So the head came in for the Corolla's motor.... Look's like you got a spare too in case you blow a head gasket. Good call! Oh and Chris said you have sissy back tires and that you should have put a 355 back there! LOL

Wait... that isn't even enough to describe it...

When I first saw this thread, I thought "oh another mod like you lowered it and now you want to see what people think," but... HOLY SH**!!

That looks absolutely amazing!!! Be sure to post some high resolution pics when its all done because I just found my new screen saver and desktop background!!

Wow! Thanks for the compliments guys!!! Let me put it to you this way, I am honored to have my car on your computer as your desktop/screen saver and I hope I can get this wrapped up soon! I will probably be saying that until I finish but I am eager as hell to get it done!

Mike, too funny! Call it what you want and slap Chris for me, thanks!

lol, yea I told Chris that 405's would look even better than that!

You still haven't picked up your steering column bolts that you "just had to have"!! There still sitting in the console of my new Z......

Neil...need an update man, fill us in!

Dude, I am almost getting bored of my same old posts.."I'm too busy, blah..blah..blah" but that is the truth. Hopefully this weekend i'll get some time to spend on the car.

Oh, I did however find the longer bolts/wheel studs I was looking for. In case any of you are wondering, Strange Engineering uses screw in bolts (not press in studs) for wheel studs and the problem with the "originals" was they were a little short (probably 35-40 mm in length) for the new custom wheels. So, I found 12 mm X 1.5 pitch x 55 mm length bolts which now work perfectly. I do need to buy another new set of Mcguard lugs and then i'll be good!

how much for the procharger??? where u located at?

What Procharger?

Update?!?

I think he is in the wrong thread.

UPDATE! Please

Sorry guys, believe it or not I have been working on the car, finally! Getting the rear C6 ZO6 brakes to work has been quite challenging. Here are some pictures to show the axles bare and with the bearings partially pressed on. Actually, to "press" the bearings on I started using a piece of pipe (has the composition of a metal fence post) and hammered the crap out of it, while only moving the bearing and lock collar about 0.5". So, after beating the pipe with a 5 lb hammer and eventually splitting it, I caved and took the axles to a local Napa autoparts store. They have a 20 ton press and it worked very well and so damn easy! LOL.

Now, here's where it get's interesting.....after getting the bearings completely pressed on, I slid the axles in the housing and the bearings sat nicely on the race and the axles turned nice and smooth; however, the backing plate which mounts the caliper would not mount flush with the axle housing (see pics). Keep in mind it's SATURDAY and STRANGE ENGINEERING IS NOT OPEN!!!! I was pissed! So, after swearing for about an hour, I went in the house and played Need For Speed on my PS3, hey that's as close as i'm going to get to 180 mph for a while . So, when Monday rolled around I called the good people at Strange to find out they forgot to mention that I needed a spacer which mounts in between the axle housing and the backing plate!!! LOL, so now I am out the cost of 2 bearings, 2 seals and 2 lock collars plus these spacers and the time I spent swearing...........PRICELESS.

So, regarding the spacer, I talked to my machinist who fabricated the caliper mount adapter brackets and we figured out that the spacer has to be 9/16" thick in order to properly position the backing plate so the caliper will fit over the rotor. I will give him the green light to start making those tomorrow, now when he can get to this is a whole other story. Once he fabs these, I can then re-install new bearings and put these axles in, though I will have to get longer bolts to go through the spacer and the backing plate.

The last pic shows the parking brake shoes and the caliper mount which are attached to the backing plate.

I hate running into setbacks like that Neil,really ticks ya off don't it?
Anyway,could you guys give Neil some slack on the{UPDATE} thing?
He's doing a TON of modification work not to mention trying just to put this car back together.Theres alot of work in this car,and he will let us all know when he gets something going.

Sounds like Strange should be at least partially responsible for the error.

If Strange sells bearings, seals and lock collars, they should bite the bullet, and sell you those AT COST, since you wasted the ones you had because of their lack of communication. And cut you a deal on the spacer, since you coulda bought it from them in the first place.

Neil,
Strange is a PITA sometimes. I ran into an issue with them while rebuilding my 4th gen 12-bolt. I called to see what bearings were needed, and if it was a crush sleeve or spacer set up. They told me the timken bearing numbers, and that it was in fact a spacer.

Well the wheel bearings were wrong, and there was a darn crush sleeve in the thing. And I was pressed for time because I was taking the car to the outer banks in a few days.

Bottom line, they overnighted me a spacer kit for the pinion...shipping on their dime. But told me I had to send the axles in for the bearings to be changed, because they are a special design.

So I definitely feel your pain there man....

J.

Ok, I had Voight Machine fabricate (CNC) the aluminum spacers for correct positioning of the backing plate/caliper. He also fab'd a 2 piece spacer that I could easily slip over the axle with the bearings on to make sure it was the correct size. See pics.

