Do It Yourself... Mad Max
The Mad Max "kit" arrives in the Butler living room.
The cat gives everything a thorough inspection.
Over the years we've had cars brought to us for completion
by folks who had less than complete success with a "do-it-yourself"
body kit. These kits often require more work, skill, tools and time than
the flashy sales literature would leave you to believe, and are usually
accompanied by installation instruction written by someone whose first language
was an obscure dialect of Chinese. Thinking this might be the case here,
we asked Jeff if that was he came to us with his project. According to him
the Mad Max "kit", produced by Gordon Hayes (maker of the first
Mad Max replica), was exactly as advertised. The kit is not intended to
be an "out-of-the-box" bolt-on project.
According to Jeff, "Anyone planning on building an Interceptor
replica will need to understand that the body kit parts were never designed
with retail sale in mind. It appears that they were intended to be one-off
pieces of fiberglass (in the case of the nose) for a concept car, or (in
the case of the flares), for the first 'Interceptor' replica built by Gordon
Hayes. The nose cone comes out of the mold flimsy and completely unsuited
to be used on a street car. Many many hours of skilled labor are required
to reinforce and fit these parts to the car and have them look good. Test
fitting the parts immediately showed how crude they were... I knew what
to expect going into this, and looking back on the project as it nears completion,
I can say that there were no surprises with the body kit. It was exactly
as represented. The process of building the replica car is likely just as
complex as it was to create the original."
The first stop is the Big O tire shop to get the new tires
and wheels mounted.
After installing the wheels, Jeff began installing the body
kit. At first the kit was tacked on temporarily to check fit and determine
what would need to be done.
The next step is the Weiand blower with a "movie-correct"
Scott Super Slot injector and fuel pump assembly. Here is where the replica
Mad Max Interceptor is going to o do the original one better. In the movie,
the blower was just for show and did not actually function--this one will.
Initially the car was taken to a shop in Santee to get the
Super Charger set up and working.properly. This attempt failed. Problems
included the side-mounted linkage could not exert enough leverage on the
throttle body to open it fully, and some improperly routed fuel lines that
kept it from achieving sufficient fuel pressure. This set-up was scrapped
when they took the car to Machine Tech, in Oceanside, CA., where they were
finally able to get it set up and running like it should.
The photo on the left shows the hood after the first cut for
the blower and pully system. Later, a larger top pully would have to be
installed and the hood recut to accomdate it (sse below).
The Zoomie pipes were installed at an exhaust shop in Santee,
Ca.
Jeffs rear wheels have a wider offset than the original Mad
Max car because he wanted his to have a more muscular stance.
Before the car was actually running, Jeff had it towed to
to the Poway DMV and parked in their lot so it could under go the final
visual inspection before being licensed. After going through all that trouble
Jeff says that the clerk, after reading the paper work and seeing that it
had been waiting three years to get licensed, passed the car without even
looking at it. Jeff was relieved because he was sure the lady would faint
if she actually went out to the lot and saw it!
Almost ready for prime-time!
01 - 02
- 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07
- 08 - 09 - 10
Hot Rods & Custom Stuff, 2324 Auto Park Way, Escondido, CA.,
1-800-HOT-ROD-5.
Hot Rods & Custom Stuff - builds, restores, paints, services and sells
parts for classic autos, cars, trucks and street rods.