I'll eventually get back to the Vette, it's just a lot of work still and this thing actually drives.
I also have to finish the 82 Trans Am (Jeff's old car) and then I'm all out of other projects so I can get back to the Vette. It's sitting in the far corner of the shop, indeed collecting dust. It's not like I have not been busy. Oh and Xander "borrowed" a lot of parts for his 77 from my car, so I'll have to get some new stuf here and there. The 77 is running good and is a lot o fun to drive hard. Summers are short here, winters are long...plenty of dark afternoons to tinker.
This is the progress on the TA (text copied of 3rd gen forum)
I did a little more, the car is completely stripped (chassis wise) and I started cleaning up some of the booboos on it. A poorly welded wiper motoor mount section that converts to a later model motor, very very badly done. Going to fully weld it, smooth it out and make sure it's not an eyesore. There's also a section of sheet metal cut and hammered away to ease removal of the tank. Hammered it back in shape as well as it would go, going to weld it up too. Last is a bracket for an external pump or filter, not sure...nothing was there, crappy welds like on the other areas. Flux core crap, no penetration, complete misses and holes blown in the sheetmetal. I ground it all off, as clean as I could and it's now ready to weld in. Easy enough to fix. Leaves the horrible fuel pump access panel, I'll tackle that later. PArts are at the blasters and coaters. Got some back but thinking about tubular arms since these were pitted and it shows (they're the old arms off my 87 camaro) oh and yes, the idiot powdercoater coated my flywheel which was only supposed to be blasted...nice!!!
The container came in so I finally got some of the parts I was waiting on. Most importantly the Stret & Performance Multiport intake. I was amazed at how close it is in size and design to a HSR. The base manifold (hi-ram) is virtually identical apart from details but the same in port shape & size. The upper plenum is slightly larger and more profiled so it doesn't look like a square box on top and has a neat factory distributor cover. The TB is angled slightly down, I hope this is enough to make it fit under a power bulge hood, looks like it's going to be awful close.
Well, did most of the necessary sheet metal work on it, welded up some holes, cut of some misc. crap someone welded on and cleaned up burn holes, sticking wire and blobs. Hammered the jack damage on the fenders back into shape and started cleaning the grime off. Also got most of my stuff back from the coaters. Missing the tank, heat shields, torque arm and crossmember as they were either too large or not ready yet.
Got my tank and some underbody heat shield back from the coater, this was the last stuff.....however I'm missing the large one under the tank. I hope he hasn't lost that one.
Got my bolts and stuff back from the platers. Now all that's left is to clean the underside and spray some bedliner ad I'll be ready to put this back together
i got my hands on a set of barely used eradispeed plus 2 extreme brake rotors from a C5 corvette. The rears in that kit are actually larger than the fronts, about 14" and 1.1" wide. The fronts are even wider but about 13.35" I'm thinking about using the rears although it looks a little silly w/ the small swept area and the baer calipers. May need some bigger brembos but then I'd probably use them on the thicker fronts
Since those brakes will never fit the stock wheels I've been looking for some nice wheels, with a gold center that are larger and wider than stock. I've been looking high and low for BBS wheels, Elipse wheels...didn't find anything that wasn't either 15" or too narrow, the wrong bolt pattern or too modern. Then I found these on ebay, jongbloed modular wheels 17x11 and 17x12 according to the seller but he probably measured the outsire lip to lip. Willing to bet they're 10.5 & 11.5 more likely. Right up my alley so right now they will be shipped to me via container so it's going to take a little while. Can't wait to get these. Probably will have to do some mods to fit them. The guy says they came off an 3rd gen Z28 track car.
just like stock
I like it that they resemble the multi spoke stock wheels a bit
Got the wheels in, looks like it's a very close fit. they're 17x10 & 17x11. I may have to convert the 17x11 to 17x9 or something like that and use the 10s on the rear.
Crappy phone pics
Cleaned up the underside some more. Still amazed at how clean this car is
I did find some more nasty however, this is the inside lip of where the tank filler neck goes through. I already fixed the outside, then just now noticed the inside was cut and the flaps hammered down. I already hammered them back into shape, only need to weld it up and weld the other side too, you can see where I already tacked those together in the upper part of the pic
If the person who did that hadn't touched this car it would have been immaculate.
Well, I finally finished repairing the cuts and hammered over sections under the car and redid all the seams...and I got some vogtland dropsprings for it. Hope they drop better than the Eibachs on my camaro. I used a set of these vogtland on 2 4th gens and was impressed
Now for some bedliner and the underside will be ready to receive all the powdercoated bits
Finally got the duggan heads in. These are gonna be saweeeet!!
These made stupid horsepower on high winding small engines, a guy w/ a drag boat made some 550hp on a 327 and another guy made above 735 with a 400 CID
Slowly getting more done. Finished cleaning up the wiper motor hack job, only needs a final light sanding to smooth it all in perfectly.
