86 Monte Carlo SS super project

[rchaskin]

10 Year update....lol.

Good for you.
Time, it sure flys right by.

[redss86]

This is a short post today. Hopefully be able to post a lot more tomorrow.

After I had the rails done and the cross member welded in, I mocked it all up close to the ride height I was thinking. It was only then that I realized that I had less than 2" of compression room for the rear end. So I decided to cut out the three pieces going over the axle and replace the top piece with a 2x3x.125 tube rather than the 2x4x.125 that the rest is built out of. I am still nervous about only having approximately 3" of compression before the axle hits the frame. I am going to have to install some sort of bump stop to prevent direct axle to frame contact.



Used some 2x2x.125 tube for diagonal bracing coming off the truck arm cross member, and built a trans mission cross member and brackets.

I cut the factory rear spring purchases off the removed section of frame and welded screw jack plates on top. I reused the factory perch because I wanted to retain the factory body bushing mount. Also welded another piece of 2x2x.125 across the back of the perches for support and a upper shock mount, plus used some dom I had to support the front inner perches.

[redss86]

Welded in the adjustable panhard mounts, and fabricated the upper and lower shock mounts. Adjustable phb mounts were from Stockcar Products (SCP). Built the phb out of 1x0.560 wall dom with left hand threaded heim joint on one end, and right hand on the other. This way it is adjustable without removing it. I did install extra bracing on the frame side phb mount. I don't have any real clear pics of it, but I plated both sides of the mount with some 1/4" plate.



Here are some pics of the frame bracing that I installed.



Ordered some axle tubes to build a full floating rear end using SCP Grand National hubs. I had my machinist brother build me a narrowing setup for the axle. Then made some lower spring perches on the axle and welded the truck arm perches on. I do have more bracing on the perches, but don't have any current pictures of it. I will add some soon.



Here are some mocked ride height pictures of when I stopped working on it. Date on these is April, '07



And now we jump to May, '14, that makes it a 7 year "Life" gap. Of course when you have toddlers and sidewalk chalk around, they "help" work on the car (helping put some color on it). The rear wheel is of a rear wheel and tire off a Z06 with a 295 tire. The front is off my wife's TA, and has a 285 on an 18" wheel. I know it will not work on the front, but it is for wheel size/ tire dimensions.



I am almost second guessing the last ride height setup. I feel I need to see saw it a little.... raise the front a touch, and lower the rear. I will have to actually put the front and rear bumpers on and reconsider the ride heights.

[redss86]

After I mocked up the ride height, I put it up on stands to take a look underneath. I got to looking at the potential driveshaft clearance, and was a little concerned. So I found a piece of 3" conduit that I had laying around from building the shed. It just so happened to be the correct length to fit between the trans, and rear end to mimic a driveshaft. What I found was that at ride height I only had about 3/8" or less of clearance. So in turn I decided to raise the tunnel 1". So here is that process.



In turn, I also had to raise the floor bracing.



Welded up the firewall- floorpan seam, and cut off the pinch welds on the outside. Hopefully to serve to clean up the firewall, provide more bell housing clearance, and possibly some strength.

[redss86]

Trimmed the rear wheel opening flanges, and rolled them over.

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[redss86]

Part of the reason I had to raise the floor, was because I decided to change my transmission cross-member. This raised the trans up, therefore I felt better raising the floor.



Since I am setting this up so low, and with the truck-arms, I am forced to have the exhaust exit in front of the rear wheels. I plan on using something like the borla xr1 or similar mufflers, and I have some "Nascar boom tubes" that I am using for "tips". So with all the extra bracing running through the center of the frame, I decided to put some exhaust pass throughs in the bracing. I intend to add some bracing on the tops and bottoms of the pass-throughs. I also have to put them in the front "diagonal" braces, but I have the body on the frame currently so that will wait. I will be using some oval exhaust tubing. The pass-throughs are made from some 4.25x0.250 dom tube that I heated and smashed into an oval.



I had started doing the body work on the doors a looonnnggggg time ago. Needless to say they had some surface rust on them. So for Valantine's day this year, the wife's present to me, was working on my car!!!!. So I put her to work stripping the doors back to bare metal so I could get them back in epoxy. I did the same with the fenders.



While the body is still on the frame, I decided to go ahead and see if I can get all the panels "fit". Needless to say, that is going to take some WORK!!! Gaps are not horrible, but where they are off, it's pretty bad (to me anyways).

[redss86]

This now gets up to date!!!

The only place I have changed direction from my "original" plan is the engine. Originally planned on a ~600hp sbc, but have change to a late model LS6 block and the intent on a pair of "hair driers". I don't actually have them yet, but I am still collecting parts as I find deals. The hope now is for ~650-700 whp. This will also retain a/c.



Update's will slow now, as I have to actually work on it to have an update.