Pigeon-Rat - Opel gambler build

[kgblazerfive]

I think if you are keeping the door sills and the dash there is not really any reason to brace it after you cut the floor out. Where is it going to go ? I would guess that you are going to pick it up with the lift and set it on what is left of the Pathfinder. I would maybe run something from B pillar to B pillar along the level of the floor and call it good.

 

[ashman]

I don't plan on bracing it up near the dash, but down low I think I need to. I'll be cutting out a big part of the fire wall. As far as bracing across the doors goes, the door sills are almost gone. I don't think they are strong enough anymore to hold up. Easy enough to brace up, just in case.

 

[ashman]

All braces up and ready to start cutting.

 

[ashman]

Made some serious progress today. Thanks to @72gmck5 again for the help!

 

[72gmck5]

Made some serious progress today

Can’t wait to see the two come together

 

[ashman]

I went ahead and cut the windshield and B-pillars out of the pathfinder and lined the body up with the chassis.



More progress tomorrow hopefully.

 

[kgblazerfive]

Looks like it is going to fit well

 

[ashman]

Didn't get as much done today as I'd hoped, but I did get everything cleared off of the A-pillars on the pathfinder, and got them cut out.


After taking a few measurements, and going back and forth a bunch, I decided that I need to remove as much of the opel in front of and under the windshield as I can. I need to keep as much of the pathfinder systems as possible, so that means more opel needs to go.
I dropped the opel body back down onto some Jack stands and got started.

The plan is to leave just the windshield and the A-pillars and pretty much nothing else.

 

[JoshHefnerX]

Oh, and it turns out I have all 4 hubcaps.
View attachment 303093

Maybe I can make them work too.

They need some paint.

 

[ashman]

My daughter designed this. Gonna go on the hood.

Probably be some reference to pigeonrat somewhere too. Otherwise, gonna leave the patina.

 

[ashman]

Got the rest of the front off of the opel.


There isn't much holding the bottom of the windshield anymore so I added another brace.


I needed some inspiration so I dropped a fender and the hood on the pathfinder to see how its gonna look.


Also threw on the opel cowl.

You can really see how much wider the pathfinder is at the A-pillars. Hopefully I can find a work around that doesn't look too bad.

 

[imiceman44]

That's a really challenging merge.
I like a challenge like that.
Keep up the good work.
I grew up around opels in the middle east, I liked them.
They were the tame German cars, the BMW were the sports cars, the Mercedes the luxury and the vw was the young people cars.

 

[ashman]

Getting closer.

Right now the biggest issue is the rear wheel wells.



Gotta figure out what needs to be cut to make it work. I think I need to figure out a way to flare the opel skin to fit around d the pathfinder wells. Narrowing the pathfinder in this area will just cause interference with the tires.

 

[kgblazerfive]

Combine the two.

or get the Opel down to basically skins maybe it would fit a bit better

 

[mrk5]

Maybe you need to figure out some fender flares like Bushwacker that you could make work.

 

[ashman]

Maybe you need to figure out some fender flares like Bushwacker that you could make work.

If you look closely, you'll see that the pathfinder does have some sort of stock fender flare. Maybe I can remove that and use it on the opel body?

get the Opel down to basically skins maybe it would fit a bit better

I'm going to look at seeing if I can do that, at least up to the body line. I do need to keep some support in the quarterpanels though because the back hatch area is reasonably heavy and I don't want it to buckle.

I may need to cut out the opel wheel openings entirely just to get the body down, then try to find a way to flare the body out enough to get them back on over the pathfinder wheel wells.

 

[mrk5]

If you look closely, you'll see that the pathfinder does have some sort of stock fender flare. Maybe I can remove that and use it on the opel body?

That would fit the theme of the build better.

 

[ashman]

That would fit the theme of the build better.

True, but in all honesty, I want as little "pathfinder" visible as possible. I don't think I'll be able to pull it off, but I was really hoping that the final look would look more like I just put a lift on the Opel Rekord. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to hack it up enough that it'll be obvious that I stuck the body on something else.

Meh, that has it's own charms as well.

 

[ashman]

I was too tired to put any work into the pigeonrat today, but I've got a plan for how I'm going to try and flare the opel quarter panels.



I'll clear everything off of the interior of the quarter panels below the body line so they are just skins as suggested by @kgblazerfive . I'll then cut a vertical line up to the body line centered on the wheel well, then cut horizontally on the body line so that I can peal it open as much as necessary to clear the pathfinder wheel wells.

At the same time, I'll cut as much of the pathfinder (other than the wheel wells) back as I can. Hopefully that will get the body down where I want it and I can weld in some pieces to make up the gap that will be created by flaring the quarter panel.

I'm open to suggestions if someone has a better one.

 

[Blazooki]

If you skin the Opel around the wheel wells so you just have the outer skin....then you should be able to pull the outer skin out over the pathfinder body. Then cut the skin to match the pathfinder wheel well and weld them up..rebrace it after if you need to.