I bet I know him from the forums, I try and keep up on the old ****ty volvo's =)

Thanks man, I like bikes so there is some merit to your statement. Thanks for the props, I take a lot from my offroad experience and translate it into hot rods or these kinds of cars, it seems to work well and yeah there is a lot of DIY on my builds.

99% of cars on the road never get pushed for performance so its really not noticeable. As soon as you lower the suspension, you adjust that angle and as mentioned above induces improper geometry and less than ideal handling. I dont think the dually will ever be noticeable.

I have consulted with a few friends and discussed my application with them, some of them on this very forum. The general consensus from people who build fast track cars was to add adjustment to the panhard bar mount, and increase the travel of the rear shocks if I could.

Since there is not much if any information out there regarding this in a volvo application I figured I would share what I am doing and why and where I got my information from.


So knowing what I know, I should have ditched the stock panhard bar and mounts before I even started but I got lazy and wanted to move on. Good thing I have some good buddies that said cut that **** out and do it over with an adjustable panhard mount ya jack ass.

I cut off the stock mount and have ordered a slotted style panhard mount for the rear axle, I am hoping it will work well with what I have so far, but am not afraid at all to chop it up.

I will be building my own panhard for the rear of the car, using 1.25" DOM tubing with weld in bungs, 5/8-18 LH for the chassis side, 3/4 RH thread for the axle side. These parts are all commonly available. I am running high misalignment on the chassis side to bush the 5/8" hole down to 1/2" or near the stock size panhard hole. The axle side is just 3/4 bolted on no misalignment needed.

The new panhard will not have a bend in it, will be straight and hopefully allow me to keep the beefed up aluminum moser cover.

So now we move on to getting some more shock travel. Down travel was not going to cut it, so up we go.

After lots and lots of careful measuring and putting this off, I decided to cut into the lower rear framerail of the car and french the shock mount up in the rail. If my calculations were right, this will raise up my shock mount about 1.5".

It was an absolute horrible job on the first side, the second side I took a different approach and it was much more tollerable.

The upper shock mount ended up dead centered front to rear in the rear frame crossmember, this worked good for through bolting through the frame. The first side I did I drilled 4 small holes and connected with a small cutoff wheel, then used a die grinder and deburring bit to open the hole up for the clearance I needed. The second side I located the front edge of the opening and the rear edge of the opening and used a 1.5" hole saw, drilled two holes and used an air saw to get me close, then finished up with the die grinder. It took a fraction of the time.

In case anyone is wanting to do this on their own, the inside of the framerails when cut open measures 1.95", so whatever shock you are going to use, get or build spacers to make your upper shock mount that width, I need to turn a couple spacers still.

I used the same 1.5" hole saw to drill an access hole in the crossmember to access the nuts of the bolt for the shock, this is just big enough to fit a modified wrench up in to tighten the bolt. I do not believe that this hole has any effect on strength of the crossmember.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4ehh4bij.jpg

You can see in this photo that I had to take a little bit off of the bottom of the outside of the framerails in order to give the shock the clearance it needed to swing in all directions and have lots of clearance. I am working off of the garage floor so this is not a fun job by any stretch of the imagination.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4ehh4bij.jpg

So with the access needed, the holes all cut, I wanted to reinforce not only the outside of the frame rail, but also to reinforce the bolt going through the framerail.

So I came up with these guys, I believe it will stiffen up any of the strength I removed and spread the load out on the framerails just fine.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psg9ygqbyt.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxvvtemg7.jpg

The frame has a slight contour to it so these plates need a little bend in them.

These are just .120 mild steel plates.

Here you can see the clearances I will have, this is more swing than the shock will ever have.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspdf0sm1g.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2poegfn0.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3iou9465.jpg

I am going to return the 4.1" travel rear shocks and substitute a 6.1" shock in its place, I will be sticking with the Ride Tech shocks. If you took the time to read through the Ron Sutton write up , it is one of the very few quality shocks built in the US and is totally tunable.

Is this perfect, I am sure its not, is it something I believe I can work around and make fast around a track, I think so.

For those of you that are still reading and want to know what kind of measurements this is. This is built at a ride height of 4.5" to the bottom of the pinch weld on a 25" tall tire, 3" of uptravel and 3" of down travel (Assuming that I dont have to limit the uptravel once its all in the car. Keep in mind with the chocks are behind the axle so actual centerline travel of the rear suspension will be slightly shorter than that.

