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Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Gather ‘round children and hear a tale about a man that received one of the rarest things in life. A second chance.

In January of 2001, I bought a 1972 Nova. 4-door, dark green, 307 SBC with a TH-350 auto. It wasn’t the prettiest or the fastest (by a long shot), but I loved her nonetheless. We had many adventures and I had grand dreams of performance parts. Unfortunately, it was never meant to be. I was a broke high school student and would be moving away to college soon.

In 2004, I bought a ’97 Thunderbird and sold the Nova. It was a very strange experience. I wasn’t exactly reluctant to sell it, but I missed it terribly once it was gone. I still have dreams about that car. The one that got away. I’m sure most of us have one.

Let’s fast forward a bit. Got Married, T-bird got totaled by some clown that didn’t understand how left turns work, bought a Mustang. July of last year, my wife and I are having dinner at the local burger place (let me know if you guys are ever in Lake County, IL and I’ll show you the best burger you’ve ever had). I grab a copy of Illinois Auto and RV Trader off the stack while we wait for the food and as I’m idly flipping through I see it. 1971 Nova. 4-door, lime green, 350 crate motor with a TH-350 auto. $2750. I froze. Pointed it out to the wife and got a “Hm. Cool.”

The next month or so consisted of me figuring out how to convince my wife to let me buy this thing and emailing back and forth with the owner of the small dealership that posted the listing. When I called the dealership, the guy there told me the $2750 wasn’t accurate and it should have been $3750. Relayed this to the owner and he didn’t seem too pleased with his “salesman”. Eventually, I got him to go with $3250 out the door and keys in hand.

In all honesty, she’s not a prize-winner. Interior is rough. Door panels are thrashed, headliner is MIA, dash is cut up for a bodged stereo install. Exterior’s not great either. Chips, rear wheel arch lips are trimmed off to clear the poorly backspaced wheels, passenger rear leaf is shot so that tire rubs on bumps.

But I drove it 50 miles home. She’s mine. A second chance to make things right.

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Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Now what? Well, first thing is to get it in the garage. The Mustang has officially been moved to the driveway. I get it in the garage easily enough, but my wife asks if I can move it over closer to the wall a bit to give her some more room.

“No problem.”

It was then that I believe the realized that she was home. She was tired. And she didn’t want to start. I ended up flooding the poo poo out of it and hosed my plugs in the process. No telling how old they were to begin with. So I head over to the parts store and pick up the essentials. Oil and filter, air filter, fuel filter, breather filter, and a full set of new plugs. Changed the oil to no surprises, air filter drops in, breather filter drops in, spark plugs are swapped, fuel filter is cha- wait. This thing isn’t even close. This isn’t the right filter for this carb…

I checked the VIN and found that this car originally came with a 307. At some point in time, this was pulled for the crate 350 that now resided here. However, whoever swapped it used the intake manifold, carb, air cleaner, and exhaust manifolds from the 307. Awesome. (I would later discover that he also decided to swap battery cable colors as well) Anyway, I’ve got all my poo poo changed, got my battery charged, let’s fire this thing back up. It started.

You may remember the next few pictures from the mechanical failures thread.





Needless to say, this got my wife’s attention. So far, she wasn’t impressed with my new project.

Boaz MacPhereson fucked around with this message at 07:20 on Jul 19, 2014

Seat Safety Switch
May 27, 2008

MY RELIGION IS THE SMALL BLOCK V8 AND COMMANDMENTS ONE THROUGH TEN ARE NEVER LIFT.

Pillbug
Jeez. That thing still looks pretty mint considering the neglect.

The correct answer for the exhaust is and always has been parts store glasspacks.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
So I ordered a cheapo muffler from Summit and rigged it up so the car was no longer pull-me-over loud. I took it to the local car wash and degreased the poo poo out of the engine bay and blasted as much road dust as I could from underneath and inside the trunk (the car was driven to Roscoe, IL from Iowa on quite a few gravel roads). Oh, did I mention that the speedometer needle was broken off and laying in the bottom of the instrument panel? Nothing like driving a not-inconspicuous car with a loud exhaust and no working speedometer through town.

