Hey Guys / Gals. Just a quick question, about a possible manual gearbox change to a 400A. As most of you will know, my father and I posses a 'collection' of various 400 models, and we are currently considering some different plans for the 400/456 project. As it would give us a 'spare' 400 rust-free body shell, it seems like a waste. We are currently investigating the possibilities of re-shelling it with our crashed 400, and converting it from a Auto 'box to a Manual 'box. Timp was discussing his project of putting a Tremec gearbox into his 400. Im pretty sure I heard other people mention that a Nash/Richmond gear 5speed will mate up, with a SBC bellhousing, and a SBC version of the gearbox (input shaft). Does anyone have any information on such a possible swap? Has anyone else researched this? http://www.richmondgear.com/01fivespeed.html List of 5sp gearboxes. Theoretically a 6speed with 1:1 5th should work too. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
My mechanic should have the Tremec in n about a month. I'll report back in detail then with photos so you can evaluate that option. keep your fingers crossed. Cheers.
Hi, very interesting project. I hope you'll cover this fitting. How much do you expect it to cost ? Olivier
we're about 4 weeks away now. Should have about 200 pictures ! I'll share as soon as I can. It's been slower than hoped but is looking good. By the way my car is the sea green one ( light green ), currently with a black interior with very faded green stripes in the seats. I'm going to re-leather the front and rear seats and was thinking about dark red leather seats with black stripes, keeping the black dash, black central consol, black rear window deck and black door interiors with red back detail. I'm also planing on making the consol wood a black ebony then leather boot the gear stick and ut a titanium gear knob on top. Are there any examples of interiors with this kind of color system ? And what do you guys think about it ? Cheers, Timp
Timp I like the sound of your colour scheme. Black and red will be fabulous. How about a red diamond-stitched headliner? Do you have to put the new console in to accommodate the new gearbox or could you modify the existing one? Aidan
ooo ! The headliner too ! I had planned to keep the headliner the same, its a white / creem color which keeps it feeling fresh inside. Have you seen a red headliner in a 400 that you like the look of ? And does anyone have any red / black interior pictures I can reference ? The console just needs to have a hole for the stick shift to come through. No space / clearance issues. I just don't like the very crude stamped in graphics on the original wood, and think that if I make a visual statement with the titanium shift knob then what surround it needs to be less visually complex. Hence the black / ebony wood. Cheers, Timp
You may as well go the whole hog and do the headliner as well - it'll look wonderful. Here are some photos of a red/black interior (s/n 34645) - this one has a black console, too, even though it is a series I car, and also a 412 with a red/black interior (not really what you looking for, I know): Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
very cool ! Thanks for the photos. I like the slightly more orangey red color of the 412 especially. I'll check out and see if I can afford the headliner. Good call. Interesting to see the door panels as well. i was going to do a red back, black front. These red with black behind look much better. Cheers
I would be especially interested in whatever information you are willing to share on the gearbox conversion. We have a 400A crying out for this conversion. What did you do in regards to the diff ratio? 3.25:1 Auto to 4.30:1 GT.
In the choices of gears available with the Tremec box it was possible to keep the diff ratio the same, and provide a lower 1st gear ratio to inprove around town performance. I have to get all the specs from Dan my mechanic .. he's the smart guy, I just provide tenatious optimism ! But I'll give a full project download with specs in a few weeks.
Dan, my mechanic is working out quote based on what we learned on mine. I'll get you a breakdown of that when he's finished in a few weeks. Cheers, T
well still a few more weeks. we hit some snaggs mostly on getting things to align. but seems like we're getting through them. it looks like about a $10K job all in all if you want to use Dan of International Dream cars. So, sorry for the delay. I'll put up pictures and details when its done.
