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Huge undertaking, my hat goes off to you. You have anymore of those bump stop plates laying around, I could use a set...lol
csouth:
Don't have any extras but I could email you a pdf template if you're serious. I used the SPC ball joint spacer plates as a template so probably only works well with SPC arms.
Well I haven't made much progress on the car the past few months, but I have made some nice improvements to the shop with the addition of a new drill press and 60 gal air compressor. Pick them up for $200 ea. they're only 5-6 months old, the seller bought them for his auto body business but decided to retire. Now I finally have enough air to run my blasting cabinet at full power! I also picked up a package deal on some ProComp heads, E-brock 7111 manifold & carb, Lunati cam kit, some slightly used flat-top pistons and a used small block crank. I plan to sell off the pieces I don't want, I've already sold the carb, looking for buyers for the Lunati Cam kit and the SpeedPro pistons. I'm gonna keep the crank as a spare, at least until my engine build is finished.
With the ProComp purchase, I've decided to go the stroker route for my engine build. I'll be starting the engine very soon and plan to get a hydraulic roller cam from Mark (CutlassEFI). I've decided to stop messing around with odd-ball combinations for the front disc brakes, I'm gonna give Tobin at Kore3 a call and go with one of his C5 Vette kits. They comes with billet aluminum hubs to even further reduce my un-sprung weight at the front wheels.
Last edited by cdrod; November 18th, 2014 at 07:07 AM.
You're making good progress. Are the ProComps stock,or? I'm also going to buy the Kore3 C5 brakes, the guys at Pro-Touring rave about his products and customer service.
dc2x4drvr:
Thanks for the compliment. I called Bernard Mondello to get some info on the heads, I learned alot during our conversation. The ProComps heads are stock in that all the valves are also ProComp, not the "upgraded" version he sells with the Edelbrock valves. One of the biggest issues with the PC valves is variation in stem diameter across the set of 8 valves. Bernard measures each valve and machines the guide to fit that individual valve so the clearances are right. He also cut the heads down to 70cc combustion chambers for sbo use. I wish they had the better valves, but Bernard said the PC valves would be fine for my daily driver application.
I had a 45-min conversation today with Tobin at Kore3 to discuss my brake system. I can see why all the ProTouring guys rave about him. He was super friendly and really knows his stuff, and he offered master cylinder and booster suggestions to work well with my Blazer rear set-up. He even looked over the brake design spreadsheet that I put together to help me calculate the right MC size and the correct front to rear bias. I have to work out a few wheel fitment details and then I'll be ordering the Kore3 325mm C5 set-up with the billet aluminum hubs. Now that the chassis is nearly finished, it's time to get back to work on the body. I need to replace both quarter panels and the trunk drop offs.
Last edited by cdrod; November 19th, 2014 at 03:10 AM.
I've been really busy with work lately, but finally got some time yesterday to get back to my project. It has been so long since my last work day, I spent the better part of an hour catching up my memory on where I had left things. I decided to work on the rear suspension to check for binding or clearance issues. As I raised the differential without the springs installed, the suspension seemed to bind about half-way. I'm so glad that I checked, because the rear sway bar hits the W-27 differential cover, preventing full compression of the suspension. Up till now the rear suspension has been at full-droop, so the bar was under the pumpkin, but as I raise the pumpkin, the sway bar swings up behind the differential. The W27 cover is not as curved as a stock cover, which is the cause of the interference. Looks like I'll have to run a stock cover or one of those TA girdle covers.
Lately it seems like I'm running a race with ankle weights and waders on. I just can't keep any momentum on my project in 2015. I finally found some time to finish up the rear suspension. I had to remove the W27 cover because the Hellwig sway bar wouldn't clear the big bulge on the bottom. It has since been replaced with a TA Performance cover, no so much for the strength but for the extra capacity, better cooling and of course it looks really cool. I will be putting the W27 cover up for sale in a week or so if anyone is interested. I also was unhappy with the rear shock mounting. It has always bothered me that the factory mounting position would bind up the shock movement. So I found a relocation kit from Spohn that will allow the shock mount to be rotated to remove the bind - the $40 kit seemed like a reasonable expense. The sway bar and shock hardware is nice and tight, but I've left all of the control arm bolts loose until that magical day when the car can stand on it's own - LOL.