Anyway, I get it back home and parked. Now is the time to decide what the hell I want to do with this thing. The plan is as follows:

- Get rid of the garbage-rear end manual drum brakes. They sucked on the ’72 and they suck on this one. They gotta go.
- New wheels and tires to fit said brakes and give me some more responsiveness than the BF Goodrich T/As that are on it now.
- New suspension all around. Drop it a couple inches. Shoot for Pro-Touring.
- Tighten up this steering somehow. It’s got all the steering feel of my friend’s old Town Car.
- New rear end. LSD with shorter gears is a must.
- TH-350 out, T56 in.
- 350 -> 383. Maybe a Gen III/Gen IV?
- Cooling system, fuel system, exhaust to all match the power.
- New wiring everywhere. This poo poo is 40 years old and it sucks.
- Interior. Currently lime green to match the exterior. Eventually switching to black with full instrumentation and some nice seats to replace my front bench. Redo the back bench to match whatever I get in the front.
- Top it all off with paint/bodywork.

I plan to do everything myself with the exception of the paint, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

I’ll say here that going into this, I had no loving idea what I was doing. The most complex mechanical task I’ve performed by myself was probably a full brake job. Never pulled an engine, never replaced major suspension components, etc. I’m pretty loving green at this, but I’m a fast learner.

And I’m pretty proud to say that I’ve learned an incredible amount.

I bought the FSMs and went through all 3 cover to cover. I’ve done more research online for this car than I’ve done for any other topic. I need to compartmentalize and attack.

Phase I:
- Pull the front subframe off and get it not looking like poo poo. Throw some new body mounts in with it.
- Acquire parts to swap in the brakes from an LS1-powered F-body. Cue baby’s first trip to the scrapyard.

At this point, I realized that the engine has to come out. Never done that before. Time for boring reference pics!


Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
I apologize for being so wordy, but I’ve been waiting a while to start this thread and wanted to do it right. I’ve got lots more to do until we get to the present.

So I’m pulling an engine. I know for a lot of you guys out there, you can do this poo poo with your eyes closed and you’d probably kill for an engine bay this simple to do it in. Again, I’m being careful, taking my time, following instructions, dotting I’s, crossing t’s, all that.




poo poo’s getting real


Parts pile is slowly growing


MY EYES!


Making space…


At this point, the exhaust had to get disconnected. I cannot loving believe I only broke one. (Although the one on the far right was a right bastard)


Wife was nice enough to help with the hood


Ok, we’re almost there…


…gently caress.


While I go buy a chain coupler, have some more random reference pictures!






And there we go.

SlimManFat
Nov 12, 2010

RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST RUST
Saw this in the Project Tracking thread and been anticipating it. Looks great man!

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Alright, so the engine’s out. Now that subframe’s gotta come out too. Luckily, this thing has been passively preventing its own rust for a while so all of the nuts and bolts are pre-lubed! :suicide:



You gotta go too…


…bitch (sidenote: steering boxes are heavy as gently caress)


And here you are introduced to the bucket of doom:


Ok, I’m officially taking this loving car apart


Tires are back on the ground. The rest of the car is not.


Holy poo poo. That is no longer attached.


At this point in time, it’s been a few MONTHS since it’s been home. I work slowly. I’m taking my time. I’m learning this poo poo as I go and I really don’t want to gently caress anything up.

It’s Christmas time, so you all know what that means! :sassargh:

I was provided with a lovely hand-crafted note and a kick-rear end sales brochure from 1971 by TheFonz.




And I totally feel like a successful black man again!


At this point in time, I had a really loving good idea* about how to move this subframe around in my garage: magnets + epoxy + swivel casters = I’m a goddamn genius**


I’m going to take a break from typing as I need to gather some thoughts and give my fingers a break. I’ll get some more stuff up tonight. Thanks for looking guys.

