MX184's Roadster Bodied Track Goblin #311 Log

MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
As some of you saw in another part of the forum, my build started off by dumpster diving, with permission, a Thunder Roadster body out of the trash at my office complex. Knowing nothing about it I did some research only to find out thunder roadsters are not really raced locally. So the shell sat around for about a year until I decided to try to build something street legal. The search was on to find a suitable chassis to put under it. That's where the Goblin came along. The wheelbase is within and inch in length and the width is close enough that I can use an offset wheel to make it work. I VERY crudely photo shopped a few photos of the two cars together to confirm that taking a front engine single seat body and putting it on a rear engine two seat chassis wasn't totally a waste of time. Once it passed the eyeball test I placed the order for a full caged standard length kit. I've been around hotrods my whole life and have restored a couple of motorcycles but this is by far the biggest automotive endever I have ever attempted. I'm still not fully convinced I can make it happen and still look good but I'll give it the ole college try.

28611


28612



As much as I want to do a GO FAST SS Cobalt based rocket I'm building this on spare money earned doing side hustles. So I opted for what turned out to be a very cherry base model 2008 donor with an L61 and automatic off of Copart for $600 with very light front end damage. It wont be the fire breathing monster some of you are building but should be fun to cruise around town and do the odd autocross or HPDE track day.

28613


Unfortunately life happened and I didn't have time to fully strip the donor before my stage 1 arrived. So chassis #311 is currently being stored at my dads garage while I finish the tear down at my place. I hope to have the left over cobalt parts hauled away early next week and get my chassis home after I get home from the Turkey Rod Run in Daytona thanksgiving weekend!

28614


As I build away I openly encourage any tips and pointers that anyone is willing to offer. I'm flying mostly solo on this project and hardly claim to know anything about cobalts or thunder roadsters. As they say, experience is something you do not gain until just AFTER you needed it and I'm fixing to gain a bunch of it this winter.

Thank you for following along with me!
 
G

Gtstorey

Goblin Guru
Are you planning on fitting the body before you build out the chassis? I would so you can modify the frame as needed for mounting points.
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Gtstorey said:
Are you planning on fitting the body before you build out the chassis? I would so you can modify the frame as needed for mounting points.
Click to expand...
I have a friend that builds Outlaw Doorslammer Drag cars and he turned me onto a slick removable mounting system sold by Tim Mcamis. I ordered one kit already.

Check this out. https://timmcamis.com/shop/bolt-on-body-mount-kit.html

I plan on and expect to have to build the car twice essentially. Once to get into rough roller form with motor and suspension installed to cut, mount and generally fit the body then dissemble paint, powder coat and reassemble.
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Finished my tear down today! I hope to have the shell hauled away tomorrow before the neighbors get angry lol. I did remove the rear suspension and dropped the tank after this photo was taken.

28686


Now to put it all back together again. o_O
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Quick update...... It's finally home!!! The Florida humidity has not been kind to it in bare metal storage. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend sanding and may get a quick coat on silver Steelit layed down to stop the surface rust from coming back. So happy to finally be making progress on it.

29786
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Small update, I fully sanded, prepped, and painted the chassis with Steelit this weekend. Made a redneck paint booth out of two ez ups, visqueen and a couple of box fans with a/c filters strapped to them. The booth worked perfectly, I wish I had snapped a picture of the setup for other DIY'rs. Ran just a little short on paint for two coats so there are a few thin spots that I want to touch up later. I was going to paint another color on top after I build the body mounts but I REALLY like this color so it may just stay like this.
29963


29964
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Been waiting on Uncle Sam to give me some of my money back to order the fiberglass stuff to repair and modify the body but in the meantime I've finished the second coat of paint on the chassis. I also this past weekend painted the sub frame gloss black with VHT rollbar and chassis paint as well as dove into the dash wiring. Small progress I know but its something. My motorcycle racing season ends in two weeks and once thats over it'll be full steam ahead on the goblin.
 

Attachments

MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Made some good progress this weekend. Got the chassis off the pallet cart it was being rolled around on and onto jack stands. I spent most of Saturday removing and re-wrapping the crunchy wiring protection on the engine. I got the exhaust side done short of heat shrinking the ends of everything, the intake side about half way done. One question, since I removed the A/C compressor should I go ahead and remove the associated wires while I have the harness apart or just wrap them up and keep them for something later?

31356


Sunday was spent mocking up the body for the first time. Sorry, no pictures were taken. I just kinda set pieces around the chassis just to see what I'm getting into. The nose, side pods, and rear fenders are definitely going to work. I am kicking around the idea of using the DF hood and cut it to meet the roadster nose. The tail cone I'm not convinced is going to be tall enough to cover the engine at all. I'm thinking I may have to make a tail section from scratch. Maybe something similar to what the current thunder roadsters run, shown below.

31355


Can I ask someone that has a complete-ish goblin to do a couple of measurements for me? I'd like to know what the width of the DF hood is at the top of the radiator. Also the ride height of the chassis at the main hoop of the roll cage please?
 
Rauq

Rauq

Goblin Guru
MX184 said:
One question, since I removed the A/C compressor should I go ahead and remove the associated wires while I have the harness apart or just wrap them up and keep them for something later?
Click to expand...
The only thing worth keeping is the AC pressure sensor signal wire which can be used to pull wideband O2 data into the ECU for tuning with HP Tuners. Basically connect the analog 0-5v output from the gauge or controller to it. More info here. The rest can go.
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Rauq said:
The only thing worth keeping is the AC pressure sensor signal wire which can be used to pull wideband O2 data into the ECU for tuning with HP Tuners. Basically connect the analog 0-5v output from the gauge or controller to it. More info here. The rest can go.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I do plan on fooling around a bit with tuning and maybe some home brew head porting so I will save those.
 
C

Carproblem

Member
MX184 said:
That's crazy you figured that out but yes, I am.
Click to expand...
Hahaha my girlfriend said she saw a cobalt getting tore apart a few months back. Somehow came across this thread a saw some familiar pics. We live in the same neighborhood and I'm about ready to register mine!
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Carproblem said:
Hahaha my girlfriend said she saw a cobalt getting tore apart a few months back. Somehow came across this thread a saw some familiar pics. We live in the same neighborhood and I'm about ready to register mine!
Click to expand...
Awesome man let me know how that goes. We'll have to meet up sometime I want to check out one that's done!
 
C

Carproblem

Member
I have a vacation this up coming week. So I can reach out after that. It's funny because I'm pretty sure I have driven the goblin by your house at least 4 times. But we can plan a time to meet up soon.
 
MX184

MX184

Well-Known Member
Today's update. The floors are installed with rivnuts. Steering rack, pedal assembly, and other small things received a fresh coat of paint. I also pulled thru some -16 stainless hoses from Summit for the cooling system. Earlier this week my wiring kit arrived from DFHQ along with few other goodies :).


32144
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top