XRBrati Underway....

Post by **John Brennan** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 4:33 pm

Imagine the lawyer feeding frenzy when this wunderbar gizmo suddenly goes south on the freeway during rush hour... somehow, I don't think so... like all the flying cars we're supposed to be driving by now-- NOT! Would you trust your life to something like this? I can't even finish a brief cell phone conversation without being cut off half the time.

Greenturbo · Post by **Greenturbo** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 8:32 pm

i have to ask ..........

did you try to drive the front around without the back?

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 12:22 pm

Greenturbo wrote:i have to ask ..........

did you try to drive the front around without the back?

It did cross my mind, but seeing as how I had already removed the seats, I wasn't going to expend any effort in that regard. Furthermore, since it's AWD, I'm not sure if it would have even worked, and if it did, it probably would have sent tranny fluid out the tailshaft.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 9:13 pm

I've always thought it would be funny to cut the back end off a FWD car and throw a couple of economy-size swivel casters on the back, let 'er rip, and see what happens.

Post by **John Brennan** » Sun Oct 17, 2004 9:43 pm

I remember seeing stuff like that on Candid Camera when I was a kid. They had this car all rigged up to separate in two while under way, with people in the back seat waving at astonished motorists and passers-by! Ah, the Sixties!

BTW, if you did that, you wouldn't want the back end to swivel, or you couldn't control it very well!

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:31 pm

John Brennan wrote:I remember seeing stuff like that on Candid Camera when I was a kid. They had this car all rigged up to separate in two while under way, with people in the back seat waving at astonished motorists and passers-by! Ah, the Sixties!

Ehh.. wasn't that in one of the "herbie the love bug" movies?

John Brennan wrote:BTW, if you did that, you wouldn't want the back end to swivel, or you couldn't control it very well!

That's the point.. it would be funny to play Crack the Whip with it.

Chuck W · Post by **Chuck W** » Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:16 am

Well, I'm glad to see you've finally started it

However, now I wouldn't mind having a Brat to drive around....I always thought they were neat little trucks.

Good luck with it.

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:22 pm

Chuck W wrote:Well, I'm glad to see you've finally started it

However, now I wouldn't mind having a Brat to drive around....I always thought they were neat little trucks.

Good luck with it.

Thanks Chuck. I actually struggled with the idea of cutting this thing in half for quite some time. In fact, I had this Brat for over a year before taking the cutting tools to it. A rust-free Brat is very rare these days - good examples are appreciating - one just sold for over $6500 on eBay.

But to restore this Brat would have taken a lot of time and effort, and it would have gotten me involved in a whole other platform that I'm not currently involved with. I already spend too much time doing car stuff! The AWD is the thing that kept me second-guessing myself, but finally I just took the Nike approach... Just Do It!!! In a matter of about and hour, the body was in two pieces.

Post by **turboxr** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:08 pm

I could be just behind the times, but what's the latest stat on this?

MerkXRTurbo · Post by **MerkXRTurbo** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:12 pm

AnXRNamedEllie wrote:I could be just behind the times, but what's the latest stat on this?

Someone's behind the times... but it aint you.

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Tue May 03, 2005 2:26 pm

MerkXRTurbo wrote:
AnXRNamedEllie wrote:I could be just behind the times, but what's the latest stat on this?
Someone's behind the times... but it aint you.

Yea, no kidding.

Once I determined it couldn't get done in time for Carlisle, I just stopped everything and focused on getting the "driver" ready for Carlisle and more importantly, the Glen. The to-do list had 12 major items on it, four of which are completed as I type this. They were the more time-consuming four, so I'm okay as long as I don't get any significant surprises over the next 30 days.

Back to the XRBrati, the delay has actually worked in my favor since I've since acquired a rust-free chasis to use as the platform. The rusty black hulk will likely be transformed to duty as a "rolling container".

Maybe I should invite Colin over for a weekend and he could knock the whole thing out and I'd be driving it on Monday.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Wed May 04, 2005 12:30 am

Damn right. When it comes to hacking apart unibodies, I'm a trained professional. Check out my certificate:

XR4Timan · Post by **XR4Timan** » Wed May 04, 2005 8:23 am

Love this project Brad, although I could see some naysayers would say why not just stuff a 2.3 turbo into a Ranger?

Have you ever given thought to calling the UK and having them send you the back half of a P100? You could have them cut it down halfway thru the cab, and it's legal since it would be shipped as parts.

Anyway, best of luck with the project. I'm quite excited to see the result. Are you using a live axle?

Always wanted a convertible Merkur myself, but I can't justify it when a 2.3 Mustang convertibles are so plentiful!

Take it easy...

Post by **DPDISXR4Ti** » Wed May 04, 2005 9:44 am

Anyone could buy a Ranger - that's too easy.

I considered bringing a P100 over, but it would be a costly venture, and I'd always need to go overseas for things like taillights, tailgate parts, etc.

This will be a "sheet metal only" job - everything below the hip-line will be original XR4 except for the very tail end (bumper, tail-lights, etc). The bed will be double-floored right over the existing XR pan. Still looking for the right stuff to fill the gaps between the two floors. The new structural foams would do the trick but I'm afraid to think about how much I might need, plus it expands very little.

MerkXRTurbo · Post by **MerkXRTurbo** » Wed May 04, 2005 9:57 am

You could get your $$$ back by doing that if you filled the bed with Euro parts.