My JD Dator/ oval clone

[liquidatorkid]

after a couple more hours today i got the other side of the belly pan done, and the underside of the running board, man it takes forever with a electric drill and a 3" Brillo pad but give a good result, all i got Left, is the inside of the belly pan, the RH side of the tunnel and do inside the tunnel where the suspension bolts

[liquidatorkid]

did some drawling on the PC and made a set of stinger pipes that used dator pipes as a template to make a set of stinger pipes....just an idea

[liquidatorkid]

gotta fabricate a rear grab bar as well...eventually, here's an idea i came up with, mine is breoken off @ both upper mounting bolt holes, maybe ill use some thicker wall tubing then the oem bumper

[427cobra]

I think Kenny was having these repopped? Whats up with the two piece design??

[liquidatorkid]

i just thought that it would be easier to build it with (2) 1/2s compared to one piece and trying to figure out where to bent the 90 degree angle @ so that the inside distance between the pipes were 17" it wouldn't be as strong as one solid pipe that's for sure.... I'll just have to wait and see how much the re-pops are...always seems like i put too much thought into my idea's

[lwb140]

kennys are going to be the 78 style which have a bend at the end that bolts to the running board !!

[400brian]

kennys are going to be the 78 style which have a bend at the end that bolts to the running board !!

That is correct. A hacksaw will give you the '76-'77 style.

It appears that it was not uncommon to see the '78 style on Dators, Rainville had several so equipped .

[427cobra]

a hack saw...??? Come on Brian use a Chop Saw!

[liquidatorkid]

so this would be a 78 style then because it bends backwards?

[400brian]

a hack saw...??? Come on Brian use a Chop Saw!

I haven't got any new fangled thing such as that!

Kid; it looks to me that you have a '76-'77 grab bar on that sled. The bend we are talking about gives another bolt through the foot board.

[liquidatorkid]

ahh ok thanks, so where these a weak point for the dators and thats why people would switch them to the 78 style? seems like with that bend @ the bottom it would be stronger than just having 2 mounting holes on the back of the tunnel but i could be wrong

[400brian]

Kenny Heins has stated that yes, the '78 bar stiffens the rear of the tunnel a bit, ties things together.

I assume the engineers switched to it for a reason.

[liquidatorkid]

ah ok thanks guys, i moved back to ny this past weekend, and got all the parts @ my friends garage and next week im gonna be down there every day so hopefuly i can get some painting done

[liquidatorkid]

did a little shopping @ the boonville NY show and swap and ended up bringing home 2 JD Liquifires parts sleds, and some boxes of parts as well as oval bars, and a teather switch for the dator clone

the 440 l/f i paid $25 is missing the rear suspension and track, and some other misc parts, but i am using the alum. belt guard, dual carbs, fuel pump, intake manifold, and reeds to swap into my 440 cyclone motor, also it has a nice dash assembly with only 358 miles shown on it, the seat looks to be id usable shape other than someone sewed a different top piece on it??? and whatever other parts that are good on it i can use

the second one the 340 l/f has the rear sups. but track is pretty well shot and is missing some pars as well but i figured for $50 id scoop it up for parts

also picked up a usable dash assembly for $15 and the guy gave me another engine should with a set of coils, and cdi box for free

it was an awesome show and there where some really nice JD's there, and the best part was being able to pick up some more JD's to ad to the collection










[imghttp://i785.photobucket.com/albums/yy137/liquidatorkid/1.jpg][/img]

[JDT]

Excellent finds at bargain prices. Good for you!

I like the looks of that custom seat.