1972 Buick Turbo LS Pro Touring - Garage Made

[lwilliams]

***Posted this in the "New Member" section too but thought I would put it here to incase it can help anyone else looking to do similar things!***

I just joined the forum. Truth be told it was just to check out some shocks that someone was selling but i see there is a ton of useful info on here! I'm up in Canada land and the snow is flying right now so not a bad time to make some progress on my project! Just a financial advisor with a car hobby...

Picked it up in Calgary, AB about 4 years ago. Got it from stinky Roger. Literally the guy was gag worthy. Paid 2000$ for the car. just a standard 350/350 car. Drove it for 2 weeks then it sat for about a year on my garage pad. Built the garage and then started to tear it down. For the most part the body is in decent shape from what I can see except the roof skin has holes in it. The car originally had a 1/4 vinyl top that stopped working and rust ate its way through the spots it was attached to the roof skin. Some patches to be done (drivers door, passenger fender, quarter panel patches, small spot on the trunk floor) the hoods in good shape though!

Nothing to special about the car to start with but I completely tore it down to the frame. Didn't really do a tone to it for about 3 years until this year i have made a ton of progress.

I always wanted it to go fast, stop and handle well. Got the body off the frame a, had the frame sand blasted and then installed a Hellwig Frame FX kit. Essentially turns the coupe frame into a convertible frame with an extra body mount. Wasn't terribly hard to install this, just some grinding, cutting and welding. Welding is slow with this. Had to do about an inch at a time in 4 different spots then wait for the frame to cool to the touch and repeat. I think it took me about a 5 days of off and on to full weld in the kit. If you put to much heat through the frame when you weld it it will bow out the middle frame rail sections and then you have to go get it straightened. Mine bowed out a little bit but nothing that wasn't manageable, everything still lined up. Went this route cause it made clear space under the car for exhaust and anything else. (see pics of the old frame (just oily and had a coating on it really, then sand blasted, then with the kit installed).

Once the frame was welded i just finished it up with poly body bushings from energy suspension and put the body back on. obviously i haven't driven it with the frame kit yet, but just moving the car around with a jack there is a noticeable difference in the stiffness of it.

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181032&d=1605052011https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181031&d=1605052011https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181030&d=1605052011https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181029&d=1605052011

I have always wanted to do an ls swap. Super tough and reliable and cheap to buy. I got my engine for 250$. 5.3l lm7. Doesn't get more generic than that. Supposedly it has 170,000kms (105,000miles) on it and ran fine when pulled. Guess we will see! Needed some sensors, a coil and what not but nothing major so far. I used UMI lsx mounts for the install. Put on an f-body oil pan so the oil pan wasn't hanging 3" below the k-member. Also got a 4l60 trans built that a mated to the 5.3l. think i might be the only person in the world that had to cut their trans tunnel to make this fit (my car seems to be different when it comes to the measurement and fitting of things, same thing with the steering box) going to end up running a turbo. Not sure how to fix the picture orientation.

https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181033&d=1605052594https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181034&d=1605053368
Added a JGC steering box too, had to beat the frame a little to get it to fit which is odd cause i haven't heard of anyone else having to do that ()you will notice a trend here). Car stayed like that for a real long time. like 2-2.5 years. Then I made a ton of progress this year.

Put together the whole fuel system. Tank, pump, filter, fittings, lines you name it. used PTFE fittings and hose. Fixed the core support cause one side was totally rotted out. Installed a Buick big block radiator along with some ford windstar fans, plumped the steering box (fittings too) with a cooler and the water pump hoses.


https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181036&d=1605053563https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181035&d=1605053523https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181037&d=1605053880https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181038&d=1605053901https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181039&d=1605053933

Then i fabbed up a log manifold, sch 40 pipe that is all 2.5" with 1.5" runners. got a flange that is a 2.5" pipe to t4 that made this easy to install the turbo. This is a 78mm i used for mock. Will end up using a 72mm most likely. going the vs racing route with this!
https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181040&d=1605054183https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181041&d=1605054199https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181042&d=1605054217

Also got some front suspension goodness installed. Had to drill new upper shock mount holes, which i don't think anyone else has ever had to do. 1" back on the drivers side and 3/4" back on the pass. side. Like I said trend with my car that its tolerances must have been after some afternoon scotch on the assembly floor. Got the suspension and brake parts from a friend. 6 piston wilwoods with 12.19" rotors too! Adjustable upper control arms, tubular lower arms, 2"drop spindles, and the brakes.

https://advertising.forumexcellence.com/ads/www/delivery/lg.php?bannerid=57&campaignid=3&zoneid=32&loc=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pro-touring.com%2Fthreads%2F135439-1972-Buick-Skylark-Pro-Touring-Smiles-per-build&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pro-touring.com%2Fforums%2F6-Welcome-To-Our-Message-Board&cb=d395c48950


https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181043&d=1605054375https://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=181044&d=1605054473

Picked up a 12 bolt about a month ago. Its a 373 posi unit. Running poly bushings in the axle. Got rear suspension control arms coming from a buddy (rod ends in all the joints except the upper arms that bolt to the axle, 2" lowering springs in the mail (125#-200# progressive springs). Just need some single or double adjustable shocks to complete the package (anyone got some for sale?). Also picking up some wilwood brakes from a guy that couldn't use them for his project. 4 piston with 11" low profile rotors and calipers. 500$! Steal of a deal, they are new in the box.

Pretty sure i am going to be running these wheels (Below). Either 18 or 19 inch x 10.5 wide and the 295's on all four corners. they would be about 10 lbs lighter than the corvette reproduction rims i was looking to buy and i can source them in Alberta and avoid paying the conversion, shipping and duty across the border (such a killer these days).

181073

Also just picked up some Cobalt ss seats that I will swap into the car. Going to have to make brackets to get them to fit but nothing crazy. (Paid 300$ for them). will post pics when they are set in place and what the brackets look like.

181074

Really trying to do this car with as many decent components as possible but without spending a ton of cash. Getting lots of stuff used from other people that is making a huge difference. Saved about $3000 on suspension, $1750 on brakes and $800 on seats doing it that way compared to buying the new stuff i was looking at.

[andrewb70]

Great build!

Andrew

[lwilliams]

Great build!

Andrew

Thanks! Coming together slowly.

[Vimes]

Tell me, was that car primer grey, and if so were the tail lights painted black around the outer ring? And did it have a Gen 1 Chevy engine in it? Been trying to track down my first car on and off for years, to either buy back or at least know it has a good home.

[lwilliams]

Tell me, was that car primer grey, and if so were the tail lights painted black around the outer ring? And did it have a Gen 1 Chevy engine in it?

It wasn't primer grey when I got it. There is a shot of the back drivers quarter in the first picture of the thread, it is a light blue.

Around the tail lights on the rear bumper it is not painted black there is a rubber piece that basically seals the tail light to the bumper (the rubber is black). The outside housing of the tail lights themselves are black plastic.

It had a Buick 350 in it. I looked up the casting numbers. (they were a thin wall casting which made them lighter than a standard chevy 350)

[ICrombie]

Looking good so far! Subscribing to this one, should be exciting to see it come along.

[lwilliams]

got some rear end poly bushings installed today.

Really wasn't to hard to be honest. Most difficult part was getting the OEM metal thrust washer (i think that is what its called) out. did the old heat and beat treatment on it, seemed to work fine.

First started with drilling out as much of the rubber around the steel pin as possible. Tried to stay as close to the dowel as possible.

181092181093

Once i had drilled out as much as i could i knocked the dowel out with a 2.5# mini sledge and socket that sit the size of the dowel.

181094

Next i hammered in a long flat blade screw driver and just pried the rubber out. It was all pretty easy up to this point!

181095
181096

Then came the heat and beat treatment on the thrust washers. I used a blow torch on the housing eye's/ears and the metal thrust washer. then i had a hitch laying around and butted it up to the thrust washer and beat away until one full side was knocked out. Once it was that far out i took the same mini sledge and screw driver and hammered against the inside of the lip of the thrust washer until they came out. Drivers side was pretty easy. passenger side started to smash the outside lip so it wouldn't come through so i had to bend it back in towards the middle to get it knocked out.

181097

Disassembly all done!


Putting in the new poly bushings was essentially the reverse of everything above. I used the hitch and mini sledge technique to put the new thrust washers in (sprayed in a little wd-40 on the OD of the washers to provide a little ease into place.

Next i just lubed up any parts of the poly bushings that contacted metal. OD of the poly bushing and OD of the new metal dowel. on the other side i lubed the ID of the end cap bushing. *** I would recommend wearing gloves for this, it is super thick and tacky (i was in a cold garage which doesn't help), took me a good 3 goes of degreaser soap to get everything off.***

181098

Only difference in the assembly is to trim enough off the end cap bushing leaving only 1/8 of the poly bushing material as the space between the housing is really tight.

181099

Overall not a hard job. Now just to get the gear oil (accidentally bought synthetic and need conventional) and the limited slip additive in and a gasket to seal it all up.

Rear springs came today. BMR progressive rate springs (125lbs-200lbs). Got these as a scratch and dent item. Only issue i can see with them is in the pics below so I am more than happy. I think it saved me about 40$ USD compared to buying them new. I was originally going to go with UMI rear springs which are 130lbs (linear rate). So i figured these should ride like those when cruising and then when i get into corners (plan to do some cone course racing with this car and some very spirited street driving) they will end up being stiffer and perform better under load. I was playing around with them and putting my own weight on them the first inch is a plush and then they stiffen up real quick.

181100
181101

Just waiting on control arms from a friend off his car, he might have them off this weekend and then I can put the rear end together minus shocks. Looking for some single or double adjustable ones that would work with the 2" lower springs. Stay tuned!

[Vimes]

It wasn't primer grey when I got it. There is a shot of the back drivers quarter in the first picture of the thread, it is a light blue.

