Andrew91GT

You are absolutely right.

I am planning on buying a set of 18x12 wheels and some 345/35/18 tires for the handling setup on the rear. The fronts will most likely be 17 or 18x9.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Ah! I see now. Those are your drag wheels! NICE!

Andrew91GT

I measured the section width as 14 3/16" on a 12.25" wide wheel.

Mounted:

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Wow that is a fat huge tire. What gears you gonna run again?

Andrew91GT

I have 4.11's and don't mind spinning the engine to 8k. Tire is 30" in diameter. I'm going to have to save my pennies and get a gear vendors setup, but it's WAAAAY down the line at this point.

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Can that tire even fit under the fenders I know you minitubbed width wise, but height? lol My 26"'s are slammed on my car. Thats gonna look so mean with the 345 18's

Andrew91GT

Been fixing rust.

Good times!

Driver's side: It got into the floorpan, inner and outer rocker, and where the fender attaches.








Passenger side: More of the same, but got into the firewall and wheel well as well.




I'm kind of embarassed to show any after pics, repair is solid but my patience in grinding the welds down flush with the sheetmetal was lacking... everything is either hidden beneath carpet or behind fenders.

Andrew91GT

Motivation to fix that stuff is so that the rollcage has a solid attachment point to the chassis. Car goes to chassis shop saturday. I wanted to put the cage in myself but couldn't find a good enough (for me) shelf kit and I couldn't justify buying a tubing bender for one cage (both price and the cost of the real estate in my garage!).

Here are a couple other small spots that I had to fix... behind both seats and in front of torque boxes:

Andrew91GT

Jbsteven

Looks like a fun project.

Andrew91GT

Hey, I know you! Thanks for the props. I just hope it's fast enough to hurt some feelings around here. How do you like your new ride?

Jbsteven

Well, if you beat Fubar you know there will be some cuss words on video.


Mine should be picked up hopefully in the next few days outside Detroit.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Man! Every time I see that kind of rust I am glad I live in a state where "Lots of rust!" Means that you found a stubborn bolt that gave you trouble! The repairs you did dont look bad!

Andrew91GT

Car is in chassis shop purgatory at http://www.jamesbschassisservices.com getting a roll cage and through the floor subframe connectors.

It was a difficult decision as I wanted to do it myself, but the reality is that I can get the cage and subframe connectors installed for about the same price as a quality tubing bender which I don't have room for in my garage (nevermind 25' long sticks of chromemoly).

I looked around for a cage kit that would fit to my standards (posted here even to see if anyone had seen one), and really didn't see anything that I would be happy with. James does great work (he did the 25.5 in my mustang) and I know I'll be happy with what he does in my bird.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Any pics of it in the shop?

Andrew91GT

Not yet.

I thought about the cage a little bit and think that I want to use a 5 point harness in it when I'm driving home to keep my head from bouncing off of the bars.

It's not the most impressive thing, but I fabricated a crotch strap bracket using 3/4" tubing and 1" angle iron for the ends that I TIG welded.

I measured on my old seat 13.5" bolt hole center to center. I'm hoping that's accurate, I guess I'll find out when I go pick the car up! I drilled the holes 1/8" oversize to allow for some misalignment.

Andrew91GT

Spy shots:

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Looks nice! Nice also, that they didnt cook your headliner while welding them up! What size / gauge are are those bars? chromoly? Like the chassis-stiffening also!

Andrew91GT

The bars are 1 5/8" .083" chromoly. The bars in the pictures are only tacked. It's not a crazy cage by any stretch of the imagination. Through the floor subframes, 10 point with down bars to the back framerails behind the gas tank, and rocker bars on both sides.

The advantage to doing through the floor subframes and outriggers like pictured is that it's super easy to drop the outriggers down through the floor, drop the cage and weld the top of the bars all the way around, with plenty of clearance to the headliner which avoids burning it. In addition, if you can weld all the way around the tubes, gussets are not required.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

Ah! Makes sense. I will have to remember that for my T/A project!

fireturd350

iTrader: (8)

Love the color and year. :-)

Looking good so far. I'm going to subscribe to keep an eye on it.

