1973 Pontiac Grand Am LS7 Swap

[srh3trinity]

Any dimensions and pictures for the tank?

[Later-A-body]

I'm not sure what tank dimensions your asking about?

[Later-A-body]

Today I received the Corvette accessory drive with A/C, Corvette water pump and GMPP Pontiac valve covers that I ordered from Superior Chevrolet. GM does a nice job with the instructions, and even has every bolt in the kit labeled with part numbers to make installation easy. I plan to get the mock up block back into the chassis so I can fit the A/C on the block to see if I need to notch the frame for the A/C pump. The only part of the accessory drive I will not be using is the belt tensioner. I decided to go with Katech belt tensioner instead. I will be taking the power steering pump to Lee Manufacturing next week to have them modify the internals to accept the hydroboost.

[Later-A-body]

Today I went back to Global West to check on the progress of the long travel coil over frame modifications they are doing for my Grand Am. A summary of the work they are doing is that I had shown an interest in there long travel kit they had already introduced for the '64-'72 A-bodies. As I expected they of course did not offer that for my chassis. Doug, the owner of GW and I came to an agreement to use my chassis as a template to offer the kit for the '73-'77 A-body chassis. I had the QA1 hybrid coil over kit previously installed, which I was happy with, but realized it's limitations regarding it's amount of travel. At this point one side is almost completed and I will be able to get the frame back over to the powdercoater at the end of next week. They are also building a unique bump stop system that will mount undereath the upper control arm. The work is top notch as I have come to expect from GW, and since I already had literally everything they offer on my car, I am glad they were able to accomodate me on this project. I will post more photos of the completed work going forward. Thanks.

[andrewb70]

That set-up from Global West looks fantastic!

Andrew

[srh3trinity]

I'm not sure what tank dimensions your asking about?

Fuel tank dimensions and pics.

[Motown 454]

Awesome project! Its going to be sweet when your done.

[Later-A-body]

It's coming along nicely so far. Hey Stephen, I can pull the tank out this weekend and send you the dimensions and pictures that you need...no problem.

[srh3trinity]

Thanks! Love this build!

[Later-A-body]

The next step for me is to decide what shocks I want for the rear. I decided to keep the traditional rear shock set up, but I want to replace the Bilsteins with an adjustable shock. I'm not sure what company I want to go with. I looked at ridetech but dont see an adjustable non coil-over shock. QA1's maybe. Also looked at Varishock which does have one for my application. I will keep it simple and most likely stick with a single adjustable. Anyone have suggestions? As much as I wanted to do a coil-over on the rear....I just cant spend that money.

[andrewb70]

The next step for me is to decide what shocks I want for the rear. I decided to keep the traditional rear shock set up, but I want to replace the Bilsteins with an adjustable shock. I'm not sure what company I want to go with. I looked at ridetech but dont see an adjustable non coil-over shock. QA1's maybe. Also looked at Varishock which does have one for my application. I will keep it simple and most likely stick with a single adjustable. Anyone have suggestions? As much as I wanted to do a coil-over on the rear....I just cant spend that money.

I am sure that ridetech can set up up. A coilover can easily be used without the coils. :-)

Andrew

[Later-A-body]

I spoke to Darren at ridetech yesterday. They have a single adjustable rear shock, but they dont know if it fits my car. I know most rear applications for A-bodies are 64-77, so I need to do some research on that. He mentioned the bolt in coil-over kit, but again no specific application for the '73-77 cars. He mentioned the possibility of using the '78-'88 G-body, but I am not willing to go that route unless I know it fits my specific application. I did speak to Kevin at Coil Spring Specialties in Kansas. In November I sent them one of the front QA1 coil-over springs, and one rear traditional spring I had in the GA. They mapped out all the details of the springs and gave me all the specifications of each. The front spring rating was 575 pounds. The rear was 135. I went over different ratings with him for the rear springs. I am leaning toward using a rear spring with a rating of 175 pounds, and about 1/4" lower than what was installed. I want the handeling to improve, but dont want to ruin the ride in the process. I think 135 to 175 is enough of an increase that would be noticeable. So it appears that I will stick with the traditional rear suspension at this time. As for the front, since I am going to the long travel coil-overs, I will most likely pick a front spring rating in the 600 pound area to start with.

Hey Andrew, What rear spring rates are you using in the GTO?