Around the tail lights on the rear bumper it is not painted black there is a rubber piece that basically seals the tail light to the bumper (the rubber is black). The outside housing of the tail lights themselves are black plastic.

It had a Buick 350 in it. I looked up the casting numbers. (they were a thin wall casting which made them lighter than a standard chevy 350)

Bummer. Oh well. Those are great cars, hope to have another one day. I know they're basically the same car but I'd much rather have a Skylark than the Chevelle I have.

[lwilliams]

Picked up my seats. They are from the cobalt ss. Totally bought them hoping they would be good, my cousin picked them up for me. Got to sit in them and they are fantastic, bolstering is really good on them and i fit in them really well. Not sure how you could ever go wrong with them, considering that I only paid 300$ for the set. What is really nice about these is that the drivers side seat is height adjustable (had no idea when i bought these that was the case). I originally just set them on the floor of the car and was a little disappointed how high i sat but then viola, height lever. i can adjust them so i fit perfect in it and still have a few clicks (2-3 of even lower adjustment. I am 6'2" so i was happy they have adjustment.

That being said there was a bunch of work to get the original brackets off the rails. I didn't count but i wouldn't be surprised if there was about 20 or so 1/2" to 3/4" rivets holding the brackets to the rails. I used an angle grinder to cut the rivets off then a pin punch to knock them out of the rails. Had to wack it with some pretty decent force but i was careful to check the rails to make sure i wasn't bending them or anything like that. This probably took me 2hrs at least, there was a lot of rivets. As an added bonus i wasn't paying attention to the spark show i was sending from cutting off the rivets and melted tons of metal dust into my garage windows.

not the nest pic but this is what the rivets were like.
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then what they look like cut off. you can see it in the picture, there is a faint outline of the rivet and bracket that i could see and use the pin punch to push them out.
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I will need to do some floor modification to the driver side. The body mount sheet metal that contacts the seat at the front and rear of the rail doesn't allow the sit to sit centered with the steering wheel. I will have to cut out enough to get the seat to move about 1-2" to the left I figure. Won't be hard just some added work. I will put in a 90 degree angle of sheet metal to fill the hole i cut out and weld it in.

essentially the angle piece here from the top of the mount to the bottom of the floor defiantly has to go then maybe some more. ill slowly cut out portions and mock the seat up until it fits right or i just get to close to the mount itself.

This spot hits the front of the seat rail on the drivers side by the door
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this spot hits the rear side of the seat rail on the same side


There is also a hump of sorts on my passenger side that sits in the middle of the rail (on the side closest to the drive shaft tunnel) and doesn't let the front and back ends of the seat rail sit on the floor. Really hard to get a picture of this with the seat in and you can't really notice it just with the passenger side area on its own. I might cut this down to as it will allow the passenger seat to sit a little lower. I'll post pics of it and you can see where the hump was. They way that the seat sits on the pass. side, it is a little high for me (and i have some tall friends) so likely getting it to sit lower is a good idea.

you might not be able to seeName: seats passenger side.jpg
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Size: 112.5 KB it in this picture but the pass seat has a slight lean to it from that hump.

Once i get the floor all sorted out, I'll make up some brackets that bolt to the under side of the rails and then to the to body braces that run underneath the body of the car. The funny thing is that the seat rails are almost perfect to set in the factory holes as bare rails about an inch or so short on each end. Probably use 1-1.5" flat stock for the brackets.

Got my rear control arms. The uppers are adjustable Edelbrock arms (i don't even know if Edelbrock makes them anymore) i have the poly bushing on the axle side and then it is a rod bolt/bearing on the other end. Will just have to locate the axle to center once everything is bolted up. The lowers are adjustable from TRZ motor sports i believe. My friend that i got the lowers from said they are set to factory length already so i will just keep them that way. they are both rod bolt ends. I heard a lot of things like the rod bolt/bearing style ends are super harsh on the street and noisy etc. In talking to my buddy he said they are a little louder but ultimately fine for the street and not a harsh ride. Plus you can torque the rod style ends to spec without the car being on its own weight like you have to do with the poly bushings.

uppers
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lowers
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I also went a different route with my rims! I am picking up a set of C5 corvette Z06 rims on Friday. My buddy had the same rims on his Chevelle and i really like the look of them. they are 18x10.5 (rear) and 17x9.5 (front). currently they have michellen pilot sport tires on them 295/35/18 and 265/40/17 which are supposedly at 75% tread left. I will work them off at some point (likely as burnout victims)and then maybe throw on 305's in the rear (would definitely have to trim the fender lip )and 275's up front. Was really thinking that having the car set up to be square (295's all four corners) would be cool but it would be about $3000 or more to get all of that sorted out, so for $1700 for this set i am happy. The corvette rims are only about 1 lbs or so heavier that the super speed wheels i was looking at from what i have read. After getting the wheels i will just have to do some measuring and get some wheel adapters likely 2" (might have to cut the fender lip) or 1.75" if i can avoid the fender lip issue and they still look right on the car. here is a pic of the rims/tires.
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here is a pic of a buddies chevelle that had the same rims on his car
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Should hopefully have my rear brakes this weekend, 11" low profile wilwoods. They are 6hrs away and a friend may be heading that direction and could pick them up. They are brand new in the box so pretty excited about those!

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS

Holy fack fack fack fack.

When i had taken the axles out of the rear end (72 chevelle 12 bolt posi) i must have spun the posi unit and the thrust washers that sit between the smaller top and bottom spider gears slipped out and are now trapped behind the spring and plates. this freaking sucks. I tried for about an hour and a whole bunch of options to get them out. Magnet, pick, tried pulling them through the springs, tried pulling the springs/plate out enough to see if they would come out, tried wedging the spring and plates either up or down to create some space between the housing and the spider gears but no such luck, it is just too tight and there is not enough space. oh and did i mention that by the time i noticed this i had already sprayed a bottle of anti-slip additive and a liter of rear end gear oil in the housing.

you can see the washers behind the springs all the way at the back.
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I really don't see any other option other to remove the spring pack and plates. could be kind of sketch because i am pretty sure that they are the 400lbs springs. i talked to the guy that built the rear end and he was really trying to get me to avoid taking the spring pack out. It is also really tight because the plates hit the ring gear when i pull them out so hopefully I can compress them enough to get them out. Going to wrap a whole shwack of welding wire around the plates and twist it super tight, probably zip ties, a clamp or ten and hopefully be able to get it out safely and not lose an eye or two (safety glasses first). If i can get it out it will be easy to grab the thrust washers and put them back in.

Open to any other suggestions of getting them out without removing the spring pack. Other option is to take it to a shop and have them take it apart but it would essentially mean taking the entire posi out of the rear end removing the ring gear, removing the spring pack and then get the thrust bearings. I'd like to avoid it if i can. Besides i have two eyes anyways.

[lwilliams]

oops posted this in my new member post by accident here is the one with the pics.

Picked up my seats. They are from the cobalt ss. Totally bought them hoping they would be good, my cousin picked them up for me. Got to sit in them and they are fantastic, bolstering is really good on them and i fit in them really well. Not sure how you could ever go wrong with them, considering that I only paid 300$ for the set. What is really nice about these is that the drivers side seat is height adjustable (had no idea when i bought these that was the case). I originally just set them on the floor of the car and was a little disappointed how high i sat but then viola, height lever. i can adjust them so i fit perfect in it and still have a few clicks (2-3 of even lower adjustment. I am 6'2" so i was happy they have adjustment.

That being said there was a bunch of work to get the original brackets off the rails. I didn't count but i wouldn't be surprised if there was about 20 or so 1/2" to 3/4" rivets holding the brackets to the rails. I used an angle grinder to cut the rivets off then a pin punch to knock them out of the rails. Had to wack it with some pretty decent force but i was careful to check the rails to make sure i wasn't bending them or anything like that. This probably took me 2hrs at least, there was a lot of rivets. As an added bonus i wasn't paying attention to the spark show i was sending from cutting off the rivets and melted tons of metal dust into my garage windows.

not the nest pic but this is what the rivets were like.
181619

then what they look like cut off. you can see it in the picture, there is a faint outline of the rivet and bracket that i could see and use the pin punch to push them out.
181620

I will need to do some floor modification to the driver side. The body mount sheet metal that contacts the seat at the front and rear of the rail doesn't allow the sit to sit centered with the steering wheel. I will have to cut out enough to get the seat to move about 1-2" to the left I figure. Won't be hard just some added work. I will put in a 90 degree angle of sheet metal to fill the hole i cut out and weld it in.

essentially the angle piece here from the top of the mount to the bottom of the floor defiantly has to go then maybe some more. ill slowly cut out portions and mock the seat up until it fits right or i just get to close to the mount itself.

This spot hits the front of the seat rail on the drivers side by the door
181621

this spot hits the rear side of the seat rail on the same side
181622

There is also a hump of sorts on my passenger side that sits in the middle of the rail (on the side closest to the drive shaft tunnel) and doesn't let the front and back ends of the seat rail sit on the floor. Really hard to get a picture of this with the seat in and you can't really notice it just with the passenger side area on its own. I might cut this down to as it will allow the passenger seat to sit a little lower. I'll post pics of it and you can see where the hump was. They way that the seat sits on the pass. side, it is a little high for me (and i have some tall friends) so likely getting it to sit lower is a good idea.

you might not be bale to see it but the pass side seat has a slight lean to it from that hump.
181623


Once i get the floor all sorted out, I'll make up some brackets that bolt to the under side of the rails and then to the to body braces that run underneath the body of the car. The funny thing is that the seat rails are almost perfect to set in the factory holes as bare rails about an inch or so short on each end. Probably use 1-1.5" flat stock for the brackets.

