192 replies to this topic

[76lxhatch]

With the tank split open, may as well add a baffle.

 

Tested (and fixed, and tested) the welds as well as I could then brushed on some tank sealant, making sure to get it in all the crevices at the joints.

 

Same treatment for the sender/pickup section.

 

Finally time to join the halves back together! Tack first.

 

Slowly, slowly.

 

Done! Looks OK but will get some external tidy up anyway.

 

More of this horrible/great stuff.

 

Rolled around all the seams internally, I made quite a mess outside so fairly certain its everywhere it needs to be inside. Seems to be pretty good stuff.

 

That's it for now, still need to tidy up the outside of the tank, and the filler neck hole needs to be cut and the neck fitted. Kinda hoping to use a short piece that allows clamping on using a short section of hose to attach the filler neck and hard mount the top part of the neck near the cap but there is very limited space, we'll see.

[76lxhatch]

Back on the dash, made a profile template to help figure out mounting.

 

Traced the original fascia with some added tab material.

 

Several hours of finicky bending and fitting later.

Turns out the tabs I had planned on using were in the way so they got cut off. Going to tack a couple of hooks on the bottom, plus it has several tabs that are held in place across the tab behind the crash pad (same as the vent surrounds). Also found that I can add a flange on the right same as the left that will be screwed directly to the dash structure, and should be able to still have two screws underneath the top above the cluster lense.

 

All fits reasonably well.

 

With glovebox lid in place.

The plan at this stage is to add a layer on top to simulate the raised woodgrain area and the raised silver edging, the height/depth is set to make this align smoothly. The woodgrain finish won't be staying though, probably wrinkle black on those areas to add some texture.

 

That was the easy part, now to cut big holes in it and match up with the new instruments...

[76lxhatch]

After all that work I cut a big hole in it. The bottom edge is folded down into the hole and butts against the lense.

 

Trimmed to size. Visibility of the instruments seems pretty good, I may or may not trim it just slightly higher.

 

 

Next is to close this in completely against the lense, and cut out small windows below for the idiot lights and the trip reset button.

[76lxhatch]

Added the fixings for the new fascia. New flange on right, and the welds are where I've attached hooks on the back that go behind the lower dash section.

 

Two additional screws (only right side visible in this photo) up top.

 

The original flange mount on the left side, plus another hidden hook.

 

Did some measuring and made a cardboard profile template for the remaining part of the surround.

 

Fits flat against the back of the panel.

 

Cut to shape with the aid of the profile template and a lot of trimming and test fitting.

 

Forgot to take photos and welded it all up. Needs a little tidying but getting there.

[76lxhatch]

Made the holes to access the upper screws, right on the curved section so used an end mill.

 

Made a couple of surrounds for the idiot lights. These give the additional depth to bridge the gap between the fascia and the face of the light lense. Width is absolute max the little 3D printer will do.

 

Holes for them to slot into.

 

Epoxy and special clamping devices.

 

Still need to sand the bottom edges to match the curvature of the dash, if you look really close you can see the outer edges are roughly flush with the bottom of the fascia but the inner hang down a mm or so. Face sits nice and flush.

[76lxhatch]

Finished up the idiot light windows and cut a hole for the trip meter reset button.

 

Not really enough space for a stealth stereo install in the top of the dash where the ashtray was and don't want it looking silly. Drew up a small badge in CAD and 3D printed it, might just put that there to fill the space.

 

Also had to deal with this.

 

Cut the piece I needed out of another one that had damage in different places.

 

Made room for it.

 

Cleaned and roughed up with some additional grooves where a small metal reinforcing plate will go.

 

All done with plenty of epoxy, more solid than ever.

 

Also finally got around to leak testing the fuel tank a couple of days ago. I didn't really want to risk causing rust by putting water in it that couldn't easily be dried out so just air tested with an old weed sprayer as a pump (more control than the air compressor at low pressures). Was planning to put 4-5psi in it so I could see it on the gauge but it started ballooning the top of the tank at only a couple of psi... held air for over an hour though so I'm happy with that.

 

Put a nice thick coat of paint on.

[rodomo]

I get the fux, I've had enough, is it all worth it, moments where you move on to another part.

[orangeLJ]

Very clever work as always. Love the use of parts most scrap.

[76lxhatch]

Waste not, want not. The reality is most parts these days are stupid expensive and at the moment we can't buy anything not sold at the supermarket anyway.

[rodomo]

I get that. I have a shed load full of bits I'll never need.

[76lxhatch]

Found some enthusiasm to look at the rear brakes. This car came with a 12 bolt Chevy diff that was bought by the previous owner, quite an old conversion but at least the welding looks reasonable so will stick with it. It has the usual C-clip axles which isn't the greatest engineering idea but kind of convenient when it comes to bolting stuff on to the housing as the axles are completely separate. It has this strange tube flange:

which after some measuring and web searching I believe is Chevy C10 truck.

 

It had (parts of) HQ drums on it, but I wasn't particularly happy with the mounting - not only is the centre location poor but it didn't sit flat against the flange because the drum backing plate didn't have enough area.

 

As seen here previously I have a variety of VN/VP parts, and have already adapted the master cylinder and booster. May as well keep with the theme and use the rear disc brakes, turns out the mounting plate is actually a snug fit on the machined outer housing tube so that's a good start.

 

And unlike the HQ drums, there is enough area for the flange to sit flat (once the dirt is removed).

 

The bolt pattern is of course different, but there is just enough room for it without fouling the park brake shoes. Tried to be somewhat accurate with this, marked the PCD for the holes first.