I scanned over most of the text so forgive me if these have been previously asked. What are you planning on running for a Fuel System? With that much power I figure you're also looking into a PowerGlide?

One thing to point out. For most people the normal plates to the floor pan work fine in the normal street/strip applications, which of course this doesn't appear to be the case in this project. If NHRA rulebook is anything like it use to be a regular 8 point roll bar you can actually squeeze a little more out of a roll bar if the floor pan factory and modified over a certain amount.

Andrew91GT

Picked it up last night from JamesB (http://www.jamesbchassisservices.com). I'm super pleased with the bar fitment, etc. Everything is super tight and provides maximum clearance and a really clean look:

rear down bars


passenger side through the floor subframes, outrigger bar, cage tied into through the floors and outriggers


through the floors from under the car


rear outrigger that ties into rocker


a pillar bar fitment


door bar fitment


windshield bar fitment

Andrew91GT

The difference in chassis stiffness between this and the BMR subframe connectors I had previously is night and day. Absolutely awesome!

toolegit86

what size tubing did u use for that cage...

Andrew91GT

The through the floor subframes are made from 2"x2" and 2"x3" for the outriggers.

All other tubing with the exception of the small tube from the main hoop to the through the floor subframes is 1 5/8" .083" chromemoly. The small tube is 1 1/2" chromemoly.

Z28FAST1

Cage has some of the best clearance that I've seen, solid choice!!! Any more pictures of the SFC?

Andrew91GT

I'll try to get some more tonight. They're similar in concept to the wolfe racecraft 4th gen through the floor subframe connectors.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

WOW! That is beautiful work! Do you have more pics of where the A-pillar bars go through the dash and then to the floor? I really like that as opposed to going down before the dash. That is some really nice, CLEAN work. Where the door bars bend for the armrest, does that tahe away from your "Thigh-room" much?

Andrew91GT

Working on moving the control arms to between the torque box and framerail so I can throw the new rearend in. Nothing earthshattering here, but figured I'd post some pics. The new hole is currently 1/2", though I'm debating going 5/8" and throwing the bushings in the control arm into the lathe.

Andrew91GT

Some more cage pics:

http://s1109.photobucket.com/albums/...filter=noflash

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Looking great so far!

Andrew91GT

Thanks!

Next is the rearend install. I'm trying to get my ducks in a row and figure out exactly what I want to do before I do it. I have to do three things.

1. Install madman crossmember. To do this I'll need to get the rearend into position with the tires centered in the wheel wells. I'm supposed to have ~1" of extension for the slip tube in the front of the torquearm. Then I need to get the crossmember square in the car, trim the transmission tunnel for best fit, and weld it to the subframe connectors. That shouldn't be too hard. I plan to triangulate the tube and provide some additional bracing to the subframe connectors.

2. Reinforce the 'new' torque boxes. I'm thinking of building something like this:



Where the boxed end slips between the inside of the torque box and the framerail, and gets welded to both. The tube end will weld to the 2"x3" outrigger that goes between the subframe connector and rocker panel.

3. Install frame side of wolfe antiroll bar.

If anyone has any suggestions on better ways to do #2, I'm all ears!

Andrew91GT

Painted the rollcage rustoleum smoke grey in a can.

I used a roller and foam brush. I tried a traditional brush but didn't like the results. This turned out not too bad, I think it will match the interior decently well.

Andrew91GT

I also shoved the rearend under the car.

Pics comparing the old and new:






Pic showing the clearance between the control arm and tire. You can see the relocated control arm position between the framerail and torque box. Yes, these tires really are that big!

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

MASSIVE!

Andrew91GT

They fit, barely!



At this point the filler cap for the rearend hits the shield for the gas tank. I'm going to have to notch the gas tank when I sump it.

drknow90rs_ss@y

iTrader: (3)

OH! That is just awesome!

Orr89RocZ

iTrader: (20)

Your car has same color scheme as my one buddy's formula. Looks great. i cant get over how huge that tire is

PeterFeix

iTrader: (1)

Wow, really massive wheels. Nice build so far, I'm looking forward to your next updates!!