Got my rear control arms. The uppers are adjustable Edelbrock arms (i don't even know if Edelbrock makes them anymore) i have the poly bushing on the axle side and then it is a rod bolt/bearing on the other end. Will just have to locate the axle to center once everything is bolted up. The lowers are adjustable from TRZ motor sports i believe. My friend that i got the lowers from said they are set to factory length already so i will just keep them that way. they are both rod bolt ends. I heard a lot of things like the rod bolt/bearing style ends are super harsh on the street and noisy etc. In talking to my buddy he said they are a little louder but ultimately fine for the street and not a harsh ride. Plus you can torque the rod style ends to spec without the car being on its own weight like you have to do with the poly bushings.

uppers
181624

lowers
181625

I also went a different route with my rims! I am picking up a set of C5 corvette Z06 rims on Friday. My buddy had the same rims on his Chevelle and i really like the look of them. they are 18x10.5 (rear) and 17x9.5 (front). currently they have michellen pilot sport tires on them 295/35/18 and 265/40/17 which are supposedly at 75% tread left. I will work them off at some point (likely as burnout victims)and then maybe throw on 305's in the rear (would definitely have to trim the fender lip )and 275's up front. Was really thinking that having the car set up to be square (295's all four corners) would be cool but it would be about $3000 or more to get all of that sorted out, so for $1700 for this set i am happy. The corvette rims are only about 1 lbs or so heavier that the super speed wheels i was looking at from what i have read. After getting the wheels i will just have to do some measuring and get some wheel adapters likely 2" (might have to cut the fender lip) or 1.75" if i can avoid the fender lip issue and they still look right on the car. here is a pic of the rims/tires.
181626

here is a pic of a buddies chevelle that had the same rims on his car
181627

Should hopefully have my rear brakes this weekend, 11" low profile wilwoods. They are 6hrs away and a friend may be heading that direction and could pick them up. They are brand new in the box so pretty excited about those!

NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS

Holy fack fack fack fack.

When i had taken the axles out of the rear end (72 chevelle 12 bolt posi) i must have spun the posi unit and the thrust washers that sit between the smaller top and bottom spider gears slipped out and are now trapped behind the spring and plates. this freaking sucks. I tried for about an hour and a whole bunch of options to get them out. Magnet, pick, tried pulling them through the springs, tried pulling the springs/plate out enough to see if they would come out, tried wedging the spring and plates either up or down to create some space between the housing and the spider gears but no such luck, it is just too tight and there is not enough space. oh and did i mention that by the time i noticed this i had already sprayed a bottle of anti-slip additive and a liter of rear end gear oil in the housing.

you can see the washers behind the springs all the way at the back.
181628

I really don't see any other option other to remove the spring pack and plates. could be kind of sketch because i am pretty sure that they are the 400lbs springs. i talked to the guy that built the rear end and he was really trying to get me to avoid taking the spring pack out. It is also really tight because the plates hit the ring gear when i pull them out so hopefully I can compress them enough to get them out. Going to wrap a whole shwack of welding wire around the plates and twist it super tight, probably zip ties, a clamp or ten and hopefully be able to get it out safely and not lose an eye or two (safety glasses first). If i can get it out it will be easy to grab the thrust washers and put them back in.

Open to any other suggestions of getting them out without removing the spring pack. Other option is to take it to a shop and have them take it apart but it would essentially mean taking the entire posi out of the rear end removing the ring gear, removing the spring pack and then get the thrust bearings. I'd like to avoid it if i can. Besides i have two eyes anyways.

[Vimes]

On the sears, would it be possible to use the seat brackets from the Skylark seats? They were made for the hump on the floor. If the new seats can bolt to those brackets they'd probably fit.

For the gear, if rotating it caused the problem, what about rotating it back? If you dropped the driveshaft you'd be able to spin the reat diff by hand using the yoke. Repositioning the diff that way might give you the room needed to work the washers out. A coat hanger might help here as well seeing as it's really stiff but bendable wire.

[lwilliams]

On the sears, would it be possible to use the seat brackets from the Skylark seats? They were made for the hump on the floor. If the new seats can bolt to those brackets they'd probably fit.

For the gear, if rotating it caused the problem, what about rotating it back? If you dropped the driveshaft you'd be able to spin the reat diff by hand using the yoke. Repositioning the diff that way might give you the room needed to work the washers out. A coat hanger might help here as well seeing as it's really stiff but bendable wire.

the original seat in the car was a bench seat and i sold it along with the brackets. there isn't actually and mounting holes in the floow for the rails on the inner most side of the car, so that is where i am going to drill some holes to mount the seat brackets i make to the existing body supports that run through the middle of the car.

The axle is completely out of the car so i can spin it freely already. I have tried rotating it back and that is what the guy who built the diff said to do (it was super clean when i got it from him with no oil in it). however now that i put the gear oil in it, it is just way to sticky to allow the thrust bearings to really move around freely. Coat hanger is a good idea! I will give that try, plus i can snake it through some of the areas fairly easy i would imagine. thanks for the idea!

[lwilliams]

Well more progress! And success getting those thrust washers out. I did end up taking out the spring pack and plates.

so essentially i pulled out the spring pack far enough that i could use a long screw driver and compress the springs enough to get it passed the ring gear.

181908

then i gently pulled the pack up past the ring gear
181909

once it was past the ring gear i pulled it out enough that the lower spring were still in the diff but the upper plate and springs were out enough that i could get a clamp on it. I basically wedged a smaller style c-clamp in through the grooves of the ring gear and was able to clamp the upper springs. I was originally using two clamps but for future reference for anyone else 1 clamp works better. i don't have a pic of this cause my phone died.

this is a picture when i was re-installing the pack but you can get the idea how it comes out too and how the clamps are oriented.
181910

once the spring pack was out i put another clamp on it to keep everything together.
181911

Washers were easy to take out at this point i just used a magnet to grab them.

Now for re-assembly.
i took the lower clamp off the springs (black clamp). Then I placed the pack against the passenger side spider gear and used the same long screw driver to compress the other side of the lower springs and then pushed it back into the posi unit.
181910

Finally got it all in! only to realize the washers fell out again while i was installing it. AHHHHHHHHHH! repeat process again. but only 4 times with choice words directed at my differential. What i did realize that renistalling them with one clamp was far easier than two. i did at one point have the pin in the upper spider gear holding the thrust washer in palce so it would stop falling back. but this was more cumbersome and things in the way. instead i just put the magnet back in that same spot and that helped to stop it from falling down.

Pin in place to hold washer, but it just kept sliding through and getting in the way.
181912

Essentially once i had the magnet in there and stopped the washers from falling back i got everything in and buttoned up. Sorry i wish i had some more pictures but my phone kind of died half way through and i was just getting frustrated and wanted it done. all in all not a hard job just one of those tideous you have to do it 4 times until it all goes together. after 4 times you start to get pretty good at it. The spring pack did come apart a few times. nothing dangerous or anything like i thought it could be, granted i think i9 have the 200# springs in my rear end. this definitely makes re-install easier. the other sets of springs are either 400 or 800# springs!

But like i said, all put together and loaded the carrier up with some anti slip additive and 2L of gear oil 80-90w. I spoke directly to Eaton. they said the original units need conventional oil (which mine is) and the new units can use either.

In the end this was a nice relief finally!. i probably spent like 2 hours or so screwing around with all of this to get it put together. Diff cover on and torqued to 20 ft/lbs, crissy crossy style.
181913

I got the rear brakes at this point to and started assembly on them. I wanted to wait to install the diff once the brakes were in so i didn't have to work under the car.
181914
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first step in the install is to remove the axles to install the rear caliper bracket and drum e-brake assembly. the drum/bracket bolts to the housing.
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then reinstall the axle. did you know that when you take the axle out and don't touch anything rear end related the thrust washers still fall out again! KILL ME! (repeat all spring pack pull-out and reinstall)

reinstalled the axles and the next step is to put on this collar that will wood supplied to make sure the rotor is centered and mated to teh axle flange properly. the drivers side went on perfect. However the passenger side broke.
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On the passenger side there was a very small shoulder on the axle. it was quite small so i thought i could just tappity tap the collar on (hammer and screw driver style, probably shouldn't have used a flat blade screw driver). But i broke it. Choice words for rear end again.

I will likely get another collar but wanted to continue the install. got out the mini dremel wheel and slowly took some material down until the collar fit.
181920

was still having some trouble getting the collar seated on to the rotor so i installed the collar into the rotor first and then on to the axle. i will likely get another collar just to be safe and install it when it shows. seeing how the car ain't moving anytime soon it will do for now.
181921

next was to install the calipers. pretty simple you just add or reduce shims on either side of the bracket/caliper to make it so the rotor is in the middle and equi-distant from either side of the caliper. (don't mind the rusty rotor pic the guy i bought these from had some water get on this rotor he didn't know about and it has some surface rust, i will get some brake clean to clean it up and then the first time i use the brakes it should basically come off)
181922

once the calipers were set i just had to remove the pad retainer, insert the pads and re-install the retainer. rear end is ready to get put together and in the car!
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181924

I put the rear end on a combo of jack stands and on a floor jack to maneuver it into place to get all the control arms put in. was a little bit of a battle at first but was a got a couple of them bolted in it was fairly easy. for future reference i think install the lowers first and then the uppers could make things a little easier. i also installed one of the ride tech coil over mounts (upper and lower) so that was the spring was in and the car is sitting on its own weight i can get a ride height measurement for shocks.

