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Building my Metro Supercar
Topic Started: Jul 31 2011, 11:28 PM (19,348 Views)
Coyote X


Anyone that has followed my work on previous cars knows that I typically think big :) But really if you follow my websites you only see the finished product. It typically misses the long planning and working on how to make things work stage. For example the convertible swap was a few months of planning. It was a simple project so it was easy to plan what I was going to do. The Kit car I built was considerably longer and took close to a year before I felt confident in starting it. Even the diesel Astro took me 6 months before I purchased the first TV or anything. A successful project kind of needs you to know where you are going before doing any work.

For everyone that doesn't know what I have so far go to metroxfi.com and mantaproject.com and you can look at how I built both cars. This project so far is to put the kit car body on the metro. I am probably going to just rebuild the frame in the kit car to match the metro drivetrain then transplant the entire metro into the new body. About like I did with the convertible project. If I do it this way I won't destroy the convertible body and can let it live on as another project of some sort. I will as much as possible keep it mechanically a metro just to make parts easier to deal with in the future. I really want this car to see at minimum 10k miles a year so keeping it easy to work on is very important.

Here is my metro:
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Here is the body I am swapping to:
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So here is what I have so far. I started using onenote to keep track of my ideas and crap and it seems pretty good at it. Evernote is free and would work almost as well. Keep in mind some of it might not make sense to everyone since it was for me to keep track of my thoughts and ideas. I tried to go back and edit to make it clearer and more detailed but it still might be confusing.

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Plans as of now

Ultmate goal of car:
Needs to be comfortable enough to drive for hours. Mileage needs to be equal to what the car currently gets when driven the same as now. Better electric drive system - mostly just need a higher voltage. Handling and braking will be well beyond what the Metro is currently capable of without any changes so that part should take care of itself. I would like to get a bit of the understeer out of it and get it more neutral feeling. I really want to get the car to do 0-60 as fast as possible. With a turbo and a higher voltage electric system I would love to be able to do 3 seconds. Top speed of 75 is acceptable faster is always better. I would like to have enough top end to not max out in a 1/4 mile race.

To do first to the kit car

1. Swap to round headlights
2. Fix windshield
3. Pull motor and everything out
4. Drop floor out so I can work on the dash
5. Find a pedal group that has a clutch

List of ideas/problems


• Keep digital dash and supplement with extra gauges- EGT, pack voltage, mpguino
- ○ Tach not compatible with 3 cyl. Maybe use frequency doubler circuit and run as 6 cyl
• 5-7 inch touch screen
• Walnut or maple dash
• Metro steering column - Gives me headlight and wiper controls on the column
• Cruise control?
• A/C?
• Mustang II front suspension on front needs weight reduction. It is much stronger than necessary right now.
• Motor mounted with stock CV axle on one side close to the wheel. This gives me extra length to put a stub shaft in for the drive sprocket.
• Change to belt drive, chain is way noisier than I want to put up with.
• Tube frame the rear using stock style Metro mounting points for the engine.
• Tail lights have a crack on one of them so I need to replace them with something else
- ○ Everyone uses corvette so they suck
- ○ I need a good junkyard that is closer
- ○ Fix the cracked lens?
• Rear suspension? Current ideas
- ○ Use stock metro strut setup?
-- § Wrong bolt pattern and not deep enough for the rims to clear.
-- § Struts suck on the back end and are probably not able to fit under the trunk.
-- § Really weak brakes compared to the mustang II front.
- ○ IRS off a later Tbird or Mustang
-- § Hard to find around here so far
-- § Way more fabrication
-- § Still wrong bolt pattern but closer and easier to adapt.
- ○ Fiero suspension
-- § Good but all but impossible to find
-- § Don’t have any actual measurements from one yet
- ○ Use the Caddy suspension in the kit car now
-- § Super heavy duty but serious overkill for a metro
-- § Monster sized brakes
-- § Already on the car.
-- § Very heavy
• Motor changes
- ○ Multi point injection
- ○ Add turbo
- ○ Exhaust needs to most likely go over top of the motor and exit out the back body instead of under the car.
- ○ Computer needs waterproofed and mounted in the trunk.
- ○ No idea on the metro stock fuel pump specs but the one I have now in the fuel tank is probably way bigger than the 3 cyl can handle.
- ○ Cooling system on the car is seriously large for a metro but will work out just fine as is.
• Wiring
- ○ Best bet is to strip the wiring and start over.
-- § Wiper might possibly be converted to 2 speed or maybe just 1 speed and delay also adding auto park would be nice
-- § Need a washer setup of some sort
-- § Turn signals probably easier to be based on metro wiring
-- § Backup lights
-- § Not sure of the 3rd brake light requirement or where I could possibly mount one since the roof is only 5 inches higher than the tail lights
• Side windows suck they need something done with them
-- ○ Fixed top half and roll down bottom
-- ○ Fixed window with a sliding section for air
-- ○ Roll entire window down but it won't go all the way into the small door so it would always stick out half way. Plus there is no channel on the window frame.
-- ○ Need a good idea here


I am still at least a month out from even doing anything. I will probably not actually get started on it till the end of September at the earliest. I thought it would be interesting to anyone that has never tried a project like this before to see what is involved in prepping for it. Also someone might give me a good idea before I actually start :) I have other notes scattered around but I am really going to try to collect it all up and keep it in onenote this time so maybe I will be better organized and not miss as much stuff in the middle of the build and save time.
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Deleted User
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Oh, yeah! You pull this one off, and you'll have to park with the Canadians next year at GeoPalooza! :popcorn
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wizard93
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So...Coyote X, you're the one with the MetroXFI.com website? That's the site that got me wanting a Metro to begin with. :D
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Johnny Mullet
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Fear the Mullet

