9 Attachment(s)
Project Speedboat -- 95 Roadmaster M6 sleeper
Update 8/10/15 - I bought the boat as a roller from my friend and am in the process of resurrecting it. It's mine MWHAHAahahaHAHA
This isn't actually my car but it belongs to a close friend. Even though it's not mine, I put a ton of research/time/effort into making it what it is currently. I'm completely serious when I say 90% of the work put into it has been done by yours truly. It deserves a build thread as it's not something you see everyday. A real wolf in sheep's clothing.
It's a long story...
Flashback to last summer... My friend's old car (a beat up Ford Contour Sport) was struck by his elderly mom while parked. While reversing, she mistook the gas for the brake pedal upon leaving a family gathering and slammed right into it. The damage was so severe that the car was totalled and insurance awarded him a little over $3k. Anyway, the Contour was a POS with over 100k, rusting rocker panels, and failing cats. That car was put out of it's misery and wasn't missed one bit. As weird as it was, the accident was probably good thing being that the car would have never fetched $3k in a private sale. He made out well.
Some time went by and I helped my friend look at a few different used cars. He had been burned a few times in the past with used cars (a 2.5 RS Impreza with bad headgaskets, a 91 Talon TSi with electrical gremlins and engine troubles, etc). Even though he was more into imports at the time, I was determined to help him find something decent, cheap, practical, but most importantly it needed some POWERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygBP7MtT3Ac
I started browsing 94-96 B-bodies with LT1s on Craigslist knowing they were the best bang for the buck sedan (other than a 1st gen Q45) with enough torque to blow any of his previous cars out of the water... plus, I was totally down to help him hot rod the shit out of one. Ideally, I was looking for a sedan model to cut back on weight with somewhat low miles at a decent price. There was a 95 Roadmaster sedan at a small lot in Glenside for $3k with only 61,000 miles on the clock. We get there to check it out and this thing looks pretty beat... front bumper is banged up, rear bumper has some scrapes, trim is missing, vinyl top is a little ripped, door panel is jacked up, no door keys, etc. Things already didn't look good and on top of that my friend kept telling me that the car was wayyyy too big, ugly, and beat. Plus, it look like a grandma car. We went to take it out for a test drive and one of the salesmen from the lot insisted on tagging along to make sure we weren't gonna beat on it (but I don't blame him, we're two twenty-something dudes who showed up in a loud green Camaro). The thing floated like a magic carpet over the road and didn't feel fast at the speed limit.
When we got back to the lot my friend still wasn't sold on the car even though it seemed like it was in tip top shape mechanically. The owner of the lot came up and started talking to us about how it's a great runner but needs some TLC (obviously). Apparently, it had been sitting in the back of the lot for some time as it was pretty filthy from pollen/leaves and I could tell he really wanted it gone because there was barely any space for the nicer cars up front. I told him we were really interested in the car but the price just wasn't right in that condition. Talked for a little longer about it and the owner said he'd take $2k cash. SOLD!!!!!! Two days later we picked it up, drove to Autozone down the street for some wipers the owner of the lot graciously paid for, and did a bad ass peel out before taking it home.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...psab3a4359.jpg
"Now what?"
My friend had a ton of money to play with left over from the Contour so I started planning some mods. The ultimate goal was to turn the car into a badass sleeper that could run with the local sports cars but on an airtight budget. The satisfaction of stomping real performance vehicles in grandpa's land yacht was gonna be sweet.
First thing was the ghetto fabulous intake. Both plastic silencers came off and the elbow was plugged with a hockey puck courtesy of Dick's Sporting Goods. Then a straight piece of stainless exhaust tubing was run from the elbow to the b-body MAF using a reducer (I also polished it). The filter was swapped for a non-paper Spectre one from Pep Boys and the airbox was "swiss cheesed" a little bit.
Also removed the AIR and EVAP systems to strip some weight out of this cow.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps744bc0c7.jpg
Next thing was exhaust. The stock exhaust has 2 cats, 2 mufflers, 2 resonators, and a bunch of vibration dampening weights throughout so the whole thing is heavy as hell. Summit long tubes (1-5/8" primaries, 3" collector), Summit 2.5" X-pipe, and Dynomax Super Turbo Mufflers to dumps before the axle was the new setup. I fabbed up and tack welded the X-pipe and mufflers with my cheapo HFT flux welder. The rest of the welding/fitting was done by a shop in Norristown that didn't ask questions. The dumps that are pictured were later trimmed to attract less attention.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps430785e3.jpg
After that I went to a junkyard and pulled a G80 posi rear out of a Caprice. The Auburn diff seemed like it was in decent shape and was pretty hard to break away. I rebuilt that rear with Motive 3.73 gears and swapped it in. That posi didn't last very long with the beating the car endured from all the burnouts (and last winter certainly didn't help). I replaced the Auburn with a Yukon Duragrip which has held up pretty well since.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps81338f82.jpg
Next thing was suspension. Vogtland lowering springs and Monroe Severe Service shocks. The lowering springs are only installed on the rear so far because I'm afraid of undoing the LCA up front without the proper spring compressor. I'll get to that eventually.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...psd53c84c9.jpg
Did a little bit of exterior work to make it less offending to the eye... It's shaping up. Still needs a front and rear bumper, some trim moldings, and some other tweaks. But it's looking a lot nicer than it was.
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75eaa26a.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps76bc6565.jpg
Here's the most recent mod... Yep. It has a 6-speed now thanks to the F2B kit and the old trans out of my car. The 4L60e lost 3rd and 4th after a lot of abuse (more than I expected honestly).
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6186e421.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2425eb3b.png
It's a work in progress but everything from here on out is finishing touches, small tweaks, and aesthetics. It's probably going to stay a bolt-on T56 car for a while until he gets the itch again. Bryan Herter should also be doing the tune and I'll be sending the PCM out later today. Thing goes like stink and breaks loose pretty easy! We already chased a modified WRX owned by a guy I went to high school with and it held on, even without the driver mod (friend was driving, just learned stick shift a few days ago lol). Very impressed with this car, it hauls some serious ass for a barge.
Mods so far:
Catmaigne's ghetto-fab intake
No emissions, no AC
Summit long tubes
Summit 2.5" X pipe
Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers and dumps
F2B kit
Clear Image T56 crossmember
T56 swap
Motive 3.73 gears
Yukon posi
Vogtland lowering springs
Monroe SS shocks
Future mods:
Bucket seats from a S10/Blazer
More weight reduction
17x8 Cragar Soft 8's in black
275/40R17 tires to effectively change gearing
Exterior touch up
Install trim moldings
Paint moldings black
Window tint
Louder mufflers or cutouts
EWP
Possible LE2 kit in the future
Really one of a kind. She's a brute.
Next stop... the track. Time to run a baseline.
