It would be a one of a kind Cobalt and would really scary to drive!Dr Squatch, you are just now thinking of this? Look up “Twinpala” by Roadkill Garage. Freiberger and Finnegan have already been up to that. My X1/9 and MR/2 days lit the fire under me and twinpala showed me the door. They noted Twinpala was more fun with the ft engine idiling in neutral. Slower but more fun. I figure a Cobalt could be cool 4wd but I believe mid engined with a diff in the front and rear but built as a real Hoonigan( no real interior)drive shafts to diffs coming off a E/W engine and trans now mounted N/S! That way it would have no transfer case. It might have to be RHD to make the driveshafts mate to the F&R diffs. That is a whole different circus with a whole new set of monkeys. The Olds Banshee reborn!I just thought of something absolutely crazy. Since you're grafting a complete front end into the rear from a donor and leaving all of these same bits in the front end - make a dual engine monster.
twin engine golf
I've got to say I had seen a little about each of those cars plus an Acura Integra which was well covered. All are great examples of daring to transform cars using different ideas! My angle is to try to do all this on the cheap. Starting with 10 y/o, high volume donors is large part. I'm barely $2500 into this mess so far and figure I could scrap my way halfway back to $0 if I fail and walk away. Trying to stay away from ideas like Rat Rods or pure race cars. A large portion of my effort thus far has been research, taking a tape measure and a sharpie marker out to the junkyard, drawing on wrecks and taking pictures, all of which I want to leave behind as a bread crumb trail for others. I'm trying to use methods and tools that are widely available, like using an engine hoist to raise the body off the drive train and a plumb bob, with the body up on jack stands and using tape marks on a cement floor. So thanks for mentioning those VW efforts here! So many times it's about inspiration, sources are not only in one corral! Another of my inspirations was when I was a kid (circa 1973?)watching a neighbor build a Dune Buggy, it may have been a Meyers Manx. I couldn't believe anyone would try such a thing. I saw him it driving later that year, The Smile on that man's face was Infectious! Everyone should aspire to cause that much Happiness!
DS, is this scaring you? or is this a case where the shallow depth of emoji's fails to truly relay your feelings?
, but there is still some whittling of this part yet to be done. The big panel and piece of floor between the strut towers is only still there for dimensional support and much single thickness steel is yet to be carved off, due to the late hour we finished our primary cuts. CAUTION: FLUFF ALERT(Last night I re-attached the subframe and lo and behold one of the caged nuts has gone missing! We did flip this bit over and maybe it just wasn't trapped enough? Time for the metal detector?{or another trip to the junkyard} or maybe just a thick "wing" welded on a regular nut. I'll tack a washer on the bottom of the nut, for max surface area clamping support.), one ignition/trunk key and one driver's door lock; passenger door lock cylinder is MIA. I'm hoping to find a J/Y door/trunk set, a new set with Ign is probably a little expensive. Passenger door panel is in 5 easy pieces. Inside rear view mirror is de-silvering from the edges in, so trash. Windshield is dern near perfect, wow. I have located color matched, door mirrors! Electric!, but they don't seem to work. Happily, all four wheels touch the ground in unison, most of the time. 4 lug A/M Falken(?) alloys with hex key type lug nuts, uuuugh. The aughts called and they/them want their Racerr Boi lug nutz back.) It goes forward and backwards. I cannot say that for $500, With a Title! and Towed to the farm, that I chould have expected much more? It's major redeeming feature beyond the Title is that it IS all one color AND it has NOT had it's Cat stolen!(a minor miracle in this price range!) Today I fitted a J/Y ft SS bumper cover. The headlights are foggy and their fit hooks on the bottom are smashed, I re-installed them anyhow. One works! Oh! then I was picking up my dropped tools, climbed under the front and found that the radiator is bent!, on the bottom edge, right in the DERN middle making a shallow V BUT it's not leaking!! So I'm sure it will leak as soon as I straighten it so the fan will fit again. Of course I failed to notice this bend until AFTER I installed the bumper cover, Arrrgh! That job is easier with the bumper cover off.
Thats usually how it would work for me if I tried it.
I’ve had much luck with straightening radiators, all of it bad.
There much to be said regarding the dynamic of cost vs effort! I'm not one of those constant "gloomy gus' " types but it seems radiator straightening and I just don't get along any more. Back in the good old days of brass/copper rads I got out the solder/propane torch and saved many. Fortunately, since this is Cobalt parts, they are cheap and readily available! I bought a used one that appeared to be almost brand new, with fan for $75. I'll be driving a Cobalt with a geographically relocated power train, where as Goblin owners are driving a Cobalt power train that has relocated to another planet!
Ross, I recall seeing the after photos from you minor off roaring excursion. I figured it was a here goes nothing moment and was pleased to hear it actually stayed in one piece! Any victory, no matter how small, goes in the win column! I’m just being a tad pessimistic, so later I can be surprised by any level of success! We are actually wasting our breath nattering over a $75 radiator, $85 shipped to the shop by noon tomorrow! These are real first world problems, Mon Ami! Still if it wasn’t this, it would be something equally earth shattering! NOT! (CAUTION: Long story ahead.) 2017 I watched my family’s 5,000 sq ft house virtually burn to the ground taking 3 vintage cars, two trucks and a class A motor home with it. BUT when it was under control and the Fire Dept was packing up the three Captains met with me. I asked, was anyone hurt?!! They said nope! I said Great! This is an excellent day! People safely doing dangerous jobs and my neighbors houses have only superficial damage! One, a woman, piped up with, but your cars, your stuff, this place is a wreck! I told them we all got out safely, we stared in the face of destruction. Disaster may look like this but only the survivors get to rebuild anything! (Several firefighters cried over the Nova’s and the trucks and RV. I told them to laugh, no people in them!) I hope no one I know ever has to wade through a mess like that! Me? Worried about a bent radiator on a $500 car that runs AND drives, Naah! As I mentioned before, I could scrap this entire project and still lose only half of my investment!