*loving terrible idea
**I’m a goddamn idiot

Ardemia
Jan 2, 2004

IT IS MY RIGHT TO GET BEHIND THE WHEEL WHEN I'VE PUT BACK SIX SHIRLEY TEMPLES OK

:patriot:
Mad respect for this. One of my my want-to-do projects is to get an old GM 4 door, engine swap it, put an awesome stereo in it, and have the ultimate road trip / beater commuter. Best of luck, there is a blue and white 4 door of the same vintage rolling around here.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Right. The brakes. They suck. I cannot begin to describe to you how cathartic it was to completely rip apart these brakes without giving the most miniscule of fucks about bending or breaking poo poo. I dealt with this bullshit on the ’72 and all this bullshit is getting tossed in favor of discs. The destruction was glorious, but the fight was far from easy.



The top anchor pin bolt in that picture (center just above wheel cylinder) is easily the most difficult bolt I’ve ever removed. The passenger side came out with a fight, but the driver side (pictured) was unreal. Combo wrench was a joke. I didn’t have a socket deep enough to get a good bite on it because it’s got a big pin poking out past the hex.

A terrible picture to give you an idea:


I ended up cutting the pin portion off with a hacksaw so I could get my impact gun on it. Between the impact and a couple feet worth of leverage on my ratchet, the loving thing finally broke loose. Sidenote: I cannot loving believe I haven’t broken my Stanley ratchets yet. Unreal.

Anyway, gotcha bitch:



Remember my magnetic caster idea?


More reference pictures:



I’m free!


I kept finding more little fuckery from the PO. See how those nuts don’t match? The top one is factory. The bottom one is not. The bottom one also protrudes too far into the opening to prevent removal of the shock while it’s still in place. So to get that shock out, it’s: unbolt, weasel nut out, drop it, try to find it because it managed to bounce 5 loving feet away somehow, remove shock, put nut back and throw the bolt in it so you don’t lose it forever.


The subframe’s new home for the next few months


And here is the completely stripped subframe. Coil springs were fun to remove :v:

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
So the time has come for cleaning. I wasn’t looking forward to this, but I was eager to see how all this crap would turn out. I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures during this process because it was long, tedious, and I wanted to avoid getting my phone covered in horrible grime.

To give you an idea of the kind of poo poo I was dealing with, here are some before/during and after shots of the transmission crossmember.



Again, those are really the only pictures I have of the cleaning process, but I think you’ll get the idea. At this point, I was starting to do some serious research and acquire parts for the new brakes. By sheer luck, I saw a thread in SA Mart for Robinson Laser. They do custom laser-cut metal. A couple goons work there and had a $25 coupon to knock off processing charges. Another goon was kind enough to draw up a part based off of plans/dimensions that I found online. This is for a bracket that will bolt straight to my drum-brake spindles and allow me to bolt the front brakes off a ’98-’02 F-body right to it.

Forty bucks and a week or so later, these beautiful bastards showed up at my door. Quarter inch structural steel. They’re perfect. Add about $18 worth of Grade 8 hardware from Bolt Depot and I'm set.


So the plan was to clean all my parts, prime them, then paint them. Everything got 2 coats of white primer, then 2 coats of gloss black. As we all know, painting in winter is no good, so this happened:


While paint was drying, I started scrubbing on the subframe itself.

Jesus. loving. Christ.

Ultimateforce, if you’re reading this thread, please look away.




GM in 1971. It’s not just good, it’s good enough!

I cleaned that poo poo up the best I could without an angle grinder, but whatever. It’s all sound, it’s just boogery. This bastard’s ready for paint


By this time, all the small parts have been painted and are just waiting on the subframe. The months keep ticking by and the weather is getting warmer.

First coat after primer:


Second – this made me happy.


In case you couldn't tell by the last two photos, I'd abandoned the magnetic casters by this point. What a pain in the dick those were. I bought a mini moving dolly from Harbor Freight for $8. They're on sale again right now. You all should seriously go buy one. So handy.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Ok, so since the weather has gotten nicer, I’ve been making drat near weekly trips to the salvage yard going over every late 4th generation F-body I can find. Remember, only ’98-’02 so I got real loving lucky to get all the parts that I did. Managed to pick up booster, master cylinder, front calipers and brackets, rear calipers and brackets (2 left sides, I’ll explain later), and one rear backing plate all for just over $100. poo poo yeah.

