75 Pro Street Cosworth Vega Build

[dadiscmon]

In 1990 I bought a 75 Cosworth Vega. The Cosworth was missing the Cosworth engine, the wheels, and even the Cosworth steering wheel horn cover. The Cosworth stuff that was left was the 7.5 posi rear end, seats, and the car striping. It was very rusty under the car, but overall the body wasn't too bad. I decided to go the V8 route. Unfortunately, money had run out, and the car sat in the garage. I then got married, and 2 kids came along, and the car sat longer. 24 years later, it was finally time to give the little car some attention. By 2014 there were very few uncut Vegas left. Most of the Vegas out there were rebuilt in the 70s & 80s. My new modern Pro Street build will include carbon fiber tubs, complete chromoly tubing and a modern 383sbc 580+hp roller engine build. We started out just planning a back half job, then it morphed into a 8.5 certified cage. Then as more was being put into the motor, and then planning to add a 400 to 500hp custom built Induction Solutions SledgeHammer nitrous system, the weight and power of the car directed us toward a 7.5 certified cage (just in case we are at the track and run a 8.4 I don't want to be sent home, plus this is going to be one 'badass' Cosworth!). We are also going with a rather unique open tunnel design. We moved the motor back enough to get a large radiator in for street use.
Here are some pics of how the car is developing. I will include more pics as the project progresses.

[zeke]

Welcome to h-body dadiscmon, I will follow your v8 Cosworth build.

[dadiscmon]

Thanks! I started this project last fall but have made quite a bit of progress.
Little by little the car is coming along. Here are a few more pics. This is the most the car has been together since we tore it apart for the chassis. Since this is a Pro Streeter, I wanted to keep the steel doors. Well, we didn't know that the passenger side was so messed up until we tried to get the door back on. With big hammers and 3 guys holding and twisting the door went back in place. Vega door hinges are a pain in the ass if you ever want to adjust them. Why? They weren't made to be adjusted at all... just dumb. Then engine is coming along too. I am using Pro Filer 23 SBC heads from Chad Speier at http://www.speierracingheads.com .
We had it on the ground checking clearances. We are not going to run the exhaust under the car so we were able to lower it more. It has a very mild rake. I think it looks pretty cool. One of the goals is to try and keep everything under the fiberglass stock hood. No cowl. A bit of a sleeper look. The stock dash is being used to maintain the stock Cosworth look, plus it has the Cosworth number on it. Having it on the ground makes it look more car like again. Even though it adds 5lbs I am keeping the original Delco AM/FM Cassette player radio in the car. I am also staying with a bit of Vega historical tradition here by using the same wheel and tire size as "Grumpy's Toy".

[zeke]

Those combination spindle / strut pieces look pretty fancy! I like the stance and the shop looks awesome. Small block eh?

H-body door hinges aren't adjustable but the pillars are. How you did it, is how everyone else does it. Apparently, the factory had a large bar that hooked on for aligning them.

[b_pappy]

Wow, really spectacular build! That's looking great.
Bruce

[67shovel]

That is going to be to cool!!!

[dadiscmon]

More progress on the project.



I like carbon!



We built a one piece steel front.



Headers are an Art Form. These tuned 31" tube headers will sing with the Borla collector mufflers.

[chevyart]

beautiful work on that nice vega. looks like we have another really talented fabricator on our vega site. keep them pics coming art

[dadiscmon]

The one piece original steel nose fits over the mufflers.








I got the new bezel and it looks pretty good and will look even better when I get the dash back together.

[dadiscmon]

Wing it.

The car is turning out to be a real light weight. We had it on the ground to begin checking weight. We added another 200 lbs of iron in the front just make up for the stuff we had not added yet. Even with steel doors, fenders front and back, the car was still very light.



We even checked the scales to see if they were working.



We are guessing that the finale car weight will be less than 2000 lbs.



Because of the car weight we decided to make a wing. I didn't want to, but with a car with the potential to run into the 8s on spray, safety first. The wing turned out pretty good. It is not too big and follows the lines of the car. It will look better once it is painted.