Hello, everybody!

[breathial]

Hey, all...

My name's Eric, and I just joined the forum. Not new to cars, just wanting to be more educated on suspension design. Previous cars included a '70 Riviera (mildly customized), a '68 Camaro drag car, a '74 Corvette (blown 427 with Megasquirt EFI, TKO-600), and my "old" daily-driver, an '03 Corvette...

Just had a new baby, so the cars had to go away... But getting ready to move, and I have a '72 Cutlass S I'll be getting soon... And I have a tall-deck 427 block sitting in the garage... So instead of cutting up a Chevelle, I'm seriously looking at building a 515 BBC, TKO-600 combo, and a Ford 9" in the future, and make it a daily-driver/rice-killer toy... :drive:

Mainly, my interests lie in building a completely new frame and suspension setup, to match the handling of my (former) 2003 Vette. To this end, I've already read a few books, but haven't found anything useful to do actual calculations for the front and read suspension setups, yet.

I can already weld stick, MIG and TIG, so the fabrication aspects won't be an issue (I do a LOT of fab work for my job).

So if anybody has websites that I can look at- between changing diapers- :rolleyes: please let me know.

***EDIT*** Ok, I've already found a few threads, here... But I'm looking for practical applications. But any input is welcome! ;)

My previous cars:

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https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[Ralph LoGrasso]

Welcome to the site, Eric. That riv' is awesome!

[breathial]

Thanks, Ralph!

I know not everybody likes the big tuna-boats, but I bought it for $300, and spent about $8K to go through it, make it a "smooth" ride... Basically, I wanted to learn how to do bodywork.

Short story is, I found a guy who does the paintwork for a lot of the street-rod/custom crowd, and a lot of his work does well at the car shows (Oakland Roadster Show, for example).

He agreed to paint the car, IF I did exactly what he said and used the materials he specified.

The car, under the old oxidized paint, was in terrible condition. The passenger-side quarter panel had been smashed in so bad, that the metal had torn. The previous repairs had been to take the torn metal, weld the tips of the tears back together, and fill it with bondo- about 4" thick! :eek: So I dug it all out, bought some MAPP torches, body-hammers, and a small MIG, and brought it back close to original shape. I think the max depth of mud was about 3/16" thick... :headbang:

Anyways, with such a dark color, the body had to be ***perfect***. And after 3 months of solid work (I was on summer break from college), that's how it turned out. Stripped the whole thing to bare metal, shaved the handles, trunk latch and the vinyl top, and then used the factory side-trim...

My ultimate goal is to be able to build a car from the ground up- body, frame, suspension, etc...

[z28orshoot]

welcome to the board and those are some nice cars you have there.

[old vette]

very cool stuff , good luck !!!