8.50 index build

[Todd Geisler]

Hello all, long time member, just never had a class car.

One year ago I had a bad top end wreck with my 8.50 index Malibu that I built, owned and raced for 27+ years. Car made a hard left past the finish line, put me into the wall which then caused the car to barrel roll as many as 7 times I'm told. I don't remember any of the accident, so no apparent cause was found.











A couple weeks after the crash I was able to source a body to begin building again. My dream car was gone so the new car would simply be a purpose built race car, chosen for ease of parts availability, low purchase cost and light weight.







I have many, many pics of the build in detail, not sure how much interest there would be to see this project.

[Keith 944]

The first car looked very nice, i'm sure this one will be too. I am always interested in any build!
Keep up the good work and keep posting please!

[Todd Geisler]

Originally Posted by Keith 944

The first car looked very nice, i'm sure this one will be too. I am always interested in any build!
Keep up the good work and keep posting please!

Will do, gonna be alot of pictures to post. lol

[Todd Geisler]

Found alot more rust than I was hoping for. One area I really didn't want to get into was the front frame rails which have a reputation for rusting out under the master cylinder and combination valve.







I tried ordering a replacement frame rail kit but didn't like how it was going to install, plus I found an issue with the factory placement of the passenger rail, so I decided to make my own. Drew them up on CAD at work and cut them out on the cnc plasma.

[Todd Geisler]

So many holes to weld up in the shock towers...





Body back from media blasting...





In the mean time parts were ordered and slowly starting to come in.

[Todd Geisler]

At this point the front end was rebuilt as far as I could go for the time being. I was ready to start the tube work but was waiting for a bay to open up at work to get started.

So in the mean time I worked on building the rear housing. First was a mockup and measurements of the rear wheel/tire combination.



Then the rear could begin with welding on the 4 link doubler plates.







Housing and 4 link brackets being fixtured up.















Once all the welding was done the housing ends could be fit which is a very time consuming/tedious process to get them perfectly square to the axle centerline.





A fixture was then made to hold the housing to the chassis table.



About the time I was completing the work on the rear, a bay opened up at work so I transferred the car to its new home.



...and now tube work could begin.

[FireSale]

I believe they call that rust trap you replaced a torque box.
Really amazing quality work. Might I ask what your line of work is?

[Todd Geisler]

Originally Posted by FireSale

I believe they call that rust trap you replaced a torque box.
Really amazing quality work. Might I ask what your line of work is?

I pretend I’m a chassis builder at work. Lol

Rocker/torque box was just one of several areas with rust. I kept cutting till there was no more rust. Lol

[Jeff Stout]

Excellant workmanship. Glad you got back on the horse after having a bad crash.

[Todd Geisler]

Originally Posted by Jeff Stout

Excellant workmanship. Glad you got back on the horse after having a bad crash.

Thanks you. Doing my best to get this done in a timely manner, but still takes time. For the next few months it will be out of my hands waiting for body/paint, plus waiting to get the engine back.