Brakes for the rearend showed up, backing plate bracket is wrong, so those need to go back but they look awesome.

Hope that parts show up this week to get this all buttoned up, I am so sick of crawling around under the back of this car.

Sean

Gotcha. I assumed you had the rear end @ your intended ride height. In my initial glance @ the pic, the PHB looked pretty level. I figured you weren't done @ the frame mount but took the "it's gotta go" reply & wondered what I wasn't seeing that made it so bad. I misinterpreted that response.

You're correct. My dually rides/drives much better vs. the original rear leaf spring configuration even w/o an adjustable PHB (I did build the mounts to yield a level bar @ ride height & the bar is slightly lower than axle C/L). It actually handles like a 1/2 ton. It would be much better w/less weight as well as better tire selection but I kept things as 'load rated' legit as possible.....

Frame brace and shock mount look good, great idea! Looks like it’ll still work when you bring that inner wheel well in even with the frame. :sieg:

Really looking forward to see the amount of tire you’re going for and how you’re going to accomplish the fitment.

Did you do anything with the steering?

Keep it up man, take a break when you need to and thrash when you feel the need. This is all for supposed to be fun!

:flag2::thumbsup:

Kids car....I blame Sean.

You can fit so much stuff from Ikea in there!

:y0!: ....and LEGO blocks....(OK, not Swedish, but for the punchline close enuf)

Those RideTech shox look great!

Bought my wife one of these for her birthday a couple of years ago.

It really needs your Help Sean. The engine is only 2 liters, I drink more liquid in a day than that...

LS the Netherlands (world)? lol...

Been neglecting this forum a bit so Ill update it now this was 3 weeks ago now, they have not done a thing since then, we are living off of lawn furniture in our living room as all of our stuff is packed up and in the garage.

So I have always lived in pretty normal homes, all the homes we have owned have been from the 40's and 50's, things were simple and small. First home was 1080 and the second home was 1400 sq. feet. Both nice homes but nothing fancy by a long shot.

We bought this brand new craftsman style home out in the country and of course have the first flood of our lives.

We had a toilet flapper stick open and filled the septic tank closed the check valve and flooded our first floor in just 6 hours.

We have damage in 6 separate areas of the home. All of out hardwoods had to be removed and the home is drying out along with the garage and the crawl space.

We were forced to move out of our home for a little over a week. Between work and this mess I spent 4 of 22 nights in this home.

Its pretty likely that we will need to stay out during the construction of the home too. The flooring is on order from the manufacturer until middle of October/ beginning of November so we are forced to live like this until then apparently.

What it used to look like.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psowbqafey.jpg

Current

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pskmzndmxn.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspr9e1ny0.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstcjgwjz8.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgyfcwsrw.jpg

I had no idea just how bad this would be when I woke up and found my shower pan full of water at 5 am.

I cannot believe that there is no interlock between the septic pump alarm and the well pump. I guarantee there will be moving forward.

Progress on everything has stopped. I need to get the car to be able to sit on its own weight and roll and I need some roller 5x4.5 wheels and tires.

Sorry for the lack of progress, this one is going to have to take a back seat until we get our living situation figured out.

Have had zero time or motivation to even go into the shop in weeks with the flood.

Managed to get out there for a few hours yesterday, my motivation is that the car may need to be moved in the coming months and it needs to roll, steer and stop.

Back out of the car again, final welding on the panhard bar bracket, clean and paint.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psyzhrh1rb.jpg

Cleaned and painted, ready to go back in.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psjlotiz7k.jpg

Pulled all the links apart and got them all welded up and shot with some VHT wrinkle black, didnt turn out that well but will be fine for suspension parts that are going to get driven on.

Ran into a small hiccup on the panhard bar, it just barely touches the diff cover so going to try and put a small like 5 degree bend in it and get it to clear. This is with the heavy duty diff cover, clears the stocker just fine.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4a8pqtr7.jpg

Taped up and undercoated above the rearend so its buttoned up when things go back together. Had custom lines made up for the rear of the car a few weeks ago. One of the best things about living here in Eugene is Pacific Rubber, they build their own DOT approved braided stainless brake lines on site. Best **** I have ever run across in all of my hose vendors anywhere.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspx4o5rhp.jpg

Cleaned up all the hardware and have the rearend back under the car. Gotta make some adjustments on the panhard then should be able to button up most of the stuff under the backend of the car. Can get the fuel tank installed, run lines, install pump, install shocks and other misc stuff.

