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    Results 41 to 60 of 721
    1. #41
      Join Date
      Dec 2011
      Location
      Pensacola, Florida
      Posts
      42
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by SSLance View Post
      About the same time I found a set of late model GTO seats, had them covered to match the rest of the interior and replaced the woeful factory buckets. The other interior upgrade came with a Retrosound Head unit that fit in the twin shaft dash plate but offered much improved sound, a digital tuner and connections for a USB stick and MP3.



      Your Monte is just plain bad ass. If I may I have a questions about the GTO seats in the G-body. I am wondering what you had to modify to make them fit or bolt in, and also if you lost any headroom after installed. They look killer in there!



    2. #42
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Thanks for the nice words... The passenger seat sits higher than the driver's seat, but I don't ever ride over there so it hasn't been a problem. ;)

      I'm built pretty long in the torso, so I like a lower seat position typically for the extra headroom. With the 8 way power adjusters on these seats, I can put the seat bottom and back in about 3 different positions that are all very comfortable for me to drive in.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    3. #43
      Join Date
      Jul 2008
      Posts
      20
      You sir, are doing it right! Great info, great car, and looks like you are having a great deal of fun with it. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    4. #44
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      I've got another event tomorrow so I tinkered around a bit today and created this...





      My dome light fell out at a track day, so I bolted a piece of sheet metal in its place and stuck a GoPro mount to it. It's actually very secure feeling and the view from the camera is perfect I think. You can see the driver, passenger, dash and out the front windshield. Hopefully the windshield isn't washed out and you can see out in front of the car. If it works tomorrow I'll make a more permanent mount that is a bit more eye appealing.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    5. #45
      Join Date
      Mar 2006
      Location
      California City Ca.
      Posts
      398
      Nice location. be sure to post up a link to vidoes.
      Dale Hayes
      87 turbo t
      turbonetics t60, pet stock location intercooler, ride tech coilovers, rjc exhaust, 60lb injectors with tt chip, ported heads and intake, ported tb, baer brakes, roh 17 inch wheels....now need to finish paint and get it put back together.

    6. #46
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Camera position worked out real well. Main thing I was concerned with was the windshield washing out in the sun like it does with the camera mounted on the back glass. Didn't do that at all. Used this mount for runs 2 and 3.

      http://youtu.be/xRvExmeX82U

      Now that I know it works well, I'll work on prettying it up a bit and make it more solid...it shakes just a bit in corners.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    7. #47
      Join Date
      Jul 2012
      Location
      Iowa
      Posts
      399
      Country Flag: United States
      Im going to have to make it to a few of your scca events down you way. I like how you guys set up your track, its looks like alot of fun, Id have to find a hotel for the night before tho as its a 5 hour drive but thats part of the fun.
      Miles Boyer
      The car hobby is dangerous,if the speed doesn't kill you, the cost of parts will.
      91 V8 S10
      88 Cutlass Pro-Tour
      97 Chevy lifted Z-71
      96 Corvette

    8. #48
      Join Date
      Sep 2011
      Location
      Lawler, IA
      Posts
      569
      Country Flag: United States
      Great looking course. Doesn't look like I'll make it down this year. Pulling the transmission again and LS Fest is in 4 weeks. I will be down next year, promise!

    9. #49
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Quote Originally Posted by silvermonte View Post
      Im going to have to make it to a few of your scca events down you way. I like how you guys set up your track, its looks like alot of fun, Id have to find a hotel for the night before tho as its a 5 hour drive but thats part of the fun.
      The event chairs have done a great job of being creative with the courses this year, really makes it fun. I think it's worth a trip for you...heck the Royals still might be playing meaningful baseball in Sept, maybe make a weekend trip out of it and take in a game. Don't know if they are home or away that weekend though.

      Quote Originally Posted by howehot View Post
      Great looking course. Doesn't look like I'll make it down this year. Pulling the transmission again and LS Fest is in 4 weeks. I will be down next year, promise!
      **T56** ;)

      Hope you get it running again soon Dan, suck you are pulling the trans again.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    10. #50
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Figured I better update the build thread a bit...

      Barney has lived through all of the suspension improvements made the last couple of months and competed in 2 autocross events to feel them out.

      Basically these are the changes we've made on the car:

      Mapped the roll center & corrected a RC migration problem
      Raised car 1" to increase front travel with spring adjusters
      Installed larger front sway bar ... kept same 575# springs
      Installed stiffer rear springs from 125# to 225# ... kept same rear 1" solid LCA mounted sway bar
      Installed DSE LCA's to add caster
      Modified LCA holes to get a little more caster
      Increased caster from 5.5° to 7.5° (Better but still about 1.0° -1.5° less than optimum)

      These changes made a WORLD of difference with the way the car handles. My first event after the changes I bolted on my street tires to run in our new SMC class (basically Good Guys ruleset) and right before I was to start, it started raining. So not only was I learning a new setup, but I was learning it in the rain. The results were not good.

      So for our next event two weeks later, I bolted the Hoosier A6s back on and booked to run and work two heats to get plenty of seat time. This time the results were drastically different. Even the announcers at the event took notice and talked about how well the car was running.