Andrew91GT

Cut the madman torquearm crossmember to size, fit it and fabricated some gussets from 1 1/4 .095" moly. I angled the gussets slightly so that it would resist rotational force a bit as well. I welded the mount and gussets to the new through the floor subframe connectors.

This is the first time for me to TIG weld under a car on jackstands, it's MUCH more difficult for sure than bench work. The tops of the tubes I had to do while looking in a mirror!

built91Z28

As absolutely awesome as that looks, I would take the springs out and cycle the suspension. The axle moves fowards and back a little due to the arc of the control arm. It may wind up hitting a little.

Andrew91GT

That's a great point. I did notice that I had to change the control arm length a little based on the height of the tire vs. the ground to get the tire centered up.

gta324

Nice work!

2k HP streetcar sounds nice..... I'm sure you know about Polly trans am, who only has 1400hp, if you don't... google it and search on youtube.

subs.

74Novaguy

Looks good. wish i had the funding to do a project like this again now that I have a third gen. I love how the tires fit. Have you taken into account for tire swell durring that 8 sec past?

Andrew91GT

Painted the cage rustoleum smoke grey with a brush...

Got the interior back in, mounted the seat. I don't like the seat color cover, will get a grey one but reused the one from the race car for now.

Andrew91GT

I needed a way to attach my 19" wheels back to the new rearend. The new rearend has 5/8" studs, and the wheels use standard small studs.

I had the 2" adapters from my old rearend. I decided to make them work. I bought some moroso tapered 5/8" nuts and with 3 operations modified my spacers to work... the big motivation here is to make enough room to fit a 1" socket which is what the moroso nuts required.

I used a 1 3/8" holesaw which measured slightly larger than the OD of the 1" socket. I put it in my drillpress and cut down to the desired depth, then used a dremel with cutoff wheels to remove the aluminum sleeve of material which was left.

Andrew91GT

If I were going to run slicks, I would have absolutely no chance as the tires would hit the fenders at any real speed.

I don't believe that the drag radials will grow appreciably, though I am going to keep a close eye on them.

Andrew91GT

Got a few things done. Adapters are done and verified, installed.

Here area couple pics of how things fit:





TIG welded the tabs for the wolfe bar onto the reinforcement plate prior to welding to the frame.


Brackets welded to the frame:


Fabricated lower control arm mount reinforcement for the new control arm locations. Made it out of 2" x 2" x 1/8" angle iron. I think at some point I want to box between the inner torque box and framerail and then box that to the through the floor subframe connector and outrigger, but I can do that later.

Andrew91GT

Got some more work done.

Installed Racecraft travel limiters.

Welded tabs to 1/8" plate to weld to frame:



Limiters tacked in:



My helper:



Maybe I screwed up my rearend measurements?



Just kidding, it's set up for a C6Z06 sized wheel. I need to get one for mockup to see how well it fits.

You can see in this pic that the spring locators on my new rearend are a little too wide... it seems that they got welded in wider than on my factory rearend.

Andrew91GT

Made the backseat fit with minitubs!

First I put the seat bottoms back in. Then I disassembled the seat back, drilled out the rivets attaching the two metal pieces on either side of the plastic frame, and put the plastic frame back in:



It BARELY fit. I looked at the outside frame and saw two places that could serve as attachment points... one is the nut for the swivel at the bottom of the seat back which serves as the pivot point for folding the seat down. The other is the attachment for the anchor at the top of the seat that hooks to the post on the stock wheeltub. Since that was gone, I couldn't just put those back on...

What I decided to do, since there wasn't really any room to do anything else, was to use the two nuts welded to the outside metal piece to bolt the seat back to the wheel tubs. I reattached the outside metal frame to the plastic frame, positioned it in between the minitubs, and used a transfer punch to mark the minitubs. I drilled the minitubs, reassembled the seat foam and cover, and put it back in and now I have this:



Pretty cool huh?

I still have to carpet the minitubs to make them look nice, but this is a lot better than what I expected would be possible!