Maybe a roller in a week or so if I can find some more motivation.

Managed to get the Panhard bar bent at a local shop that had a 1.5" die, we made it work since the degree on the bend is so small.

Stripped off the ****ty previous paint job and did it my normal way, Paint 3 heavy coats and put it in a storage tote with a hairdryer pointed in it. Perfect finish!!

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscmbwibun.jpg

Fits perfect. Have about 3/8" clearance all around the diff cover and about the same at the front of the tire.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psvkx4sjev.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbwuxbbwr.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psiqwoonus.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psrrdxin3l.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psal0l2aeh.jpg

Pretty happy with how this all turned out, its been a lot of work but should have good results. I am waiting for Brakes to show up, can run lines and finally get the fuel system mounted and finished up.

Now I can decide if I am going to puss out and just run 275's or if I am going to man up and run the 315's and flares.

Had a little bit of time to work on the car last night and a little again tonight. Got the upper shock spacers machined thanks to an awesome neighbor. Got all the washers on the hardware for the rearend and tightened everything all up.

Got the fuel tank all buttoned up and installed the weatherpack connector on the fuel pump wiring. And finally got the fuel tank installed, clips on the brake lines, built the last fuel line and tightened all the connections.

For the first time in months, feel like I am making some actual progress.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxnsrgcrh.jpg

Got the helper springs installed also.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psmaaxfqpq.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pskmtc8eml.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscwhud5t6.jpg

Fuel system is done with the exception of the vent line, have the parts, just need to install.

Going to keep trucking on the wiring this weekend and see if I can knock some **** out.

Anyone have any great hookups on 3 piece wheels? Likely going to do some step lip Work VSXX wheels. CCW's are a 10 week lead time =(

Sean

So I had to drop the tank to get the vent line hooked up, but it was pretty painless getting it out the second or third time......

Built the last remaining fuel line and have it done and tight.

So with that done I turned to doing the odds and ends, but first, I gave the garage a little clean up.

Started by sorting through the wiring on the drivers side, figuring out what was what, what needed to go to the passenger side since I am doing about 50% or a wire tuck.

I ended up pulling the wiring for the windshield washer squirters and level sensor back into the cab, I dont expect to be using them but wanted to keep in case they are ever needed so they are labeled and tied up under the dash.

Headlights, turn signals, side marker lights, and both of the electric fan wires run up the passenger inner fender well, everything got grommets and the same braided wire sleeving and p clipped to the inside of the fender bolts. It was a total pain the ass.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pspji31ims.jpg

I had to come up with a solution for the messed up wiring for the lights and the ****ty factory volvo connectors. So I eliminated the connector, replaced all of the wiring and installed weatherpack connectors.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0pq5hlra.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslbzbr223.jpg

I also ditched the factory horns in favor of a donor horn from the van, it sounds awesome, its the rest of the wiring here, the horn got a tidy little bracket and mounts right behind the grille, factory plug on it too.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1jvb1sbd.jpg

With the passenger side wrapped up for the most part, it was onto the drivers side, I got everything run out the factory rubber and laid it all out figuring out where my take outs needed to be and tidied it up as much as I possibly could. This is a time consuming process for me as I want it to be just right. All of the factory connectors came apart so glue style heat shrink could be installed. I think the finish product comes out well.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psvgkewe9m.jpg

Here is what I ended up with on the drivers side, I believe I have one last wire to run, hot from battery to the distribution panel. Bracket was powdercoated, plastic got SEM Trim black out of a hot can to keep the spray pattern super fine and gives it a slight texture.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgewybcl4.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pslnayx1jm.jpg

This is just about 100% wired and plumbed at this point. The only thing remaining is the power lead to the distibution panel and some braided sleeving on the starter signal wire.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psvppt5ooz.jpg

I have a few loose ends to tie up on the interior, might need some pointers on a few connectors I dont recall where they go.

I need to run one wire back to the trunk for the fuel pump but I think that is about it for big wiring.

If I had wheels this bitch could hit the road in a few weeks.

Sean

That is really looking good!

Damn clean work....you can spot attention to detail right away.... :thumbsup:


T,

sorry to hear about the water damage.

Love the details on the car.

Your picture taking skills are on point and I appreciate that.

It seems you may need some motivation, perhaps some words of encouragement and because I’m your friend and always willing to lend support...