After a trial fit in the axle tubes everything seemed to line up well, so I made yet another trip to my local NAPA auto parts store and had the old (actually new) bearings pressed off. Then, put the new spacers on with the new and hopefully my last set of new bearings! Back to my garage...I knocked out the axle housing T-bolts (3/8"-24) and replaced them with my home version, but longer (approx 50 mm in length). Then put it together.

Pretty trick stuff Neil!

Bout time ya did somethin' Cletus!!

My '08 should be in tomorrow. Can't wait to start modding it!!

I'll call you in the morning....

Next, I slid the axle in for the 1,000 time and tightened down the axle housing nuts. Bolted the caliper to the backing plate adapter bracket and found that the caliper was not centered over the rotor. I also realized that to center the caliper over the rotor (the caliper had to move outward), adding more of a spacer would not work because the backing plate could not be moved any closer to the axle flange. This is because the wheel stud bolt heads would have made contact with the little parking brake cylinder (on the 6 o'clock position). So, my other option was to play with the adaper bracket and see what I could come up with.

By flipping the adapter bracket over, so the flush side was toward the outside of the car, this allowed the caliper to rest almost perfectly centered over the rotor. All that needs to be done to the brackets is to remove 0.032" from the mounting side of the bracket which mounts to the backing plate. This will push the caliper 0.032" outward thus centering it perfectly. See the pics, they might help make this easier to visualize.

Now, a few pics of the rear wheels installed with the caliper/rotor. Finally, making progress!

A couple more photos...

looking good neil

I see I'm not the only one awake at 4:30 in the morning.... I hate exams..


Looks AMAZING Neil. I can't wait to see it running

'08.....Camaro?

absolutely amazing car. im soo jealous. keep up the great work, can't wait to see it finished :HAIL:

The '08 he speaks of is actually the Transformer toy Bumble Bee.

NICE!

Neil so when will I recieve shippment of my IROC when its done...lol car is coming along awsome, take your time bro. Keep up the great work.

Too funny and to be honest it would take a BIG $$$$$$$ check for me to part with this car!

Do you mind if the check bounces?

Now, finally a moment I have been waiting for, for quite sometime. Not exactly starting the engine, but I now have a rolling chassy with almost functional front and rear brakes. Here are some pics.

and more....The last pic shows the backside view of the rear caliper installed. I just put on the ss braided flex hose on all four calipers. Just to share, I bought universal ss braided flex hose and used the proper banjo and brake line fitting attachments. Alot cheaper than the ready made kits and work just as well! I bought mine at Smiley's Performance.

Sorry, I should have said a suit case full of cash!

Nicely done Brother, I've been following your build off and on for a while. Is this goning to be primarily a show car or a street car. I hope your building it to drive! Nice work!

that paint looks great. i prefer stock door handles tho

Damn a thirdgen with C6 ZO6 brakes thats sick. This is going to be one of the best thirdgen's to date! I have to agree with rwdtech tho im not too big on the door handles at least yet.

Coming along great Neil, make sure you give her a good wash before you ship her...hahaha. Keep us posted I give you 5 thumbs up...lol

Watching your project come along is like watching my infant daughter grow up. I can't wait to see what happens next and every new detail brings a huge ear to ear grin on my face . Thanks

That font end sits a little high, you may want to cut a few coils off those springs. (yes I know the engine is not in the car) I really like those wheels and brakes together. My R15's hide too much of my Wilwood setup

Absolutely gorgeous car! Gives a lot of inspiration to the rest of us. LOL, I am now looking for a house so I can work on my car instead of an apartment parking lot

Thanks all for the nice comments! As for the "door handles", I have no problem with some of you not particularly caring for them, as I always say, "to each their own". This mod has grown on me and in-person they appear more subtle than they do in the photos. To me, I am glad I made this mod, because it is one of several that will make this car unique.

Anyway, thanks again guys!

if that is not the understatement of the year I don't know what is

Cletus, get that damn 5 lb. dumbell off the rear hatch!!

Lookin' good though.....

Cant wait till we smoke your neighbor's Cobra with it!

Hurry up and get that thing runnin'....................

LOL, if I didn't have that dumbell on the hatch, the hatch would shoot up like a rocket! Those new struts are damn strong! Don't worry, the dumbell is rubberized and is sitting on the glass. After the engine/tranny are in, i'll cut the hole in the trans tunnel then the center console can go back in and i'll get that hatch operational. Since it's motorized, I don't like slamming it.

Wow.. Awesome looking car..
Reading from your first post to your last, has it really been almost 9 years you have been working on this car?

I skipped around some in all the reading.
If it has, you have to be going nuts.
I could not imagine throwing that much money into my car, and not being able to drive it for that long.

Oh course, do to this I will probabily never have a car that looks and performs that nicely. But I don't mind, I am just way to impatient and love to drive it to wait that long.

But congrats. Your car is looking great.
The rear extension turned out much better than I thought it would.

looks amazing! those brakes look huge. awesome car in every way.

WOW...WOW...and did I say, WOW! Keep up the good work Neil, Car is looking amazing.