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Great work man! Basically what I want to do to my car when I eventually get a house and a place to do a long term project. Complete disassembly, cleaning, painting...making it right.
Good luck getting it finished up!
J.
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ARE shortblock, Ross custom boost pistons, arp rod bolts, ARE ported oil pump,
MTI 2e 5.3L ported heads milled .030 with double springs,
228/224 113+1 Comp XE-R, Cloyes adjustable timing chain, LS6 valley cover,
fast 90mm intake, NW 90mm throttle body, SVO 30lb injectors, 85mm MAF,
ASP underdrive pulley, 160* t-stat, stainless LT headers 1.75" primaries
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Still waiting on my stuff from Summit, mistakingly chose USPS shipment, that crap always takes way too long This is holding me back...what a bummer
I got a replacement fender, in much better cond. than mine. Only needs 1 little dent touched up and a little but of surface rust fixed, so I'll blast that spot, fix it and it'll go on the car.
Got more of the wiring and fuel + brake lines done. Also installed the solid motor mounts,
Engine bay sure looks clean all painted, I'll have to redo the outside of the car too. the red is completely faded, especially on the roof...and with the rusted rear quarter...I'll just have to bite the bullet.
Pressed in the A arm bushings and was anticipating issues with fitment from reading some threads here, however the bushings fit fine in the crossmember, no need to spread out the openings for the arms. I have a feeling some people don't press these things in far enough
Now that I have the engine out, I'm really thinking about swapping the cam and heads. I have some old TFS Twisted Wedge Gen1s lying around. They need the exh. valves ground or maybe new valves. The guides are OK, I replaced those years ago but some exh. valves had carbon buildup, most likely from a set of leaking stem seals but I'll have to check. Toget with an LT4 hotcam it should make a good amount of power over the L98 stocker I have now. The timing chain was sloppy on it anyway. The engine did pull very strong but there's always room for improvement.
Pressed in the A arm bushings and was anticipating issues with fitment from reading some threads here, however the bushings fit fine in the crossmember, no need to spread out the openings for the arms. I have a feeling some people don't press these things in far enough
I've seen before where they're not installed in the correct direction.
No, too busy..maybe tomorrow. Waiting on parts from summit. Stinking customs here is sitting on it since the 24th...deciding how much they are going to hassle me out of this time. Note to self, never again use USPS for shipping because they use our National TNT forwarder and they SUCK. I should have chosen FedEx or UPS.....bad mistake.
My 86 was coated with that waxy sticky crap when I got it. All up under the hood and all over the undercarrige. Ive cleaned it off of most of the engine bay area, but left it on the hood where they applied it. Mineral spirits takes it off pretty good, but otherwise, what a pain in the butt. Even the back sides of the fenders are coated.
I guess it worked good though because I have zero rust in my car anywhere. Just ugly waxy crud haha.
Finally got all the bushings and ball joints in the arm the bump stop mounted and then noticed something was amiss.. I bought these arms as bare spares....and they are missing a part. Who can spot it? Why the hell it's missing? No idea....kind of stupid to take it off.
The dr. side of my crossmember was a bit tight with the new bushings so instead of scratching everything up with a crowbar I used this to spread the ears, worked perfectly
Got the PBR brackets, figured the C4 corvette rear brackets should be the same...they do fit the calipers since it's basically the same caliper. Let's hope they fit the new brackets from Ed Miller.
Front end coming together. Need to either fab a spring compressor to get the springs in or do it with the engine in and use the front end weight. Worried about scratching the powdercoat so i'll probably fab the compressor. I only have an external compressor.
Started with the replacement panel this one has a rusty spot on the bottom too...will have to repair that also
Man, just went through the whole thread, quite a project you have going there. Wish I had your equipment, time, and money. gonna be a sweet ride when you get here put back together. I'm working on my 86 Z-28 slowly but surely.
Check with a shop that does alignments, they may have a bench mounted spring compressor. I had a local race shop show me this trick they put the spring in the compressor and used metal clothes hangers to keep the springs compressed. I did this then took them back to my shop and they slide right in my car and after i bolted the arms up i cut the hangers to let the spring expand. Was very easy and fast.
I'm making a compressor from some large threaded rods and bar stock. There are almost no shops here, only dealers that work on euro and jap crap. This is the reason i'm almost 100% self sufficient when it comes to tools and equipment. I even have 2 complete electronic alignment benches just so I don't have to take it somewhere where they can screw up my cars.
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Last edited by Twin_Turbo; 09-15-2009 at 04:03 AM.
Missing the steering stops on the a-arms I ripped mine off too. My LS1 brakes were a little finiky with the stock stops, so I put adjustable stops on. I cant take credit for the idea...someone else on here did something similar and I used the idea. Works great though.
