Thread: Need your guys help

Originally Posted by CabeSipes

Im doing a poll on what kind of car should I get for the big build. This car will be built to demonstrate car pc's and all the crazy stuff that goes with it. I plan on having it at SEMA next year but cant decide what to use. A van or SUV aren't very sexy but can demo very well to groups of people. A sports car or sdan can be made to look cooler but you cant demo very well and lots of people wont get in a small car to see it. So what do you guys think? I am not looking for a new car or exotic car. I will be using a late 80's or mid 90's since I will be chopping it up and rebuilding it anyway. That way parts are more available at junkyards if needed. I was going to buy a car today but cant decide and didnt want to get a car and post pics and listen to everybody say I should have got this or that so now you get to decide. I will probably let this go for a week or two so vote now.

OK. You want an idea? I've had this idea in my head for some time.... It it what I affectionately refer to as "the vision".....

It started in the summer of '06, I think.... My wife & I went to the NSRA StreetRod Nationals in Louisville, KY with her mom & stepdad. Her stepdad goes every year with his family, who are all hot rodders. He has a '33 Dodge that's quite nice.

Anyway, my mother-in-law gave us a '54 Chevy 3100 1/2 ton pickup that was in their "yard" in Alabama. It was something my wife's late father bought with intent to restore or 'rod... He never got around to it before he passed away.
So her mom passed it to us to do with as we please...

We actually moved out there (to Alabama with the "yard": ~10 acres, part of which is being overrun with kudzu.. Not the truck yet, as far as I know.) when I got laid off from my job in Dallas.
I was able to see it. But always lack of funds and/or time prevented anything more serious that inventorying and/or photographing, so it still sat. And it still sits now...

Understand that I have had A LOT of time to think about this. It is pretty well laid out inside my head.
I don't have links to specific products or anything here, although I know where to get them. This is but a description.

Originally, I was going to work towards my own company in Dallas and use the truck as a showcase and start showcasing vehicle installs at hot rod shows and offering my services as an installer/consultant.
Shortly after I got the name and a tax ID, I got laid off, so never had the opportunity to take it further.

But the idea was this....
Using the '54 pickup as a base (or any other AD Chevy/GMC truck):

• Chassis:
  Take the frame of the truck (or an aftermarket replacement) and setting up air suspension.
  From a touchscreen interface, you can drop the truck into the weeds for show, raise it up only a little for cruising, or even higher for long-distance cruising.
  Think along the lines of a pro touring setup.
  
  
• Power:
  Drop in a SBC crate engine with an ECU that can be tapped into from the PC for on-the-fly tuning, monitoring & statistics.
  You could, in theory, tune the motor for fuel economy and drive to an event. While there, retune the motor via the PC for HP or torque. Drag race, do burnouts, etc.
  When the event is over, re-tune the motor for economy and do 18-20mpg (or better?) for the drive home.
  Tranny should be durable with overdrive. 700R4 would be ideal, I'd think.
  
  Engine dress-up from those guys in Mena, AR.
  
  
• Body:
  Keep it pretty much stock. Perhaps a mild chop...
  I've seen extended-cab conversions of the Advance Design trucks. It's a nice idea, but it has to be done perfectly to look right. Not an easy task...
  The only thing that wouldn't be stock is a flat, hard (think flat sheetmetal) bed cover that lines up perfectly with the rolled lip of the bed. It lines up so perfectly that you don't even know it's there until you are right on top of it.
  And the bedcover has a barely-noticable split across the width of the bed. (More on that later...)
  
  
• Interior:
  Pretty close to stock. The dash is bare metal and would be painted the same as exterior body, retaining the stock chrome (stainless?) horizontal strips.
  A bench seat, but something more comfortable than stock. My wife thinks camel-colored would be better, but I think grey.
  The das would be pretty much stock. The old gauges replaced with newer ones. I'm pretty sure 5" units are almost drop in.
  
  The only thing obviously not stock is a column made of painted fiberglass, also body colored) coming from the dash.
  It would essentially be a center console with a touchscreen, a slot for DVDs/CDs and a couple USB ports. Maybe a switch and PC activity lights.
  Maybe the knobs of an equalizer (to make for easier audio control).
  
  One idea I had for the touchscreen is to hide it behind the dash, and have a cut-away that would open up somehow.
  It would be a kick-butt detail, but because of the curved dash and the horizontal trim pieces, it would be a muthah-effer to look right....
  But that shows where my head is at, I think.
  
  
• Overall look and feel:
  The truck would stay as close to period as possible:
  Steel wheels painted to match the body with chrome hubcaps & trim rings. Possibly whitewalls! The wheels might do well with a silver color to work with the paint job (see below).
  Most of the stock chrome in place: bumpers,mirrors, badging, hood emblem, etc.
  Wood-slat bed in a medium oak with polished stainless strips.
  
  
• The Paint job:
  Paint would be a dark green candy over a silver or possibly gold basecoat.
  Before the first layer of the green goes on, a flame mask is taped down, and within the flame area, a circuit board pattern is taped out.
  Lay down the first coat (or several) of the green clear/candy, then remove the tape that makes up the circuit board and lay down the rest of the clear
  The result effect is you're going to have these ghost flames that have a very subtle circuit board pattern in them.
  Re-mask the flames and add silver highlights, shadowing...
  If you wanted to really go all out, you could make lamps look like microchips or something... There is certainly potential for all sorts of custom touches.
  
