane bushings and Daaa , I have a milling machine  10 foot from me ! , again ... Daaa :).

Decided the only way to do this the right way is to order some thermoplastic elastometer bar stock and mill it to specs. Calipers are rebuildable ( so what if they are single piston, it's not the caliper , it's the pads , rotors and tires that stop you at least below 140 mph.

Note: The way I look at it , it's not glamour , it's funtion , the body style is glamour , it speaks for it'self . The funtion is what's hidden and oh what a feeling of what we did to make that funtion sing a song we jam to.

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im just throwing this out there.im wondering why not stick with the reatta front suspension?its easy to upgrade to 12 inch dual piston brakes.i did.an option for the rear is an 8.8 ford thunderbird irs which is totally self contained,very compact,and bullet proof.if its too wide cobra mustangs had a narrower version.of course you will need to tie it together with homemade subframe connectors.just bench racing....

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If I could drop a SBC carberated in the Reatta cradle I would. Yes I said carb because I understand it far better . Plus , the C4 front was built to handle up to 650 hp.

When I first started the plan , I wanted to drop a 383 stroker in her at aprox 600 hp and now I believe it will be more practicle to go with a LS1 and simply carberate it. Working on the Vette front suspension is a joy !

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest PontiacDude210

One of my friends and I had a junkyard 6000 for a while. Great car. Flew nicely. Good luck finding one anymore.

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Imperial62 , the only way I can " mess " this up is if I do not finish what I have started and that's not an option. Retaining the integrity of the Reatta is first and foremost with detail #1 in every aspect .

I hope to have the suspension front and rear complete by Christmas as money allows . This is a slow process with no limit on time as time is a gift new each day and every new day is a new focus on this build. As I think back , the only other car I have owned that excited me as much as the Reatta was my 79 Porche 928, man I miss that car !. This one will be better and I think I'll call her the bride of Frankenstein , ya , that'll work ..... :)

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I am not alone in having this idea more than 10 years ago. But, life being what it is with kids, changing jobs a few times and moving out of country getting in the way....well, nothing happened. You are a man making things happen. Much online respect from some anonymous guy online....but still respect nonetheless.  

 

The C4 is the way GM did their mule many years ago and since it has been done and proven, should not be a big problem.

 

I will be following this thread with great interest. I do not know how possible, but if the car gods smiled on me, I'd love to get a wrecked GTO and swap in a LS2 with manual transmission and IRS. The GTO IRS should not be too fundamentally different than the C4 in terms of size. So many Reattas can be had for less than $2000 and rarity does not always mean high dollar values.

 

This pic is probably well known by now, but still....

 

VM-Buick-Reatta-RWD-conversion-950x632.j

 

This would be a sweet sweet SWEET ride. 

Edited by scourge (see edit history)
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