DONT BE A PU$$Y! 275’s are for Fox bodies, stick to the plan and get some tire under that turd!

:flag2::thumbsup:

Awesome work. Bummer on the house man... no one needs that!

I assume there was a good reason you stuffed the battery on the driver side by the intake vs that empty spot in the other corner?

Have you seen what small tire cars have been doing on course lately? Bret with the 48 Hour Camaro and Donny and Angela with Lefty Lucy (or the pizza car) have been kicking arse and taking names on 275s and 265s respectively lately. Plus this lets you run RE71s which I and many other prefer.

Sorry about the flood damage, been there done that with a faulty valve on a under counter ice maker. Not too that extent though...we were able to save the hardwood floors, just needed a refinish.

Not. Helping.
:thumbsup:

Sean, condolences on that house disaster. That really stinks. I had a septic burp many years ago, but it only reached the shower/tub level, fortunately. The smell remains etched upon my mind, however . . .

It's amazing what you can get done when you haven't the ability to focus. In a jacked up, terrible week, you get more done than I do in a week where I only work ten hours (from my couch, no less). You are the man!

You want the 315s. Your roided-up Volvo will destroy the 275s in no time. I've been on the track a couple of times with my square 315 setup now, and I am living proof that you can really drive like a complete loser without screwing up (unless your brake bias is completely jacked--don't ask me how I know). That said, regardless of how uber-custom your setup is, 315s seem to take a whole lot of work to clear (in all forms of bump and steer and steer-bump) in nearly anything . . . They are however worth it.

New life goal.
:thumbsup:

Thanks for the shove Dan, not sure if it worked yet, 275 look cool on it.

Thanks. The original plan was for the intercooler tank to go on the passenger side, but it needed to be higher up to work better, if I end up with a bigger tank it will go there. Stock battery location was on drivers side and the air intake kind of needed to go over there too.

That is the tire I would run. Honestly, I liked my Dunlop Direzza Star Spec II a lot better than the Falken. Dunlops were a 275 and the Falkens a 295.

The house situation really sucks. Allstate has been awesome and authorized the repairs within a day or two of the flood. However, one month and 5 days later, zero work has been done to repair the house. Frustrating to say the least.

I am motivated, thanks for noticing but it also wears me out, I go, go, go all the time, like 18 or so hours a day I am on the go.

I know the 315's will eventually find their way onto the car, for right now I need to get it rolling, running and tuned, then I can figure out the final wheel and tire combo and adjust sheetmetal to fit.

I am not the best at updating this thread but Basher keeps giving me ****....:bigun2:

I didnt realize how many loose ends needed to be buttoned up in the car. I spent most of the day working out details, completing wiring and plumbing and getting the heater vents installed.

I had a Van, so I had to modify the stock van pedal to work better for my application. I have also learned that accelerator pedal position is key, so I wanted it adjustable for position right to left as well as tilt and in and out. So I chopped off the factory arm and came up with this for my solution.

Multi Position pedal that I can shim up or down and some grippy stuff to keep my foot where it needs to be.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psxmkw3dea.jpg

Then I built this arm that attaches through the factory pedal arm, this is all tig welded aluminum and super solid. This is painted with my normal method, three heavy coats of Wrinkle Black and baked at over 100 degrees for an hour. I do this with a cardboard box and a hair dryer....laugh but it works amazingly well.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pso8wto6fk.jpg

Finished product

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psjdkedy69.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psuspj5zlm.jpg

So with that done I kept going on the dash, got a lot done, everything is wired that I have so far. I removed all of the carpet and shampoo'd them with a pressure washer and simple green, its all I have for now for carpet unless someone has a good suggestion for new carpet I am going to make this work.

Cleaned under the floors, installed the shifter and boot and am in the process of running the final wire to the trunk for the fuel pump.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgbdrjzqa.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pswiqaj79j.jpg

Everything gets loomed, even inside the car.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psjtv2qaua.jpg

I am getting close to being able to fire this thing up.....

I was surprised how well the carpet and rear seat bottom cleaned up with some purple power and a pressure washer. Gotta figure out either a big heel plate for the drivers area or a new front carpet piece.

