Introducing - Project 1/2-TRAK

[Code Red]

Completely understood. These things end up taking on a life of their own. Even my little projects end up taking much longer than I ever plan...

Still planning on running the Team III's I see. Glad to hear. Next time I am in the Bay Area, would love to check out the project.

very true I was working on a custom grill project for my colorado and it was taking me a while and now its on definate hold.

but yeah take your time and dont rush things, if it takes a little longer just to make sure its right then do it the right way.

[trapin]

True, I had those same hub-caps on my car.

Congrats on getting it started. You'll get a whole lot of advice in here on the "Do's" of restoring your car but when you're ready for the "Don'ts" come and see me. I got a whole mess of them I've accrued over the years. LOL!!!

[Jim Nilsen]

here you go I kinda did this quick

Thought about doing the reverse shot and putting a pink bunny between the tails and adding a 69 to it

hope you dont mind

You could put a plate on the pink one that says 'Good & Plenty"

[dropit69]

i love the 2 tone pink..go for it ..would really stand out..and playmates...mmmm

[Damn True]

Great to see you dove into your project!! That thing is going to be schweet!! We're definitely goin to represent the Bay Area streetfighter scene. You have great taste in wheels...mine just came in this week. The VWW V48's. Im anxious to see how good the TEAM III's look

Keepin tabs on this one!

Thanks, I check in on yours all the time.

The Team II wheels spokes transition into the hub a little more smoothly and the spokes themselves have more of a curve to them. IMO a bit closer to representing the Minilite than the V48's and I can get 'em in any width/offset. The guy that makes them is in Hayward too. I prefer doing business locally where possible.

[Damn True]

Completely understood. These things end up taking on a life of their own. Even my little projects end up taking much longer than I ever plan...

Still planning on running the Team III's I see. Glad to hear. Next time I am in the Bay Area, would love to check out the project.

Absolutely. Let me know when you are around and we'll have you over for a couple of hop sodas.

[Damn True]

Had the day off of work so the front suspension bits were removed from the front sub. Everything came off smoothly. Still (knocking on wood) no broken or stripped fasteners. Though I do have a brake line union (hard line to flex line at left front wheel) that is putting up a fight.

It got too hot in the garage so I shut it down for the afternoon.

I'll probably take some measurements and pull the subframe tonight after it cools off.

[DJW32]

True,
Are you using the stock subframe? If so, how are you going to run 275mm worth of tire in the front?


David

[twosaturns]

i love the 2 tone pink..go for it ..would really stand out..and playmates...mmmm

unless its playmates from the same vintage... (to be 'correct', they'd of POSED in '68, not BORN in '68) not all of them turned into milfs you know...

I too vote for pink, great backstory.

[Damn True]

True,
Are you using the stock subframe? If so, how are you going to run 275mm worth of tire in the front?


David

Yes, I will be using the stock subframe.

You see, I firmly believe in letting other people do my R&D for me. The simple reason for this is that I really cannot afford to experiment. So for the most part, I am using what I know to work.

Thankfully, one of our own, Carl Cassanova has already sussed out the details of running a 275 on the front of a '68.

You can find all the required information on his excellent website:
http://www.geocities.com/casanoc/

The only differences in my setup will be the use of an ATS spindle and wheels/brakes. I will be duplicating his wheel dimensions and also will be using the Speed Tech upper and lower control arm. More about those later though. I don't want to get ahead of my next update.

[Damn True]

So....not a lot happened in September. It was a busy month at work because I was only AT work for about 2 weeks out of the four. My wife and I spent a week in Hawaii, and another week fishing and camping in the Sierra's. She treated me pretty good for my birthday. All things considered I'd have preferred Camaro stuff to going to Hawaii. Having lived there for seven years it feels more like going home than going on a vacation. But it was nice to get out of the office. The fishing trip though was awesome. The planks are 2"x12" for reference.



So as I said a few posts back, I got the sheet metal stripped from the car pretty easily. No broken or stripped hardware and no rust to speak of. As you can see though, the subframe is really grungy.



Not bad considering the age of the car. Really stoked about the lack of rust. This really was a "grandma car" and as such it was never really driven hard so I'm not even finding evidence of severe wear or any kind of stress cracks.



So I stripped all the suspension off and yanked the subframe in preparation for sandblasting and then finish welding.

Here's what we started with



A little quick work with a wire wheel allowed me to inspect the potential trouble spots for cracks before sandblasting and allows me to explain what I'm up to here. You see how the subframe is only partially welded? Well each unwelded bit is a flex point and the beginning of each weld is a stress riser.



So what we are going to do is link all of the factory welds and tie the whole thing together.

I thought this was going to be easy, but nooooo. It seems that a 40 year old lap joint is nigh impossible to clean. I sandblasted it. I wire brushed it. I sprayed solvent in there and blew it around with a blow-gun. I heated the joint with a torch to burn off contaminants but my welds were just looking like rubbish. This thread catalogs me figuring out the problem with the help of Jake and Matt...

https://www.pro-touring.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=46863

So with the problem solved the welds came out pretty well. You can see the factory lap weld above my weld in this picture. It looks like they were stick welding these things and doing so very quickly.



