UK four door saloon LQ4
04-14-2013, 06:39 PM
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UK four door saloon LQ4 Hi there, thought I should post a build thread.
I picked up an MOT failure carlton GSI for 130 quid, I pulled the motor transmision and whole interior then cut the car up over a weekend with help from a few friends!
I picked up an MOT failure carlton GSI for 130 quid, I pulled the motor transmision and whole interior then cut the car up over a weekend with help from a few friends!
04-14-2013, 06:44 PM
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This little lot was collected by some local mobile scrap metal collectors
It then took me a couple years to get to this stage
you can see how much room I have to work in - see the shell in the garage I had to lay the tubes out cut them with the notcher and tack them together in all inside the shell inside the garage!
It then took me a couple years to get to this stage
you can see how much room I have to work in - see the shell in the garage I had to lay the tubes out cut them with the notcher and tack them together in all inside the shell inside the garage!
04-14-2013, 06:51 PM
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I then had the chassis welded at http://www.robinson-race-cars.co.uk/
as I had never welded anything up till starting this and didn't fancy falling thru the floor whilst driving along!
I also (once I had paid off the credit card) got some front lower arms and four link tubes
as I had never welded anything up till starting this and didn't fancy falling thru the floor whilst driving along!
I also (once I had paid off the credit card) got some front lower arms and four link tubes
04-14-2013, 07:00 PM
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Megasquirt II
I had up till this point intended to use a 357 SBC but after reading an article in RPM magazine I was corrupted by the idea of an LS and after reading the Car Craft articles and turbo'd truck motors in particular
So I got this from http://www.lsxp.net/
I had up till this point intended to use a 357 SBC but after reading an article in RPM magazine I was corrupted by the idea of an LS and after reading the Car Craft articles and turbo'd truck motors in particular
So I got this from http://www.lsxp.net/
Last edited by JJMclure; 04-14-2013 at 07:14 PM.
04-14-2013, 07:05 PM
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I pulled one of the heads the other night on a day off which has a been a rarity lately and was pleasantly surprised
That's the cars front wing on one side of the engine and the garage wall on the other! Tight!
I also had a front plate from http://www.aeicnc.com/ arrive last week so maybe at some point I can get the engine mounted in the chassis!
That's the cars front wing on one side of the engine and the garage wall on the other! Tight!
I also had a front plate from http://www.aeicnc.com/ arrive last week so maybe at some point I can get the engine mounted in the chassis!
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08-22-2014, 08:10 PM
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I've gotta give you BIG props for tackling a project like that, given the small space you have to work with... 
You're either insanely determined - or perhaps just insane... 
Good luck with this build, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this one. I'm betting that it's going to turn out great!
You're either insanely determined - or perhaps just insane... Good luck with this build, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this one. I'm betting that it's going to turn out great!
08-25-2014, 05:12 AM
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I've gotta give you BIG props for tackling a project like that, given the small space you have to work with... You're either insanely determined - or perhaps just insane...
Good luck with this build, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this one. I'm betting that it's going to turn out great!
You're either insanely determined - or perhaps just insane... Good luck with this build, I'm going to be keeping an eye on this one. I'm betting that it's going to turn out great!
08-25-2014, 08:26 AM
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I'm bit intrigued by this build, so I looked up 'Carlton GSI' (because of course we don't see those stateside). I'm guessing that your car originally looked something like this??
I also found that there's a little bit of information about the car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Carlton. It's definitely helpful that the car started as a RWD platform. What are your plans?? Are you going to make it obvious that a V-8's been swapped in, or are you going to try to keep it relatively low-key?? Heck, you might not even get past MoT with the swap (not sure what's involved with that inspection), so perhaps it's going to be a track-only toy... That "jungle gym" of bars shown in your 2nd post shows that it won't be an entirely-convincing sleeper... (If you are able to drive it on the street though, & if you keep the exhaust note pretty low-key, I'd bet that you'd be able to really surprise those who perhaps aren't looking too closely...)
Good luck with the build!!
I also found that there's a little bit of information about the car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Carlton. It's definitely helpful that the car started as a RWD platform. What are your plans?? Are you going to make it obvious that a V-8's been swapped in, or are you going to try to keep it relatively low-key?? Heck, you might not even get past MoT with the swap (not sure what's involved with that inspection), so perhaps it's going to be a track-only toy... That "jungle gym" of bars shown in your 2nd post shows that it won't be an entirely-convincing sleeper... (If you are able to drive it on the street though, & if you keep the exhaust note pretty low-key, I'd bet that you'd be able to really surprise those who perhaps aren't looking too closely...)
Good luck with the build!!
Last edited by V8Rumble; 08-25-2014 at 08:35 AM. Reason: Questions
08-25-2014, 04:31 PM
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Didnt the lotus edition do 175mph in the early 90s? I think it was based on the Cadillac Catera platform?
http://automobile.wikia.com/wiki/Lotus_Carlton
It was faster than the corvette of the same era, so people probably won't be surprised if its fast.
http://automobile.wikia.com/wiki/Lotus_Carlton
It was faster than the corvette of the same era, so people probably won't be surprised if its fast.
08-26-2014, 08:37 AM
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I'm bit intrigued by this build, so I looked up 'Carlton GSI' (because of course we don't see those stateside). I'm guessing that your car originally looked something like this??
I also found that there's a little bit of information about the car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Carlton. It's definitely helpful that the car started as a RWD platform. What are your plans?? Are you going to make it obvious that a V-8's been swapped in, or are you going to try to keep it relatively low-key?? Heck, you might not even get past MoT with the swap (not sure what's involved with that inspection), so perhaps it's going to be a track-only toy... That "jungle gym" of bars shown in your 2nd post shows that it won't be an entirely-convincing sleeper... (If you are able to drive it on the street though, & if you keep the exhaust note pretty low-key, I'd bet that you'd be able to really surprise those who perhaps aren't looking too closely...)
Good luck with the build!!
I also found that there's a little bit of information about the car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Carlton. It's definitely helpful that the car started as a RWD platform. What are your plans?? Are you going to make it obvious that a V-8's been swapped in, or are you going to try to keep it relatively low-key?? Heck, you might not even get past MoT with the swap (not sure what's involved with that inspection), so perhaps it's going to be a track-only toy... That "jungle gym" of bars shown in your 2nd post shows that it won't be an entirely-convincing sleeper... (If you are able to drive it on the street though, & if you keep the exhaust note pretty low-key, I'd bet that you'd be able to really surprise those who perhaps aren't looking too closely...)
Good luck with the build!!
08-26-2014, 08:38 AM
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Didnt the lotus edition do 175mph in the early 90s? I think it was based on the Cadillac Catera platform?
http://automobile.wikia.com/wiki/Lotus_Carlton
It was faster than the corvette of the same era, so people probably won't be surprised if its fast.
http://automobile.wikia.com/wiki/Lotus_Carlton
It was faster than the corvette of the same era, so people probably won't be surprised if its fast.
Last edited by JJMclure; 08-26-2014 at 09:33 AM.
08-27-2014, 04:35 AM
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Looking at it it's based on a VN Commodore from Australia. Although reading Wikipedia I'm not really sure who came first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_...2.80.931991.29 awesome looking build by the way!
08-28-2014, 04:11 PM
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Looking at it it's based on a VN Commodore from Australia. Although reading Wikipedia I'm not really sure who came first. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_...2.80.931991.29 awesome looking build by the way!