Our F85 Power Tour Project

[PhillipM]

Sweet project!! Had to save alot of those pics for reference.
What size wheels/tires are you running on there? BS too if possible.
Thanks.

The rears are 20x8.5 w/ 5" BS on a 275 35 20 I'm also running a .300" spacer to clear the inner body mounts.

The rear is narrowed 1.5" over all.

The fronts are 19x8 w/ 6" BS 245 35 19.

[GHOSTDANCER]

Kool build

[Code Red]

nice man

[PhillipM]

Well we are moving along. Front wheels should be here very soon but we took it out to have the carpet installed last Sunday. Below are a few updated pics.











I took it out for a drive down the side street like this and had a police officer not turned before I got to the intersection I'm pretty sure he would have stopped me. "No officer, I don't know why you stopped me.." Haha

[TurboLark]

The rears are 20x8.5 w/ 4.25" BS on a 275 35 20

The rear is narrowed 1.5" over all, so on a standard rear end it would be 20x8.5 w/ 5" BS.

The fronts are 19x8 w/ 6" BS 245 35 19.

Thanks for the info. How was the steering/rubbing up front when you took it for the test drive?

[Stangz]

Great looking car and choices of combos. Man I would have been nervous under the body doing the uncoating!

[Reckn8]

Thanks, the Cutlass has turned out pretty well. Need to do a couple minor changes after the power tour, like front seats! When I was 16 and had a 64 Cutlass they seemed just fine. Alot different now when you're over 50. The fork lift scared me more than the jack stands! I had one of our Z/28s on those stands for almost 10 years.

[BA.]

I've missed this thread previously but damn this is a cool build. sits low, the rims are great on the F-85's body lines too,....Olds 455 power and a T56. that is just awesome! <2 thumbs up>

[novanutcase]

Super Nice! That should be real fun on the power tour!

John

[PhillipM]

Thanks for the info. How was the steering/rubbing up front when you took it for the test drive?

With our new 6" back spacing on the front wheels they only rub at full lock. And that is with a pretty low ride height. If the bottom of the fender is at the top of the wheel then they don't rub at all. Here are some updated photos. The last one is us in Cresco, IA on our way to the Featherlite trailor facility. We went over a few bumbs and had a shockwave come apart. The problem was in a way an accident on our part so nobody be affraid that you Shockwave will just "fall apart". In the action of it coming apart we lost the "O" rings in it so we had to drove it to the next stop adding air every 30 seconds or so. We met up with air ride and they helped us rebuild it right there. Scarry but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do on tour sometimes. Charley Lillard has some photos of use pulling the suspension apart at the show.. If your reading this Charley send them on over!

[shortrack]

very cool......always loved that body style!

[SDMAN]

A very nice ride. And I ought to know....I rode in it. I got to watch it go together, as my car is being built out of that shop (70 GTO). So I spend a bit of time there.

[ScotI]

I followed this post & loved the choices made.

After thinking about the build, I wondered what were your specs on the drivetrain (motor, cam, carb, rear gearing) & how were the mpg's for the tour?

I would bet there's a bunch of guys out there that are curious how much of an impact a T-56 can make in an older muscle-car on the road.

Also..... What exactly went wrong on the SW install that caused the failure (if you don't mind airing the dirty-laundry)?

[PhillipM]

The motor is a mid 70's Olds 455, bored 40 over with a mild stage 1 cam. The carb is a quadrajet and we are running a 4.11 gear. We averaged 18 mpg with a high of 21 and a low of 15. The real key to getting the mpg's up with the carb is to not run too low of an rpm at cruise. We ran about 2k rpm at our cruising speed of 70, and it worked out pretty well. I'm sure with some more tweaking it could have done better but we were pretty happy.

As for the SW failure, the coupler at the top of the shock was removed and was found to not have loctite on it. air ride has already checked their production line and have found that all of them had loctite.. so it sounds like a fluke deal. We took the rest apart and made sure that there was loctite on them. We are not sure if someone on our side took it off or if it came from the factory like that but either way we are safe now.

[ScotI]

18mpg average isn't too shabby for a 455 in some 60's era muscle. I always figured it would be best to keep rpm's around the normal city cruise speed (city subdivisions that is) so around 40mph & 2Krpm. That 2Krpm on the hwy sounds right.....

Thanks for the follow-up on the shockwave. I've read where many people assume the red 'goo' on the fitting threads is sealant. I've also seen that it's anti-galling compound & that you're still supposed to wrap the threads in sealant. Did ART clarify that for you?

[55chevyman]

could we see some pics of the interior back together?

[PhillipM]

18mpg average isn't too shabby for a 455 in some 60's era muscle. I always figured it would be best to keep rpm's around the normal city cruise speed (city subdivisions that is) so around 40mph & 2Krpm. That 2Krpm on the hwy sounds right.....

Thanks for the follow-up on the shockwave. I've read where many people assume the red 'goo' on the fitting threads is sealant. I've also seen that it's anti-galling compound & that you're still supposed to wrap the threads in sealant. Did ART clarify that for you?

The red stuff that you see on the airline fittings is just to protect the threads.. you still need to add a thread sealant.

The red stuff on the coupler that goes ontop of the shock to make the shock longer is loctite and needs to be there.

55chevyman- Funny as it may be I have a bunch of photos of the car but none of the interior. I will see if I can't snap a few in the next day or so.

[55chevyman]

Thanks Phillip!

[70 Chevelle]

I'm in love wit the rims any chance of a side shot so I can do a little chop? Great work by the way.

[PhillipM]

I'm in love wit the rims any chance of a side shot so I can do a little chop? Great work by the way.

Should do..