For putting the springs back in, I always just put my springs back in without a compressor and never have any problems that would cause scratches. I seat the bottom of the spring into the arm, and put it up into the pocket, then just use a jack to jack the arm up into place. Its pretty difficult without having full vehicle weight on it though... So if you can make a nice compressor that isnt going to explode on you...def go with that. You look like you know what you are doing, so Im sure you can come up with something good.
J.
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ARE shortblock, Ross custom boost pistons, arp rod bolts, ARE ported oil pump,
MTI 2e 5.3L ported heads milled .030 with double springs,
228/224 113+1 Comp XE-R, Cloyes adjustable timing chain, LS6 valley cover,
fast 90mm intake, NW 90mm throttle body, SVO 30lb injectors, 85mm MAF,
ASP underdrive pulley, 160* t-stat, stainless LT headers 1.75" primaries
That's the reason I'm going with the spring compressor, I don't want to scratch the arms. I have installed springs on the car by simply jacking the arm with vehicle weight on it but as you said, it'll scratch the finish. I bought the arms used so I had a set to put together while I still had the old ones on. Never noticed the bump stops were missing. I ground the ones off some old arms (they're simply riveted on) and bolted them in place. I like your adjustable stops....hmmm
Didn't do a whole lot...but my summit stuff got here so I can do some more stuff this week.
One thing I did was take my replacement fender section apart so I can weld in the inner panel first. Also found out why these damned things always rust right in the middle of the wheel arch. The factory sticky adhesive stuff between the inner and outer metal is porous and retains water
Again didn't get to do a whole lot. I did swap out the oil pump for a higher volume one together with a heavy duty shaft and installed a freshly powdercoated oil pan. Proceeded to install a billet timing set and an aluminum summit cover only to find out the damned thing doesn't have a timing pointer. Drats...now I have to get a bolt on one somewhere.
Also installed the steering stops (and replaced a rear J65 caliper on the 88 with a working one I took off the 87)
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Last edited by Twin_Turbo; 09-16-2009 at 04:52 PM.
After installing a new timing chain/sprockets and a fresh summit el cheapo alu cast cover I figured there was no timing mark on it...have to dig up an old bolt on one I should have somewhere. Also started toying with some cog drive pulleys I still have. The set also has one for an AC comp but I have been messing with a little addition that will take the place of the AC....who needs AC anyway
Now I have to pull the pan again and weld on an oil return.
Also, it may be a no go on the cog drive since it's a t10 type setup, probably a PITA to get a blower pulley in T10 size...if not impossible.
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Last edited by Twin_Turbo; 09-20-2009 at 04:44 PM.
More stuff keeps coming in. A set of front brackets & 1le hubs for my 13" baer stuff and a set for 12" C4 rotors for the rear PBR calipers, all from Ed Miller. Excellent service!!
and a nice TA Performance 9 bolt cover. Couldn't stand the sight of that rusted stock stamped thing with the leaky rubber plug.
I have been watching your build and I've got to say, your doing an AMAZING job!! I myself have a restoration thread in here that I am currently working on and it's just nice to see someonw else progressing at the same time. Every time I check back, I am always wowed by the progress. Nice job and keep up the great work. . . .should be awesome when it's finished. Check mine out if ya have a min too. Not anywhere close to where you are though, haha. It's called project P.I.T.A. Good luck!
__________________ 1986 Trans Am, 2005 5.3 LM7 engine, LS6 intake manifold, cam, LS6 clutch assembly, T56 transmission w/ Hurst pro billet shifter, 95 TA 4.10 posi rear with heavy duty cover.
-Coming soon....dyno sheets!
Man, you dove in head first! Looks great so far, it will turn heads when your done.
Word of advice, toss the TCI deep transmission pan. It hangs to low for our cars. I wripped the drain plug out of mine on a driveway while taking my car home from a transmission shop. It scraped, wich was normal and I kept driving. Almost burned up my 2000.00 dollar transmission in three blocks.
One thing I am finding out about these cars is they seem to have a mind of thier own when it comes to where they are going to rust. When I bought my car I looked in the quarters, fenders, bottoms of the doors....nothing. Mine was all hiding in unseen places.
I just put a whole passenger side quarter on mine....it had been hit and the door gap was way to tight. I ended up finding 1/2 thick bondo!
Nice thread...I have been watching you to help give me ideas on how to tackle mine.
I started with the inner fender, got it mostly in, needs some more final welding, weldable primer an then it's on to the quarter itself. Everything is butt welded, no overlapping. I hate that (and the bondo burger as a result from it), it's more work this way but my time is cheap (for me )
Proceeded with the spindle conversion so I could mount Ed Millers brackets for the 13" baer brakes. Quickly found out the 1LE uses larger outer bearings...dang! another rock auto order then....oh well I have them now.
