Project Getaway

[eddiek]

Well I mentioned in the first thread that I was going to talk about and show things that we didn't show in the Super Chevy Magazine article. Well this is one thing that I fell was a key move for the build. So please read on and I hope this helps some guys that battle the same thoughts and images I do.

Before you start your build you have image in your mind on how the car should look. It is something you imagine and know that is what you are shooting for as the end result. We had the car on the lift set to the ride height it would end up at with the wheels on it and took a few steps back. Just looking at it something just didn't look right to me on how it was going to sit. Now we all know how important the stance of the car can really be and on a Pro Touring car it is the stance that makes the car. So now that we have a idea on how the car will look it was time to get some rough measurements.

The first thing we noticed was that the front end was a little to high. With the Chris Alston Chassisworks front clip the car at ride height will have close to 7 3/8 rocker height and that was to high for what we wanted. So what you will see here is the whole process of how we made the front clip work for us. It is a rather easy process and can make a huge impact on the way your car turns out. Now keep in mind that sometimes one change like this will affect 10 more changes down the road but who do you know just ever bolts something on and is really happy.



First we looked at the car on the lift at ride height.



Next I cut into the welds on the lower mounting plates being carefull not to remove and legnth from the lower frame rails.


Now with the plate gone I had the lower frame rail with no end.



Next was to make a new plate for how much we wanted to raise up the front clip. For us we wanted to have a rough height of 5 inches. So I made a plate that was a extra 2 3/8 since that was the amount needed to get where we wanted.


Next I tacked it right where it was when we removed the stock one and just had the new mounting holes 2 3/8 lower.

Just do the same process for the other side and that will be it.


Next we bolted the front clip back on the car and it ended up right where we wanted it 2 3/8 higher in the chassis and with a rocker height of 5 inches. The front tubes also fit on with very little changes. The tube has a really nice bilt on flange to it that we removed and the tube slipped right onto the nub that was on the frame already. Now just remove a section of tube and re-weld the bolt on flange part and your ready to go.




Now like I said early on one change like this will impact 10 others and when I get a few minutes in the next few days I will show what they all were. But in the end it wasn't that hard to fix and I feel will be well worth the effort. EK

[CruizinKev]

wow looks great!!! can't wait to see the wheels bolted on!

[eddiek]

Sorry for the delay guys. As you can tell I have been slacking on updates. This time of the year is tough since my Racing gets really busy and I'm on the road a lot. When I do get a chance to do things it is mostly with my little girl that just turned one 2 weeks ago.

Since the last post a lot of things have went on with the build. One of the most exciting things is the support from Fesler Built Products. All I can can say is Chris builds some of the nicest billet products I have seen. The quality is second to none and the best way I can put it is the parts they make are just BAD ASS. I will throw some pictures of that stuff up at a later date.

Well anyway, I have gotten a lot of emails in the past few weeks of people wanting to know what else had to be done with the front clip. Well here it is.

The first thing is since we raised the front clip 2 3/8 everything that bolts to the clip and uses holes to locate it will be that amount high. So it really wasn't very hard to make that correction. What we was take the center of the 6 main holes in the front radiator support and move them up the 2 3/8 to get the location point. We also moved the support to the back side of the mounting tabs. This made the fenders now move back .125 since that is the thickness of the mounting plate. The fenders allowed us to correct that with ease since the factory slots we wide enough. Here is the picture process of that.


Drilling out the welds on the support





Now the support will bolt to the back of the front clip.





The fender is all mounted up and lines up dead on.

We then mounted the front wheel to the hub and now have the look that we were after.


But it didn't turn out as easy as we thought. They say if you make one change it will take 5 others to make it work. Well whoever said that was right. Since I was using a really wide 19 inch deep dish wheel that was the next area we had to address. The wheel would now hit the inner side of the fender when we turned it. But wait that was not it. It now also hit the firewall bump out under compression of the shock. So we now had to address those 2 issues.

[eddiek]

So the wheel hitting the inner fender was easy. All we did their is have to narrow up the width from center to center of the front wheels 1 inch. So we removed that in the control arms. The top was easy since it had a turnbuckle and the bottom we cut off the eye loops and shortened the arm up.

He is a car at ride height. In the long run I feel it will be well worth it and the extra effort will be justified.





Upper Arms getting shortened



So since the wheel hit the firewall and we were going to smooth out the wall are we just removed it.







You can now see where and how the wheel hit



We just removed the tab to a spot we felt will clear and the wheel fit 100%. We even took the shock out and ran it through the travel range to make sure of that.



Well guys. That is all I have time for right this minute. I will try to get something up next week showing how we cut the firewall back to the best spot and get the new one all fitted in. Thanks EK

[cobragt]

Why such a big wheel in the front?

[BossaNova]

Awesome. Love the way it sits. Thanks for sharing.

[eddiek]

Why such a big wheel in the front?

Well the reason is I wanted it to fill the fender well opening. A 18 would do it fine but you would need to use a tire that wouldn't have close to the same aspect ratio of the rear. I fell it wouldn't look right with a lower profile tire in the rear then the front. Both front and rear of the car have almost the exact amount of sidewall showing and I think that helps balance the car out. Most people put the rake into the stance of the car by raising or lowering the front or rear. My car sits dead level on all 4 corners and the rake was put into the body when it was mounted to the chassis. This should help with how it will perform. Thanks