They cleaned up pretty well. Straight from the yard on right, cleaned up on the left.



Oh, I picked up some new MOOG tie-rod ends and some sweet QA1 adjustment sleeves


Back to the brakes – The setup I’ll be running requires the use of the factory drum hubs, but they need to be reduced in diameter to clear the F-body rotors. I called up a local machine shop and tried to describe what I needed over the phone, but I think I just confused the guy. He shot me some numbers that sounded pretty loving big for what I figured would be a pretty small job. Luckily, in my previous searching for the mounting brackets (that I ended up having made myself), I ran across BRP Hotrods. They sold those brackets with optional machined drum hubs. I shot an email over to see if they’d be willing to just sell me the hubs. $100 with a forty dollar core charge that will be returned if I send them my old hubs.

Done. They even came with new studs installed and new bearings and seals.



The one rear backing plate I got cleaned up really well. Literally every other backing plate I found in the yard was a rusty nightmare that I could rip apart with my hands. I still need one more and I’m going to wait as long as possible before dropping $70 on a new one.


Changing gears a bit, I wanted to do something about the steering as well. I now know more about Saginaw style steering boxes than I ever thought I’d need to know. These style of boxes were used in goddamned EVERYTHING for decades. GM cars, GM trucks, they put them in Grand Cherokees for christ’s sake. Ideally, I would have pulled one from a G-body Monte Carlo SS, but those are pretty loving rare in salvage yards. I did however get the next best one. ’91 Camaro Z28. Couldn’t believe my luck when I saw that hit the yard.

Now, with these boxes, there are a couple caveats. For one, GM changed the fittings on the power steering hoses. They went from your classic inverted flare to the ISO bubble flare sometime in the late ‘70s. Luckily, Lee Manufacturing makes some pretty trick little inserts that you drive into the later-style bubble flare (and metric) box that will basically turn it into a female inverted flare. Luckily, the metric sizes match the old SAE hoses pretty much perfectly and they’ll thread right in. Beautiful.

Caveat the second: they changed the input shaft on the later steering boxes, so the old rag joint won’t work. Now, there’s a big rear end list of factory vehicles that all came with rag joints that will bolt to both the old style steering column and the later style steering box, but I found a coupon and bought a new one for about $25. No sense in using old lovely rubber.

ANYWAY, I grabbed the steering box out of that Z28, scrubbed it up real pretty and threw a couple quick coats of paint on it.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
By now, the weather is nice, all the paint is dry, and parts are here. It’s time to party. My picture taking at this point has kind of slacked off because I was really excited to start putting poo poo back together. I wanted to concentrate on that and not worry about grabbing my phone every 15 minutes.

So with the moving dolly, floor jack, 2x4s, and some maneuvering, I got the pig back underneath the right end of the car.


Remember when I mentioned new body mounts? Proforged billet aluminum. No more 40 year old rubber for this girl.


4 mounts in and torqued. The other two go through the radiator support, so they’ll go in after the engine. This was a very good day.


Now, I know what you’re going to say with this next picture. “Hey you rear end in a top hat, all that poo poo is old and lovely!” I absolutely agree. But right now I don’t have the money to drop on new upper and lower control arms, coils, shocks, and swaybars. They will come in time though, I assure you.


Steering box is mounted with new rag joint.


I couldn’t help myself. I had to mock it up with a scrapyard rotor.


A few days later. Aw yiss.


Now, let’s move up a bit, shall we? This is just a mockup to get an idea of what I’ll be dealing with. By this time, I’d already removed the studs and drilled holes in the booster bracket.


Few days later, and we’re mounted. Notice anything familiar in here IOwnCalculus?


I still need to bend lines from the master to the valve. Tricky part is, the master is bubble flares and the valve is inverted flare. Now, I’ve got the factory lines for the master, so I figure I’ll use one factory end, then I’ll bend, cut, and flare the other to fit the valve. I just need to get my hands on a flare tool and then learn how to use it. I’ve also got a 25’ coil of 3/16” brake line because I need to redo the front driver’s side hardline from the valve to the wheel. I loving destroyed that nut when I took it off. As far as the soft lines go, Kore3.com offers custom configured braided lines for this exact application. Well actually, they’re for C5/C6 ‘Vette brakes, but the banjo fittings are exactly the same for the F-bodies. That will be my last step in getting the brakes done.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Now, I haven’t done jack poo poo with the back brakes yet. loving wheels are still on the car. Again, I’m compartmentalizing. Trying to not get ahead of myself too much. I wanted to finish the fronts before I ripped into the back.