Next up is the front suspension, and wheels and tires. I really need to make my final decision on the wheels as the stock 14" rims will not clear my disc brake upgrades. I hope to get the engine off to the builder next week, and then its quarter panel replacement time for me. Here's a few pics of the shock mounts and the rear suspension.
Shock kit from Spohn.
Rear suspension:
Last edited by cdrod; February 3rd, 2015 at 09:09 AM.
Rod, too bad you couldn't use the W27 cover, but that replacement looks great also. I've been reading your engine threads with great interest because I think a stroker small block with PC heads is a great option for me as well. Since you're still farther down the road than I am with my build, I will continue to follow your build to see how it goes for you, especially with how your engine performance turns out.
Rod, too bad you couldn't use the W27 cover, but that replacement looks great also. I've been reading your engine threads with great interest because I think a stroker small block with PC heads is a great option for me as well. Since you're still farther down the road than I am with my build, I will continue to follow your build to see how it goes for you, especially with how your engine performance turns out.
Soldier:
Thanks for the compliments. Where are you on your project? I think I looked at the car in your avatar pic. Was it on Craigslist about 2 years ago? I was in search of a better body for my car but decided to fix what I have instead.
Rod, I haven't even started cutting yet. I'm still in parts collection mode! I think my car was on Craigslist a couple years back, but after the owner didn't get any bites (I never saw it there, just what he told me) he put it on ebay where I found it. It was in Arlington and is in really poor shape, almost exactly like yours. I'm anxious to get working on it, hopefully this spring. There is certainly plenty to do as you're well aware from your own project...
Rod keep at it, the hardest part is staying motivated, I cant tell you how many times a little obstacle made me lose some traction, but get a little thing done and then another and soon all of sudden you make a big gain. The guys here are a big help getting you and keeping you motivated. All that aside your build is looking great. Head down and keep on keeping on
Lately it seems like I'm running a race with ankle weights and waders on. I just can't keep any momentum on my project in 2015. I finally found some time to finish up the rear suspension. I had to remove the W27 cover because the Hellwig sway bar wouldn't clear the big bulge on the bottom. It has since been replaced with a TA Performance cover, no so much for the strength but for the extra capacity, better cooling and of course it looks really cool. I will be putting the W27 cover up for sale in a week or so if anyone is interested. I also was unhappy with the rear shock mounting. It has always bothered me that the factory mounting position would bind up the shock movement. So I found a relocation kit from Spohn that will allow the shock mount to be rotated to remove the bind - the $40 kit seemed like a reasonable expense. The sway bar and shock hardware is nice and tight, but I've left all of the control arm bolts loose until that magical day when the car can stand on it's own - LOL.
Next up is the front suspension, and wheels and tires. I really need to make my final decision on the wheels as the stock 14" rims will not clear my disc brake upgrades. I hope to get the engine off to the builder next week, and then its quarter panel replacement time for me. Here's a few pics of the shock mounts and the rear suspension.
Shock kit from Spohn.
Rear suspension:
Dude really you couldn't figure out how to make a spacer and have it welded to your bracket or just float till bolted up!! The cover you change to is cool but i like the w27 better.
Dude really you couldn't figure out how to make a spacer and have it welded to your bracket or just float till bolted up!! The cover you change to is cool but i like the w27 better.
I tried flipping the bar over-just made it hit sooner. I tried rotating the U-bolts toward the back of the axle but it still hit. I could have added a spacer but it would have need to be 1-1/2" to 2" lower. Didn't like how it looked. I'm OK with the TA cover, it definitely strengthens the pumpkin and I like having the drain plug for servicing.
I pulled the trigger (or more acurately- the Visa card) on the wheels and tire for this project. Because I'm upgrading the brakes and adding discs on the rear, I could no longer get the 14" SSII rims to fit with out rubbing. I bought the rims from Summit they are 18x9 on the back with a 285-40R18 tire and 18x8 on the front with a 245-45R18 tire. I really wanted to go with a 17" rim with a taller sidewall tire (I'm not a big fan of the skinny "roller-skate" tires look) but the only wide tires I could find for the rears were a 40-series. Really wanted a 45 or 50 series for more rubber in the side walls, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks. The backspacing on the rear rims is 5.25" and there is alot of space between the inside of the tire and the frame rails, shocks, etc. Some guys have squeezed 295 or 305s in the rear without modifications but I didn't want to cut it so close and I'm not sure just how much the disc brake rotors on the rear will push out the wheel toward the fender lip.