Managed to track down the van only accelerator pedal plug that I needed and got it wired into the harness. Note to peeps, Vans have a different plug on them =)

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psalkaaf7e.jpg

There is not many newer vans in wrecking yards around here. My search took me to the most sketchy wrecking yard I have ever been too. Super nice guys but sketchy. They had some super cool cars in there, stuff you dont see in wrecking yards that are on the beaten path.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psahppevmv.jpg

Got the emergency brake cables figured out, I am using the Lokar cables for an 8.8 they will adapt easily with the adjusters and everything. Got them in, ran the fuel pump wire up and around the rear seat area.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psi2d9edyq.jpg

Threw this stuff back in to see how it would look, it looks so much better just being clean. Cannot wait to get the rest of the interior in. Gotta find some brown parts and pieces though.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pshots4fkg.jpg

Still waiting for rear brakes to show up, driveline is done, just need to pick it up in Portland. Have one wire to terminate and I can check to make sure it turns over and stuff, pull program from ECU so that we can work on programming.



Sean

Got an adapter that I thought would work for the fronts to be able to roll it on my old F100 wheels and tires....nope.

I need a shorter spring combo. Trying to fit this much wheel and tire is going to require every bit of space I can get. Right now the spring and adjuster are below the top of the tire so the tire hits that. I cannot go any lower on the suspension settings or I get into the tire even more. It looks like I need at least an inch shorter spring.

But the wheels and tires actually look pretty good on there. This is a 275 on a 10" wheel. I could easily roll, pull and stretch the fender to clear this wheel and tire.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psibhwhxjx.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszvoo35xj.jpg

Its got that meaty look to it, I dig it.

Sean

Zero time to work on the car the past few weeks and will be very little progress in the coming weeks. I did manage to pickup my newly rebuilt driveline from my buddy Brian in Portland, hands down the best drivelines anywhere. Had him use the heavy duty STS carrier bearing in it.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscul0ub6o.jpg

Powdercoated carrier crossmember and new hardware (Need fender washers still) all new hardware for the rear flange as well. Applied new undercoating to the rest of the underbody at this point as well. Its not perfect, but its hard to spray when the car isnt on a lift.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pskm3nxka2.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pswh8wg5cj.jpg

Rear brakes showed up at the parts place Friday so I am going to try and get those installed this evening if possible, I could even potentially get the Emergency Brake cables cut to length and hooked up.

After getting the wrong brakes the first time, then getting the run around from Wilwood about them being out of stock.....they showed up 2 days later. Been working on getting the right rear brakes for 2 months. But they are the right brakes!!

140-9219 is the Wilwood part number to put their non drilled 12.88 Spec 37 rear brakes on an 8.8 from a 31 spline ford explorer. Note that this axle has the new style Ford big bearings (Its not even remotely similar to a mustang rearend).

Instructions are terrible but they go on good enough.

Integral Emergency Brake fitted up with Lokar Emergency Brake cable.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psp6ib2i1s.jpg

12.88 slotted 2 piece Spec 37 Caliper and 4 piston Forgen Narrow superlite caliper.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psnzasjds1.jpg

Rearend is just about buttoned up at this point. I have to finish up the pass side brakes and safety wire all of the 2 piece rotors but the diff is reassembled, c clips back in, diff cover sealed up and final installed.

I am digging this pic.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscvhd163y.jpg

I have wheel spacers for the front that will get it to a roller with the wrong wheels. Still need to trim inner drivers side rear wheel well to get the rear tires on, it will have to wait till sometime next week.

Sean

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I can't wait to see this same shot with the rear tires on it!!!

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psibhwhxjx.jpg

The work on the van pedal is brilliant! I like how that turned out. :D

Good to know on the van pedal harness too. I've been messing with these engines for quite a while and didn't know that.

Not the same shot but you get the feel of it, looks ok I guess.:action-smiley-027:

I had no idea either, turns out the van pedal worked really well, better than the truck pedal would have once I modified it. Thanks for the props

Thanks man, its nothing like your build......but its guys like you that keep me motivated. Your car is amazing.

Done

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7tfatqlk.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psdvynrazj.jpg

It is just mocked up because some idiot put the wrong wheel studs in front and back, 12x1.5 front and 1/2-20 rear.....

I had a question about the rear brakes and called the wilwood guy to discuss, he said that they have no application for my rear axle.......even though its the fourth call to him and the 3rd kit and I have everything bolted on.....

My question was that this is a c clip axle and the kit came with bearing retainers that I dont need to use. Can I just omit them from the kit?

Then he asked the application. I told him 83 volvo =) with an LS and an 8.8 from a 1997 ford explorer. The phone started to smoke he was so confused.