However-

The factory rear end on the 1971 Nova is the corporate GM 10-bolt. But, it’s got the 8.2” ring gear which is notoriously weak. This has been in the back of my head for a long time as a nagging little “what the gently caress are you gonna do about that?” As luck would have it, not long ago a 1973 Nova showed up in my local yard. I couldn’t believe it. The ‘73s came with the 8.5” ring gear. Since the rear suspension is the same between ’71 and ’73, it will bolt right in. loving perfect. Well, almost. Once I dragged it back home, I cracked it open to find that it was still running the factory differential. 2.73:1 non-LSD. Can’t win ‘em all. I’m actually heading back this Saturday to check out an ’80 Firebird that might have a factory LSD. Fingers crossed.

So I’ve shifted slightly away from the brakes for a bit to clean this grimy pig up a bit. Red plug is there because the yard drills all diff covers.


Brakes ripped off, carrier pulled out, minor scrubbing has commenced. I need to get a picture of the current state. This one was taken a few days ago.


And here we are. I never thought the intro to this thread would be so massive and I apologize for the giant wall of rambling bullshit.

Allow me to get a bit E/N here. I’m a complete amateur at this poo poo. I said in my first post up there that I while I tend to be mechanically inclined, I really don’t have the experience that I probably should for a project like this. I’m sure a lot of this would be cake for a lot of you guys out there. Some of you are pulling apart engines and slamming them back together seemingly faster than I can make a grilled cheese sandwich. Luckily, I’m a fairly smart guy and can follow directions pretty well. I’ve learned an absolutely incredible amount of stuff from researching online, reading the FSMs, and just getting in there and pulling poo poo apart. I know I don't post a lot in AI, but maybe I can entertain a couple of you for a little while.

I will finish this car. It won't be soon. Not by a long shot. But I'll finish the loving thing. I finally have a chance to build the car that I wanted in high school. Not many guys get that. I won't let this one get away.

So, questions, comments, insults, proposals, whatever, let ‘em fly.

Oh, and if anyone finds a wrecked 1st generation CTS-V, I want the front brakes…

mafoose
Oct 30, 2006

volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs and vulvas and dogs and volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs and volvos and dongs and volvos and dons and volvos and dogs and volvos and cats and volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs and volvos and dogs
Your thread is off to a great start!

Can't wait to see more progress!

Catatron Prime
Aug 23, 2010

IT ME



Toilet Rascal
Subscribed--I can't wait for more! Thoroughly enjoying this thread.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Successful trip to the yard today.

The victim:


The spoils:


Snagged a pic of the current state of the rear end as well. Handfuls of crap have been removed already. Nowhere near done.


Unrelated:
Saw this at the yard as well. Made me think of Lloyd.

clam ache
Sep 6, 2009
what yard's in Illinois do you haunt? The one in summit has everything you would be looking for. They have tons of G bodys and all other chevys of that era. Im going next weekend to look for parts and can let you know if your interested.

Militant Lesbian
Oct 3, 2002

That looks like pretty much the first car my mom had, up until I was 6 or 7 years old. I remember having to go hold the throttle butterfly open when she tried to start it in winter because the choke was hosed up and it wouldn't start when it was cold out.

I wish you luck in your endeavor!

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

SouthsideSaint posted:

what yard's in Illinois do you haunt? The one in summit has everything you would be looking for. They have tons of G bodys and all other chevys of that era. Im going next weekend to look for parts and can let you know if your interested.