I haven't adjusted the uppers to center the rear end as i want to get both rear wheel adapters (on order should be here before Christmas) and both rear wheels in and see how everything lines up. It is defiantly pretty close already (the uppers were already installed on a Chevelle with a 12bolt).

pics of everything under the rear of the car!
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Also got my wheels and snagged a 2" adapter to borrow from a buddy.
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I did measure for the shock length but can't remember now what it was. i wanna say something like 13.5" or around there. My plan right now is to likely buy the JEGS single adjustable coil over shock and put them in without a spring. then if i ever want to adjust ride height or change springs i can just buy springs for the coil over and go that route, will likely just have to get some spacers to install the shocks. The wheel and tire tuck really nice in the rear! might change a little once i get it on all four but happy how it looks with that 2" BMR lowering spring. I can easily fit all four finger between the tire and the fender lip. Might not have to trim anything which would be nice too. I getting sick of grinding and the metal dust and stuff on the car and in the garage all the time. the rear brakes look a little small but they are the low profile ones meant to fit in a 15" wheel haha.
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Also started to install my seat will post some pics soon!

[andrewb70]

That's a pretty low stance in the rear. You will definitely have to do some transmission tunnel (maybe even driveshaft tunnel) surgery in order to raise the back of the transmission high enough to achieve good driveline operating angles.

Andrew

[lwilliams]

That's a pretty low stance in the rear. You will definitely have to do some transmission tunnel (maybe even driveshaft tunnel) surgery in order to raise the back of the transmission high enough to achieve good driveline operating angles.

Andrew


Your probably right. friend had his car at about the same ride height and the drive shaft hit the tunnel on big bumps. going to check out the angles for the rear end this week/weekend. The trans is set at 3 degrees already. I do have to close up the tunnel around the upper 2/3's of the bell housing as it hits in 2 spots right now and is reallllly tight to the trans cooler fittings/hoses. Going to get the angels right and then install a driveshaft and see how everything looks first, if it all looks ok i will probably drive it around some and get an idea on if anything needs to be done too.

[andrewb70]

Saying that the trans is at 3 degrees is meaningless. Three degrees relative to what? The frame? That measurement doesn't really matter because we are concerned with the front and rear operating angles on the u joints.

[lwilliams]

Saying that the trans is at 3 degrees is meaningless. Three degrees relative to what? The frame? That measurement doesn't really matter because we are concerned with the front and rear operating angles on the u joints.

spoke to a few people and they said to set an angle finder on the valley plate with the intake off. Set the angle to 3 degrees (pointing downward). this was with the engine and trans installed and the frame level. front to back and side to side.

- - - Updated - - -

i'll check the angle at the back of the trans and the rear end to but i am pretty sure that i check it before and it was at the same 3 degrees.

[andrewb70]

spoke to a few people and they said to set an angle finder on the valley plate with the intake off. Set the angle to 3 degrees (pointing downward). this was with the engine and trans installed and the frame level. front to back and side to side.

- - - Updated - - -

i'll check the angle at the back of the trans and the rear end to but i am pretty sure that i check it before and it was at the same 3 degrees.

Ok, but you have no idea what the angle of the installed driveshaft is, and without that information you can't determine the operating angles of the u-joints. Again, for the purpose of operating angles, the angle of the engine (and thus the trans) relative to the frame are meaningless.

Andrew

[lwilliams]

Ok, but you have no idea what the angle of the installed driveshaft is, and without that information you can't determine the operating angles of the u-joints. Again, for the purpose of operating angles, the angle of the engine (and thus the trans) relative to the frame are meaningless.

Andrew

good to know! thanks. i will check out these angles once the drive shaft is in. i'll wait to close up the trans tunnel at this point then. cheers.

[Big Dawg]

Nice build!! Subscribed!!

Where are you located?

[lwilliams]

Nice build!! Subscribed!!

Where are you located?

Thanks!

I am in Red Deer, AB.

[lwilliams]

Who's care is sitting on its own weight for the first time in like 4 years, this guys!!! For reference again these are C5 Z06 wheels 18x10.5 and 17x9.5, 295/35/18 and 265/40/17. Once the tires get roasted I will likely go to 305's in the rear and probably snag the 18x10.5's C5 z06 reproduction wheels my buddy has and run a 295 up front or stick to a 275 wide up front on these rims, but that is a decision for the future. The adapters i used are 2" all the way around.

182006

Still have to do some slight massaging on centering the rear end (its a little tight but still some space between the tires and fender lip). Anyone know what a reasonable amount of space should be between the fender lip and rim/tire?

I'll likely just trim them at some point, makes way for some 305 tires in the future. The front sits a little higher than i would like but i was thinking i also don't have all the weight on the front yet (oil, trans fluid, coolant, torque converter, power steering fluid, hydro boost, master cylinder, front bumper-hood-grill-headlights etc) so i will wait on messing with any of the suspension just yet until i have all the weight on the front.

i did get a little bit started on the drivers front seat fab. First i made as shallow a cut as possible to just peel away the floor that sits over the braces. Didn't really know what was going on under there so i didn't want to make a blind cut.

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once that was exposed and i had a better idea of what i was looking at i cut out the body support where i needed to. For the upper most one i wasn't worried about supporting it because there is that big extra body mount from the hellwig frame brace kit that sits right there. On the other body brace i put a jack and some wood under it and sat just enough weight on it that it was snug but not that the car was actually sitting on it with a ton of weight. i just wanted to support it essentially.

182010

Then i cut out those portions of the body braces. the one to the front of the car can get trimmed just a little more (like an 1/8" or so). But i want to keep just a little bit of room between the support piece i will weld in and the body mount.

182007

Once the braces were cut out i also trimmed part of the seat plastic so that it would fit over the little hump of the body brace (one closer to the fire wall. i only took a little bit off, may need some more once i actually get them mounted and the carpet in but i didn't want to get to crazy right away with trimming them.

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Once that was trimmed, I could mock the seats up in place and they are now centered with the steering wheel. Before i sat like an inch or so to the right of the steering wheel. Would have been hella weird driving that way. That being said i would say that the body brace cutting is really not necessary if you are not a tall guy ( i am 6'2"), I need to cut them out so i can fit the seat a little lower and move them in the right position in the car and then i sit in a perfect position for me. i would think that if you are in the 5'10" range it is likely you can leave the body braces as is and just mount the seats on top of them!

Also, i put the car on its weight after cutting these braces. i wanted to make sure that there wasn't any issues after cutting the braces so i measured the gap of the braces while supported and then without any support and there was no change. should make a little bit of progress over the next week or so and hopefully have the seat all set in. will have to cut out part of the trans tunnel that i still have opened as it has to be modified too from when it was cut like 2 years ago.

[lwilliams]

made some progress on the body bracket/floor modification. I didn't want to just weld in a plate, i wanted to make some cross sectional area so this was stronger. Can't say i really like doing this stuff cause it is just super tedious. lot of cut fit, trim fit, trim some more, trim here trim there until it all fits. but some progress none the less. Don't worry i am not putting any fabricators out of business.

I found making some card board templates first and then cutting them out of steel helped for sure. here is a pic for the plate tacked into the brace closest to the actual body mount.

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some of the card board templates and the plates that go between the body brace and the plate close to the body mount.

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i did end up bending most the tabs and you will see how they fit the brace i thought this would be a good way to put everything together.

182309

Here is how those pieces fit together on each of the body braces.

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A little weld filling happened here.
182311

Once i had those two pieces tacked together i made a couple other pieces for the sides of the mounts to essentially box it in once i put a top plate on it. I only have the more forwarded brace with the side tabs in at the moment. Once they were all in i fully welded as much as i could on all braces. Welds are by no means something to write home about., It is a really tight space and awkward at times to get in the with the welding gun. I was also having a ton of issues with my wire feed. It always seemed either to slow, to fast, like it was getting caught on things etc. I finally opened up the welder and saw the the wire spool was getting pinched. Once i fixed this tacking the top plate to box everything in was much better and the welder was behaving normal again.
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That it for now. i am hoping that i don't run out of welding gas and can finish up the rest of the body brace stuff and then close up the floor. If i don't run out of gas i think i should have it all buttoned up by the weekend and then get some brackets made for the seats and get them installed.

really looking forward to getting this done, this tedious fab jobs are exhausting at times.

***Looking for some advice and opinions here. Should i just weld the floor to the body brace support i made or weld a piece over the body brace like the floor originally was and just put in some spot welds like it was from the factory? I am thinking that if i just welded it all together (fill in the gaps of the floor with metal welded to the brace itself) as one unit instead of doing the spot weld stuff it would make it stronger. Then again i'm not a fabricator. thanks in advance for the suggestions!

[lwilliams]

Seats are in! Can't say this was actually a lot of fun getting this step completed. I would think i easily have like 30+ hours into this part of the car. What was thought to be quick, simple, easy was definitely not quick or simple. I also think i had that drivers seat in and out of the car like 80 -100 times measuring, mocking it up, test fitting etc.

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from where i left off last time i ended up cutting off that top plate and going back in and welding the space between the brace and the floor and then i made the executive decision to just seal the floor to the brace itself.

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the next two pics are the floor and braces all tacked together on the drivers side ( i did end up fully welding them in). This was a ton of work and a constant cut, trim fit each piece until it was right. I was frustrated a lot of times. i counted and just on one of the body brace/floor sections there was 13 pieces to put in. glad this was done.
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Once that was all done i moved on the the mounts and seat brackets. this is an initial look at what i had going on. I did end up removing the 1x1 square tubing cause it looked lame and i think with what i finished with will be stronger. this was the first rendition of what the brackets and mounts looked like before i welded the two larger metal mounts to the floor.
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mounts welded to floor

183186

once i had this all set make sure to face palm moment yourself as you didn't notice that the seat was hitting a part of the floor that made it sit way to high. Face palm self again as you run out of welding gas and cutting wheels. Face palm self for a third time as you have to cut down the floor mounts you just fully welded in to get the seat height right.

here is a pic of what the mount looked like after a cut them down and welded them back together i also welded a 5/16 bolt to them that the seat brackets bolt to. i used 5/16 hardware every where as that was the stock mounting stuff to begin with.