  Some of the interior parts could get the circuit board treatment also, most notably the center column piece.
  
  
• Electronics:
  But the PC could play CDs, DCDs, music from a USB key, the internal hard drive, or whatever audio source. I think it's been proven that audio playback from a PC is comparatively easy.
  
  The PC controls pretty much everything else, too:
  Air suspension
  HVAC
  Power windows?
  Power seats?
  Engine stats from the ECU and/or OBD ports.
  Engine tuning (as I described above)
  
  The audio system would be pretty much low-key. I don't want the focus to be on the audio system. There's so much else going on with the truck. It's not specifically a showpiece for audio.
  It's a showcase for the potential of PC-based control of features & functionality within the vehicle.
  
  A cell-based internet solution with a router (or now something like the mobile hot spots that Verizon & Sprint both offer). You park at a show and you are a rolling hotspot.
  So you're in the HotRod Magazine PowerTour or some similar long-distance cruise. While you're rolling down the road, you are able to stream live video from a dashcam or something as you're going down the road...
  Journalists and bloggers could post from the roads or the stopping points along the route through your hotspot...
  
  You could also remotely control the PC in the truck via a mobile device like a blackberry, ipod, netbook or.... ?
  
  At a show, as people are oooh-ing and aaaah-ing over the cool paint or the big honkin' LCD sunk into the bed cover, you can be showing a gearhead on the other side of the booth how you're tuning the motor via software.
  
  There is simply so much potential with what you can do with control and/or monitoring from the PC.
  There are USB ports to connect pretty much anything to read any time of media from narly any device: Video files, digital pictures, music... You name it
  
  
• Remember that bedcover?
  Through a touchscreen interface, using the Fusion Brain, a linear actuator would push the rear half of the bedcover up to nearly vertical.
  And, framed in steel for rigidity (and powder-coated for aesthetics!) is a flat LCD screen, as wide as will fit within the limits of the bed.
  The output is also from the PC, using a DVI signal. Play DVDs or videos from the PC or show cool visualizations if you're playing music. (Plug for Whitecap!)
  
  A mobile satellite dish and tuner could also be set up to provide another source of entertainment.
  If the front half of the bed cover were made of fiberglass, perhaps a custom enclosure for a mobile satellite dish (like the kind that go on the roofs of RVs or limousines) could go underneath, but only if it could be done so it is secure ant not going to destroy the aesthetics of the truck overall when the bedcover is closed.

So there you have it. There's more details to this idea that are in my head that chose not to surface in this telling. Ask questions and I can tell you pretty much exactly how I envision nearly every aspect of this... this...
I don't know what to call it. Idea? Plan?
I think "Vision" is appropriate.

There's your idea for the "big build".
As far as I know, there's a '54 Chevy body & chassis sitting on a chunk of land in Alabama that can be used as a jumping-off point.

So...

Please, MP3Car!
Pimp My Ride!

I couldn't resist...

Seriously, though.. That's the vision I've been crafting and perfecting inside my brain for several years.
It's a cool project idea, and I know it wouldn't be cheap to pull it off in its entirety.
But it is technically feasable with products and parts that are presently available.
One thing that is somewhat untested is HVAC control, really.

Like I said, this is nothing more than my vision, laid out in great detail.
I think that, as a fabricator and fellow car guy, you can appreciate teh cool factor of what I've laid out.

It looks like an old-school pickup, almost a low-rider with the whitewalls & steelies.
Then you see the ghost flames...
Then you see the circuit board pattern in the ghost flames.
Then you see the stock-appearing interior...

What's this? A touchscreen? What does that do?

EVERYTHING.....

At first she looks very old-school, but the closer you look, the more new-school she really is....

I like the idea of an everyday car. Something that people look at and wonder why it is even there, then see the inside and all the CarPC stuff and can imagine them using it.

I would choose a best selling car that lots of people have such as a Honda Civic/Accord or Toyota Corolla/Camry. Since they sell the best, more people have them and can relate. Also with the civics from CRX to now, there are tons of ricers so parts are abundant!

Going SBC opens you to a world of possibilities for realtime tuning and digital gauges. The mid to late 80's GM ecu has a datalog output known as ALDL is very fast output, and would allow you to do realtime tuning of parameters for improved fuel economy or performance as DP suggested.

DP you have too much free time on your hands

Originally Posted by malcom2073

DP you have too much free time on your hands

I spent six months unemployed with a truck in the front yard that I couldn't do anything with.

But yeah.... I got vision, if nothing else.

well so far the SUV is winning. Not to many people voting though. I guess when I get whatever I get if anybody complains there S.O.L. I have had quite a few people with good ideas PM me and thats cool but if its not like a huge trade secret go ahead and make it a thread if you have an idea or put it under this thread. That way everybody can be involved in it and maybe somebody will have some major input on the subject......cool? I just feel like I'm having good conversations but its all under PM so nobody else knows about it.

I like the idea of an everyday car. Something that looks stock, but isn't. No crazy paint schemes, wheels or a dressed up engine bay, just a very clean stock car filled with PC options. Maybe have actuators open and shut everything from the boot (trunk) to the hood including doors and even the glove box. I also like the idea of a projector. Maybe that could be done from the grille that drops down. External voice control would be cool. Obviously the basic PC items would be in there, engine monitoring, hotspot, usual audio gear.

I like all of the other ideas and I can definately dig DP's chev (it's your vision, you should keep it that way). The SUV is probably the most predictable car for something like this, which I believe makes it the most boring.