Well, gotta start somewhere.
Pam's a Car Girl. She was all about me building the B-3, and stood solidly behind that proj, sending me out to the old Milford G'raj every Sunday for a couple hours until that thing was BUILT. She now rides in the passenger seat as often as she can, smiling hugely, just like me.
It's always been a given between us that I'd do this again, y'know, build up a car from scratch, and so, we'd been 'round to the various vintage races and Larz Anderson Museum events and cruise nights - not to mention showing her pictures online, and it's come to pass that the Next Proj isn't going to be the Bloody Hell Straight 8, or The Martian Buzz Bomb, or the Water buffalo Resurrection, but rather...
The Pamilcar.
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B4-a.JPG
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B4-b.JPG
You are correct, it does look a whole lot like the B-3 - but for having 4 wheels - and much of the chassis design is carried over.
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B3-B4.JPG
the B-3 handles pretty well, and is a screaming blast to drive, and I do want to replicate that. But, there are a couple things I have changed on the Pamilcar, that are lessons learned.
1. it's 4 inches wider, so that the seats can be lower, and the footbox isn't so narrow.
2. the passenger area is 5 inches longer to increase legroom and give a bit more room behind the seats for storage.
IN this side view you can see how much lower and longer is, though it keeps the same 96 inch wheelbase as the B-3. Ground clearance to the bottom of the chassis is six inches, as this is a street vehicle, and, well, yeah. Less than that is trouble, by and large, I have observed. It keeps the boat-tail motif, 'cuz that's kewl.
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B3-B4b.JPG
this top view illustrates the difference is passenger area width and length nicely, I think. you can also see that there's a bit more tire. 185/60-14s on the front, and 205/60-14 on the rear (B-3 is 165/60-14 front and a single 165/80-15 rear)
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B3-B4d.JPG
Power-wise, it'll have some four-banger or other, anything 115-130 hp will be entirely sufficient, as the weight goal is 1250 lbs, or, about 330 lbs heavier than the B-3 - which seems a reasonable estimate of how much weight will be added turning the B-3 design into a 4-wheel car, with all the other stuff required to make it road legal.
So, Pam and I have been talking about it, and obviously I've been working out the design a bit, and I do actually have some hard parts to mess with.
way back before I got the great Idea to use MGB wire wheels on the B-3, I'd scrounged a set of Miata spindles and lower ball joints. yesterday afternoon I set about cleaning them up a bit so that I can measure them and make a couple CAD models.
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20170823_163804b.jpg
...and how did get that dust shield off without removing the hub, I hear you all asking? Easy-peasy lemon-sqeezy, I'll have you know. undo two of the three bolts, snip thru the thinnest bit near the spindle shank, and...
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20170823_164727.jpg
...BASH IT WITH A HAMMER.
Updates, as they occur.