183187

All in all at the end of it this is what the mounts and seat brackets on the drivers aide all looked like. pretty good seat position for me (im 6'2) and i stare out of the windshield a little above the midline of the windshield. I again made a mistake on measuring and had to weld some spacers to the mounts on the inboard side to get everything to sit right. used a bunch of washers to get everything to sit right as well.

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on to the passenger side, in relation this side was a cake walk compared to the drivers. i could have cut up the body braces again to get the seat to sit perfectly center but it is quite minimal and not of any real concern. i did convince some of the floor to move a little bit with the mini sledge to get everything to fit just that much better.

183190

Don't have pictures of these seat brackets but they are real similar to the drivers side ones. both of the outside locations (driver and passenger) mount in the stock location. The inboard side on the passenger i drilled through the flow and body brace and have a bolt, washers, nut run through there. same as the factory stuff basically. Just used some washer to get the brackets level and such and it all bolted together.

End result, they look good and feel well and also are bolstered really well. Went through a ton of welding gas, like 6 cutting wheels, multiple trips to the hardware store for bolts, washers, nuts and even burned through a coat. May or may not have lit myself on fire slightly as i was firing sparks at a cotton dickies jacket. Someone would have pissed themselves laughing if they saw me trying to get this fire out slash trying to get this jacket off. Maybe i should set up a camera in my garage?

At the end of it i wouldn't do it again, way to much tedious work. and the project switched from fun and exciting to just something i didn't look forward to. not having to cut up the body brace and floor i don't think it would worth it.

Next step is to get that mess of a wiring harness put back together (you can see it at the feet of the drivers seat here), front bumper, grill headlight bezels and headlights all put in.

183180

On to better and more exciting things now. Will definitely have it running in the winter or spring this year with the terminator x max!

[lwilliams]

thought i would also add. I bought a respirator about 2/3 of the way through the seat stuff. I have used no masks, N95's, other face masks and the respirator is by far the best for a few reasons. This one is good for welding fumes and silca approved (what ever that means). But if i didn't where a mask i could blow my nose after being in the garage and it is just pure black nastiness. Wearing the respirator there is virtually nothing or a very small amount of black stuff. Soooooooo worth it. It also fits under my welding helmet. Another serious bonus to it is that wearing the respirator does not fog up any of my face shield, safety glasses or the welding helmet which the other face mask did really bad. Highly, highly recommend anyone get one if they are doing any sort of grinding/welding projects. Ill never not have one again.

Got this one from princess auto for 55$ and it has replaceable filters i can buy.

183191

[64G-lark]

Nice build. I have a soft spot for Buick’s. Keep the updates coming.

[lwilliams]

Nice build. I have a soft spot for Buick’s. Keep the updates coming.

Thanks! Getting closer to hopefully driving this thing!

[lwilliams]

Starting to look more like a car and a little less like a project! Got most of the interior back in the car, check out that rear seat Buick luxury (circa 1972). A little dirty from sitting for the last number of years but a quick clean and it is ready to go. I also have a brand new headliner that i originally got when i purchased the car as well as some brand new weather striping, window fuzzies and such. Too bad the headliner is white too. Will eventually switch it all over to black. Once you go black bucket seats you never go back! Gotta love the ashtray on each side in the rear of the car, really useful back when smoking was considered healthy.

183424

A little blurry, but you get the idea. When i get the interior installed i might actually try this out in the car to see what it looks like on black interior. It would help to make the inside of the car brighter and not totally black and dark. Open to suggestions here too!
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183421

183422

Also got a bunch of the front end assembled bumper, grill and semi-mounted the head light bezel's. I am missing four of the retaining nuts and a few headlight springs. They are on order from my local shop and then the front end will be buttoned up. love seeing it really starting to take shape!

183423

Picked these up from my local shop when i ordered that other stuff. nothing crazy. Flexible trans dip stick for the 4l60 and a lokar 36" throttle cable. I need to either get a stock cable bracket or make one myself. maybe get it in this weekend.

183425

[lwilliams]

Finally got to some more progress on the car. putting those seats in killed me on the motivation side of things. But back in the swing of things now. I got the throttle cable installed along with the dipstick for the trans nothing to exciting about either so i don't have a pic. However I did install a new steering wheel, built a crossover pipe to connect both sides of the exhaust and cut and rewelded the manifold that holds the turbo so now the exhaust turbine points right to the spot where the exhaust will feed under the car.

The steering wheel is a grant D-shaped one. Nothing expensive here i honestly think its like one of the cheapest ones they make. its a 13.75" x 11.25" i think. It is sooooooo much easier getting in and out of the car now. The flat bottom on the D-shape is to account for that. I don't have any of the steering box hooked up to any steering linkage but even just rotating it from lock to lock compared to the original wheel is a huge improvement!

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Here is a little bit of the mod that I did to the current log manifold. Essentially cut the 45 degree elbow way down on its and angle. now the exhaust turbine points so i should be able to just run a straight pipe down and under the car instead of having to make an offset.

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Next was the crossover, it is all 2.5". i attached a vband to the 45 degree on the log manifold, which was easy enough. For the drivers side i re-used the stock truck manifold. I cut the flange off of it and welded a 2.5" straight pipe to it in the orientation that made sense to align with the crossover then welded a vband on to that. To weld the manifold I threw it on the BBQ for about 25-30min till it was hot. then i welded the pipe to it and as soon as i was done wrapped it in a whole bunch of towels and just let it sit. it welded up pretty nice and it took about a good 2 hours to really cool down to where i could handle it.

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Then i worked on hooking the two sides together, be prepared for the worlds most unnecessarily long flex pipe for this type of crossover. DISCLAIMER: i was trying to make this crossover with just one 45 degree bend, 2 90 degree bends and then the length of flex pipe and what ever length of the legs from the bends i got.

So it is a 90 coming off the drivers side pointing to the passenger side which meets up with the flex pipe.

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187558

then it was a little bit of straight pipe to another 90 on the passenger side followed by the 45 degree and some straight pipe to meet up with the 45 degree on the log manifold.

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187560

It all turned out really well and honestly wasn;t as difficult as i thought it was going to be only one problem.... it is WAY too low haha. Like i said i only had a few bends to work with. But i looked it over and just a couple more 45 degree bends to push it back and i can tuck it up a whole bunch better under the trans oil pan and the bell housing. I may even ditch the long flex pipe for a piece of straight 2.5" and put another small flex pipe some where else.

187561

Some exciting stuff coming along though. I am likely getting the actual turbo that will go on the car. Friend of mine is checking it out Monday and if all goes well he will grab it for me. It is a 7875 billet vs racing turbo. The guy i am buying it from only had about 1500km on it so hopefully everything checks out and it is in good shape.

187562

I have also ordered exhaust parts some have come and some i am waiting on. I am pretty excited about this. I am going to run a single 3" all the way, however once the exhaust comes off the turbo and under the car i am going to run a y-pipe. one side will feed the normal exhaust and then the other side i am going to hook up to a loud valve. I got a standard 3" magnaflow muffler that should be pretty tame for the most part, this will be nice when just driving around and on the highway, my wife and kids will also be in the car with me so i don't want it to be so obnoxious that they don't want to sit in it.Then when i get on it hopefully it sounds like all hell is breaking loose! For those unfamiliar with a loud valve it is an exhaust cutout but is boost referenced with a diaphragm that opens the valve. so it will start to open around 1-2 psi and then be fully open around 6psi of boost.

https://loudvalves.com/products/3-5-boost-activated-loudvalve?variant=32909551436


So far i have got the muffler, y-pipe and vbands. Just waiting on the bends and flex pipe to show up which should come monday. I have about 5' of 3" exhaust tubing from an old project laying around. Will send pics when this is put together. once that is put together i will likely work either on the loud valve part or order the intercooler piping i have decided on and get working on running that since i will hopefully have the turbo for the car. I am also going to have the waste gate (likely just a 50mm vs racing) welded directly to the turbine housing. It will fit really well in the car that way and then i can easily run a tube right back into the exhaust.

here are some pics of the exhaust stuff i have so far. hopefully will have it at least all tacked together by the end of next weekend!


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[andrewb70]

That's a lot of progress! Nice work.

[lwilliams]

That's a lot of progress! Nice work.

Thanks should hopefully have the full exhaust, hotside and cold side all put together by mid summer. cheers!

[lwilliams]

Made some headway on the down pipe and exhaust. Coming together pretty good. I need some exhaust hangers and just ordered some today, should be here Thursday. Also picked up my turbo, its that 7875 billet vs racing turbo. here is a pic!188083

Fabing up the down pipe was pretty straight forward just a couple 45 degree bends with some straight lengths.

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The turbo doesn't sit quite level and is tilted back a little bit. so the angle coming down isn't level so i just had to cut in a little pie cut to make it level to the ground/car. First pic you can see that the flex pipe is angled towards the ground. next pic is the pie cut to level it out.
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Got it all levelled out and then lined it up to go under the trans crossmember, the nagle of it would have the exhaust running into the drive shaft so i made another pie cut to send it straight back and run parallel to the drive/shaft frame.
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once it was lined up i put the y-pipe on then a small straight piece and the muffler. also put a 45 degree bend on the loudvalve side of the y-pipe to see where it would come out and it looks like it would line up and point right at the rear tire so that works out well (i'll set it to point in front of the tire not at it). i am actually going to cut the small piece of pipe tacs between the y-pipe and muffler off and put a long piece of pipe there then i can tuck the exhaust up a little better.
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That's where it is at so far. waiting on those hangers and then once it it is fully welded and the hangers are on i will start working on the tail pipe section. Some pics of the stuff all tacked together.