I'm farther north. AP City in Park City. Summit's about 50 miles from me. I'm still looking for a backing plate off an F-body.

clam ache
Sep 6, 2009
alright well im heading to summit next weekend and will let you know the F body status

DILLIGAF
Nov 16, 2003

I don't know, I find it hard to take hipster/non-hipster advice from someone with a Brony avatar!
If I lived closer I would totally take those wheels & tires off your hands. Hell, I'd trade straight up for the Torque Thrusts on my car. I don't know why, but I really want to do color matched steel with dog dish hubcaps on my El Camino.

I think this is going to be a cool project to watch!

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...
Finished cleaning the new rear end today. Pulled the yoke and pinion out and hit it with a little paint, too. Anybody wanna buy an 8.2" 10-bolt?

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

SouthsideSaint posted:

alright well im heading to summit next weekend and will let you know the F body status

According to Row52, they have one '98 Camaro and two '99 Firebirds. I just need the driver's side rear backing plate and caliper mount from it. All but one I've seen have been completely trashed. I'm going to start checking gear sets out of '77-'94 half-ton trucks to look for a 3.42:1 set as well. That may be the end of my junkyard parts pile.

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





Boaz MacPhereson posted:

Few days later, and we’re mounted. Notice anything familiar in here IOwnCalculus?


:getin:

I'm painfully close to being able to test-drive mine now that I've got it plumbed in - just some stupid A/C wiring that I want to clean up and then I need to clear all of the junk out of the bed. I wonder how it will stop now that the rear brakes get fluid?

And yeah GM used that steering box everywhere... and it is loving heavy. Unfortunately the truck versions are just different enough that we can't easily swap on any of the cheap quick ratio options that the car guys have.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

IOwnCalculus posted:

... and it is loving heavy. Unfortunately the truck versions are just different enough that we can't easily swap on any of the cheap quick ratio options that the car guys have.

Isn't it though? Pretty loving surprising when you pull the last bolt out. I saw a "high-performance" box for the trucks that ran about $400 and still had a variable ratio. Bummer.

There's always the full-retard option, though :v:
http://www.unisteer.com/bolt-in-rack-pinions/67-72-chevy-c10-w-disks-power-rack-pinion-kit.html

IOwnCalculus
Apr 2, 2003





I've thought about that, but the LS1 makes the various bolt-on R&P kits a bit trickier. Because the column sits outside the frame and any affordable R&P has the input on the inside of the frame, you need to run the shaft across the framerail. The engine stand setup I have seems to be the least compatible option for any of them. If I ever go R&P it would have to be as part of a full crossmember swap.

At any rate... for reasons I can't determine, the random Autozone rebuild box I got seems to be a full turn quicker than the one I took off. I haven't driven it at speed yet but so far I'm happy with it.

Pomp and Circumcized
Dec 23, 2006

If there's one thing I love more than GruntKilla420, it's the Queen! Also bacon.
Loving the thread so far! You've come a long way already. Please don't die, thread.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

IOwnCalculus posted:

At any rate... for reasons I can't determine, the random Autozone rebuild box I got seems to be a full turn quicker than the one I took off. I haven't driven it at speed yet but so far I'm happy with it.

Sounds like a good deal as long as it didn't take the full turn worth of turning radius with it :v:

Didn't do much tonight. Too drat hot. Rented an axle bearing puller and popped the old bearings right out of the 8.5". I was shocked that I had a rental tool that did exactly what it should with zero fuss and didn't require an engineering degree to assemble/operate. I got a little more paint on it as well. Just imagine that last picture with the other axle tube painted.

This has been an expensive month and I've almost chewed through my budget so no more parts for a while. I'll finish getting the 8.5 painted and the inside cleaned up, then I'll start bending brake lines. Luckily, I've got a 25' coil so I can afford to gently caress up a few flares. Yet another first on this project.

ShittyPostmakerPro posted:

Loving the thread so far! You've come a long way already. Please don't die, thread.

I won't let it die, but I'm guessing the good majority of posts will be from me. I don't foresee a lot of traffic in here because I chose an extremely ambiguous thread title and no one knows who the gently caress I am. :toot:

Pomp and Circumcized
Dec 23, 2006

If there's one thing I love more than GruntKilla420, it's the Queen! Also bacon.