      Here were my times for the day:

      Heat 1
      #1 53.123 (hit a cone on the inside of first sweeper, was surprised how well it turned)
      #2 52.438
      #3 52.307
      #4 50.260 (last one that was going to count, so I stepped it up)

      Heat 2
      #1 50.232
      #2 49.820
      #3 49.553
      #4 50.123 (over drove the corner after the last straight, wheel hopped under braking and dirttracked the corner)

      Here are the posted raw time results

      http://www.kcrscca.org/results/solo/...vent11_raw.htm

      Officially I finished 25th out of 100 drivers. Had my 49.553 counted I would have finished 18th.

      I couldn't have been happier with how well all of the changes worked. Here was the in car video from my 7th run of the day which was also my fastest. My passenger was the Co-chair of the event and also the course designer.

      http://youtu.be/jZQiX6p-ELE

      Now for the future plans...

      The only part of the suspension that hasn't been changed or upgraded after all of these years, are my 5 year old Edelbrock IAS shock absorbers. Replacing these has been on the list for a while and it is getting ready to finally happen. The new parts should be here tomorrow and hopefully the install will go quickly and smoothly and I'll have some time to sort them out and get them adjusted before my next Autocross event.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    11. #51
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Dec 3rd, 2nd day in a row drove the MCSS to work



      Probably be the last day for a while though as winter is supposed to reappear tomorrow.

      Checked the odometer today and have put about 1900 miles on the car since the T56 install last December. Pretty good year. A LOT of those miles were put on 50 seconds at a time competing in autocross events, I think 11-12 total events...need to go back and add them up. Plus a two day track day event at Heartland Park for about 180 miles or so.

      So glad to have a car so driveable yet so fun to drive at the same time. Even had someone pass me on the highway, slow back down...and hang a camera out the window to take a picture of the car rolling down the highway on the way into work today.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    12. #52
      Join Date
      Sep 2011
      Location
      Lawler, IA
      Posts
      569
      Country Flag: United States
      Looking good!

    13. #53
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Body Bushing Replacement Project has commenced...

      Since I knew that I'd need the frame sitting on the wheels to get the bushings all trimmed to fit properly and I knew that I needed to do some work on my billet wheels too, I broke out the stockers.



      Old School... Still looks good too, IMHO...



      Crib stands work like a champ.

      Here is what the core support bushings look like with the weight of the car on the tires.



      And with the frame lifted in between the wheels...



      I'm hoping to tighten that up with new bushings in place.

      I set the car on the stands and started loosening body bolts starting at the #1 position. They all came out pretty easily, if they'd start to tighten up and get stiff I'd reverse the wrench a couple of turns then continue loosening the bolt. All of them came out real well until I got to #6 driver side. A half of a turn with the wrench is all it took...



      I was a bit discouraged but went ahead and took the other 3 bolts behind the rear tires out. #6 passenger side was the second worse, but it came out whole. Here's the old vs new pic...





      Thankfully I think there is enough of the broken bolt sticking down out of the nut that I should be able to get a hold of it with something once I get the body lifted off the frame.



      I'm pretty sure that's the only spot on the frame that will need a repair as well. The rest look pretty good.





      Well, maybe not good but...hopefully good enough.


      I've got the front fenderwells out, and I've loosened the front and rear bumpers...and all of the body bolts out. I'm trying to decide exactly how far I need to lift the body and what else I'll need to take loose depends on that.

      Main thing I don't really want to take loose is the radiator hoses...taking the master cylinder loose isn't that big of a deal.

      Other than that, I'm done for the day. Need to order some body bolts and some rust converter and paint...
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    14. #54
      Join Date
      Jul 2012
      Location
      Iowa
      Posts
      399
      Country Flag: United States
      I just did this project in the last few weeks. I did a full body off tho as only 2 on my bolts came out, the rest had to be cut out thru the floor. I cleaned up the frame and then added in the bracing from TNT race shop.http://www.tntraceshop.com/1978-1988...01-180201.html They worked out pretty good and you could probably make something that works just as well for a fraction of the price. As a side note tho, if you are not going to be keeping the front core support bushings I would like to purchase those from you as Im going solid aluminum in my car and they dont come with core support ones and I need something to put back in till I figure out what im going to use.
      Miles Boyer
      The car hobby is dangerous,if the speed doesn't kill you, the cost of parts will.
      91 V8 S10
      88 Cutlass Pro-Tour
      97 Chevy lifted Z-71
      96 Corvette

    15. #55
      Join Date
      Nov 2012
      Location
      Sacramento, CA
      Posts
      1,918
      Country Flag: United States
      Lance I'll bet you love having that lift.
      Last edited by Ron Sutton; 12-21-2013 at 08:15 PM.

    16. #56
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      You know it Ron, I can't imagine ever being without some sort of lift again.