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***looking for some input here, are people running 45 or 90 degree bends over the axle and out the back or a combo of both?***

[lwilliams]

I have not been updating this in a timely fashion, but have definitely been making some progress. Got all the exhaust done and got a v-band clamp to put the loud valve on, I actually have to weld another flange on to the existing flange to fit the clamp on, other wise the clamp runs in to the diaphragm (don't have a pic for this yet) . Ended up just running the exhaust under the axle.
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got some rear shocks installed too. QA1 single adjustable. A buddy gave me his coil over brackets he was using and i did some measuring and found these shocks fit great. They are poly bushing instead of spherical but not the end of the world. I am just not a fan of putting all the rear end weight on that small corner of the rear frame so i went the spring and shock separate route. Damn do shocks make a difference in the softness/stiffness of your suspension!

This is the lower bracket, just had to drill one hole in the axle bracket, it also ties into the lower rear control arm.
192369

Pic of the shock and upper shock bracket
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Did some intercooler and piping work too. My intercooler was actually able to fit (with some core support trimming) right in front of the radiator without having to run the piping under the rad support and up to the intercooler.
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The inlets on the intercooler line up like the photos below, so just a little bit of trimming the core support so the piping can run to the inlets. Then i mounted the top of the intercooler to the plate that sits on the rad support to hold hte radiator in place.

Inlets
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top mounting holes, can see the bolts holding the intercooler in the second pic

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I made a few brackets that I just welded to the core support that then bold to the bottom mounting holes of the intercooler just done have pics.

Next I just started fitting all the piping together and also got a filter along with a 4" 45 degree extension to try and fit the cone away from the radiator. some pics of all the piping.
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Got the steering linkage put together too. Buddy had a bump steer kit he took off his chevelle so i just swapped it on to my car. bought a new pitman arm (normal gm a body arm that goes on the JGC steering box), idler arm and center link.
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Moved on to getting the BOV and waste gate installed. Have to get these welded by a buddy as the turbine is cast iron and i cannot weld the aluminum pipe. the BOV is going on the 90 degree that feeds into the throttle body. both the BOV and waste gate are 50mm from vs racing. I am running the waste gate directly off the turbine. it is the easiest place to set it for space and ease of access.

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Also have a Stage 1 summit turbo cam kit (cam, springs, valve seals, keepers) that i have to install. its just sitting on the bench, hoping to get the cam and springs all installed this weekend.

[andrewb70]

Taking some notes for my 70 GTO turbo project.

[lwilliams]

Made some more progress and got the cam and springs all swapped in. Nothing new from any other cam/spring swap in an ls but here is my process in case it helps someone else. First time that I have ever done a cam swap, went real smooth I would say. I watched this link from sloppy mechanics a few times to get a good idea on what i was doing. I would have to say anyone could honestly don one of these swaps. Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j74MxGo7GfU

First thing I did was pop the valve covers off and tackle the rockers. Because the heads are aluminum i made a point to loosen all the rocker bolts by hand. I didn't want to mess up the aluminum heads in some way and then be in a pickle.

Cracked all the bolts and loosened them off, and took them out (10mm)
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Then pulled them all out at once along with the "rocker stand"... not sure if that is what it is called.
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I took the push rods out and put them into a box in order for where they would go back. I don't think you have to do this at all as i have seen countless people just pull the rods and random and stick them back in at random too. Just my OCD with this part i guess. you can see one side looks super clean and the other is like caked on oily tarnished. Asked a friend about this and he said that it is due to the PVC system being on the passenger side. The clean ones are on teh Passenger side, same thing for the inside of the valve cover and the rockers.
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Front cover was off and that exposed the cam gear bolts (10mm) to take them out.
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once the cam gear was out of the way it exposed the cam retaining plate (10mm) forgot to take a picture of this but 4 bolts and it comes right off. Now the cam is exposed. Water pump bolts thread right into the cam too. I used to of them to give me some extra leverage removing the cam shaft. Before pulling it out i spun the cam around a bunch of times to set the lifters into their trays. Then put 5/16" wooden dowels through the two holes that you see in the picture. This keeps the lifters from falling out of the tray when swapping the cams out. lots of people do it this way and it seems pretty flawless. Once all that is in place i pulled the stocker out.
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Here is the stock cam, never inspected one before but from what i have read/seen in other videos all looks to be fine. I followed the sloppy mechanics rule and never checked out the cam bearings, because that way they will be totally fine haha.
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Lubed up the new cam with some ultra slick, the cam is a summit racing stage 1 turbo cam 8715R1. Went back and forth between the stage 1 and stage 2, (like more chop just like the next guy). However a buddy is making like a 1000whp awd typhoon and running a stage 1 cam along with like a 200-300 shot of nitrous in a 5.3l. So that convinced me to just run the stage 1 route. it will be a better daily driver cam anyways which is what this car will be like 90% of the time.
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New cam installed. Put water pump bolts into the new cam too for some leverage and put it in to the engine. yanked the wooden dowels and put the retaining plate back on. Next was to line up the cam gear with the crank gear. there is a dot on the cam and crank gear. when the cam gear is pointing straight down and the crank gear dot it pointing straight up these dots need to be pointing right at each other.
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Cam dots lined up
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Next I moved on to the springs (replaced the valve seals too). This is the tool that i used, got it from Texas Speed. 45 USD or about $110 by the time it made its way to me up Canada. here is the link https://www.texas-speed.com/p-7648-texas-speed-valve-spring-installation-tool-kit.aspx As the heads are still on the engine i had a leak down tester and a hose from it that i used to thread into the spark plug hole and fed some compressed air to keep the valves from falling. I used 50 psi. It bolts to the existing rocker stand, also bolted one other rocker at the end of the stand just to keep the rocker stand aligned. you put a 3/8 wrench in to the side of it and just push it down just like the rocker does on the spring.
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I used a magnet to take the stock keepers out. Don't have a pic for this as it is to hard to hold the magnet, wrench the tool down and take a pic. Put i compressed the spring and then used a magnet to get the keepers out.

once the keepers were out I removed the stock spring and kept the hat. this exposed the valve seal. I just used some small vice grips to pull out the stock valve seals then just pushed the new ones on.
old seal getting removed
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no seal
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new seal pushed on
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next i put the new spring on with the stock hat
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When using the tool for installing the new spring and new keepers it took a little finessing to figure out how it best goes back together. What I figured is that if you can have the spring/hat just clear the valve stem towards the outside of the engine it leaves enough space to get the new keepers in.

All installed
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Once all the springs and rockers were back installed i poured a little oil over everything for a little help upon first start up. I did do the standard mild bang bang with a rubber mallet to seat the springs and such. torqued everything to spec. Cam retainer 18ft/lbs, cam gear bolts 22 ft/lbs, rocker arm bolts 26 ft/lbs.

I also got the cut out mounted... FINALLY! I was finally able to find just a vband clamp without the flanges that wasn't ridiculously priced. When I initially tried to fit it on there wasn't enough space to clear the diaphragm. So i welded another vband i had laying around to it to make it work haha. Fits now!
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Thats it thats all! next will be the welding for the waste gate, BOV, charge piping and the front timing cover oil return fitting. My welder is gone for about another 2-3 weeks so i have to wait until then. Might try to pick up some LSA/LS9 injectors in the next few days for about $300 too, just need some spacers to make them fit (lots out there to choose from). Once the welding is done and I have injectors all I need is the holley terminator x max and we can get this pig fired up.

[andrewb70]

Good job! Let me know if I can be of service with the Holley EFI tuning.

Andrew

[lwilliams]

Good job! Let me know if I can be of service with the Holley EFI tuning.

Andrew

Thanks! Getting closer to having a driving car. I do have a few tuners local to me where i am at. cheers.

[ryeguy2006a]

Don't pay $300 for LSA injectors, I've bought several sets now for around $175 bucks. Check the FB groups for CTS-V's. Most guys are upgrading to a 850cc injector and sell the LSA for pretty cheap. Great progress by the way! Love my 8715 Summit Cam. I turned my idle down to 675 rpm, and it has all the chop I need. I get compliments on it all the time.

[lwilliams]

Don't pay $300 for LSA injectors, I've bought several sets now for around $175 bucks. Check the FB groups for CTS-V's. Most guys are upgrading to a 850cc injector and sell the LSA for pretty cheap. Great progress by the way! Love my 8715 Summit Cam. I turned my idle down to 675 rpm, and it has all the chop I need. I get compliments on it all the time.

I ended up getting the injectors, paid $250. I am up in Canada too so prices, even used parts, vary compared to the US. From an exchange perspective 250 x .7 = $175. So sounds like it’s right in the ball park. Thanks for the insight on the cam and idle speed! I’m getting super pumped about having this thing hopefully running in the next few months or so.

[lwilliams]

made some more progress on the weekend, picked up this B&M shifter for $350 brand new in the box. I had always been looking for one of these on kijiji and had pretty much never seen a complete one for like 3 years. so i jumped on this guy. Its a Pro Ratchet shifter. so it moves up or down one gear with each push. here are a few pics.

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first things first is to mark out where the mounting holes go. i took the seats and the carpet out ten reinstalled the drivers. I just sat in the seat and found a comfortable spot for the sifter then marked and drilled the holes. once those are drilled you drill a lofty 1.5" hole (3" from the front most mounting hole) into the floor for the cable to go through.

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Then take the shifter out to do a little work before the final install. add in the cable and attach it to the shifter with the e-clip, and bolt the shifter cable mounting tab to the shifter itself.

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Bolt down the reverse light and neutral safety switches

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And also knock out the pin in this hole (circled it red). These shifters come ready for 3-speed transmissions. knocking out this pin gives you one more slot to use with the four speed.

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then, re-install the carpet and seats. cutout the carpet where the shifter bolts too and also make a cut right where the shifter cable goes through the 1.5" hole. Mount the shifter in place (you can see how bad I am at cutting the carpet for good fitment. the seats are no exception, i have absolutely butchered the carpet in this car).

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add back the housing, shifter knob, gear selector indicator and the reverse lockout handle.

