I bought a 1976 Dodge Colt today

It should be rallycross ready before the last event this year, but who knows how long it'll take me to have it stage worthy. Gotta hook the trailer up and go get it, once it's home I'll take and post some pics.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2010 07:30PM by 12xalt.

So cool! I'm jealous.

---

Ben Hetland
1973 Volvo 142 project car (with some cone-smashing on dirt in it's future, however)

"No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
-Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)

www.utahrallygroup.com

1fastben Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So cool! I'm jealous.
>
> "No. Rally Racing is a back alley sport filled
> with jackals, headhunters and thugs!"
> -Pops Racer (Speed Racer movie)
>
>
> www.utahrallygroup.com


jealous? why? it's going to probably take me 2-3 years to get it out on stage, if I'm lucky. When I said "rallycross ready" I mostly meant that it should be running by October (ok, it runs, but it needs a head gasket, brakes, and I can't remember what else). It's also an automatic and I've no idea when I'll be able to get around to changing it over to a manual.

but it is a cute little fucker isn't it, gonna have to change the colors, I hate yellow and I hate blue almost as much as I hate yellow

Way to go! Looks like a fun little car!
Just skip the head gasket and find a nice fuel injected motor and five speed trany out of some late model car and stuff it in there!

beebe Wrote:
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> Way to go! Looks like a fun little car!
> Just skip the head gasket and find a nice fuel
> injected motor and five speed trany out of some
> late model car and stuff it in there!


then it'll be 2-3 years before it goes anywhere, getting it running right how it is now is the only way it's gonna make it to anything in the somewhat near future

gotta start small, I can't afford that other stuff right now, hell, I really couldn't afford the car, I was looking for a project in the $300-$400 range and this set me back $550

mister bitchy

you make good cookies

nice car

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

12xalt Wrote:
(ok, it runs, but it
> needs a head gasket,


I may have one on the nail downstairs.

>brakes,

Rotsa ruck round eys


and I can't remember
> what else). It's also an automatic and I've no
> idea when I'll be able to get around to changing
> it over to a manual.

It is my understanding that the bellhousing AND BLOCK are different for autotragique...again rotsa ruck.
There are allegedly "wide", "narrower" and "autotragique" blocks.
Early motors have a massive crank that makes Volvo cranks---which are bigger than small block Chevys---look wimpularly small, and the main journal is BIG.
Later blocks like D50 pickups have a smaller main, just big, not ginormouly huge.

Be VERY careful when the time comes, PLAN that move well.
Vern Johnson at Engine Builder Supply, formerly one of the fastest guys in the country in his old Corolla, out towards troutdale might be a good guy to nail down the specifics of the block and bellhousing nonsense.

>
> but it is a cute little fucker isn't it, gonna
> have to change the colors, I hate yellow and I
> hate blue almost as much as I hate yellow

You oughtter plan on swapping the rear axle out for SOMETHING you can get alternate final drives for. PLAN ahead to make the tranistion easier..

Also I'd be surprised if there are even the crappies of crap struts and shocks, better talk to somebody who knows those cars suspension, but who? WHO?

WHO!!!!?????

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Nice. I like it!

Paint the hood flat black and it'll look like a race car. Just sayin'

andrew and mike, thanks

john, thanks for the info, and lengacher will be doing most of the work on it since he's my roommate, I'll make sure I get all of that to him, alot of it is things he's already mentioned that we'll need to do, he is concerned about finding a pedal set too

12xalt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> andrew and mike, thanks
>
> john, thanks for the info, and lengacher will be
> doing most of the work on it since he's my
> roommate, I'll make sure I get all of that to him,
> alot of it is things he's already mentioned that
> we'll need to do, he is concerned about finding a
> pedal set too

You, or better Todd, needs to speak with an old friend of mine, Comrade Rich Smith.
Comrade Smith has/had piles of THAT model specific stuff. You REALLY want to start to search for windsheild glass---that's always the deal killer on all older cars, gotta have at least 1, preferably 2 spares on hand....

By the way,
It was one of these where virtually ALL of the things I constantly harp about was first addressed way back in 1987/88
Things found utterly unacceptable (that wasn't unacceptable to E, I had a much much better car (still do) that HAD all the things impossible to find for a Colt then) were:
Steering------slow, very vague, weak, no repacement parts
axle location---nonexsistant
axle itself-----no alternate ratios, no LSD, extremely weak case, weak halfshafts
Brakes--- a pitiful joke from, absurdly small in the back

When I say unacceptable, it was so to the owner who just happened to be Anglais, and who had owned a couple of MkII Escorts back home and had made a HUGE blunder in believeing all the guys who---totally without knowledge--- keep repeating the nonsense they had heard "No problems building a Colt,, there TONS! of stuff for them , all this WORKS PARTS are just laying areound for the price of pick the parts up off the floor"

When in fact even back then there was virtually NOTHING available, much less anything rally.


SO, it was the first car where I helped with sourcing SOMETHING!!!! to make to car OK to pound.

And you have to do things, cause really you don't want to just break the car every time you go out, or drive at 27 mph do you?

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

That thing looks clean. Good luck with the build!
Another resource for information should be Wilson and gang. They had 3 built cars a couple of years ago...

---

rally gods would turn in their graves if they ever knew Lada's were now part of EU rallying!!!

turoc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That thing looks clean. Good luck with the build!
> Another resource for information should be Wilson
> and gang. They had 3 built cars a couple of years
> ago...

Just putting a cage in a car does not make it "built'.
He was also in touch with my old Comrade Smith as Rich was in these very cars back when they were current up until about 1983.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Oh shit. I am so jealous. These are my secret obsession. Awesome little cars.

I recently stumbled upon a great community online to get some more info on those things. http://sigma-galant.com Lots of guys down under playing with those things since the 60s. Spend a little time there and you'll have all kinds of crazy ideas.

Another excellent resource is http://oldcolts.com.au

I'm currently working up some interviews with old Colt owners from down under. Good guys with great little cars. I'd sure love to own a scrappy little Mitsu like these myself. Yellow, orange and white with the black hood and a pair of Super Oscars up front? Solid. Too bad I didn't learn about them until I was two Galants deep.

---

Brian Driggs | KG7KCA | PHX, AZ | 89 Pajero
alterius non sit qui suus esse potest

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> turoc Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That thing looks clean. Good luck with the
> build!
> > Another resource for information should be
> Wilson
> > and gang. They had 3 built cars a couple of
> years
> > ago...
>
> Just putting a cage in a car does not make it
> "built'.
> He was also in touch with my old Comrade Smith as
> Rich was in these very cars back when they were
> current up until about 1983.
>
>
>
> John Vanlandingham
> Sleezattle, WA, USA
>
> Vive le Prole-le-ralliat
>
> www.rallyrace.net/jvab
> CALL +1 206 431-9696
> Remember! Pacific Standard Time
> is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I thought at least one of them was an x-factory car!

---

rally gods would turn in their graves if they ever knew Lada's were now part of EU rallying!!!