Cheetah inspired build continued
 

Hello everyone, I'm starting a new thread because the pictures that I posted on the previous one were with photobucket. I'm not paying their new annual fee.

I took a lot of the spring, all of the summer and fall off to work on my house, vacation, and spend time with my family. I started back on the body a couple of weeks ago.

On Tuesday I used cans of spray paint to put the car in color. There's still a ton of body work to do but I needed to see where I was at. I set the frame at ride height and mocked up the car. The side pipe is PCV pipe. :)

I think the car looks like a toy next to my truck!

The car is 42 inches to the top of the windshield and has a 93 inch wheel base. My son is 6'2". The seat can be lowered by 2 more inches.

http://image.ibb.co/exYq06/questsidewjohnfinalmock.jpg

http://image.ibb.co/egGztR/questfinalmockwtruck.jpg

http://image.ibb.co/ehR2TR/questframefrontsmall.jpg

http://image.ibb.co/nmZrA6/questsidelownospoiler.jpg

http://image.ibb.co/irNKV6/quest3_4frontwithjohn.jpg

John,

Great to see that you are back at it. Yes, these are small cars. When I am on the race track with corvettes, Mustangs, XKE's and Camaro's that 289 FIA looks much smaller.

The build is coming along nicely, good luck with it.

Jim

I've never seen a Cobra Cheetah before. Something is different. Hum,...:p

I've built a number of cars, including a Cobra tribute. All of them used Corvette suspension and chevy engines. There really isn't a good Cobra type option for Chevy guys. That's one of the reasons that I took on this build. I'm trying to imagine if the Cheetah had continued and evolved into a street roadster.

I've been working on the body a little bit at a time to get it ready to make molds. (This body is way to heavy as it has a lot of reinforcement, fiberglass, and body filler) I'm hoping to have it ready in the next couple of weeks to pass on to my body guy for final body work. It will be finished with 2 part high build primer. Then it will be wet sanded, and buffed out. I want the best finish possible from which to make the molds.

Here are a few pictures of work in progress. I hate body work. :) And, I'm not good at it!

https://image.ibb.co/hE9YaG/questhoo...ngbodywork.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/jXHapb/questhoodfrontbodywork.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/jXHapb/questhoodfrontbodywork.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/cA9o9b/questcoc...arbodywork.jpg

http://image.ibb.co/hT3taG/questfire...sebodywork.jpg

Ditto.

Did you happen to see the Cheetah that Stacey David on "Gearz" built ?
Pretty cool, but don't like the HUGE wheels. Great motor though.

Let me know if anyone finds the finished cat. I don't see it ?

Here's one during the build ans his youtube channel.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N36mZOkNmOU

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC0h0a535Q4o1xtCvGLnL7Ng

I saw part of the GEARZ build. The evolution Cheetah that Stacey built is a cool high end car. I think their body, frame, suspension, and other parts is 45K. I'm doing my car on the cheap. :) Just a ton of labor. :)

$45,000 is too much.

Did he ever have a final finish show ?

Your idea of not being good at it and my idea of not being good at it are drastically different! That car would have been a pile of scrap in my garage by now!

great to see it has your killer frame design, should be stiff as hell!

I think it was either Shell Valley or Midstates that had a nice Cheetah, with a stack injection system coming through the hood. It also had cool USA flag paint job. Can't find it though.

It's a Shell Valley. I know Dana from Shell Valley and the late owner, Rich Anderson. Good people and a good product. I thought about purchasing a body from them but I had my own idea of how I wanted the car to look.

Thank you for the kind comment about the frame. I built 4 of them before I got one that I was satisfied with. It weighs 235lbs. There are a lot of pieces. And, lots of welding!

I did speak with Dana over the phone and had a great conversation about finding a 428FE.
I knew Rich, a great guy. Do you have a pic of his injected and flag painted car ?

Here's what I found.
https://image.ibb.co/mHCSpm/Shell_Valley_Cheetah.jpg

That's it, but without the flag paint job.

It's the car with the flag paint job. You can just see part of it on the front of the hood. I'll try to find a picture that shows it.

There are a lot of differences between the Shell Valley Cheetah and mine.
- I'm using an MGB windshield. I think its the perfect look and size. The glass is readily available for under $100.
- The body is low on the Cheetah. All of the original had the air cleaner/carb sticking through the hood. I didn't want that. I sculpted a hood bulge that was as low as possible.
- I molded in reverse air vents in the hood to allow engine heat to escape.
- I molded in the dash, cockpit sides, and rear bulkhead so that the body positively locks into place on the frame.
- The seating position is as far rearward as possible. This allows for greater leg room which allows a lower seating position. And, more room between the rear bulkhead and dash. The original Cheetah has a deeply recessed dash for the driver. This was necessary to create enough room for the steering wheel. I have very good room.
- One of the original Cheetahs had the roof cut off which created a roadster. Shell Valley followed the original design of the rear deck. It's pretty much a low flat piece that blends up into the rear wheel arches. It looks fine to me. But I didn't like that it makes it appear that the driver is sitting very high in the car. I made my deck higher and blended in a gentle arch into the rear wheel arches.
- I angled my rear deck down towards the rear.
- I tried to make my car as low and sleek as practically possible.

I wasn't trying to build a replica. Just a cool car that borrowed the parts of the Cheetah styling that I liked. I'm having fun.

I purchased the body shell from Mr bruce and have heavily modified it from there. It was a great starting point. The parts were very nice.

I like your changes, fiberglass work is wonderful and looks cleaner. And this is coming from a autobody guy. What's up next ?

Your mods to the rear deck are spot on. I remember seeing an article in one of the kit car magazines many years ago that showed Rich driving the then "sensational" new Cheetah roadster. He towered over the windshield and the top of the rear deck was about level with the small of his back. He truly looked like he was sitting on top of the car instead of in it.

The look reminded me of the pedal cars I had as a kid and was so off-putting that I never bothered to finish reading the article. I lost all interest in the Shell Valley product after that. Yours actually looks like it has a far superior layout and seating position.

Buzz, you lost your mojo in building a Shell Valley, why ?

What was it and what did you do with it ?

I lost interest in reading the article when I saw the pictures.