So I am a first time Bradley owner......

Corvette motor huh? Well good luck with that challenge. New frame, massive body work, custom suspension, cooling system....and on and on and on.

Get it running, get it safe, and have fun. Forget the major mods....thats how most of these cars become bird baths.

welcome aboard!

i think you may have emailed me. glad you got the car and a GTII, not a GT. i agree that was a great price. you did good.

theres a LOT of experience on this board, so please take their wisdom, but dont get discouraged. i really believe you should work toward getting the car running, then think about modifications. otherwise you may lose interest.

i'm trying to follow that advice, although i'm close to getting it on the street, i did take a couple of detours!

best of luck.. the best way for pics is to post them through a free service like imageshack or photobucket, then copy those links here. you simply hit the picture icon thats displayed when you're making a post and paste the code between those brackets.

big bob

Another picture

Welcome to the Bradley board, lots of people willing to share their experience here. It does look like you got a great deal.

Because Bradleys are rear engined, the back end wants to make the car spin under hard corning. Putting a heavy v-8 out back would make it much worse. If you are serious about a v-8, you need to make it mid-engine (like Skip20 is doing) or it will be a monster to do anything with except go straight.

Air Cooled VW engines are wonderfully versatile. You can build them to make 150-200hp and still be quite dependable (either normally aspirated or with turbo). Relatively speaking, they are cheap to build (I recently rebuilt a stock one with new crank, align bore, barrels, pistons, rods, bearings, etc. for less than $600, not many engines around that you can do it for that) and parts availability is amazing for their age. With the weight of Bradleys that amount of power results in vette-like performance.
CB performance, Bergman, A.J. Simms, etc. can build you a motor, like that, but it will cost $3000-$5000. Buying kits and putting it together yourself can shave about a third. You can actually get much more power out of them, but low-maintenance dependability is no longer a characteristic. You also then have broken trannys and axles, etc. to contend with.

If you are topping out at 80mph, you must have a tired single port engine and small diameter rear tires. I don't know about GT2's, but I've heard the GT1's start to front float at about 90mph, however, I've been close to that speed with no noticeable effects.

Lastly, protect your windshield all you can, they are custom and harder than hen's teeth to find replacements. People are starting to resort to modifying the frame to accept other car glass.

Take care....

So I got to thinking, the previous owner told me the title would say the car is a 65, but that means the chassis is that age, not the body. Can anyone tell me what year it looks like to them?? I really am a car virgin, can you tell?? LOL

Also, could be a corvair engine, but I swear, the previous owner told me it was a vette engine, but he is really old, so maybe he mistaken it??

Fiance is wondering........if there are any schematic book out there for this car, or wiring diagrams that anyone may have that they don't mind sharing with us through email?? Lots of weird electrical things going on with this poor car:)

The original Bradley GT was made from 71-79 with relatively minor changes. The GT2 like yours were only manufactured in the years 77,78 & 79. No one has yet figured out a relationship between the serial numbers on the bodies and the year of the car, so it is difficult to determine exact years, though there might be a few people who could tell you better from some of the slight changes made from year to year.

The following site especially for GT2 owners has some scanned manual info and electrical schematics.

www.bradleygt2.com/man/toc.php3


I believe Jeff Troy has a CD for the GT2, though not as complete as the one for the GT1, I think it does have the complete manual on it. Check out the following link.

www.bradleygt.com/manuals_page2.htm

Regards....
Hope this is helpful! Regards....

By the way, I have a complete new ('79) unused butterscotch interior kit for sell. You will see the seat covers in the pictures.
Make offer & e-mail at
skip@custombadge.com.


Skip20

My fiance is tearing into the car, and I think we are going to try and keep the engine that is in it now. Thanks for the links for the manual and the electrical diagram!

Ok so I am fairbanksmommyof5's fiance, The car has a dual port vw engine.

I just got done gutting the car of interior and wiring and such. The wiring was patched and just a mess half the electrical on the car was not working. Now my question is, is there a after market harness that i could get and where? Also I am looking for new switches and guages and possibly a new stearing colum and wheel, basically i am looking for parts for the interior for cheap as possible. I kept the head liner and such and that is in good shape. The seats on the other hand, had 2 bolts holding them in and the rest of the bottom mounts are rusted and half missing.

I also need to know the right size tires that go on the car, I think I wan to put low profile rubber on it but not sure if it would do anything to the handeling or not. I am not familur with the Bradley,s. So any help is much appreciated. Also suggestions.
Thanks Joel

1. Wiring harness: You can go with a simple dunebuggy style harness like gtmike has stated. Here is one wired up in a Bradley GT (not GTII):

The 8 circuit is just enough to cover the basics. You may want to upgrade to a 12 or more. They are available on EBAY and you still need alot of extra wire for grounds and other circuits. Another source is Craigslist. I just got a 21 circuit harness for a steal. Wiring is not hard, but its also not the easiest for a complete novice.

2. Switches can be anythging you like. From simple toggle, to more automotive style, or even replacements for what you have. The original style GTII switches were Lucas and used in old Jags. I would try scanning EBAY for "Lusac Switches" and see what pops up. My client used these on his GT:


3. Gauges are expensive. I used these Dolphin gauges (again on EBAY):

They were about $180 for the set. I did just pick up a complete set of white VDO gauges for my Avenger project for $200 on craigslist though. Both are good resources.

4. Steering columns are generally VW based. They can be an earlier version:

or the later version which uses a key incorporated into the column. Or you can add a tilt wheel from a production car or a super slick one from Flaming River (expensive....$400+ for the entire set up):

Hi, Joel,

If most of the interior is out, you might consider removing the body and flipping it inverted to handle your wiring tasks. Working under the dash of a Twoie is a lot easier than a GT, but it's still a royal pain.

Follow the schematics, and work on one circuit at a time. It may look intimidating, but if you handle it on a one-by-one basis, you'll do just fine.

Best of luck with your car...

doug is there a web site for tilt steering assembly?
Wyn

I mounted a tilt in my GT 2 out of a 95 Pontiac Grand Am had to do a few mod's to make it work but $35 at the Bone Yard was way better than the other prices I saw.

Dean

jspbtown,

In the first wiring you pic you posted, is that a turn signal relay pack mounted left of the fuse block? If so, who did you buy it from?

Regards, Tony