Then went to work w/ the wheels. Determining if they even fit, so I tried them on the 92 GTA.
It's smooth with the fender, a little ******* but it'll have to do
I should be able to fit 13" rear brakes in there
Plenty room on the inside
13" fronts fit too.....pfew!! Just not with larger calipers
I also scored a 9 bolt posi 3.48 axle for the TA, only it's equipped w/ SSM lift bars that I'll have to cut off. With them on there's no space for a sway bar and I'm not a drag racer, I want it to corner. The thing is in the way of a watts linkage so I was thinking about maybe building something custom like a wishbone or triangulated 4 link typ deal but w/ a torque arm and no 4 forward links, just 2 arms. Will have to model it up and see if it works. The triangulated arms or wishbone could be attached to the cut off part of the SSM bars
Here's the 9 bolt I got, pretty clean, alu calipers (will swap for larger discs and the necessary brackets) and will have to cut off the SSM lift bars. I may use what's left of the weldd on sections to convert to a triangulated or wishbone type axle locator instead of a panhard bar.
I'm going to redo the axle, install studs on the caps and a girdle cover like I did on my red camaro. The axle will be powdercoated. I'm also going to shim & tune the posi.
Also got some bilstein HD shocks for it. They are not as stiff as the adjustable yellow konis on my red camaro. Not as stiff by a long shot. I hope they will be able to control some very stiff springs. I'm not going to use the lowering springs, I'm going with a ground control weight jacker setup and 5" springs
Th Bilsteins do have a very very thick shaft, at least double the thickness of the konis and the stockers.
Got my stuff back from the anodizer, it was kind of a test to see if it would turn out nice, I think it did.
The tank is a canton coolant reservoir, the other thing is a fuel filler cap. Both are done in matte gold and I think it looks awesome. I'm going to have more stuff done this way, specifically aluminum parts in the engine bay. I also added a pic of how the filler wil sit, that was on my red camaro but not using it on that one. Figured it'd look more "hardcore" on the TA
All it takes to mount is a custom ring w threads and 3 tabs to screw it in the original position. Also have to cut a section off the tank filler neck. Not an ussue.
Finished fixing the wiper motor area and resealing everything on the firewall and in the engine bay Removed some minor surface rust under the old paint and painted it all flat black. Finally I can start to put some stuff back in there. The underside that hasn't been painted will be done with bedliner like I did on the camaro It's the most durable solution for that.
This is what the gas cap is going to look like. Still have to fab the adapter ring and get some black anodized fasteners
Canton reservoir mountd
Fabbed a washer tank for it, just like on the camaro. no canton or similar quality welds but it'll do. It will be anodized gold too but Ill bring a whole batch in to do at once so I end up with the same color (and hopefully a better price because it cost 100$ to do 1 reservoir and 1 fuel filler cap)
Decided to mock up the duggan heads. Something makes me think I'll have to spring for some IDA48s or IDA pattern EFI because this spider intake isn't going to clear man it's fricken tall.
Going to be running a front drive dizzy too, it'll be hard to spot what this engine is once installed w IDA48 webers so it fits under the hood
Decided to spray bedliner today, had to build a "tent" so the stuff would not overspray on tools and other cars
Everything taped off, engine bay too. Taped the sides so the pinch welds would get coated too, with the seam on the vottom acting as the cut off line
Well, turned out I didn't have enough of the stuff left. Have to order some new now
Some more progress, instaled some parts like the hood latch, front panel, fender supports, wiper motor, booster & MC, clutch cylinders and an aluminium prop valve to replace the ugly cast iron one.
Still need to spray the rear frame and above the tank w/ bedliner. Finished the wheel wells
Cut the ssm lift bars off the 9 bolt and welded on bolt in LCARBs, figured the bolt ons would be easier that the weld ons like i did on my camaro, no need to measure all it out to get them on correct (axle off car, more problematic) but next time I'll get some weld ons again. These don't fit 100% right, I want the bolt holes to line up perfectly. Like the weld ons the holes are oversize to give you some room to play around with but I hate it if they are not centered properly. These required hammering to get them on flush and the shock bracket is a little too long, it stands off the axle too far.
Also welded the sway bar brackets on so I don't have to use the U straps. The axle was missing the locator flat on one side so no other choice.
Finished welding the axle and started bolting stuff back on. Good to see it coming together again. I'm going to drop the axle and some other stuff I have off at the powdercoater soon. Also still waiting on my BMR arms and K member
Got the stuff back from the coater and my subframe & arms came in
some misc. parts including the SFCs for my Camaro
The crossmember needs a little wresting to get all the bolts started. I also don't have the upper spring mounts and it looks like without it you need spacers to make up for the difference. I want to use weight jackers and am contemplating building something from scratch