      Miles, I plan on setting the body down on the Poly Graphite bushings, measuring to see how they all fit and checking the overall height of the body, then deciding on where to go from there. I might trim some of the poly bushings down, replace some of them with delrin...or maybe even replace some of them with aluminum... I'll need the core support bushings at least until I figure all of that out, but if I end up not using them, you get first dibs.
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    17. #57
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      So Plan A to remove the broken bolt was a bust. I raised the back of the body about 5 inches above the frame but it is still pretty tight to get in the area. Frame on the bottom side, covered by the fender hanging down on the outside, and the gas tank on the inside. Can only really get to one side of the bolt through the rear tire area.

      I cleaned the bolt the best I could with a wire wheel and tried to get a nut on it. The threads are completely gone and of the nuts I had on hand, one wouldn't get started and the other slid all the way up to the cage nut. I was able to get the smaller one half way force threaded onto the bolt and attempted to weld it to the bolt. This is where I ran into trouble, I could not get the ground clamp anywhere on the body where the ground would conduct to the bolt. I ended up just holding the ground clamp up against the nut on the back side while trying to attempt to weld them together from the front. After a couple of attempts I thought I had them bonded...but just a little bit of pressure on the wrench broke the nut free again.

      With the nut on the bolt, just a very little tip of the bolt is sticking through and there isn't enough room above the nut to stitch a weld there either. And with the ground clamp just up against the nut, the nut gets red hot very fast and starts burning but it doesn't appear as if the penetration is getting to the bolt at all. I'm assuming this is either because of the ground situation, corrosion on the bolt or just my lack of welding skill. I gave up for the night...

      The only thought I had to try before going with the "cut the bolt off and drill it out method" is to make a small piece of rectangular shaped 3/16s steel and drill a hole in it just large enough to fit over the bolt. This way I could slide it up over the bolt and have a larger area of bolt to weld to the piece of steel. I could then either try to turn the steel or slide a larger nut over the bolt and weld it to the steel plate and then turn them both with a wrench. The idea of the steel is it's thinner which will give me more of the broken bolt below it to get a better weld on. Does anyone think that is worth a shot?

      If that doesn't work, then I'll have to pull the rear bumper cover and possibly the front bumper cover, radiator hoses, brake and master clutch cylinder assemblies and the engine wire harness and go ahead and lift the body up off of the frame to get better access to the area to start the drilling out process.

      Aren't cars fun...
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    18. #58
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Just finished shopping...

      4 frame repair washers ordered from Kirban
      8 body bolts ordered from Fastenal
      2 Eastwood Internal Frame Coating w/Spray Nozzle
      3 Rust Encapsulator Black 15 oz.aerosol
      3 Extreme Chassis Black Satin 14 Ounce Aerosol

      With any luck at all I'll have all of that at home before next weekend.

      Now all I gotta do is get that damn bolt out...
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    19. #59
      Join Date
      Aug 2012
      Location
      Peoria, AZ
      Posts
      1,758
      Country Flag: United States
      Plan B




      Titan Stud Extractor... $19.50
      WD 40 Rust Penetrant... $6.99



      10 minutes later...after a little heat, a little penetrant, a little bit of torque, a little more heat...then some more spray...then one more time with the extractor and BOOM!!!




      Lance wins!!!


      I then removed all of the factory rubber bushings and slid the body portions of the Poly Graphite bushings between the frame and body and set the body down on them, then set the weight of the body and frame on the wheels...and checked the tightness of all of the bushings. They all fit real well...only the #3 bushing on each side is a bit loose. Looks like one washer from the old bushings should be just about right to snug it up tight with all of the rest of them.

      The passenger side is sitting at almost exactly the same height as it was above the frame with the factory bushings and the driver side is up about .015" from before. I think I'm gonna call it good. The passenger #1 bushing was a bit loose then I discovered that one shim was still stuck to the bottom of the factory bushing. Once it was slid into place...snug like all the rest. I'm gonna call it good.

      Here is the worst of the frame holes... #6 driver (behind rear tire) with the new bushing sitting in place.





      Here is the second worst...#2 passenger side (behind the front tire) with the new bushing in place.



      Here is #2 Driver side...



      And here is #6 passenger side



      I think I'm alright with just cleaning them up and coating them to protect them from getting any worse.

      All of the rest of them are almost perfect...as are all of the body locations and cage nuts. It's amazing really...check these out.







      Lance is very VERY happy to have this part of the job past him. Just a little bit more cleaning up and coating, tapping out the nuts, lubing everything up and installing the rest of the new bushings and the new bolts, lining up the body and cranking everything down.

      I'll probably drive it like that for a bit then if I think it's necessary I'll cut up a delrin puck for the #s 1 and 2 positions to really snug things up. I can also plan ahead on a frame repair later on if necessary as well. I think I'd like to wait until I get a mig welder before I do that though. The flux core wire welder just makes too much of a mess.

      Oh yeah...the brown truck stopped by yesterday as well.




      Merry Christmas to me!!!
      Lance
      1985 Monte Carlo SS Street Car

    20. #60
      Join Date
      Jul 2005
      Location
      Grain Valley, MO
      Posts
      92
      Country Flag: United States

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