The Buchka 242 Fake Racecar

[Alex Buchka]

It's time to start a new, real project thread for the heap.

Here's the old showroom thread for reference.

Quick recap on the car.

Some cagey bits:



C5 Corvette Z06 driveline:



Volvo B8444s 4.4l V8 from an XC90:



BBS centerlock wheels:



Faux race car pedal box:





And some other junk.

Moving on:

The last few years progress has been slow and motivation to work has been the a little on the low side. Studying full time in Sweden and only spending a few months a year in the US is also a factor. Also, the last two years all the available time has been spent on renovating the new workshop.

Last summer our dad got a workshop unit in a local industrial park on the cape. Long story short, it was pretty much a dump when we got the keys. The previous owner was a carpenter and he had very little in the way of dust collection equipment. This, coupled with a raised wooden floor, water creeping in under the roll-up door, and some dubious cleaning practices over the years resulted in hundreds of pounds of putrid sawdust on the floor and an equal amount of sawdust covering every horizontal surface in the entire shop. Karl and I completely remodeled it in exchange for keeping the 242 there.

The shop is about 1000sqf with a mezzanine and a small office. A small half bath is tucked into the corner of the ground level:





Coffee break.



We started by tearing out the raised floor to uncover the concrete and let it dry out properly







Champagne should be sipped.



Painted the walls:



Installed studs under the beams supporting the mezzanine:



Built a small closet under the stairs to house the compressor:



Drywall:



All new wiring pulled through EMT with 220v outlets for hooking up welders:



Replaced all the outdated T12 fixtures with T8's and electronic ballasts. They're a little more expensive than magnetic ballasts but they raise the efficiency of the bulbs and don't have any annoying hum. All in all, ended up being about 4kw of lighting, it's really bright in there now and it's awesome.

Homer came out for a visit and he helped do some work in the shop, or as he knows it, the Buchka political re-education center:





Got a used, dealer trade-in two post lift:



Swapped a set of wheels for a lot of industrial shelving. The mezzanine is now geared for parts and junk storage:



Ground the floor and laid down epoxy coat. Thought about spreading those flake things to pretty it up but if you drop a small bolt or washer on there it becomes impossible to find:





Ran copper pipe for compressed air outlets around the shop, along with a 50ft hose reel mounted on the lift.

Completely gutted the bathroom and installed hex mosaic tile flooring, recessed lights, new fixtures, and a utility sink.

We picked up a Miller Syncrowave 250 TIG at the start of this summer. It's an older transformer machine that weighs several hundred pounds, but the arc is buttery smooth and starts very well. It's such a relief to finally have our own AC/DC TIG.



Moved in some workbenches that I put steel tops on, along with some storage cabinets.



There's always tons of fiddly stuff to take care of but all in all, I'd say the shop is nearing completion. Before we dragged the 242 over from hibernation I put together a makeshift chassis table for it. Building one out of steel was outside the budget so I settled for 2x6 framing with 3/4" poplar ply on both sides, standing on 4x4 legs with adjustable feet. Final size is 4'x10' so it covers the wheelbase of the car with some room to spare on both ends. It's not perfectly flat by any stretch, but much better than the old concrete floor, and it gets the car off the ground for a more comfortable working height.







The car was dusted off and loaded up.



Raised up on the table at ride height.



The old wheel wells were made with smaller wheels in mind so we had to hack the rear frame rails out completely. Got one of the rear wheels jammed up in there to get an idea of how the car will sit. It was a real motivation booster to see the wheel in there, and it finally dawned on me how dumped the car is really going to be, but still with usable suspension travel.



Hacked the trans tunnel out and got the driveline temporarily mocked up to see where it should go. Because of the V8 having some extra crap hanging off the back the firewall will need to be moved back just a smidge more than it already is. The parts have all been measured and positioned in CAD.



Pulled the intake manifold off the engine. The intake ports look pretty good, but the tight packaging of the engine leaves a little to be desired on the exhaust side.



Scored some good stuff on ebay too. Got a Nascar reverse mount starter, a ring gear for that, and a hydraulic release bearing. The ring gear is known as reverse mount style and bolts to the top of the Tilton 7.25" clutch cover. Since the clutch and starter package is so small the bellhousing can be brought down in diameter quite a bit. The bellhousing and other driveline parts are nearing finished design in CAD. Hopefully I can crank those out before we come back over christmas.

[project volvo]

first

nice work, what else are you guys planning to ad? And are you planning on replicating your friends 240 control arms....

did you guys ever look into that second set of BBS'?

[The Full Banana]

awesome job renovating that workshop. looks fantastic.

the chassis table to me almost seem like it would make it more difficult to work on the car in certain respects... i assume that it will just be used while you are working out the fenders?

[boostabear]

Very nice workspace! You guys got some skills, this is going to be such an awesome build.

[M.H. Yount]

When you've got things packaged the way you want - how far back will you end up moving the firewall?

[dieselboy]

Very nice. Since you went V8 any spare 5cyl stuff can be shipped to me.

[84 Blue 240]

Meh, bunch of crap. You should give it all to me and start over.

[Homer]

Oh god it's me. I was exploited because of my inspector gadget limbs.
I'm gonna come back this winter and terrorize the, uh, thing.

[DNAsEqUeNcE]

i really wish we could be friends and sweep the past under the bridge. i like seein' ya'll work.

[digital.aaron]

"Jealous" doesn't even begin to describe my feelings.

Great work on the shop. I can't wait to see the work you guys are going to do on the 242.

[fige]

Very nice work. you guys are doing it right as usual

[adrianpike]

pretty sure that's the shop of dreams. make sure that costner jerk doesn't show up.

[cosbySweater]

i just destroyed my underwear seeing that wheel tuck

[Volvorules]

Nice work on the shop, bros. Can't believe you stole that V8 though. I've got a backup for ya when you blow that one up

Crap, forgot: DIRY?

[towerymt]

can't wait to drive it next spring!

[D-Man9000]

Wonderful work.

You guys are still here in Massachusetts while your in the US, right?

You should probably have a mini-meet so we can drool. Just saying.

[doucheNozzle]

Yay.

[2fast242gt]

so awsome that shop is really really nice! i wish you would keep that 6 though.

[classiccarsrule85]

i would love to have a work space like that looks amazing alot of work to get it to that point but definitely looks worth it. and the volvo has definitely come along way...

[Harlard]

Very nice.

[socalsean]

You guys could have done better.

[OldSchoolEuro]

Nice, I would love to have a shop like that. Nice shirt Jacob.

[Homer]

I MADE that shop what it is. Any credit goes to my engineering decision making prowess.

[Harlard]

Originally Posted by Homer

I MADE that shop what it is. Any credit goes to my engineering decision making prowess.

Thought something was up when they posted progress on anything...

[Mueller]

speechless.....this is going to be one of the best Volvo builds ever!