[Later-A-body]

Today I received more parts for the Grand Am. As I always have used Mcleod clutch parts, I purchased Mcleod's blowproof scattershield, SFI LS flywheel, and Mcleod/Wilwood 5/8" clutch master cylinder. The scattershield is heavy, but worth it since I blew up a clutch once before and saw what happens to the bellhousing. I already have a 3/4" Wilwood master for the the hydraulic T/O bearing set up that was installed in the car, but this new set up will reduce my clutch pedal effort. The 12" clutch and disc are my parts that I had previously installed on the Pontiac 455, and will be re-using those parts since they are in perfect condition. The plan is to lighten the flywheel from 30lbs. to about 23lbs. I had this done on the Pontiac, and it worked great on the street....revving very quickly. My garage is starting to look like a speed shop. I have parts all over the friggin place , so if the swap doesn't work out, I think I can open a parts store instead??

[73GA]

OK Sean, I'm going into withdrawal here! Time for an update. What's the latest on the Global West suspension build? It looks freaking amazing! Do you have the frame back? Any update on your rear shock selection? Are you assembling the top end of the LS now? What's happening??? ;-)

Gavin.

[Later-A-body]

Okay, okay. Here's what I have. Global West is finished with the front end coil-over fabrication. I went out to them on Tuesday and delivered the rear end. I decided to go ahead and have the rear frame modified for coil-over suspension. I cant afford to buy the shocks and springs right now, but they are doing the fab work so that I can buy those later. In the meantime I will put the Bilsteins and traditional rear spring back in. I will get the frame back to the powder coater soon, and should have some pictures to post then. The only cool thing I can post now is the fact that I got to meet Paul Michael Glaser of Starsky & Hutch today at the Grand National Rodster show. To be honest, the only reason I went to the show was to meet him. It might sound a little lame, but hey, those two guys were my idols. Starsky & Hutch was a HUGE deal for me at the time. I was able to get a picture with him, and he was great to talk to. He was very approachable. Sometimes when you get to meet someone you really admire, you get disappointed. I am glad to say I was not disappointed.

[Later-A-body]

Well it's been almost a month since I had anything worth posting, but today I finally was able to get the new modified frame back home after powder coating. Just as a recap, The frame was initally sent to Rob at No Limit Engineering to receive all of the extra bracing and boxing that I wanted done. Rob did a great job on the frame. It then went to Global West Suspension to have the front suspension modified for the long travel coil-over kit that I decided to install. Doug, Paul, Eric, and Amy at Global West were fantastic to work with as usual, and I highly, highly recommend anyone to call them for future upgrades. I had already had a QA1 hybrid coil-over kit installed, as well as all the suspension pieces they offered for my Grand Am, so this a real big upgrade in my eyes. I hope this new set up will allow me to dial in some great handling, as well as allow the ride to be even better than it was before. This is a BIG car, and it would be great to be able to hang with smaller and lighter Pro-touring cars. As a side bonus, GW had my rearend to mock up the rear for coil-overs as well. I wanted to pull the trigger on the rear coil-overs, but money was tight. To thier surprize and mine, the rear coil-overs fit in the stock locations, and no modifications or relocating was required for the coil-over shocks to clear the rearend housing. So for anyone with a '73-'77 A-body out there, you can bolt them on. For safety sake, GW did weld in some extra beefy steel plate in the stock upper shock mount area. I'm the dork in the blue shirt.

[Later-A-body]

Time to jump back into the build updates on my 1973 Pontiac Grand Am. I have been very busy at my job for the last few weeks, but have managed to make some progress on the new frame. I wanted to post some pictures of the extra bracing and other frame improvements now that it has been powdercoated. The first few pictures are of the new mounts for the long travel coil-over set up on the front suspension. The last picture is of the underside of the rear shock mount where Global West welded in a reinforcement plate in anticipation of the future addition of the rear coil-over set up.

[Later-A-body]

Here are some more pictures of the rear set up. I wanted to at least have one end bolted together and rolling. I was able to hang the rear suspension. I am re-using the Global West tubular rear lower control arms, and have installed the new GW upper rear control arms as well. I will be getting the rear springs and shock in soon.

[68Formula]

This car is going to be so awesome!

[Later-A-body]

Here are some shots of the front coil-over suspension parts. I decided to go with QA1 double adjustable shocks. I looked into Ride Tech, but they discontinued the line of double adjustable shocks, and I felt triples were overkill for what I am doing, in addition to the cost of them. Doug at Global West helped me with my choice of springs. I picked a 600 lb. spring from Eibach in silver. I had 550 lb. springs in the car with the Pontiac 455 which weighs about 200 lbs. more than the LS7 will. I really want the ride to be good, so I am not looking to kill it with 900 lb. springs like some PT cars run. This car is going to be driven on the street a lot, and I will be doing some autocross events and road course work on occasion for fun. The doubles will allow me to adjust the handling at those events in addition to dialing in the ride on the street. If the 600's dont work, I can always go up or down in rate.