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

I don't foresee a lot of traffic in here because I chose an extremely ambiguous thread title and no one knows who the gently caress I am. :toot:

Nah, it's more like the opposite. This thread is going to make you an AI superstar!

If you don't get many replies, it will be because you've gone into plenty of depth in your posts (you have) and there's not many questions that you haven't already answered. Plus with you already having completed the work you've typed up, we can't ask the 'so are you going to do...' questions or offer advice. Now that you're all caught up, we can all start making GBS threads up posting helpful stuff :).

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

I bought a mini moving dolly from Harbor Freight for $8. They're on sale again right now. You all should seriously go buy one. So handy.

One? I have four and counting. They will actually hold up an entire car. And an annoying stack of tires in a crowded garage is far less annoying when stacked on one of those.

Cool thread, cool Nova.

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

Unrelated:
Saw this at the yard as well. Made me think of Lloyd.


Aww it's so sad.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

LloydDobler posted:

One? I have four and counting. They will actually hold up an entire car.

I've wondered about that. They claim they're good for 1000 pounds, but I don't know how much I trust that. I should have bought a couple a long time ago and put the engine/transmission on them.

LloydDobler
Oct 15, 2005

You shared it with a dick.

You can see them behind the engine, this car is light and I actually rolled it around my garage on them, over the seams and everything.



Same here with a much heavier car:



They are way more awesome than they have any right to be.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

LloydDobler posted:

They are way more awesome than they have any right to be.

Hell yeah. I love mine. I wish it had some brakes though.

Red_October_7000
Jun 22, 2009
What was wrong with the steering that the box needed to be replaced? The only time I've heard of those going wrong is on ex-livery Town Cars with 500,000-750,000 miles on them.

Powershift
Nov 23, 2009


You'd be better off spending a little bit extra and getting wheel dollies. They can do the same function now as moving dollies, and if you need to put a whole car on em, function well then, too. I had my subaru on them, and could wheel it around the garage like a really heavy shopping cart. when i was shuffling stuff this spring i had to move it around and spin it and all that stuff, all single handedly.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

Red_October_7000 posted:

What was wrong with the steering that the box needed to be replaced? The only time I've heard of those going wrong is on ex-livery Town Cars with 500,000-750,000 miles on them.

Nothing actually wrong with it. No leaks and not a peep from it when I drove it home. But the ratio absolutely sucked and the effort was super low. Stock ratio was 16:1 and the Camaro box is 12.7:1. Response should be a ton faster and it will take more than a lazy finger to turn the wheel.

CroatianAlzheimers
Jun 15, 2009

I can't remember why I'm mad at you...


If you really want to get fancy, get a set of these bad boys - Go-Jacks

Militant Lesbian
Oct 3, 2002

CroatianAlzheimers posted:

If you really want to get fancy, get a set of these bad boys - Go-Jacks

Hmm, $499 vs. $8 x 4? I think HF wins this round, better luck next time, Amazon.

Boaz MacPhereson
Jul 11, 2006

Day 12045 Ht10hands 180lbs
No Name
No lumps No Bumps Full life Clean
Two good eyes No Busted Limbs
Piss OK Genitals intact
Multiple scars Heals fast
O NEGATIVE HI OCTANE
UNIVERSAL DONOR
Lone Road Warrior Rundown
on the Powder Lakes V8
No guzzoline No supplies
ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC
Keep muzzled...

CroatianAlzheimers posted:

If you really want to get fancy, get a set of these bad boys - Go-Jacks

Sweet Jesus, 500 bucks? :stare: I don't even have wheels on the loving car. I use the dolly more for moving various heavy poo poo around anyway.

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CroatianAlzheimers
Jun 15, 2009

I can't remember why I'm mad at you...


Boaz MacPhereson posted:

Sweet Jesus, 500 bucks? :stare: I don't even have wheels on the loving car. I use the dolly more for moving various heavy poo poo around anyway.

More like a thousand bucks, 'cause you need four of them. I used to be a commercial automotive photographer, and we used these things to push cars around studios and parking lots all the time. They're great, but they're overkill for what you're doing. I love the Nova, by the way. Is that green a factory color?

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