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A little look of it installed along with the interior back in. Played around with the shifter and it will be awesome slamming through some gears when it is on the road!
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Also picked up those LSA injectors. just waiting on the injectors spacer kit from ICT. The LSA injectors are shorter than the stock multec ones. this spacer kit adapts the injectors to the truck intake and spaces the fuel rails accordingly.
https://www.ictbillet.com/fuel-injector-spacer-set-of-8-truck-intake-manifold-to-ls3-injector-adapter.html
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Spacer kit should be here this week and then i will get those put into the intake as well. Next just comes welding the wastegate (and piping it back to the exhaust) and blow off valve flanges and the turbo drain fitting into the front cover of the engine. I have the drain set up ready to assemble once the fitting is welded on. then its the terminator x max and see how this thing will run! should have it going before the end of the year.

[lwilliams]

injectors spacers showed up yesterday and i got them swapped into the intake, all in all pretty easy.
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took the fuel rail off the intake, just 4 bolts holding it on. and then pull the injectors out of the intake.
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then take the clips off all the stock truck injectors, this is easy I just pulled them off by hand.
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Once they are out and the fuel rail doesn't have any injectors in it i dumped all the old gas out, they were still really full from who knows how long ago.
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once emptied i lubed up the O-ring of the injector spacer with a little bit or engine oil and and pushed them into the fuel rail, this was a little hard at times but they went in by hand.
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once all the adapters were installed, i lubed the upper O-ring of the LSA injectors and put them in, and now it is ready to go back in the intake. The ICT kit comes with new o-rings for the bottom of the injectors that seal into the intake, but i found that they were a lot looser than just the stock O-rings on the LSA injectors so i just left the stock ones on. lubed them with some oil before setting into the intake as well. i looked when they were installed and they were all tight and the o-rings weren't warped or anything

Lined up all the injectors in their respective holes and pushed the fuel rail and injectors into the intake as one unit on both sides.
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once they were pushed in i set the spacer between the rail and intake that comes with the kit and then reinstalled the intake and it is ready for some fuel!
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Just waiting on my welder to get home so he can weld the BOV/wastegate flange, an intercooler pipe and the drain fitting in the front engine cover. I'll install them all once that happens, run the vacuum lines and oil drain line then it is ready for some terminator x action.

[lwilliams]

Made some more progress. Got the flanges for the BOV and wastegate welded up and finished the wastegate routing into the down pipe. Also finished making the intercooler piping all blingy haha. Got this heat tape along with the heat wrap so i figured i would put it on there any ways.

Pic of the wastegate installed in the flange on the turbo housing and what the flange looks like through the turbo blanket.

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here is the wastegate mounted on with the blanket and then the start of the plumbing of the routing back into the down pipe. I read that you can;t just 90 degree this back in to the DP otherwise it will create tons of back pressure so i angled it in as best i can. I did have the DP in the car when mocking up the routing just didn;t have a pic of it. Ya i aint no welder. covered it all up in heat wrap and also some some heat wrap sleeves for the spark plugs because the down pipe sites pretty close to them. I also heat wrap the log manifold and crossover pipe. I'll probably do that once i have the new trans and converter in as i have to modify the crossover pipe anyways.

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Also added in the O2 sensor to the DP. When i get the Terminator xmax i'll use the supplied O2 sensor in the kit for the driver side bank to monitor AFR's on both sides.
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this is what it looks like all wrapped up. just need some 1" heat wrap for the small section of pipe right off the wastegate as i didn't want to weld the flex coupler right to the flange on the wastegate. i only had 2: heat wrap and it didn;t look good with the 2" wrapped on it.
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I also got the turbo oil drain fitting welded to the front cover and put the hose and fittings together. I'll grab a pic for this all installed.

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Here is the blow off valve mounted to the flange on the pipe heading to the TB. Also a pic of all the piping put together now.
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Got a rear diff cover on order as well as the e-brake kit for the rear brakes. should have those installed over the Christmas break. going to order some more spark plug heat boot protectors as they are six inches long and they either leave a portion of the wire exposed close to the DP or the log manifold. so i will get another set to make sure they are all protected. Going to run the vacuum lines for the wastgate, boost reference exhaust cut out and the blow off valve next too. Also need to grab a 2bar map sensor,***anyone know off a cheaper alternative to this?*** getting close to having the whole engine bay put together.

[Vimes]

Nice. Sometimes I wish I'd looked harder for another Skylark.


Also need to grab a 2bar map sensor,***anyone know off a cheaper alternative to this?***

GM uses a 3-bar MAP sensor (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-12592525) on their forced induction rigs, and they are in the 50ish dollar range. This work for you?

[lwilliams]

Nice. Sometimes I wish I'd looked harder for another Skylark.



GM uses a 3-bar MAP sensor (https://www.summitracing.com/parts/nal-12592525) on their forced induction rigs, and they are in the 50ish dollar range. This work for you?

Thanks for the heads up I will check it out!

[lwilliams]

Here a few pics of the turbo oil drain line. i used -10AN fittings and line. I also found this drain that connects to the turbo from performance world it makes it so much easier to connect the line and it clears the bottom of the turbo nicely to avoid super tight spaces. it is also a rubber seal opposed to those paper gaskets that leak all the time. here is the link if anyone wants one http://www.performance-world.com/Turbo-Oil-Drain-p/83240l.htm

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Here is a pic of the current state with everything put together.
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[lwilliams]

Well, finally back at it, just a 2.5yr hiatus i guess. Pushing really hard to have this thing on the road and driving this summer. Just ordered a mid frame brace and front frame brace from Philip Ortega aka tigerchevelle77 on instagram. Also ordered a QA1 sway bar through my local shop. Since i was adding the front frame brace which has some weight to it i figured having the hollow front sway bar to save some weight, would help to balance everything out weight wise. I did a little research and also found that the hollow ones are made out of a some stronger material and although lighter and hollow, they are actually stiffer. pics below of the braces i ordered. i already got the upper shock mount brace from him a while back.

Sway bar i ordered
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Braces: the one up top is the mid frame brace - it connects to the the two lower control arm brackets then follows under the body connecting both sides. The front brace is the bottom one in the pic, it connects both of the frame horns and then ties it all together with drilling/bolting to the K-member

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happy to be back at this again. Going to get the catch can, fittings and lines all put together next.

[lwilliams]

Got the catch can and the front sway bar installed.

For the sway bar, what was supposed to be a quick 30-40minute install turned into about a 4 -5 hour run around. Had it all greased up with the brackets and ready to mount it with the brackets and plates. Then when i went to use the supplied hardware that came with the kit it was way to small. The bolts just slipped right though the holes it was supposed to mount in to. So off to peavey mart to get some bolts/washers for the 1st of 3 times.

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hardware that was too small... damn you QA1
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Grabbed the right bolts and then snugged and torqued both brackets down after lining up the sway bar.

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Then i noticed that the sway bar was contacting the tie rod. I had mine mounted on top of the steering arm and it sat flat that way when the car was sitting on its own weight. Went to put the tie rod to the bottom of the steering arm but there wasn't enough clearance from the rim. Here is where the job turned timely. Jack the car up on jack stands, off come both front wheels, calipers, tie rods, and the steering arms. Had enough washers to shim out one steering arm but not each side. Off to peavey mart to get 0.72 cents in washers for the 2nd of 3 times that day. got the steering arms shimmed out using three washers on each bolt.

here are the bolts i shimmed out
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That gave me enough clearance to get the tie rod away from the rim on the bottom of the steering arm. Then I put everything back together.

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so finally time to install the sway bar end links and call it good. Nope. The bolts that QA1 supplied for the end links were too short. i don't think that this is a QA1 issue as the lower A-arms i am running are a lot thicker than the stock ones i think and they took up a bunch of the bolt length. with all of the rubber bushings, washers and sleeve the bolt was flush with the bottom washer and i couldn't get the bolt on. tried to compress everything with all kinds of clamps but just couldn't get anything to work. So off to peavey mart for the 3rd of 3 times. But the longest bolt they had is 6.5". I waited until today and grabbed an 8" bolt (the kit comes with 7") and it worked like a charm. I don't care what they say, size does matter! it says to torque the end links to 11-18ft/lbs, 18 is stiffer for less body roll and 11 is softer for more body roll. I split the difference and torqued it to 14ft/lbs for the moment. looks like it should have good clearance and room to move under there. Its all installed and ready to go.

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Next was on to the catch can, this is the kit i ordered off of amazon. Honestly for 62$ for a can, filter 6 fittings and hose the stuff is pretty decent quality. I would buy it again. I also ordered a fitting that goes right on the oil cap with a 10AN fitting and then another barbed fitting that fits in the the back of the drivers side.

Here are the links:
Catch Can kit - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CH15Q16F?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Gas Cap 10AN fitting - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07P656N52?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1
Barbed 10AN fitting - https://www.performance-world.com/Valve-Cover-Fittings-p/82009.htm

Catch Can Kit
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Oil cap breather fitting and barbed valve cover fitting
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Everything worked well and was easy to install. I made a bracket out of some steel i had laying around and bolted it to the alternator bracket. Only issue with this kit is i would say that the mounting bracket is not square. it is cockeyed to mount to get the can and filter to sit flat. which you can see in the one photo.

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Wanted to keep everything clean and pretty tight so ran the drivers side with a 90 degree straight the front that follows the fuel rail and then comes down the valve cover to a 45 degree to the catch can. on the passenger side i looped it under the intake and then over the catch can. The oil cap breather fitting has a 150 degree fitting on it and the there is a 90 degree fitting off the catch can heading straight left.

fittings installed
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Lines and fittings running to the catch can
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The frame braces I had made have been shipped and are supposed be here Tuesday next week. Will get those installed sometime that week or on that weekend.

Once those are in the next things on my list are a torque converter (likely circle-d unit), radiator with a shroud and fans, 4l80e and a CPP hydroboost set up and all the brake lines and fittings. Not in any particular order, should likely have enough cash in the next 2-3 weeks to do at least one of those for sure, probably two out of that list.

