Project PT-57 By Hot Rod Jim's

Twin turbos look sweet.  

Update for the mad dash to SEMA Come see Hot Rod Jim's with the PT-57 in Booth # 24695

Some pics and I'm back into the shop

Frame back from Powdercoat and going together,

   

   



Pulley System from Vintage Air, The new differential adapter plate, more parts on the frame and the trucks back from paint.

   

   

 

The Fun update. Brianne our driver came down and too some photos for us after we got the body on the frame. I too the other ones but my good lens is gone so they don't look so hot.

   

   

   

   

   

   

Later
-Russell  
Hot Rod Jim's
Building cars that handle
www.hotrodjim.com

Russell,  
   I have been watching the progress of the PT-57, and although I will never be able to afford something of this caliber, these are the projects that give me the maybe one or two ideas to use on our own.
    Being a veteran and now a veteran serice officer and an owner of a 57 3100, I am loving watching this project in progress. Thank You guys for building a truck like this, and I hope to see it in person one day. Just plain sick!!!

Tom  
T Sabo
57 3100 Big Window Chevy

I'll see you there Russell. I'll be at the show Wednesday afternoon and all day Thursday.  

We did make it, we pushed the truck into the SEMA Show Monday for setup and drove it our on Friday after finding and fixing wiring problems.


We put down 567.13 RWHP and 506.27 RWTQ at 4:00 A.M. Saturday morning on the Dyno at Wicked HP with the Help of Chris. When we got to the track we were still locking down a few little things and needed to finish bleeding the brakes. We were given an extension at Tech but ended up missing our deadline when the front wheels with the race tires high centered on the calipers.  I had ordered them because I was told they would clear the Z06 Calipers but such had been our luck for the last 2 weeks (Turns out that wheel guy is out of business now, go figure). I'm working on a full report sorting photos and a video. Sorry, but for now you'll have to live with these.

After we missed our dead line we had all been awake for 36+ hours and not have had any good sleep in weeks we all wanted to just go home at that point. We we're told we will be aloud to compete next year because of our efforts this year. The wiring harness was the major last stab that slowed us down. 2 bad sensors wired so we didn't get it running before we left and ended up spending 30+ hours finding and fixing a $700.00 harness. I will not release their name because they did make the harness for me in 3 days and for that I am grateful and by my research they've never had this problem before but I can say I'll never buy another wiring harness from those guys again after the indigent response I got when asking about the problem.

-Russell

http://special-reports.pickuptrucks.com/2009/11/the-most-awesome-truck-at-sema-hot-rod-jims-pt57.html

 
Hot Rod Jim's
Building cars that handle
www.hotrodjim.com

Great truck at this years SEMA show. Look forward on seeing the completed project at the next show.  

Hey guys, how did you go at SEMA?  

Yep I just found the story. Sorry to hear the issues, but you did put in a hell of a effect.  

Sorry I haven't gotten anything posted in a while, sick for a few weeks and I'm catching up my customers projects.

A little article on the PT-57

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/01/shark-bite-we-drive-the-amazing-project-pt57-hot-rod-pickup.html

-R^3  
Hot Rod Jim's
Building cars that handle
www.hotrodjim.com

Hope the swine didn't get you.  

Sorry for my long absence been busy catching up the customers projects and getting sick for almost 2 full weeks doing nothing but sleeping and now I'm trying to recover my strength. Nothing like knowing a month ago I just picked that rear end up and put it on the table, now I can't budge it.

For those who missed it there was a little article on the PT-57, lots of its wrong but hay who's counting.
[url]http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2010/01/shark-bite-we-drive-the-amazing-project-pt57-hot-rod-pickup.html[/url]


For the fans, I just got around to taking these today so you all can see how she's come out so far. I'm still playing with the HDR's.

 

 



I'm still experimenting with differential mounts and brackets so I haven't gotten a chance to put it on the track yet. I'm also going to do a major renovation of the firewall, steering column, steering linkage, and pedal system.

The steering column ended up a little lower than I would have liked so we'll be moving it up to better clear my huge size 13 feet and I'm going to give a little extra because I have 2 friends / customers who wear 16's. I want a little more leverage on the brakes, I can just barely lock up the street tires the way she sits now and that mean's I have some grip I'll loose out on with the Slicks so a little more leverage  on that end and a little different pedal design too.

The fire wall is going to get a different look to make it more of a factory design instead of the overly common slick everything. I want to make the motor compartment look and feel more like the inside of a bomber / fighter than a tricked out show car. We're also going to ditch the inter coolers since they only show very little cooling compared to the intake air temp. On the dyno the ITA was only 5+ ambient and that was no air moving across the rest of the mandrill tubing under the car. The pyrometer on the end caps was only showing 8-10 degrees drop across the IC’s and they had a fan blowing on them directly so they go and with it some weight too.
 
 Later
 -Russell  
Hot Rod Jim's
Building cars that handle
www.hotrodjim.com

man thats sweet,great job  

Looks even better in person.  

I BROKE IT AGAIN!!!! :1st:

   


This time I killed the two bolts holding the dif plate into the car. They were grade 8 1/2" and they both snapped after 2-3 days of long hard burn outs on the Pilots playing with various rear shock settings. Then the next day, I'm leaving a parking lot and bam. The rear end is jumping up and down. With the front two bolts snapped the rear rigid mount I built as a replacement quickly with scrap from around the shop (during breakage #3 when I snapped the OE Corvette mount) this was the only thing holding the diff in the car and the CV's kept it centered so I could get stopped.

Now I'm sure everyone is wondering why there's a strap on the diff, that's how I got home, with a ratchet strap holding the diff down to the frame and X'd to keep it centered. I was about 20 miles from the shop and it was one of those days where everyone was gone along with my truck and trailer. So I had to drive it home, very, very slowly.

So on to the real fix now and what will hopefully be the production mount. I kept patching the old system and prototype adapter to just see what, and in what order, things would break when we take away the torque tube and transmission from the system. Obviously the first thing that needs to be addressed is the lack of support that would keep the differential from rotating around the rear axle center line.  Just like the diff on a live axle car the IRS diff is forced up from the pinion yoke rotating backwards around the rear axle center line during positive acceleration. So instead of a rear lower mount (like a stock C5) I'm going to give the diff a mount up top so it will be pulling down against this new mount instead of trying to crush it.  Then on the front I'm going to keep the two bolts and bushing into the adapter plate from the bottom for support during negative acceleration while the clutch is engaging the motor and the transmission is in gear. The diff at that point is hammered into the frame or in this case into a pair of rubber bushings. But I'm going to add two lateral bolts on top of the diff plate to give these two bolts more mechanical advantage over the differential case and keep the nose down under positive and negative acceleration. We will now have a grand total of 6 bolts (4x 1/2" and 5x 5/8's) holding the diff in place and set up in a way that different bolts will all be loaded a little differently and spread the force out. Take a look at the pretty picture soldworks made for me, lol you can also see the new lighter plate with a little Hot Rod Jim bling,

     

What’s this mean about the truck, she goes on the lift. The bed comes off, most of the rear suspension, gas tank, turbo’s, exhaust, several lines and more. And we get to play setup on the new diff mounts. I'm also going to fix up several other things that have been peeving me and add in some quick disconnects on the wiring so when I get the new frame banged out the body swap will be quick and painless. So let the fun begin.

-Russell  
Hot Rod Jim's
Building cars that handle
www.hotrodjim.com