Looking forward to all the updates Rick!
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Potter
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Col. Potter

:drool cant wait.
Edited by Potter, Aug 1 2011, 10:37 AM.
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Coyote X


There are a few big issues to deal with on this project but nothing that can't be dealt with I hope. The only thing I can think of right now that would keep it from being finished is the windshield has a crack in it and there is no windshields available for this car anywhere. The best price I have found is a custom made one for $1,800

I really hope it is running by next summer but a lot of that depends on how lucky I get when I start building it. I don't think it is going to be that expensive to get it running. Getting the new and improved electric drive might be pretty expensive depending on what I use for a motor. If I can get the windshield done cheap then the whole thing should not be much more than a thousand dollars excluding the new electric drive.
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bogs
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Duct tape heals all wounds

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to seeing this project done :thumb :thumb :thumb
I was very much into kit cars when I was younger and bashed many other makes/models together with friends.

The kit your working with reminds me of a tv car from a show I used to watch, the car carried the same moniker you have taken, from the show Hardcastle and McCormick :

Posted Image

Would love to see you also recreate all the projects you've done on your site here, but that would probably be asking too much :D
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Turbo Dan-O
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Obsessive Car Detailer

Damn Bogs, that car is hawt! Might be time to update the wheels and tires though. :-/

Dan-O
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Coyote X


The Coyote X from the show is a modified Manta Montage like mine. The body I have is serial #1 and was supposedly used a few times in the show but I have no idea what parts or how it was used in the show. I have the correct McLaren headlight buckets like the Coyote uses that will be put in before I start on the work on the car.

I have a pretty good log of my older projects on my websites. So if you have any questions about them you could always ask here. I have never been able to keep a car stock for long :)
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Coyote X


I have mostly been thinking of what to do with the rear suspension and have been looking closely at the 89-97 Thunderbird. I really think it would be ideal for the back of the car. It is a pretty easy looking setup to make new mounts for and reasonably light. The brakes are good and have parking brakes.

The only thing really bothering me about this is that it is going to start making things complicated in the future. It would mean I have Mustang II front suspension, Metro drivetrain and Tbird rear suspension. So future parts purchases will have to be a bit more complicated. I am not sure if it is really going to be possible to keep it mostly Geo parts. This body is radically different than a metro so I might have to just give up on the idea of pure metro and make it a frankenstein car. I will make sure not to do what I did last time and make it out of whatever parts I scrounge but still having to keep track of what car each component is made out of is still harder than just always knowing it is a 93 Metro part.

But I guess I should quit worrying about it because right now I would have to get brakes or bearings for a 95+ Metro on my 93 so I already have been making a frankenstein :)
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Scoobs
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:D

Lemme get your metro hood :p
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bogs
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Duct tape heals all wounds

Turbo Dan-O
Aug 1 2011, 07:52 PM
Damn Bogs, that car is hawt! Might be time to update the wheels and tires though. :-/

Dan-O
I've always liked that wheel / tire combo. Raised white letters are how tires SHOULD be (says the guy who misses goodyear polyglass's :lol ).
Coyote
 
I have mostly been thinking of what to do with the rear suspension

Just out of curiousity, and if your trying to keep this simple (which I doubt but I have to ask anyway) why not just transplant the front end (engine/tranny/A-arm/strut) to the back of the car? I've seen your welding ability, so I really doubt it is beyond your skill levels, and at the end I think you'd only have to pin the steering knuckle :dunno

Definitely not trying to tell you how to do it, as I'm sure you've thought most of this through, just curious as I say :)

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Coyote X


Just from eyeballing it with the cars near each other it doesn't look like the struts will fit under the fenders. So besides looking for a junked tbird I am also looking for some short struts. Like half the length of the stock ones :)

I will really have to measure the cars before I can decide what to do for sure. If there is a set of really big brakes available for a Metro front end I might have to seriously do some research on finding some struts. The kit car is buried behind kitchen cabinets and metro is in the yard with a tarp over it right now until I get done remodeling a house and it can fit back in the garage. I should be able to start doing some measuring and taking the kit car apart in about 2 weeks so that will give me a better idea of what I can really do with it. Construction work is nowhere near as fun as car work. :(

I really would like to keep it as much metro as possible. I don't mind having a car made from 2 things like my Astro. It is pretty easy to keep track of. Body and suspension is Astro and Drivetrain is G30. But the kit car is pretty much going to have to keep the Mustang 2 front end since there is no chance a strut is going under that hood. It is slightly lower than the top of the tire. That means it is already going to be using parts from 2 cars.

I just wonder how hard it would be to modify a Metro front knuckle, getting rid of the strut and use an upper control arm instead? If I could do that I could just use Metro front end parts on all 4 wheels. That could cut even more weight out of it. I guess I need to add a Chevette to the list of cars I need to look at now so I can see how it's upper control arm looks.

The thing about the thunderbird setup is if I tune the front end a bit I could make this thing handle and brake so far beyond what a normal street car can do it would be incredible. http://www.kitcarchassis.com/rear-suspensions.php

I guess it comes down to a choice of making it simple and mostly Metro parts or going all out and actually try and build a supercar. It is a hard decision :drivin
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wizard93
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Coyote, I'm looking for seats and driver's side door panel for my Metro if you have any to spare.
You're about as close to me as anyone else, I live just outside of Huntington.
I'm looking forward to your next project.
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bogs
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Duct tape heals all wounds

Quote:
 
I guess it comes down to a choice of making it simple and mostly Metro parts or going all out and actually try and build a supercar. It is a hard decision
Agreed, that is always the hardest decision to make ;)
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