Like the question, what’s the biggest mod you’ve done for your car so far? ( Exclude the repairment)
I’m curious as I’m a car guy and I want to know what other people did with their cars
Me: HID headlight 
This is what I did so far: custom exterior work like new carbon fiber hood,front and back bumper skirts(body kit), performance tires and mags, candy red paint ,new custom air intake and brace. larger stabilizer bars,premium sound system.
For my current car… adjustable shocks and struts, springs, longer front ball joints, lower rear control arms, adjustable upper control arm, much larger wheels and tires, revised engine calibration (a “tune” in gearhead-speak). I did the same on my previous two cars.
As far as others, Built a race car from a street car, twice - One race car - Roll cage, fender flares, paint work, front and rear stab bars - I built the rear bar from a front - springs, shocks, hot rodded the engine - ported and polished heads, big cam, high compression pistons, big carb, engine bay stiffener, gauges. All done by me with a bit of help on the welding and machine work. The second race car - rollcage only, I wasn’t allowed to modify anything else.
Bought the 3rd race car and then modified it beyond purchase - Welded extra bars into the existing rollcage, Built several engines over its life, several transmission rebuilds and then a transmission replacement (got tired of repairing!) that required a bit of fab for the crossmember and driveshaft, built a few differentials for it, added better brakes, fabbed some adjustability into the suspension.
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We did the street rod “lite” stuff. New motor, trans, Rearend, seats, wheels, paint. Mustang 2 front suspension.
Phase 2 is new chassis.
Phase 3 would technically be new floor pans, mini tubs, trunk pan
What’s left? Body?
Unless you go crazy and replace front clip.
A custom-designed (by me) ram air system. And it works, better than I’d hoped.
Second would be changing the rear sway bar. That met all my expectations too.
Converted a 1951 Packard to operate on folding pontoons as a catamaran:
Actually, that was my Dad, but I helped (a little). It included replacing the 140HP straight-eight with a 300HP Buick V8 crate engine. Power is transmitted to the propeller by unbolting the rear driveshaft universal joint ‘U’-bolts and dropping the joint about 8" to a matching joint on the propeller drive. The front wheels sit on turntables and cables from these turn the rudder.
;-]
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How do you launch it, you ask?
That’s me and my twin brother, by the way. Those are two Republic RC-3 Seabee flying boat hulls, highly modified.
;-]
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Cool!
Really, really cool!
Wasn’t that in Popular Mechanics years ago? I remember seeing a picture way back. Of course back in those days people did things to make use of what they had.
Ya got me wondering about the history of pontoons.
It was a great project, looks like you could water ski behind it. I was thinking if I were to build one myself when I retire I would have the drive wheels set between 2 rollers, with one to 4 rollers driving the prop or props, then have the front wheels sit in channels to control the steering, not disrespecting your magnificent project.
Still looking for a boaterhome if you see one!
Darn! These things look sick! I have more motivation to do more for my car
Dad pulled three skiers at once as a demonstration. His dream was to commercialize it, but never came close. Women would ask Mom if she weren’t terrified to ride in it. Each hull has 5 watertight compartments, so it’s basically unsinkable. A guy came alongside once and said, “You owe me a bottle of whiskey. When I saw that thing coming down the river, I threw my whiskey overboard.”
;-]
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I can’t even begin to top the Packard pontoon boat so why try. What a brilliant and outstanding job! Kudos!
Why does the Packard have a tarp strapped to the roof?
Dad turned it into a semi-convertible by cutting two roof panels out and removing the rear window, then getting snap-on vinyl panels made to replace them. You can see the rear window snapped to the trunk lid for storage, with a towel under it for protection.
Don’t worry about that. Reminds me of one of Brian Regan’s comedy routines (one of the few clean comics left):
;-]
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Who woulda thunk we can safely talk about pontoons on Car Talk without being shut down?
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