Only slight snag is that the brackets are not 100% correct, the caliper bracket holes are off by 1 mm. Need to find a solution for that.
Inner fender mostly done, sprayed some corrosion preventative in between the layers of steel. Then went on to fit the replacement quarter section.
Figured I would do the oil feed to the supercharger like this but will probably change it for a hard line
Moved my never ending project that I haven't worked on in over 2 years. Almost brought a tear to my eye seeing it all rusty and dirty. Still looks good, baby got BACK!!
Holly ****!! What do you do for a living over there? I want to know what I have to do to have the toys you do. I had a 96 LT4 Vette i did a bunch of work to and ended up selling because I thought I was going to loose my job plus I have a 2 year old....not much of a familly car.
The wide body vette and the camaro are mine, the GTA, 72 trans am, the 79 Z28 and 87 vette convertible are 69Cyclones (the guy in THIS (88 Iroc Procharged ZZ4 !!!SOLD!!!) thread referred to as a rat and a scammer by some idiot)
Anyway....did some more stuff. Mocked up the front susp. & brakes. Have to install the coil springs but wanted to see how it would fit with the bimmer wheels.
This is making the brakes look a little small....hummm....maybe i should run staggered setups, 18s front 19s rear (these are 19s) and use half the set on the 88 and get some 18s for the front on both cars.
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Last edited by Twin_Turbo; 10-04-2009 at 04:51 PM.
The wide body vette and the camaro are mine, the GTA, 72 trans am, the 79 Z28 and 87 vette convertible are 69Cyclones (the guy in THIS (88 Iroc Procharged ZZ4 !!!SOLD!!!) thread referred to as a rat and a scammer by some idiot)
Anyway....did some more stuff. Mocked up the front susp. & brakes. Have to install the coil springs but wanted to see how it would fit with the bimmer wheels.
This is making the brakes look a little small....hummm....maybe i should run staggered setups, 18s front 19s rear (these are 19s) and use half the set on the 88 and get some 18s for the front on both cars.
BMW wheels?! Blasphemy!!! Hahaha just kidding. Anyway I checked out the thread where your buddy ("the scammer") bought that 88 supercharged IROC. Make sure you guys post up pictures of the work being done to it! And maybe a few shots of the shipping container if that's possible? I'm kinda interested in this.
I bought it in the UK, (the 88 too) it was fin170703s car here on the forum.
Won't be able to get pics of the container but it's simply a 20ft container where they cram in 2 or 3 cars, usually they build a ramp inside to get 3 cars in there.
Hey....question for ya. I am now stripping my factory undercoating junk off to re-coat with either POR 15 or a similiar product thanks to your pics and motivation. I bought kersosene to strip it but is there a trick you used to get the bulk of the buildup off? I have been wiping with a cloth dipped in kerosene and it has been a LOOOONG process so far. Any tips you have would be great!
Car looks like it's coming along awesome too! I love the powdercoated supension parts and brakes!!
__________________ 1986 Trans Am, 2005 5.3 LM7 engine, LS6 intake manifold, cam, LS6 clutch assembly, T56 transmission w/ Hurst pro billet shifter, 95 TA 4.10 posi rear with heavy duty cover.
-Coming soon....dyno sheets!
Hey....question for ya. I am now stripping my factory undercoating junk off to re-coat with either POR 15 or a similiar product thanks to your pics and motivation. I bought kersosene to strip it but is there a trick you used to get the bulk of the buildup off? I have been wiping with a cloth dipped in kerosene and it has been a LOOOONG process so far. Any tips you have would be great!
Car looks like it's coming along awesome too! I love the powdercoated supension parts and brakes!!
Heat....I am using a torch and a pudy knife to get most of mine off. You just have to judge the heat and not get it to hot. But, it will scrap right off.
Also, don't use POR15. I replied to your thread concerning that, it only sticks to rough surfaces like rusted or sandblasted parts. It's a sort of superglue with black dye.
Still wondering about what to do w/ the 19" front wheels...I decided to stick with them. After jacking up the mocked up wheel to about ride height I feel it fills out the fender nicer than the 18s do. The pics are crappy camera phone pics.
Here's my buddies 88 w/ 18s (he stole the wheel idea from me)
What a PITA installing these springs is, not just because of the spring..but because of that stinking cushion thing. I got it in but had to modify an internal spring compressor so it would pull down the spring tight and not scratch up the arm:
Some hard wood would do the trick
ahh yes..victory
19" rims riding on bumpstops...rats...probably going to have to shave the bumpstops then
Welded on the UMI relocation brackets after a lot of fiddling and measuring since the axle was out of the car. Should have bought uncoated bolt in ones, bolt them down to the shock and weld them in. The upper holes on these are oversize, possibly for more tolerance when getting them lined up with the suspension. Since I was doing this on the table I made some tapered bushings to center the holes over the stock ons...couldn't stand off center holes. both are lined up now perfectly and welded in place. Time to get the axle off the powerdercoating and concentrate on the messed up posi.
