I got the car on the ground and a pic of the front ground clearance and one of the finished muffler and tip.

 

i like this thread, can't wait to see it finished

 

Your build is just fantastic! Great attention to detail. Just a few questions, what front/rear brakes are you using? I don't think I've seen it mentioned. Also if you can scale the car I would be interested in what you gained by setting the engine back. Just a front, rear weights and total.

 

Front brakes are C5 from Bigbrakeupgrade "a good guy" rears are LS1. I have scaled it, full of fuel it weighs 3140 with 52.8% front. I also forgot to say the wheels are 10"x18" with 6 1/8 backspace.

 

Can't wait to see a video of the car in action!!!

 

the weight of the car ,is that with you in it or without?

 

w/o driver. Does anyone have stats on what the original v8 car weighs and what the bias is? I don't know.

 

well i found this
My 83 Z hard top in stock trim with ac, 700r4 and manual windows was 3208 with a true 60/40 split, 1900 on the front and 1308 on the rear (no driver).
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/fabr...ight-what.html

 

Well it's done I have some pics of the finished dash and door panels.

 

oops. Here they are.

 

On four wheels and a pic of the CAI.

 

For those interested in the results of my modified spindles I finally got it aligned. I checked toe at different turn angles and I still have a very small amount of anti ackerman for instance at 14.67 degrees of turn the inside wheel in only turned 14.45 degrees. This happened because I didn't account for the distance the outer tie rod end would be below my mounting point. But I don't think I will try to fix it. I have already done a autocross and what I have found is that the turn in is very aggressive. I will have to work on some different alignment specs to find a sweet spot. I wish I lived closer to some of you hard core gear heads, maybe I could get some help.

 

That door panel is brilliant! Simple and very effective. Overall the car looks great, very well executed. Too bad it is so far from the Twin Cities, there are plenty of hardcore guys here that would love to help on something like this.

 

Shakopee is only a mere 8 hrs away. LOL. But I will plug away at it and get some more time on it. But it would be nice to hook up with some guy's that have some track experience to do some fine tuning.

 

That was my post when I started my Home Brew Road Racer post on this forum. Tvc 5 and I started our projects around the same time but mine has fallen far behind. I'll be lucky to have it finished next summer.

Tvc you've done a fantastic job on the car. Your level of craftsmanship and attention to detail makes me almost embarrassed to post pictures of mine on the same forum.

As for the slight toe-in and aggressive turn in issue, you might try a little toe out instead of the usual 1/16 to 1/8 toe in. The last thing you want is the outer tire turning in sharper than the inner tire. Kind of causes the front end to "trip" over itself. I've run up to 1/8 toe out with good results but any more and the steering gets a little twitchy especially on the expressway.

We ran a short track asphalt car, a 1969 chevelle, and since we only had to turn left we set the left front to point straight ahead and put 3/16 toe out in the right front. The car rolled through the corners better than any other car in our class.

 

Well I'm done with this project except for some fine tuning, thanks for all the compliments. I've never posted pictures of anything I've built before and it's odd thinking about how many people that may have looked at them. Compliments are cool but I was expecting some criticism too. Fabrication is a personal thing. Usually you get a idea from something you saw or you have a idea on how to improve something. Or maybe you just want to give something a personal touch. But after that fabrication is just practice. You either learn it from watching someone or you just dive in with both feet I guess I've done a little of both. We have a Autocross coming up and if I get some video I will post a link. Thanks.

 

Great thread, inspirational in many ways

 

Congratulations on a fantastic project, and for accomplishing something that few on this board have done- finishing a build!

How about some more details on the door panels. I need to come up with something similar but don't know where to start.

 

Congratulations one last time on a great build. I looked back at your first post on 06/2012, so you put this all together in just over a year. I think that shows you planned well and had the resources i.e. time, money, skills and equipment to get the job done. You picked your battles wisely by buying what you could, modifying other parts and making items that didn't exist or that you could build better (your headers and exhaust fall into this last category).

You addressed several of the 3rd gens biggest problems in relatively simple fashion. Nose heavy from the factory, move the engine back 3 inches. Weak rear axle, replaced with an aftermarket 12 bolt. Inherent lack of structural stiffness, SFC's and a simple cage. Goofy steering geometry, you modified the spindles.

All of these things have been done here in similar fashion many times over but it is your level of craftsmanship and comprehensive approach to correcting the cars biggest performance shortcomings that make your car stand out above the rest. You mentioned that the build did not generate much criticism but most of us can only dream of building a car this nice. You deserve all the praise that the car will generate wherever you take it.

Keep us posted about your autocross and any track days you might do. With the better weight distribution and steering improvements I would be interested in skid pad performance.

Thanks for a great build and the inspiration to keep working on our projects until completed.

 

Great job on this project. I've been watching it from beginning to end. Amazing car. What brand of extended ball joint did you use and did it come with dust boot? Also those wheels are great. Who makes those?

 

Ball joints are Howe + 3/4", boots are Energy Suspension and wheels are Motegi "Track lite" by American Racing.

 

Have you been able to drive the car much? Any updates? Im in the process of installing Howe extended ball joints and front weight jacks on my car. Plan to use 1000# springs 9.5" long .How did your weight jacks turn out?

 

I haven't driven the car a lot. I missed the second autocross because of clutch problems. Things I did wrong was buying a clutch kit off ebay. Gripforce clutchs to be more precise. That took almost a month to get fixed, I have a Ram clutch now. The other mistake was being cheep on tires. I bought some older Bridgestone tires that have a wear rating of 280 and they just don't work that well for autocross. I have been playing with alignment specs and have a neutral setup now. The steering is very precise and took some getting use to. I don't remember if I posted spring rates but I have 800 in front and 175 rear. At first it seemed very stiff but now with a few more miles it seems to have softened a bit. I think when I get better tires I will have to go up in spring rates. The LS motor works very well for being bone stock, and the car is like driving go cart. I can see I will have to put some heat shield and some carpet in front of the seats as the floor gets quite hot.

 

Really great looking car. I bet it does drive like a go cart!

 

Well in the category of never leaving well enough alone. Over the winter I ported and milled the heads and put in a bigger cam. I also put a windage tray in the pan and added a oil cooler.

 

Improved Racing tray and oil cooler adaptor.

 

Here's the results.

 

TVC,

Sorry I haven't followed your thread lately. Have you been racing the car much this summer?

 

How are the cheap eBay seats holding up? They have the exact pair you have with harness and shipping for about 300ish.. want an opinion before I pull the trigger.

 

I have done several autocross events this summer. But due to a job change I haven't made a track day, but I still hope to get one in. The car has been working very well. The only tuning I have done other than three different alignments have been to remove the rear sway bar. It seems to not need it. With regard to the 'ebay' seats they are very firm only good for short trips and I would question how a big person might fit in them. Also the cloth is on the light side, probably won't wear real well.