Now remember, these are flux-core welds on a dirty, 40 year old lap joint. My torch technique is as you can see "rusty" to say the least. But, the welds are super solid and fully penetrated.

[Damn True]

In addition I also finish welded the seams inside the LCA pocket and the entire K-member. Overkill? Maybe. But it couldn't hurt.



You can see the string of itty-bitty spot welds that were originally used to join the upper and lower halves of the K-member here. Running the bead along both sides really made the assembly into a very solid unit.



I had to roll the subframe over a few times while doing all this work the difference in the stiffness of the assembly was very noticeable. Early in the process I could feel the thing wobble around a bit if I grabbed it by one corner and shook. I mean it felt like grabbing one corner of a sheet of 3/4 plywood. Strong, yet with some springiness to it. With everything welded up it is completely rigid. More like a sheet of 1-1/8 subfloor.

Yeah, my welds still kinda suck and the flux-core wire is messy, but they got better through the process and functionally the welds are good.

Next step.......

Installing the ATS coilover conversion system.......

[Flash68]

Yes, I will be using the stock subframe.

You see, I firmly believe in letting other people do my R&D for me. The simple reason for this is that I really cannot afford to experiment. So for the most part, I am using what I know to work.

Thankfully, one of our own, Carl Cassanova has already sussed out the details of running a 275 on the front of a '68.

You can find all the required information on his excellent website:
http://www.geocities.com/casanoc/

The only differences in my setup will be the use of an ATS spindle and wheels/brakes. I will be duplicating his wheel dimensions and also will be using the Speed Tech upper and lower control arm. More about those later though. I don't want to get ahead of my next update.

Yup, I'm running the 275 on stock sub too. Carl's site is great.

[Chad-1stGen]

In addition I also finish welded the seams inside the LCA pocket and the entire K-member. Overkill? Maybe. But it couldn't hurt.

</snip....>

I had to roll the subframe over a few times while doing all this work the difference in the stiffness of the assembly was very noticeable. Early in the process I could feel the thing wobble around a bit if I grabbed it by one corner and shook. I mean it felt like grabbing one corner of a sheet of 3/4 plywood. Strong, yet with some springiness to it. With everything welded up it is completely rigid. More like a sheet of 1-1/8 subfloor.

Yeah, my welds still kinda suck and the flux-core wire is messy, but they got better through the process and functionally the welds are good.

Next step.......

Installing the ATS coilover conversion system.......

Interesting observations about the subframe rigidity. I've heard of fully welding the stock sub before but never much about what it did in practical terms. Your observations aren't scientific or anything but still makes you go hmmmm. Sounds like a great improvement.

And since this is my first time browsing your build thread, I agree you need some obvious homage to the cars heritage. Maybe a pink bunny on either side where "Camaro" normally is or something.

[WS6]

looking good True. Glad you got the welding figured out. Don't forget you can always grind your welds down and smooth them out to make them look great. My plan for now on my TA is to use the stock front subframe and fully weld it also.

[Damn True]

Interesting observations about the subframe rigidity. I've heard of fully welding the stock sub before but never much about what it did in practical terms. Your observations aren't scientific or anything but still makes you go hmmmm. Sounds like a great improvement.

And since this is my first time browsing your build thread, I agree you need some obvious homage to the cars heritage. Maybe a pink bunny on either side where "Camaro" normally is or something.

You are absolutely right. There is nothing scientific about my observation. But it really is brutally apparent that there is a huge huge difference in the torsional rigidity of the assembly.

I'm giving some thought on how to do something with some pink on the car. Haven't figured out anything that works yet.

[Damn True]

looking good True. Glad you got the welding figured out. Don't forget you can always grind your welds down and smooth them out to make them look great. My plan for now on my TA is to use the stock front subframe and fully weld it also.

Yeah, that was a frustrating episode. But it sure is rewarding to have it figured out and making some progress.


I'm psyched about the chance to apply the best stuff on the market to a stock sub.

[TonyL]

Find a spot no one will see again, like under the fender on the firewall. Get a vinyl playboy sticker and apply it to the pink. When you spray your black or blue over the area, you can peel the sticker back off to reveal the car's historic pink color. Then when you install the fender, Only you will know it's there.

[67SSDan]

Ah cool man, I just caught this thread. Congrats on getting kicked off. Should be a cool car.

Dan

[Bow Tie 67]

Find a spot no one will see again, like under the fender on the firewall. Get a vinyl playboy sticker and apply it to the pink. When you spray your black or blue over the area, you can peel the sticker back off to reveal the car's historic pink color. Then when you install the fender, Only you will know it's there.

I like this idea, and the welds look good. But I will say you guys with cars that never had to deal with the midwest winter salt trucks, Suck!! LOL I had to weld in plate steel on my 67's sub and redrill the holes for all four subframe mounts.

Matt