The rear suspension is all together (but not torqued until the car is fully assembled) still need the brake lines to the rear calipers and an axle vent. Up front I need to install the springs and sway bar and then I can roll it out of my shop to clean up a bit. The frame has been on jack stands for the past 8 months since bringing it home from the powder coater. I may need to go with a shorter upper ball joint stud in the front, I think I have the upper arm a bit too high adding little too much camber gain, but I'm not sure of the final ride height until I have the car fully assembled and on the ground.
I dropped off the 350 short block to Faerman Racing last week, Dennis said they would start tearing it down in about 2 weeks to check the condition of the block and crank, I plan to replace the rods and pistons so no need to prep them for the rebuild. I'm a little bit on the fence about using the aluminum heads; I'm getting very trustworthy advice to go with the aluminum heads, but the engine builder is concerned about the size of the intake runners (188cc on the aluminum vs. 160cc on the stock iron heads). I talked it over with Faerman and we decided to use the aluminum heads with a .027" head gasket and shoot for 10.5:1 compression. If the throttle response is poor (because of the intake port velocity of the larger port) we'll go through the #7 iron heads and use a .051" head gasket to bring the compression down to 10:1. I'll put the aluminum heads up for sale. I really think I'm gonna be alright with the aluminum heads. It just makes sense with all the other "upgrades" I have planned for this motor (narrow ring pistons, small journal stroker crank, roller cam and full roller rocker arms).
Here's some pics of the wheels and tires. I think it looks SWEET!
Bandit U-109 wheel with 285/40R18 tire.
Fronts are 245/45R18s.
Rear shot with the TA cover, tubular Helwig sway bar and Bilstein shocks.
Front suspension with +.5" taller LBJ and +.9" taller UBJ. Still need springs and sway bar.
Close up of the TA cover, still need disc brake lines and axle vent.
Last edited by cdrod; February 25th, 2015 at 09:52 AM.
Thanks guys for all the props! I look at how much work I've done so far and how much I've yet to do and i understand now why so many people encouraged me to start with a better car. But I'm still having fun and I'm happy with the results!
Getting back to work on the car. I'm pretty much done with the chassis. I'm planning to run aluminum ProComp heads and will need an electric fuel pump. I've got my eye on one of the tanks from Tanks, Inc. with internal fuel pump but I need to run a return fuel line down the RH frame rail for this pump. My Corvette Z06 calipers should arrive any day now so I can finish up the front suspension, spring and mount the sway bar.
I've started welding sheet metal again, this time fixing the inner quarter panels. I've re-welded the RH truss brace which was removed for the floor pan installation. Now I'm welding a patch on the LH inner quarter which was very rusty at the floor. I found a decent donor car and cut out the inner quarter sheet metal to serve as a patch for my rusty metal. I'm almost ready to weld in the patch. Here's a few pics"
Finally, after months of research and searching for parts I found the right parts at the right price to finish the front brakes and suspension. I found a great price on Amazon.com for some brand new, Z06 C5 Vette calipers and got Summit Racing to price match with free shipping! I'm not too crazy about the bright red color, but the red calipers were cheaper than the black calipers - go figure.
The aluminum hubs and caliper mounts are from Kore3; I bought them used from a guy on the ProTouring.com website for a really good price too - thank you Jeff! As much as I want to jump back on the suspension and install these new parts, I should stay focussed on the task at hand and finish welding the inner quarter panel first.
I assembled the front Vette calipers this morning. I was concerned about the wheels clearing the calipers, but there is gobs of room. Probably could have gone with a larger rotor, but the C5 Vette rotor is plenty big enough at 12.8". Here are some pics.
Kore3 caliper bracket and aluminum hub.
Mounted the caliper, not sure I like the bright red color or the "Corvette" lettering.
Finished patching the inner quarter panel and reattached the brace. With the quarters and braces welded in place, it's finally time to work on the quarter panels. I'm planning to set the body tub back on the frame next weekend, then I will level the chassis, before cut away the old rusty quarters. This is another major milestone in my project plans. I'm more excited than a kid waiting for Christmas! LOL.
