Progress. Sort of.

[colt zantop]

lookin good! that shaker idea will be interesting! keep us updated!

[LS1_78Bandit]

Long time no update. Various snags, etc slowed things down. But we just got the subframe, front suspension, steering and brakes put on. It's rollable again. Now that it's rollable, we can roll it over to the body shop to blast and paint the firewall. Here's a shot of it:



And more images here:

http://www.ls1bandit.com/g2_embed/g2...g2_itemId=1701

And a bit more detail about the update here:

http://www.ls1bandit.com/ls1b/updates/index.php

My new rims also just showed up. They're Works VS-XX's. which were custom-built according to the measurements I took. I had to take all the measurements based on the old suspension, steering and brakes, so it was a bit of a gamble. The jury is still out on whether I got it right. On the front, I was worried that the wilwood hub would extend too far for the design of the rim. Measurements indicated it should *just* barely fit, but it was close enough that Works said they wouldn't guarantee the wheel. Fortunately
it turns out the measurements were right-on. It just fits.

The rim is pretty close to the steering
linkage since I couldn't get exactly the back-spacing I wanted (it ended up at 5.68" and I wanted 5.5"). I think it'll be OK, but I'd be curious if anyone has input. Here are a couple photos. I know they're not the best angles, but hopefully you get the idea.







The more befuddling issue is the rear wheels. I'm not quite sure what happened since I took those measurements at least a half-dozen times in at least 3 different ways. The measurements came out basically the same as what other 2nd gen'ers are using. 5.75" backspacing on a 10.5" rim. However when I put the rim on, it extended beyond the fender a fair bit, so once the tire is on it's going to be really far out. I did the test-fit really quickly, so I might not have gotten it on right (though that's kinda hard to screw up ...). Also, this time the car was jacked up from the side, whereas when I did the initial measurements I had the jack under the differential. But I can't imagine that with a solid axle it should make much of a difference. I'm going to go back and do some more checks in a bit.

Anyhoo ... it should be going to the body shop next week for the firewall work. Once that's done we can finally get to the part that started this whole thing - putting the LS1+T56 in!