Unique Questions.

[Jerry Cowing]

Steve,

I built mine in a 2-car garage. I guess it depends on how full or messy your garage is.

I bought a Deluxe Pallet and had it painted before it was delivered. It saved me a lot of time and Unique did a great job. I had a hard time finding anyone in the little town(s) in my area to paint it. They said they made more money painting for insurance claims and would paint it off-and-on between other jobs. That was a totally unsatisfactory answer for me. Once I start a project, I'm obsessed to finish it and waiting an unknown 2-6 months for someone to paint my car just didn't cut it. It took me 4 weeks to build my Unique after it was delivered. I worked on it every weekend (20 hours per day/night) and during the week after work until about 1 AM). Once I had the wiring laid out or the carpet laid out/cut, or..., I didn't want to stop half way through the install and have to rethink the whole thing again the next day. I think this approach saved me a lot of time in the long run.

Lots of opinions on what rearend and transmission to use. Originals used the Toploader which is rated at 1000 horse power, the TKO is rated for 350 HP. If you choose the Toploader and you're going to drive it in town more than on the highway, I'd stay with the Wide-ratio Toploader and the 331 rear-end. If you're going to primarily race it on a roadrace track, I'd go with the Close-ratio and same rear-end. If you're going to drag race it, use the Wide-ratio or an automatic. If you're not going to run the car hard (race it) and mostly cruise, I'd go with the TKO. I know a lot of folks running the TKO in 500 HP big blocks which create 550 ft lbs of torque and the TKOs seem to be handling the torque even though the TKOs are only advertised to endure 350 HP. If you choose the TKO, go with the 308 rear-end or your first gear will be too low and almost unusable. The TKO 5th gear also gives you a nice cruising gear for the Interstate (75-90 mph). The Toploader 4th gear is too low for my liking on the Interstate making the engine run constantly above 3700 rpm at Interstate speeds. I chose the Toploader Wide-ratio and 331 rear-end which, in my opinion, gave me the best of both worlds: strong for racing, but still drivable in town -- I don't like it for the Interstate though and wish I had a 5th gear.

Just my opinion and experience above. There's as much discussion about what transmission is better; Toploader, TKO, etc., as to whether a Big Block or Small Block engine is better. I don't think you can go wrong if you follow the two choices I gave you above for the Unique by choosing either the Race config or cruising config.

Wheels. Whatever you like is the real answer. The 15" are what the originals used so it will be more authentic looking. If you just like the looks of bigger wheels, then use them -- its your car. Stay away from wire wheels for big torque motors, they won't hold up, use a Mag wheel. I chose Precision Engineering wheels so they would fit over my large racing brakes and not the pin drives and am glad I did. In my opinion and my friends' opinions who have pin drives, the pins drives are a pain. If you want to change from street tires to racing tires you have to buy another set of expensive pin drive Mag wheels and mess around with safety wiring the nut on everytime you change a tire (and buying, carrying another tool to twist the safety wires). However, if you stay with the standard 5 lug wheels, you can buy cheap steel/aluminum wheels for your racing tires. Also the PE wheels have a better spinner attaching system, in my opinion, that will not corrode to your wheel. Some Mag wheels use a screw through the spinner to hold them on the wheel where PE uses 2 rubber O-rings. The screw type system will cause the spinner to weld itself to the wheel due to the dissimilar metals used and many folks have had to cut their spinners off. Just some things to think about and lessons learned from my experience again.