WildBlue goes RideTech

[rchaskin]

.......I won $1000 gift certificate from Holley Performance through the ASCS Team T/A Contingency program.........

Dang you Geoff. That was Supposed to be mine.......

LOL



Congrats on that one for sure.

[GeoffP]

Thanks Randy! BTW are you on Facebook at all?

[rchaskin]

Thanks Randy! BTW are you on Facebook at all?

No FB. One of the few....LOL

[GeoffP]

Oh come on..all the kids are moving on to other stuff so it's not like it's all teenybopper or anything! My news feed is all about Pro-Touring and car parts! LOL!

I made the decision on what parts to get for my car. I'm going for the Holley Terminator Billet Fuel system kit and Holley's high flow fuel rail kit plus some misc fittings and hose brackets to mount everything nice and neat.

[Quickboat]

Geoff be sure and post some pics of the fender well mods!

[Quickboat]

Last thing is I'm going to have an aggressive alignment on the front -2 deg camber and hopefully 5+ degrees of positive caster. Maybe I'll buy my own alignment tools one day so I don't have to pay the local shop $50 every time I have them change it. SO that's my plan for seasonal prep! Hopefully I'll see/feel a good bit of difference - time to learn!

Tire Discounters has an alignment deal which gives you a years worth of alignments for one up front price. That's what I did.

[makoshark]

Congrats Geoff on the prize money! I'm sure that will come in handy. By the way, can I borrow $1000

Definitely post up your progress of the front fender well mods. I'm about to do the same thing in about 2 to 3 weeks on mine. I'm trying to get the shell into final primer and then I'll start with refitting the front cap. I need to mod the fender wells while I'm at it. By the way, I have the fender lip roller tool from Eastwood if you need to borrow it.

[GeoffP]

Thanks guys - I plan to start working on the car this weekend unless I get surprised with honey do's. Quite honestly I've been lazy and unmotivated because of the weather and it's just that time of year. I have several ideas on how to accomplish my fender well mods but I won't know exactly how until I get in there and do it. I think the hardest part will be getting the wells out without completely removing the fenders. I'm pretty sure it can be done but just not easily.

Thanks for the offer of the lip roller. I actually have a local friend who's into low rider trucks who has one that I can use if needed.

I'm planning to also cut the upper link tabs off and redo the pinion angle and axle centering. It will be perfect this time or I'm not welding anything until it is. I have a couple friends (Tony and Brian Clark) who are going to come help that I know can help me get it right this time so I'm not skeerd like I was before!

Bill Tichenor from Holley has been great to deal with on the certificate. I hope they're generous with the stickers because I plan to give them some space on the car this sea on to give them props on the free stuff.

[rchaskin]

Rod from a few posts up, has a thread on how he modded his fenders.
I didn't search it out, but I saved the pics when I was looking at the thread.
I will email them to you.

[GeoffP]

Got your email - thanks! I plan to do a much more comprehensive change. If I'm going to cut the wells up I plan to do it up right. Gonna do a poster board mock up and hopefully end up with a well design that gives me a huge difference in clearance at the wheel opening plus it'll be a lot lighter.

[rchaskin]

[GeoffP]

Today's the big day - Tony and Brian Clark are coming down to help me fix the rear axle center and pinion angle. The cars up on blocks and the old tabs are cut off and ground smooth. Hopefully I'll be riding again tonight. Pictures probably tomorrow!

[GeoffP]

The new tabs are in place as well as sway bar tabs. I ran out of time before having to go take care of a help request for someone else so no pictures yet...too pressed for time. Hopefully it'll be warmer tomorrow where I can get the welds cleaned up and everything painted. Pictures to follow as soon as I have that done. We were able to get the axle within about a 1/4 degree of exact with the crank and less than a 1/16th of an inch from center - it is VERY close to being perfect.

[GeoffP]

No work today - R&R with the family instead plus too cold in the garage for my liking (yes I'm a wimp when it comes to cold weather!). Progress next weekend after the snow, sleet and ice that's headed my way.

[LUV2XLR8]

where's the pictures?... scrolled through 6 pages.. haven't seen one of "wild blue"

[GeoffP]

Here you go Bennyhaha:

https://www.pro-touring.com/threads/...ridetech/page9

This is my favorite picture:



I am working on sheet metal changes to the car can be this low without rubbing.

[LUV2XLR8]

There ya GO!...

[GeoffP]

Here are some updated pictures of my rear axle project. With some help from a few friends (Rodney Prouty, Brian and Tony Clark, Kevin Poe, and a couple local friends), I got the upper link tabs redone on my axle and replaced the very noisy 4.11:1 gear set with a set of used 3.55:1 gears. I want to give credit and extend thanks to these guys because without each of them helping, I would not have been able to do this project. Money for big boy toys has been very tight this year so I did this on a shoestring budget. The pictures below show the various stages of progress over the last few weeks of working as I had time and was able to get help with certain things like welding and setting up the gears. The first few pictures show the excellent welds.





These next two show the gear set and pattern. The copper color is anti seize compound. I forgot to buy marking compound so this is what I found worked the best for showing the contact pattern and ended up working quite well.




The next one is the new Moser pinion yoke I bought hoping to solve a driveline vibration. It did thankfully eliminate that problem.



The next three are the finished axle before I started mounting it back in the car.





Then I borrowed a local friend's Eastwood fender lip rolling tool. If you haven't used one, it works great. I was able to completely eliminate the tire rubbing problem I'd had previously which was preventing me from lowering the car anywhere near the quarter wheel opening without tearing up the sidewall of the tires.



This is where I lowered the car down on the tires as far as it would go before rolling the lips so I could figure out exactly what needed to be rolled. The copper color is anti seize again. I used it to mark the quarter panel because it is easy to see and easy to wipe off.



These last two pictures are the ride height as it's sitting right now. At this height, it does not rub at all.




The project was a complete success. The gear noise is completely gone and the driveshaft vibration is completely gone. It's odd being able to hear road noise and wind noise inside the car now because it's never been so quiet. It's had an almost unbearable gear whine and a minor vibration the entire time I've owned the car. I had never even noticed the car had a wind noise problem before!

All that's left to do is to adjust the ride height where it's a little more streetable and check the pinion angle at height. Then I'll lower the front to match. I hadn't had time to clearance the wheel wells so hopefully I'll be able to get that done tomorrow.

The only thing additional that I'd like to do to the rear axle is to install a c-clip eliminator kit - maybe next year!

Last but not least, here's the pre-requisite unboxed photo of all the Holley parts I chose from winning the gift certificate at the SEMA dinner:



I chose an assortment of Earl's -6 fittings, a Holley Terminator EFI fuel system kit, and a Holley EFI LSx fuel rail kit. The only thing I have left to get is a fuel pressure gauge so I can adjust the fuel pressure so it matches the OEM Corvette fuel filter/regulator currently installed on the car.

[rchaskin]

Progress looks good!!

[WICKED_SS]

Nice update! welds look great!