Another Sand Limo

realtreeHD

realtreeHD

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I figure at least some of you love a good build thread as much as I do so I'll do my best to provide some entertainment. A deal popped up on another sand limo that I couldn't pass up.  We had our second boy born not long ago and so our family was quickly going to outgrow my current 2 seater. I don't want to take either of the boys with us on a ride until they are at least 3 years old which means I won't need the extra seats until the 24-25 season but that gives me time to build.  My last build took over 2 years but in the end it was worth it. You can't drive that car without a smile and I feel so confident in the reliability because of the quality of parts and the fact that everything on it was new.  

On to the new car...it's a 2005? Sand Limo Monster Cruiser. Same chassis as my 2 seat, just longer. It has a really cool Nash paint job and was featured on the cover of Sand Addiction Magazine in Aug of 2008. It also has a 5speed albins and series 30 rear hubs (not 930s, I had to look it up). But alas it has no powerplant. I wasn't interested in a dry sump, race gas tuned ls1 so I bought it without the motor. 

My plans as of now are a crate ls3 with a cam and see how it runs.  I've been reading every word on the boards about blower motors so I'm sure @Fullthrottleguy and I will be talking in the future but I am still trying to keep costs down with a new family.  A pump gas 500hp motor for under 10k sounds just fine to me. 

I planned on throwing a motor in and running it this season but the further I get into disassembly the more problems I find and the more I am tempted to tear down the whole car for new powder on the chassis and begin reassembly with all new hardware, wiring, etc.  I'd also like to ditch the big hydraulic steering setup and use one of Harvey's electric setups like on my black car. You just can't beat the simplicity of it. 

I'm thinking it would be a shame to touch the paint so I'm going to powdercoat the chassis, arms and wheels black and put the original panels back on. I'm not a fan of the yellow 

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Awesome car @realtreeHD. Still remember seeing that car posted for sale and trying to figure out how to get my hands on it and you call me with questions about the serious 30 stuff. Probably for the best last thing my wallet needs is another sand car! 

 
Ok so here is some of the things I've found so far.  The most obvious was that the belts were almost 20 years old, I started removing them and discovered that the last person to assemble the car was in a bit of a rush. The rear seat had 2 bolts that were only hand tight and the center lap belts weren't bolted to the frame at all. I could also tell that some of the bolts were mismatched and all of the hardware was grade 5 or maybe less, I prefer grade 8 for seats and seatbelts. 

Whoever initially did the wiring in 2005 did a really good job. The wires were laid out and ran in nice bundles all zip tied and clean.  Since then things had been added and removed from the car and there were hot wires that had just been cut, not taped off or capped and additional wires ran for lights mostly but who knows.  Having just wired my black car using a switch pros panel and the holley digital dash I know that most of this spaghetti can be eliminated.  So that's where I started. 

I also removed the engine harness and ecu to give back to the previous owner as it goes with the engine he kept and isn't of value to me. 

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Alex @Fullthrottleguyis the man. He has so much knowledge and he’s kind enough to share it and help. Without him I would have been up a creek.  
Congrats on the new car, it looks awesome. Looking forward to your posts on it. 

 
Congrats Kade, gonna be a nice addition to camp. We'll meet up so I can get you your intake.

 
Awesome car!  I love mine.  The electric steering conversion works great.  Had it in there now for 3 seasons.  Parker and Harvey can get you squared away.  Call up joe and get all the upgrade braces he has while you have it stripped.   

 
nice car i have a 2005 monster also love it im around 650 to 700 hp the car is alot of fun. your car was built a little heaver that mine i don't have the sway bar and i noticed yours has a few more gussets. the only chassis problems i've had was a few cracks on the cross tube that the rear arms hang off. also mine was wired like yours and all the relays have the ground switched which had me confused for a bit while troubleshooting a bad relay

 
r3meyer said:
Awesome car!  I love mine.  The electric steering conversion works great.  Had it in there now for 3 seasons.  Parker and Harvey can get you squared away.  Call up joe and get all the upgrade braces he has while you have it stripped.   
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Did you keep the hydraulic rack when you went electric?

 
Jersey_Jeff73 said:
nice car i have a 2005 monster also love it im around 650 to 700 hp the car is alot of fun. your car was built a little heaver that mine i don't have the sway bar and i noticed yours has a few more gussets. the only chassis problems i've had was a few cracks on the cross tube that the rear arms hang off. also mine was wired like yours and all the relays have the ground switched which had me confused for a bit while troubleshooting a bad relay
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This is our dune leader.  he also has a monster.  Joe updated the car with a number of new tubes that he now puts into all of his cars.  There were actually a bunch of cracked tubes.  but this car has a lot of miles on it.  no abuse, just a lot of dune trips. 

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Jtmoney714 said:
Did you keep the hydraulic rack when you went electric?
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Nope.  Pulled the whole kit off the car.  Hoses, pump, and rack.  Listed it on race desert and sold it in one day.  @parker@gearone's rack bolts right up.  He also has a brace that ties the 2 tie rods together at the rack.  Just replaced the internal wear bar for this season.  You just have to modify the steering wheel shaft that mounts to the rack.  

My old one was getting sloppy, and could not get any parts for it.  I believe it was an early Fortin.

 
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Sweet, love a good build thread.

Are you sure they are series 30 CVs? Those are the BIG boys. Extremely expensive and not at all necessary for a LS3 525. For redundancy alone I would switch to 934s. But that's your call. 1 - 30 series CV is over $1500 at Kartek. 

Have you had Hydraulic power steering before? I have had 2 of harveys kits, and the kartek EPS on my last car. They worked great, but the hydraulic steering on my new car is unmatched. WAY less feedback and no bumpsteer. It is a Howe 2.5 rack, so not sure if that's the same story with the Fortin rack. 

Look forward to seeing what you do with the car. The crate LS3 is a great call.

 
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