The Cal-look Lounge

This is my buddy Chris' aka Slinger's 1961 Single Cab. It is what has been taking up so much of our time and his money for the last year. Originally planned to be ready for Vegas Bug-In last year, it has fought us every step of the way, and gotten way out of hand as these things tend to do!  Im sure he has more pics to add to this thread too...

The 15x6 Crestlines were the cause of a million headaches, but we persevered, and I am glad we did. With the long axle trans, the wheel was just off the lip of the fender. So the rear end recieved short axles, and custom springplates with type 3 brakes to get it all to fit. Now there is plenty of room for the 215/65's planned to come.

The motor is a 1600 with a whole lotta Treuhaft parts, and far too much powdercoat, wrinkle paint, chrome, and polished aluminium ribs. We just wanted to build a good looking motor with a little more power, and somehow that got blown way out of context. Its got a CW crank, and a Engle VZ15 cam. Slinger cleaned up the stock dual ports. We put a torch to the old glasspack muffler to get it to fit snugly. Berg heavy pulley. 356 generator pulley, welded fan, type 4 doghouse. Suprisingly torquey! Valvetrain is a little noisy due to the rampy cam.

love the manifolds!
and it's good to hear the crestlines are gonna fit!

The beam started out as a 2" narrowed CB adjustible beam, that we had to whack another 2" off of. 3 1/2" dropped spindles. The Crestlines were made for dune buggies, not type 2's!! Everything under the front end has been either replaced, or reconditioned, and paint detailed, of course. Stock brakes. 185/60s are the same height as a 145, and fit great on a 6" rim.

The last month has been pretty helacious. Almost every night we have been thrashing on this thing until 10, 11, 12 at night, Getting pretty burned out. Like I said, fought us every single step of the way, nothing came easy. But we had to make it to Vegas this year!!

Last Monday it turned the Crestlines for the first time under its own power, and drove straight over to the interior shop where I work. No matter what Chris says, I designed the interior ;) I cut the German square weave carpet for the floor and the bottoms of the door and front panels, and sewed up the double stiched fat biscuts. The backrest was Slingers idea- a combination type 2 and rear type 3 with the folding armrest- I took the rear backrest out of my Stinky Pinky fastback and about 2 days to fabricate that up! My boss, John Blizzard, stitched the seat cover together. I almost shed a tear when I finally installed it!!  ;D

Sling fitted up the Talbot mirror and door windows, and I finished up the panels yesterday. We are pretty happy with the outcome so far. Still have alot of detail work to do, the rear end needs to lose the slight positive camber and get the aformentioned 215/65s (195/65's until then), maybe the front will come down a notch as well. A good clean and polish to the old paint, a hundred other little things, and we will drive it to Vegas this Friday morning!!

I really like it.  All it needs is a logo, "Slingshot Industries" or possibly "Cosmic Engineering".  Can't wait to see it in Vegas.  First round will be on me.

That is looking sweet. It just needs some hand painted sign work on the side.

--louis

Wanna trade for a fastback?

You dont even wanna see it first?!

Last night we refitted the treasure chest door, and Slinger drove it home for the first time in over a year. Today we clean and buff the old paint, tomorrow we drive ;D

Zack,

 POst some pics of it after you drop the nose a little.

It is dropped!!! It has drop spindles with an adjustible beam, the beam is all the way up right now. With the shorter tires its about 4"-4 1/2" lower than stock up front. I need to re adjust the rear torsions lower for zero camber, and put on 215/65's. I think that combined will raise the back about 1/4". After that we will decide if we want to go a click down in the front. We want rake, but too much may make for Ill handling because of the reduced caster. The steering box may need to be raised if we decide to go down any further as well. Scraping sucks.

BTW, it did great on its maiden voyage to Las Vegas last weekend!!

Thats really not that low. I`m not a big fan of slammed Buses but i think you could stand to lose about an inch in front. And don`t worry it`ll drive fine and you will get use to hitting drivways and an angle so the box doesn`t hit.

I know what you mean... It isnt that low, we were the tallest lowered Bus in Vegas!

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/386310.jpg)
(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/386304.jpg)


What does everyone else think??

After seeing it at a different angle I take it back. Leave it alone. It looks good.

fuc...g nice  zack crestlines rocks on da bus  :o

Saw a bunch (well a lot) of pics of this event and i must say this is the only good looking car i've seen...

Looking good! I say leave it like it is. (Well, I still think it needs some "aged" sign writing on the side)

--louis

Wow! Thanks!!! The Cal Look was definitely the minority there!


We thought about it... maybe some sign writing to represent the shop I work for. But I think that is more of a Hoodride trend, and we want to keep it clean and Cal Look. We even decided to ditch the EMPI steps.

Thanks for the kind words guys, like Zach said, this thing was one hell of an adventure to put together, but It finally happened. It's not quite done yet (is it ever?) The ride height will be getting more adjustment soon, steps are coming off, some rocker repairs, but all in all the Slingle Will stay in this form for a while. Tons of thanks go out to Zach. Your a polish pain in my ass,  :D but I love for it. We put so much hard work & brainstorming together on this project it seems nothing will every be as challenging, but I know that's not true. Anywho if any one wants a tip to put Crestlines on their type 2 here it is..."Don't Do It !!!"  I will leave you with some old pics, there will be plenty of new ones in the near future.
(http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g265/racebug67/ResizeofIMGP0828.jpg)
(http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g265/racebug67/Resizeofslingle.jpg)
(http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g265/racebug67/Resizeof2005-04-27021.jpg)