I have a question about your brakes. I was originally thinking about getting C5 brakes, but I realized that I have a practically new set of C4 front and rear rotors. Do you know if you can just machine the rotor off the factory spindle and use it with Ed's brackets? What did you have to do for the rear to make the C4 rotors and calipers kit? The rear may not be worth upgrading to the the C4 because the rotor is only slightly bigger.
mine are not C4 rotors they are 13" baer rotors and they are wider than the .9? wide C4 rotors. You could simply use C4 HD front and rear calipers and use C4 calipers. I'm using C4 rotors and 3rd gen calipers in the rear.
anyway, you'd need the 1LE hubs, the stock rotors machined will only leave enough offset for a very thin caliper bracket, it won't work. With the 1LE bracket you can use about a 1/2" thick bracket. With the C4 rotors the bracket would probably be a little thinner, possibly 7/16 or so but if you use C4 rotors and calipers it will work. The C4 caliper will not fit over the wider rotors like above.
Got the entire front susp. buttoned up glad that's over with.
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Last edited by Twin_Turbo; 10-11-2009 at 04:05 PM.
Got the rear axle back from the powdercoater....and there is a problem. The guy coated it black along with the pulleys that were supposed to be black. No turning back now...there goes my artistic color scheme lol
Plugging off the old vent hole, this interferes with the Fays 2 axle clamps. Going to drill a new hole a bit further outboard.
Looks good. You know.....I wonder why they dont put ANY paint on the rear ends at all from the factory. Maybe thats why they are so weak the rust pits make the axle tubes weak and they start flexing.....maybe I am on to something. Yeah right.
Actually it was the 82-92 Saginaw (10 Bolt) axle that was not painted, the 85-90 Borg & Warner was painted black. I suspect the reason why the B&W was painted was they shipped them from Australia, I would imagine from the salt water across the Pacific Pond. Or the fact that GM thought it was too expensive to paint the Saginaw Axle & the Drive shaft. IIRC The Saginaw axle was made at the M46 & I75 plant...
John
__________________ 87 FORMULA - 5.1 LB9/A4 T-tops 3.73 Modified (Yellow/Black)
87 FORMULA - 5.0 LB9/M5 T-tops 3.45 (Yellow/Gray)
89 FORMULA 350 - CONVERTIBLE 3.27 All original (Red/Gray) www.3rdgenformula.com
Some more stuff done, mocked up most of the rear axle to test fit some stuff like the brakes, the brake lines and the sway bar with the spacers and larger u clamps. Still have to turn down the cones and re-shim the whole thing
Got most of the rear panel tacked in, need a little work on the bottom where I am missing a chunk (original and replacement panels rusty there) but most of it is done
Not sure what to do here...pulleys all nice and powdercoated but found some serpentine ones from Canton....I may end up getting those.
Looks like my new intake was here today, attempted delivery...but I wasn't home so tomorrow I'll probably have it can't wait. hope it's a pretty much bolt on deal...hate to have to order yet even more stuff.
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Last edited by Twin_Turbo; 10-21-2009 at 06:31 PM.
Nah, there are next to no dynos here and it's almost stock now...will spice it up sometime later most likely (with supercharger, heads, cam..blablabla)
Rear end looks excellent, I plan on doing pretty much the same thing to mine sometime next year. What brake lines are you using to fit the PBR calipers?
__________________ North Texas Third Gen Association 1988 GTA 5.0/M5/3.45 LSD, T-Tops, Digital Dash, Leather - Current Ride 1983 Firebird S/E - Stripped 1995 Chevy 1500 5.7 Ext. Cab - Daily Driver
Earls flex lines, the stock line on the pass side and a modified stock line on the drivers side. That one needs to be shortened (the stock caliper is connected with that hard line, no hose on that side originally), problem is..it's a metric bubble flare. Have to buy a flare tool to do those.
This is holding me back...what a bummer
I ripped mine off too. My LS1 brakes were a little finiky with the stock stops, so I put adjustable stops on. I cant take credit for the idea...someone else on here did something similar and I used the idea. Works great though. 
1986 Trans Am, 2005 5.3 LM7 engine, LS6 intake manifold, cam, LS6 clutch assembly, T56 transmission w/ Hurst pro billet shifter, 95 TA 4.10 posi rear with heavy duty cover. 
)
I had a 96 LT4 Vette i did a bunch of work to and ended up selling because I thought I was going to loose my job plus I have a 2 year old....not much of a familly car.
