HELP QUICK!!! 5.0l Ford vision trike!

[Blake]

Hey everyone,

Ok... 

so a friend of mine just graduated college.  has a 88 ford thunderbird with w 5.0l in it.  it has 250k miles on it, runs good but has a problem going uphills probabaly needs a rering (haha.).  he asked 100 for it but all in all i could probabaly get it for 50 bucks from him.

Here's my question.

1.  is this a front wheel drive car?   why do you ask?  if its a front wheel drive I'm going to chop off the front end, weld on a motorcycle frame, and have myself a cheap trike to putz around town.

or the 2nd question.

If the car is NOT front wheel drive.. .

Couldnt I just make a quick and easy rear box frame,  somehow attach the engine to it, then attach a vision frame to the front?  ??? ;D   my main question is. with the shortened length fron the engine to the driveshaft (as close as possible.)   If i can get my way...Id like the tranny as close as possible to the differential.  couldnt i just get someone to chop and reweld the driveshaft? or would i have to get a completely new one.?  (Note: the idea here is CHEAP!)

and 3.  I have the title from my parts bike that i never registered in my name (still in previous owners.  But unfortunately.. i trashed the old frame (parents made me do it.. honest..)  Could i somehow use that with part of the vision frame?

OR
4.  does anyone have just a frame (and title) they would sell me???  ;D


as you can see.. im quite excited.  Id like to get a vision frame on it because..we'll  i think itd be quite interesting...


Anyone??


Thanks!

Blake

[h2olawyer]

Blake -

Love your imagination & ingenuity!

The T-Bird was a rear drive car.  As for the second question - anything is possible.  Look at how other trikes have been done & go from there.  There's probably a website somewhere of somebody building a V-8 trike.  Might be fun trying to keep the front tire on the ground, though!

Good luck.   ;D

H2O

[Blake]

haha.


thanks! ;D


In the past 10 minutes i found a site where a guy make a simple box frame for a vw rear..  I think i could pull it off.


this might be interesting.  basically if i can find a frame i'll go ahead and do it.  why not?  i can always sell it to someone for more than i paid for it :)  haha...


Blake

[kiawrench]

  blake,
    if you want a trike,the best bet if you want anything from a vision on it , is keep it real, and stay with the vw power plant. there is a reason you wont find many ideas for a ford trike> the darn engine/tranny combo is going to be so heavy it is going to break almost any frame you put it into. the vision frame and front end is never going to hold up either. i have built 8 or 10 trikes (or been party to building) and never once did a mid size bike front end hold up to the test drive after building. this even happened on bikes with beefed up frames. Sorry to say, unless you build a trike with a geo motor and trans , you may be stuck going with the standard dyna frame or front ends . but, if in your efforts, you manage to build it, i would be more than happy to ride the roads with you .