Happy Thursday all!!

Sean

I have gotten that response so much I thought it was normal when building a custom vehicle. Hahaha!

YES!!! Thanks....

And for what it's worth, I've had Metric studs up front and SAE studs out back for probably 8 years now, you get used to it after a while... :poke:

Well, I got the car buttoned up enough to make it roll and moved it to our old place. I have since remodeled the entire house, moved, sold the eugene home and have kind of settled back into something of a normal life again.

Been seriously lacking motivation but gotta get this POS done before spring so here we go again!!

When I got it buttoned up to move, it was just to get it to roll so there is a lot of stuff left to do that nobody would ever see. I started at the back of it and am working my way forward.

I needed to create an access panel in the trunk to get to the new fuel pump location, I started with the stock location and worked my way over to the new pump location, hole saw and some tin snips and we have a nice clean opening, some riv nuts in the body and a nice aluminum plate to cover it all up and make it a little more safe. I also tightened all the fuel connections and buttoned up the wiring and weatherpack connectors for the fuel pump.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pszujpebr0.jpg


http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psyreywuua.jpg

With that buttoned up I got to doing all the safety wire on the rotors, believe it or not this is a very nice task and once I got it down I enjoyed doing it.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psfj9q69t1.jpg

I had not gotten around to rear brake lines, so that was next, I had some brake lines made locally as the first ones I got were too long at the caliper and ran into the spring. Drilled and tapped the axle housing for some tabs and got those on, hard lines bent up and tightened and the flex lines on. Torqued the calipers, loaded up the pads and the aside from fluids the rearend is done!!

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pscgbb7i6s.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psrfdoaplq.jpg

One other item to note, my terminals I had originally ordered and installed were just too bulky and got too close to the battery mount, I was worried about wear over time or something moving around and shorting so I picked up another set that are smaller but use lugs to connect instead of allen head screws in the terminal. This meant undoing everything and crimping the new ends on the wire in the car. My Hydraulic crimper worked great for the smaller stuff but had to borrow my neighbors big crimper for the 1/0 guage, its total overkill but never have to worry about it not having big enough wire.......I got it all for free too. I like how this has turned out.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psgqoiaeek.jpg

So guages should show up today, Racepak IQ3 Street Dash, I have a new battery on order, going to try and start getting fluids in this week, heat up the electrical so we can pull the factory tun out of it and start working on a new tune.

Fantastic build Sean, as all of your previous ones!

Andrew

Looking good Sean...glad to see you back at it. Really enjoyed chatting at Lat G party...wish we lived a lot closer to one another so we could do that more often.

Thanks Andrew, I am just a hobyist in my little garage, nothing compared to most of the guys on this forum.

I couldnt agree more Lance. I would love to come down and check out the car scene around you and hang out with you one of these weekends, maybe this spring I could take a little trip down there?

Dropped some parts off at STS to get the hook up on some on off bits and pieces.

Got home and my parts I ordered from Summit on Monday had shown up, thats some amazing customer service right there, free 1 day shipping.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psovjwlvwu.jpg

The battery in the previous pics was a dead one from a long time ago just used for mockup. So I got this battery swapped in and actually bolted down for the first time, new battery terminals are way better.

Picked up some new to me 5 panel taillights that are in much better shape. A little clean up on the buckets and some detailing on the lights and its mucho better!!

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstu3qpwne.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psz0lyqqet.jpg

I have a few things to button up the next few days, going to try and put power to it before the weekend and read the ECU.

About to order up all the stuff for the exhaust too. Man I have a lot of **** left to do.

Sean

Great to see you back on track with this thing, Sean. It's just great to see an actual build thread going on here . . .

Ditto on the Summit shipping deal. Between no sales tax in Nevada and my proximity to Reno (next day free), I can say that Summit is my favorite store in the world. I feel a need to visit them in person once or twice a year, just to show I care.

As for the tune, given your engine setup, I can strongly recommend, as an extreme amateur with HPTuners, a stock 2010-11 Corvette Zr1 tune (for a baseline, not forever). It got me running and driving instantly (not necessarily safely--the timing advance levels are crazy in the stock zr1 tune) after a (LS9) cam, injectors (Deka 80s), and turbo on my 5.3. Converting to speed density was pretty easy, but finding accurate injector data was a chore (but done). Success here may of course depend on your cam and injector choices . . .

Here's to happy predictability!:gitrdun: