Drawings

My dear friend and supporter Kristian is a wizz with the pencils.
He have helped me many, times over the twenty five years!!! we have known each other.
He's awesome to take out the image in my head and enhance it.
The Chevy Kustom was no exception, I pitched him some ideas and out came these awesome visions.
Thanks Kristian, you're a rock!!

First vision he went all in with the Pro Touring look and double turbos, me like!

Second he toned it down a bit and added a paintjob from my desire.

black/silver/red are "my colors". I have had them many times over the years.

And classic scallops can't ever be wrong on a kustom.

Third is probably the closest what actually can happen for 2020.

I have to repaint my roof anyway so im thinking of just some tones apart from the rest of the body.

Darker or lighter aint decided yet.

This color I will also do scallops with, might almost not be visable.

And around the scallops there will be a distinct green pinstripe.

Also some classic pinstripe on the front of the hood and on the trunk in same green.

Driveline

Kustom cars doesnt come with clear spec sheets…
I have straightened some question marks already about the driveline,
but I still had questions.
The only fact I had was that my driveline was from a seventies Chevy Nova.
Quite generic information...so which one?!?!
Took another dive the other day in the ocean of internet.
This time I found the excellent webpage Nova Recource
But even when I have read there and visited the Youtube channel I missed a lot.
I sent a mail to the webpage and got the most amazing help.
Thanks Scott !!
Those people make me believe in the world again
Big words, but that kindness to strangers is something we need more of.
Scott guided me through the Nova jungle so now I have a clear view of my drivetrain.
My front half have 1975-79 Nova subframe, same components also are used by 1970-81 Camaro.
My rear axle is a 10 bolt 8,5” and all of this are the parts that you want.
So in this case I´m the lucky one.

Winters is here

First days of November 2019 I jacked up the Chevy.
Its so low in the rear and the suspension is so soft so I needed four jackstands.
Two to support the rear axle and two for the frame.

When in the air I wanted to be a little more familiar with it and what the specs are.

First I spotted a tab attached on of the 10 bolts on the Chevy axle.
The tap said stuff about limited slip...me like.

Limited Slip

Tried the old trick to verify and just rotate the wheel and the other side turned the same way.

Yep, definetly no open diff.

Another thing I saw was of course the 4” drop with blocks and the tiny bump stop.

I´m aiming towards 3” blocks and maybe 1” bump stops next season

I also did som wheel turnin´to and got 2,¾ revs on the prop shaft for one turn on the wheel
So it's a fair assumption that I have a 2,73 rear end.

Compensation

The Bombus version of climate compensation.
Business to the left and party to the right.

2004 vs 1952

A clip

Took a bunch of pics and did some filming when I first went to see the car.
Put some of them together in a short film after I bought it.

Kustom

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce the most recent member of the Bombus family, the Chevy 1952 Kustom.
Chopped, raked, slammed and awesome
Finally I have a car that had just enough right things and still lots of potential to evolve years to come.

Just enough, the stance is really right.
A bit low now to be static, but i´m thinking of air suspension in the future, at least in the back.
Waaay too low in the back, can't even have my dog in the backseat with this setup.

Dash and steering wheel is nice and the shifter is awesome.
But need complete interior.
Will start with some kind of seat cover, headliner and floor mat.

Another Zündapp

Oooops I did it again...
Need something to ride on until the Kaférazer project is done.....in a year or so.
Picked up this quite complete Super Sport with 150mm hubs and no engine today.
I will use the engine from the Kaférazer for now.

Rims

Upgrading the rims on my beloved Smart
When I bought the car it had black steelies, probably Roadster steelies, with really good all year around tyres and they gave a quite sinister look.

Those tyres may have a deep thread but the peculiar name suggests Asian made and they are really hard even in warm weather so I can’t imagine how sketchy they will be when the snow comes.
So the hunt for new, aluminium, rims was up.
Found a really nice used OEM set for an OK price at a wrecker, bought them instantly.
But there were no tires on them and the weird dimensions on a smart car is quite hard to find, so the weeks went...

Suddenly I found another pair online for a bargain price, with tyres as a bonus.

The downside was that the cheap set was to the wrong model….of course….always something.
They was 451 wheels and I have a 450 if I talk the nerdy Smart language.
But no issue really, spacers will solve the problem.
Front is direct replacement but rear needs a spacer.
On top of all, this set was an not so common aftermarket rim from Alutec.
Really nice looking as well!
The spacers gives me the upside with SO much bigger range of wheels to choose from if I want another set in the future because the 451 rims are by far the most common.
There are never any beefy dimension when we talk Smart cars, but even tiny OEM wheel sizes looks really good so I'm really Ok with the 15” available. Maaaaybey can squeeze in a 16”, but there's really no point doing that.

Measure the spacer size and order.

1.) Mount the Alutec rear wheel
2.) Measure with a DIY plumb line out of a socket and an electrical wire

3.) Order bolt on spacers
4.) SUPERFAST service from Spacer.se

I placed the order 07:10 tuesday and 10:10 wednesday I got a message that I could pick up them at my local package delivery place. Amazing 27 hours with no VIP treatment or express delivery, thats service.
But the most amazing time is this is not a of the shelf spacer so in this very short time they also made the spacers before shipping to me, amazing.

The package content was a real treat to experience, first class Swedish workmanship!!!

Sooo nice stance and looks with the Alutec wheels.
But some height drop would be nice...maybe the next project?
Buy stuff aint the hard part, but get the time and energy to mount them is.
Time will tell if I have enough energy for a lowering kit?

Before and after comparison.

New ride

Finally I´ve got me a Smart Fortwo.

Without a doubt the veichle that made me the most happy of all veichles I´ve owned.

Driving, parking, seeing it, but not to forget the running costs.

My SmartAZZ

Walleiling…….ceilall

The “walleiling” eller “ceilall” I went all in to say the least with this part
Here the ceiling “flows” down to the floor.

I made radius konsoles first and attached them, then the studs on both the wall and in the ceiling.

Then i mounted the wood to the studs and painted all the wood grey
Easy in theory, but SO much job.
But as I expected, it became great.

The rounded corner that I headed for became even better then I´ve hoped

Also quite happy how accurate i got the hole for the light in the ceiling.

Spot on !!

And the lamp I made of a work light I found in the house when we moved in became very cool.

And the finished piece