Her Name is Frank

[Twisted Minis]

They are pretty close. The track width is about 3" narrower I think though, but if you want it dumped, it would help with turning.

I would pick Toyota over an S10 clip any day. The S10 geometry is one of the worst designs since the original Mustangs.

[Twisted Minis]

Started making a carb hat for a functional cold air intake. Starting with some 5" pipe (because I can't find 5 1/4" .125 wall or 5 1/2" .250 wall in a reasonable price for a short piece) and machining the center out to 5 1/8" by 1" deep to fit on top of a 4 barrel. Some shots of me using the lathe. More on this piece later.




Some shots of the motor mounts I built, as well as the motor and trans mocked up. The motor is set as low as it will go, and tilted 5° back in relation to the chassis. The transmission looks pretty high in relation to the floor, and it is a little bit, but it is also a lot bigger than the stock transmission. But this is where everything works, so I will make the floor work around it.




I machined the round tubes in the motor mounts from solid cold rolled. I couldn't find any tube that fit the stock bolt size with any kind of tolerance, so I just made it. Needed a .485" ID.

[GJToyotabug]

dude!!! thats going to be one mean street racer!!!

[Twisted Minis]

Ya, I can't wait to drive it. I'm saving up for a fire suit.

[85yodaon33s]

dude that is some insane stuff your making there Ive been building hot rods with my dad for 10 years now and have yet to get into stuff that intense but sure would love to get into it keep up all the good work bro and hope to see you in the Fresno area one day take care

[Twisted Minis]

I'm in Fresno a couple times a year. There are two shows in Visalia this year I will be at. Danger Zone, and Down To Earth Day.

[Twisted Minis]

Made a basic plate cross member for the transmission that bolts to the stock mounts.



Now more carb hat stuff. I free hand cut a plate to cap it off.



I MIG welded the top for buildup, and TIG welded the bottom for an airtight seal.



I cut the welds down on the lathe, then did some metal finishing with a few files and some emery cloth.



Then center drilled it to accurately place the hole to hold the carb hat down.


The owner has a few Ford trucks on his property, with some 460s in them. One had a junk carb but one had a factory Holley, so we are going to run that. Carb hat is on the motor, and the hood shuts with a little room to spare. No holes in the hood!

[HxCmudBogger]

That's hood as .... man!

[Twisted Minis]

Built a transition from the carb hat to 2.5" round that won't loose any flow. It gets 3/4" shorter, but 1 1/4" wider as it goes into the hat. Third shot is a potential location for the air filter. If wet weather happens, there will be a flexible joint inside the engine bay somewhere, and the filter could be moved there. No longer would it be cold air, but it wouldn't be wet.

[Toyota1994]

nice ride

[Twisted Minis]

I built this mirror bracket for a friend of mine, and he metal finished it and polished it.







It just needs the holes drilled in it.

[Twisted Minis]

I added a sheet metal cross member in where I had to take one out, and I framed in the shape of the tunnel with 3/16" rod.

[THK Matt]

Damn I need a huge bag of xD

[Twisted Minis]

Almost done with the tunnel. A few more panels on the DS left to do, then the drive shaft tunnel.

[NITE KRAWLERS]

DUDE  that is a cool tunnel tub ya got going on. YO got mad skill foo!!! NICE

[Twisted Minis]

Tunnel is finished aside from one panel on the DS. The firewall will be getting re shaped a bit to fit the brake pedal setup, so I don't want to get ahead of myself until that shows up.




I got a "lightweight aluminum shift knob" from Speedway. In it's intended orientation, with the open end facing up, it feels strange on the palm of your hand. But if you flip it over with the bottom in your palm, it feels much more comfortable. So I decided to machine a shifter that will work with the knob in this orientation. I need to mill a flat spot to bolt it to the shifter on the T5, and I also want to weld the top shut and metal finish it so that is is all one piece.

[locked 4x4]

I give u total props.  That thing is sweet.