Here's some pics of my latest welding efforts. The plug welds could look better, but they are lightyears ahead of my first welds.
Screwed in place ready and to weld the patch.
Welded patch waiting for the brace.
Finished patch with the brace.
Last edited by cdrod; June 20th, 2015 at 05:30 PM.
Today I reattached the body tub to the chassis so I can start on the quarter panel replacement. It sure is nice to have the frame and body together again after being separated for so long. Started removing the RH quarter panel. I have replacement skins so I'm not removing the whole quarter - I plan to flange the sheet metal together at the upper body line and plug weld the wheel openings and the trunk dropoffs. Here's some pics:
Using the engine hoist to lift the body high enough to roll the chassis underneath.
Reunited. I keep hearing that old song by Peaches & Herb and I can't get it out of my head.
Cutting off the quarter panel. Had to call it a day because the cordless drill battery died as I was drilling spot welds.
looks like its coming along nicely! I just put quarters on my supreme, finished up the last one this sunday. all in primer.Check out my thread to see how i did it if you want . https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...e-rebuild.html
Getting back to the car project after summer vacations and kids camps, etc. I've got a bit more rust than I previously thought; the outer wheelhouses have some rust thru behind the rear wheel (I could see this damage and knew I'd have to fabricate a patch), but the front of the wheelhouse above the rocker panel has some rust thru that I couldn't see until the quarter panel was removed. So I ordered some Goodmark wheelhouses and will cut patches from them. I still plan to flange the existing quarter panel just below the upper edge where it folds over to the trunk opening. I'm happy with the way the trunk and doors fit and don't want to chance screwing up these critical fit areas. The RH quarter is cut away and now I'm working on the patches to the wheelhouses, trunk drop-off.
There is a lot of surface rust inside and around the wheelhouses so I may take the body off the frame and put it back on the cart so I can sandblast without getting my pretty new powder-coated frame all dirty. I also need to use my new HF scaler to scrape away all the under-coating from the wheel wells. Here's some pics of my quarter panel work so far:
I've started the ball rolling on the stroker engine build - A huge thank you goes out to Mark Remmel (CutlassEFI) for sharing so much info/experience and answering my many questions. It's been Christmas in July as all of the engine parts started arrive a few weeks ago. I delivered the parts to the machine shop on Thursday. He will clean the parts and check the block and crank next week, then it's off to the crank grinder to stroke the crank. You can follow my engine thread here if you want to know the particulars about my build.
I ordered a pair of outer wheelhouse patch panels and some trunck "dropoff" panels from Goodmark to fix the rusted thru areas around the wheel openings. I only needed 3 small areas from the patch panels, but it was much easier to start with the stamped patch panel than to bend my own sheet metal to fit. Even with the Goodmark panels I spent all day cutting, trial fitting, dollying, and welding these 3 spots. I'm learning that it is very important to have both sides of the weld joint flush and tight to make a good weld with the MIG welder. If there is a gap (panels not touching) or if one side is slightly higher than the other the welds don't penetrate both pieces of metal and I usually blow thru the thin sheet metal. All those YouTube videos and V8TV shows make it look so easy - LOL!
I took the day off and spent some time working on the RH quarter today. I'm glad that I only cut off the RH side because I was able to take measurements from the factory quarter on the LH side to compare the fit of the replacement panel on the RH side. I made several cardboard templates from the original Qtr and overlaid them on the replacement panel to see how well it was fitting. This worked out really well as the panel is mocking up well. I need to trim the top of the repop panel to fit the flanged existing qtr, and trim to fit the over the rocker panel. I think one more good work day and I'll be ready to start welding!
I stopped by the machine shop this morning to drop off the heads, intake manifold, and a PRW balancer & flex plate. The crank has been re-ground .010" undersize on the mains, and the rod journals were ground for a 2" journal and offset to increase the stroke to 3.5" (stock stroke is 3.385"). The block has been magna-fluxed (to check for cracks), and align honed and bored. The cylinders will be finish honed with a BHJ torque plate. The next step is to check the valve spring pressures on the heads and balance the rotating assembly. I'm waiting on delivery of the cam bearings, freeze plugs, head & intake gaskets, and a Melling oil pump & pickup. Here's a few pics:
I took a break from assembling the engine today and finished up some welding work. One of the surprising rust spots on this car were the locations where the convertible top frame mounts to the body. For some reason they held water and are severely rusted. I was lucky enough to find a decent convertible body to cut out some patches to fix these areas on my car. There is a place in Spring, TX (north of Houston) called South Texas Muscle & Classics (STMC) that has about 20-30 parts cars from the 60s and 70s. They happened to have a '72 Cutlass convertible that donated the patches I needed to make this repair. It was a tricky place to fix for a number of reasons:
1. There are many layers of metal that come together in this area; inner & outer wheelhouses, inner quarter panel, convertible top structural brace.
2. It's a structural point.
3. The location points for the convertible top frame need to be preserved.
So, while I have the outer quarter panels cut away for replacement, I had easy access to the back side of this mount to make the repair. I cut away the cancerous brace, leaving the inner quarter panel metal in place (for locating the top frame mounting holes). Once the structural brace was spliced in, I left the lower section loose where the wheelhouses meet, and then welded in the inner quarter panel patch. Once this inner quarter was in place, I then plug welded the inner quarter panel and the structural brace to the wheelhouses. It was very tricky, but I think it worked well and the mounting points for the convertible top frame should be very close to the original locations. Here's some pics:
Here's what I started with.
This pic shows the patched structural brace and the inner quarter is cut away.
The finished patch.
Last edited by cdrod; October 2nd, 2015 at 08:52 PM.
Family life and work have made it difficult to get to my shop lately but I have been busy building the engine in my garage. It much easier to sneak in an hour or 30 minutes here or there when it's just 20 feet away in the garage; it's a 20 minute drive to the shop so getting there eats up some of my working time. I decided to build the engine in my garage so I could keep things moving along.
I picked up the machined block from machine shop a few weeks ago and have assembled the bottom end. The '76 350 block was bored out to 4.125" and the crank was stroked to 3.5" bringing the final displacement to 375cid. I had a little difficulty dialing in the cam but eventually learned the finer points of using a dial indicator and got the cam dialed in with 1˚ degree of advance. Next on the engine to do list is milling the intake manifold to fit the ProComp heads. The heads have been cut down to reduce the combustion chambers to about 68cc's and now the intake manifold sits too high to bolt it to the heads. Need to mill .070" off each side to get things to line up properly. Here are a few pics.
stupid ? on your rear brakes. With the thick backing plate, how does this not end up with the axles to short to fully engage in the differential? If I'm doing this and am rebuilding my BOP rear end w/custom axles, should they be longer by the increased thickness of the backing plate?
I did this on mine already. It does not move the axles outward at all. the spacers only move the backing plate out to make the calipers line up. I only needed to make the backing plate spacers .125 in(1/8th in) thick. The split rings keep the bearings seated against their stop on the inside of the axle housing.
Interesting note. I am running the same front and rear brake set up on mine with a drum brake dual master cylinder and booster. I have not added a proportioning valve as of yet. It stops extremely well and under lock up applications bias is just about perfect.
P.S I also have the Bandit wheels on mine as well. They look great and are one of the few options that fit over the corvette front brakes.
for the S-10 rear brake set up, could you sell me a set of both of those spacers ?
Rosewood:
I'm sorry for the late reply, some how I missed your post. I didn't make the spacers for my rear brake conversion. I gave the inner and outer dimensions to a local machine shop and he made the "donuts" for me. I cut them in half with a hacksaw and marked the pairs to keep them together.
Originally Posted by Goldhawg
stupid ? on your rear brakes. With the thick backing plate, how does this not end up with the axles to short to fully engage in the differential? If I'm doing this and am rebuilding my BOP rear end w/custom axles, should they be longer by the increased thickness of the backing plate?
thanks
Goldhawg:
The disc brake backing plate is about 3/8" thick whereas the stock drum plate is only 1/8" thick. The spacers were made to compensate for the additional thickness. They fit inside the thicker disc brake backing plate to hold the bearing and seal inside the axle tube where they would be with the drum backing plate. It takes a little bit of acrobatics to install the spacers between the bearing & seal, and the retaining plate.
Last edited by cdrod; March 17th, 2017 at 02:05 PM.
Reason: missing text
October 21st, 2014, 05:03 PM
