Chevy Beretta LS swap and RWD conversion - budget 4.8/5spd 1996 Z26

[woody80z28]

This might be the best handling Beretta on earth now.��
I made some 82-92 Camaro struts fit...the bolt spacing and length is the same as Beretta. I did it with basically stock KYBs to see if it all would work, so I could buy double adjustable Viking struts for a Camaro. It works so damn good I'm gonna hold off that $1300 for the moment.��
Had to convert them to coilover style, and if you're using them on a FWD Beretta you'll need to make your own steering arm, but it is an option.
I also made my own FE7 sway bar bracket so I could have a 33mm direct Blazer sway bar. But if you're looking to upgrade to a regular FE7 bar it will work for those as well.

https://youtu.be/3Z1H0amzYmk

[jaybee]

That'll work! Very functional, nicely done.

[Bob in St. Louis]

This is awesome!

[woody80z28]

Finally accomplished my underhood beautification. I bought these polished valve covers 2 or 3 years ago and finally got around to using em, paired with some nice gen4 truck coil packs. From day one the original rusty gen3 coils looked pretty terrible...(after all the donor truck was literally rusted in half with a broken frame). I also spliced out the huge 7pin coil connector and ditched the brackets entirely. This time I used 2k clear coat on top of the paint and it really makes the Bright Aqua Metallic come alive. I also discovered that with a little bit of trimming a Blazer fuse box cover fits on a Silverado fuse box. I used my spare 99-02 gmt800 fuse box to trace all the pins and label what I'm actually using (like T56 reverse lockout). There's also a bunch of spots to take fused wires directly from the box: 4 ign keyed and 15 battery constant, 5 open relay locations, and there are 19 spots to run any wire in and out of the box through a fuse. I'll have more on that in another video later.

https://youtu.be/ombCLmSCDqk

[Bob in St. Louis]

That's lookin good!

[Vimes]

Every time I see this one I get the urge to go find another Reatta and build it the way Buick should have - RWD and no stupid protoputer. Had one once before that I wanted to do a RWD conversion on, but it was not to be.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Every time I see this one I get the urge to go find another Reatta and build it the way Buick should have - RWD and no stupid protoputer. Had one once before that I wanted to do a RWD conversion on, but it was not to be.

I double dawg dare ya!

[Vimes]

I double dawg dare ya!

Love to, but I'm only allowed one project at a time and I have two at the moment. Perhaps when my 03 is done.

[Bob in St. Louis]

haha, I totally understand that!

[woody80z28]

Love to, but I'm only allowed one project at a time and I have two at the moment. Perhaps when my 03 is done.

I should be as smart as you. I currently have 6 projects, 3 are mostly done...well 2 are mostly done...this Beretta never will be done done.

Fuel tank: perfected. Finally. Been through some revisions...first the stock tank thrown in the trunk to do burnouts! haha Then I designed and built a fully custom stainless steel tank using the original Beretta sending unit and ring with a truck filler welded in. My stainless weld job was a problem though, cause I had shielding gas meant for carbon steel, not stainless. After a couple months of driving it would leak and need repair beads. So now I'm using two aluminum china tanks with a gravity feed hose. Even the first couple filler ideas for that needed work, but now it's excellent. Leaves me about 2/3 of the original trunk room. Basically what I envisioned from the start!

https://youtu.be/As4-FkgSU9w

[woody80z28]

New video with a few updates and a crazy idea underway. Cut 2 inches off the inside of another wheel and adding it to the face of a Z26 wheel. I'll just put these on the back with some fatter tires. Still gotta dial in the runout and weld em, but the initial results look good. I just bought an AC TIG a little while back for aluminum.
Also got my Viking double adjustable Camaro struts in, needed some slight tweaking to fit...and my new strut mounts with a spherical bearing are much nicer than the poly. Also recreated the front belly pan & lip combo from my 91 with some new LED underglow. Came out nice.
https://youtu.be/pGG6r5vP4bc









- - - Updated - - -

Pretty stoked I hit 31.2mpg on this last tank. I've been shooting for the 30mpg threshold since brainstorming the car. I enabled lean cruise in the P01 computer to get there, but I'm impressed that it got the job done, regardless. Finally fixed my fuel tank to click off at the pump consistently, so I can get accurate MPG readings. It also doesn't hurt that this was my "hero" route that always gets the best mileage (pretty flat & open).

https://youtu.be/n670PpKlZ4s

I forgot to snap a gas station pic so I tried using AI with a reference pic and it's kinda good! I refined it by asking to remove the gas pump and change the station to Buc-ee's, but it fell apart when I asked it to open the trunk and provided another reference pic. haha So I just grabbed a real photo and rolled with it for my thumbnail.
BTW, if you guys do enjoy watching this stuff, drop a like and comment on the video. The algorithm has been pretty bad lately.