[lwilliams]

looking for some opinions on either of these control arm braces has anyone used either of these?

These are QA1, more like the stock ones that came on the convertibles i think.

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Then the UMI ones

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[ryeguy2006a]

Great progress! Look forward to seeing how you like the turbo LS!

[lwilliams]

Spoke to QA1 about the control arm braces and asked about any performance difference between the adjustable and non-adjustable versions they have. They said that there is no performance difference and that the non adjustable are actually easier to install then fiddling with the adjustments and getting everything to line up. so going the non-adjustable route.

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Mid and Front Frame braces will be here on Tuesday and I got my welder back so hopefully put those in during next week or on the weekend.

Also, just sourced a 4l80 from an auto wrecker, 170,000kms, tested good. 675$. picking that up on Friday and will get a trans go kit installed.

Next purchase will be a torque converter. Likely going the Circle D route for the TC.

[boss_hoss]

Spoke to QA1 about the control arm braces and asked about any performance difference between the adjustable and non-adjustable versions they have. They said that there is no performance difference and that the non adjustable are actually easier to install then fiddling with the adjustments and getting everything to line up. so going the non-adjustable route.

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Mid and Front Frame braces will be here on Tuesday and I got my welder back so hopefully put those in during next week or on the weekend.

Also, just sourced a 4l80 from an auto wrecker, 170,000kms, tested good. 675$. picking that up on Friday and will get a trans go kit installed.

Next purchase will be a torque converter. Likely going the Circle D route for the TC.

Great build, Congratulations on getting back into the project. It's hard getting up the steam to get these projects going again after you've taken some time off. What did the Front and Mid Frame braces cost if you don't mind me asking? I've got the stock frame on my Pontiac and would love to add some more rigidity without blowing the car apart again and those look like great options.

[lwilliams]

Great build, Congratulations on getting back into the project. It's hard getting up the steam to get these projects going again after you've taken some time off. What did the Front and Mid Frame braces cost if you don't mind me asking? I've got the stock frame on my Pontiac and would love to add some more rigidity without blowing the car apart again and those look like great options.

the front brace was 230USD and the mid brace was 200USD. you have to pay shipping on top of that. UMI also makes a front brace but its not nearly as effective as this one. Philip Ortega is who builds them, tigerchevelle77 on instagram, message him on instagram if your interested. He is great to work with. He had mine built and shipped in 4 or 5 days i think it was.

Because the frame horns on the A body's move up and down so much the front brace really helps to prevent that, and since it is triangulated its real strong. Research i found said that the front frame brace adds more rigidity to the body than even a frame brace kit. I would be curious for you to put one on after driving your car without one and see what the difference feels like. I haven't driven my car in so long and the entire thing has changed top to bottom so much that i don't have anything to compare it to.

[boss_hoss]

the front brace was 230USD and the mid brace was 200USD. you have to pay shipping on top of that. UMI also makes a front brace but its not nearly as effective as this one. Philip Ortega is who builds them, tigerchevelle77 on instagram, message him on instagram if your interested. He is great to work with. He had mine built and shipped in 4 or 5 days i think it was.

Because the frame horns on the A body's move up and down so much the front brace really helps to prevent that, and since it is triangulated its real strong. Research i found said that the front frame brace adds more rigidity to the body than even a frame brace kit. I would be curious for you to put one on after driving your car without one and see what the difference feels like. I haven't driven my car in so long and the entire thing has changed top to bottom so much that i don't have anything to compare it to.

Awesome thanks, those prices are very reasonable I'll have to give him a holler. I'm definitely very aware of the amount of flex in the front of the A-bodies frame whenever I jack my car up or put it on a lift.

[lwilliams]

yeah they have some serious give to them, that hellwig Frame FX kit i put in also really helped with flex that i could notice just from jacking the car up. The nice thing about that front brace is i am pretty sure you can use it as a jacking point as well. I have trouble getting a jack under my K-member so that frame brace should make a good lifting point to. I should get both braces tomorrow so ill post some pics of the installed result when i have it put it.

[lwilliams]

Brace, braces. braces. Got the rest of the frame braces and it is all about 85% done. Pic below has the Front frame brace (top), rear control arm braces (middle) and the then the mid frame brace (lower).

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Got to work on the control arm braces first. I had already used some lengthy bolts when putting the control arms in so i didn't need to use the longer bolts that were supplied with the kit. Just took the nuts off and then flipped the nut over on the bolt and tapped it out a bit to make fitting the braces on the upper and lower bolts a little easier.

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Next i fit the brace on the top an bottom bolt. Super easy install, especially cause i didn't have to take my bolts out. pointier side of the brace goes up top and the flat side on the lower control arm. They are side specific but you can't screw it up they only fit one way.

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once it was put in place i just snugged everything up on the onside and then repeated the process on the other. they fit real nice and happy i went this route compared to the adjustable ones, easy peezy.
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Next was the mid frame brace. you can bolt this in but with my welder i figured it would be easy enough to just weld it in. I used a couple clamps to set in place where i wanted it and also make sure that it had some room on the little cavity that it follows in the body. i set it a little below the hole that the parking brake cable passes through.

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A bunch of tac welds once it was in place. i didn't fully weld it in at this point. I moved on the the front brace once it was all tac'd together. my welder is getting real low on gas and i need to set up some light under the car and remove part of the exhaust to really be a in a good spot to weld it. I won't be bale to fully weld all the seems at the moment but will get most of all 3 sides welded in. Once i have the body off the frame in the winter, ill finish off the welding before the frame is sent to powder coating.

This pick shows how the brace sits in the car, it is a little lower than what i ended up setting it at but gives you an idea how it sits in the car.

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Now on to the front brace. This was a little difficult just by myself, so i put a piece of plywood on the lift rails and then wedged a box under the k member and the brace to give me a little support holding it. Once i had it in the position i wanted i traced the tabs that are on the frame horns so i had a good reference point to work off of. When i had it set in the right place I center punched for some holes and drilled one on each side of the frame rail.

this is the tracing of the tab with the the center punch hole

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then i drilled that one and installed that side as it just made it so much easier to hold and orient the brace the the passenger side.

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Repeated the same process for the passenger side and bolted that together as well.

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this is where i called it a night. I will have to drill and tab the two holes that go into the k member. i don't have a tap and die set, so either buying one or seeing if a buddy has one i can use. here are the tabs that mock up to the k-frame. i also need to get some hardware for this as i don't have any, also need another 1/2 inch bolt nut washer for the passenger side. I bolted it together with a few things i found laying around in the bolt box.

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Either way it is all lined up so this pic gives you and idea how it sits on the car. The brace and tabs are also oriented enough that you have a decent amount of wiggle room to fit it with room around the sway bar.

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will try to get that mid brace welded in and the rest of the front brace put together this weekend. once that is done next thing is to get the radiator/fans/shroud sorted out. I stumbled across a company called autoplump that makes some real sexy looking AN20 radiator lines and fittings that i am going to have to try and talk myself out of.

[lwilliams]

finished up the rest of the bracing this weekend. welded in the mid frame brace supports and drilled and taped the other two holes for that front brace.

it wasn't too bad welding in that mid frame support, it can be bolted in but i opted to weld it. basically got all the side done except for the top of the plates. I will do those when i have the body off the frame again in the winter and finish it up at that time. a little wire wheel and grinding actions and it should all look good.

My fuel lines were right where i was welding so i undid a few clamps and then tucked them up and away. I put an oven mit between them and where i was welding to protect them.

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passenger side all welded
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drivers side all welded
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I also was looking at the lower control arm brackets, has anyone ever boxed these in?????

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i think i am going to do that when i have the frame off the car again. I think ill box the top and bottom since it will just be really easy to do and likely provide a ton more support and stiffness there.

Next was finishing the last two bolt holes for the front brace. I wouldn't be able to run a bolt and nut where it was lining up so i had to tap the hole for the bolts. First time tapping anything so it was fun to do something new. Pretty easy overall, drilled 28/64's hole then used the 13-1/2 tap to make the threads. spun it in about 1/2-3/4 turn and then backed it out about 1/4-1/3 of a turn to clear metal shavings. repeated the process until i was all the way through the hole. the one hole on the more passenger side was a little off when i went to tap it, so i just used the air dremel and a carbide bit to hollow out the mounting hole on the brace side a little bit more. I did put a bunch of extra weight in the car to mimic the weight of the transmission, since i don't have one in at the moment. not sure if it really matters or not but i didn't think it would hurt.

Everything bolted right up and is installed. looks pretty good.

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the bars on the front brace are all hollow. When i have the car apart again in the winter ill plug them up with a chunk of metal and weld it in there to stop stuff from getting in and eventually getting rusty and what not.

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All the frame chassis stuff is done on the car now!

On to the next thing. Going to likely order a radiator, fan, shroud kit and get that put in. Also got a stock steam vent line tubing set up from a buddy that i will rout to the radiator as well. Also going to get going on the brakes. CPP Hydroboost set up is the rout i am going to go. ill probably get the front brake lines and the the brake lines on the diff all set up in the meantime as well. Should hopefully be ordering the radiator set up, hydroboost and brake lines this week.

[Threepointtwo]

Great progress!

[lwilliams]

Great progress!

Thank you sir! really going hard on this thing at the moment.

[lwilliams]

Curious if anyone has any recommendations on electric radiator fans?

Ordered my radiator, but when I went to order the shroud and fans, the shop I get my parts from couldn't get the fans. i need two 14" fans that flow a combined 4000+ CFM.

Radiator should hopefully be here friday or monday, Then i can install it and remove the intake to run the steam vent lines and tie those into the rad as well.

I also think i am going to pause the CPP hydroboost and brake line install and instead order the terminator xmax. once the rad, fans, shroud is all put together i will have everything i need to fire this thing up.