[Twisted Minis]

Got the pedals in their final location and patched into the fire wall. Now I just need to build some support brackets for the top of the pedal assembly. Also shown is a new press die for the Ford 302 flange.

[axled89]

dude your takin fab skills to the next level.   good job on this man.

[THK Matt]

three boosters? im so confused

[Twisted Minis]

Zero boosters. Three master cylinders. It's a manual setup. Far left is for clutch, the other two are for brakes. Different M/C for front and rear, so I can run different sizes. And the pedal has a balance bar, so I can adjust the bias front to rear up to 90% bias.

[THK Matt]

crazy ... reason for no booster? i meant MCs anyways... i lost it haha

[GJToyotabug]

boosters make the breaks less responsive and you have less feel for the road. running two M/C (master cylinders)  is double the pressure than just running one, it makes it easier than one and keeps the responsiveness and good feel for the road. should be a good setup so far what are you doing for the rest of the breaks?

[Twisted Minis]

Breaks are bad. Lol.

Ya basically the booster is the reason behind that spongy feeling, but it makes the brakes more effort less. But a properly set up manual system can feel just as effortless as a power brake system. But you "feel" the brakes a lot more with mechanical, which I think is a good thing. You just have to do some math on your caliper piston sizes versus the bore size to make it work right.

Up front will be getting big Wilwood brakes. Out back right now will get nothing. After the first race though the car will be getting a custom IRS setup and going to Wilwood out back as well. It also has a Wilwood clutch slave.

[Twisted Minis]

Here is the seat we are running in the car. I mounted some seat sliders to it today. I welded some 1/8" washers I made to reinforce the hole and mounting area at the front. The back was not so easy. The rails where a few inches off the the seat, so I cut some 1" aluminum at an angle and faced and tapped the other side on the lathe.




I then welded those pieces to the bottom of the seat to provide a mounting location. I still need to weld the rest, but can't reach until I pull the sliders off. And they are inconvenient, the kind of thing I only want to do about a dozen times.

[Twisted Minis]

I've been working on an almost entirely stainless exhaust system this weekend for an Acura TL-S. I say 'almost' because the owner supplied me with Magnaflow mufflers, which seem to only have a stainless shell. The tubes inside and out are mild steel. I assume this is because most of them will be welded to steel exhaust tube. However I am using stainless tube. Either way, I am happy with the way it is coming along, I should have it done tomorrow.

And I know the rear most mufflers look obscenely crooked in the picture, I can assure you they are not. The way the opening is shaped makes them look crooked, but Drew and I spent about 3 hours just positioning and hanging the mufflers and assuring that they are straight and level in all directions, as well as the orientation of all the hangers.





It's got an aftermarket down pipe that goes into 2.5" tube, a resonator, a small muffler, then splits into 2.25" and goes into two more mufflers. I think the goal is for it to be quiet, but flow a lot better than stock. I think it will do just that.

[pumkin toy]

nice exhaust!  those acura's sound sick with a good exhaust system

[muddywaters]

the exhaust looks good, that makes me sad i sold an acura cl type s with a lot of goodies to get into this 4wd hobby.  the one thing i didnt like was how low the whole exhaust system(comptech usa) hung really low, so i know what you mean. you did a really good job though...headers really wake those motors up.

[Twisted Minis]

Ya the resonator is about 2" below the rocker of the car. I drove it a little bit and never scraped it though, I tested it on the speed bumps in the parking lot which are huge. The down pipe is about an inch lower than the resonator though, he got a used one and it's already been drug flat. It sounds pretty cool, very quiet outside the car until the RPM gets up around 3K RPM. The throttle body opening is louder than the exhaust. It does resonate a bit inside the car.

Finished today.

[Twisted Minis]

Gas pedal.



Also thought this was funny. Replaced a wheel bearing on an S4, and the bolt was really stuck. I broke a few allen sockets wrenching on it and got a nicer set today. It still took a 10 foot 2x4 extension on my Snap-On ratchet to break it loose. Even that was pretty hard.