 

Then measured, centre punched, pilot drilled, re-checked measurements, final drilled new holes.

 

Would have been fine with two sets of holes, but ugly. Welded up excess holes.

[76lxhatch]

The backing plates and calipers will be swapped left to right, they need to sit at the front to clear the shocks. The park brake mechanisms can stay on the correct side so the lever still pulls forward, but the cable bracket needs to be moved. It sits below the caliper OK, sharing one hole with the caliper mounting bolt and a new one drilled and tapped in the mounting plate. Needs a minor clearance hole for the caliper, this is the fixed part so doesn't need much.

It does put the cable on a slightly skewed angle but not bad, it will work fine.

 

The distance from the axle flange to the diff housing flange is slightly larger than the VN diff, which is far preferable to being too small as we can just add a shim/spacer. Again tried to make this somewhat accurate, machined out the centre hole along with a recess for the stepped area and faced to suitable thickness in the lathe.

 

Just slides on and makes the distance perfectly match the VN setup.

 

A small amount of trimming around the park brake cable mount and the dust shield still fits nicely. Also cut and shut the caliper hose mount to tuck it tighter against the shield, probably would have been fine but this guarantees no contact even at full bump. Ready to bolt on, just want to make sure I have suitable length bolts with the extra spacer, thinking about maybe using cap screws from the outside welding nuts to the diff housing flange.

 

As far as the axles and rotors go, the discs slide over the outer of the axle flange nicely. They are HQ stud pattern so Commodore is close enough for loose fitting rotors since they locate on the centre spigot - but therein lies the final issue. The axle spigots are too big, so I'm going to have to machine them down a bit. The axles have a centre drill either end which is handy, but they are just a bit too long for my little lathe so I'm either going to have to wait and get someone else to machine them, or maybe figure out some other way of holding them.

[76lxhatch]

There's a reason I set the mill up where it is in relation to the lathe, both bolted down to the same bench structure. Managed to squeeze the axles in the lathe after all and turned the spigot down the approx. 1mm needed.

(Don't mind the mess, its part of my... process.)

 

Turned the boring bar upside down and ran the lathe in reverse to get the reach needed.

 

The outer diameter of the flange actually was a hair too large also, didn't realise the rotor inner diameter tapers down right at the very end. Fixed that while I was there, then wire brushed the surface and re-installed the studs.

 

Everything fits together and sits where it should.

[claysummers]

Mess, you should see my shed. Very clever work you are doing there, adapting what you have. Someone might be scratching their head replacing parts on this setup when you aren’t around to explain what’s been done.


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[Com_VC]

That's awesome, I love what you did with the lathe and mill. Good to see hobby based machines doing the work of much larger equipment.

[76lxhatch]

Thanks guys. claysummers that's one of the reasons I modified the axles rather than just boring the centre hole on the rotors, now they should be just standard replacement parts.

[claysummers]

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[Com_VC]

Thanks guys. claysummers that's one of the reasons I modified the axles rather than just boring the centre hole on the rotors, now they should be just standard replacement parts.

 

As long as you don't break an axle. 

[76lxhatch]

True, but they were already modified. Dunno if you could replace these old things now anyway, it will probably be a whole new diff if that happens. Should be OK with a mild V8 as its a proper 12 bolt diff with 30 spline axles, just a shame about the C-clips.

[76lxhatch]

Notched a touch of clearance in the spacer plates for the park brake shoe pins, probably not necessary but just ensures that everything sits flat.

 

You can see the two small holes in relation to the spacer plate here.

 

Now since I've added the spacer plates the original mounting studs are a touch too short. There were also several missing, they were extremely sloppy in the diff housing flange, and due to the position of the holes the half-head style were too far from the axle tube to stop them from spinning which makes assembly a pain in the neck. Found some old wheel studs that will do the trick - after turning them all down and re-threading to 3/8" UNF.

 

In comparison to the old studs, which I think are probably not the ones that originally came with this diff anyway.

 

Installed into the flange.

 

Assembled with the proper metal pinch nuts and enough exposed thread for them to work but not foul anything.

 

Just enough clearance to the brake shoes, like it was meant to be. Being all GM parts in one way or another, it probably was.

[76lxhatch]

Swapping the mounting plates from left to right means the original hole for the park brake return spring is no longer available. There are however a couple of spare bolt holes from the original cable mount that we can use.

 

All fits and operates fine, cable position is good. Looks like a couple of additional mounts for the front ends of the cable sheaths mounted to the inboard seat doubler plates will allow use of the VN cable and the original front section.

[76lxhatch]

Cleaned up and painted HQ stub axles.

 

Have some HZ brake calipers that were junk, swapped a lot of parts around and did a lot of troubleshooting, came to the conclusion that the alloy castings were flexing as the pedal was always soft no matter what when they were installed. So the calipers themselves won't ever be used again but the brackets are still useful. Reamed the UC steering arms to drop the tie rod end down a bit (similar effect to A9X steering arms but not as extreme, will work fine for more conservative caster settings). Clearanced the brackets slightly for the tie rod end (also similar to A9X, plenty of meat left) and everything fits together nicely.

 

In keeping with the recent theme the calipers themselves will be VN V8. Yes its a bit of a sideways step from the HZ ones but at least I know personally that they are a good set and there will be no issues with mismatched components as the booster, master cylinder, front and rear calipers all came from the same car. They have the same pin spacing and diameter holes (bolts are even the same thread) for mounting the pins as the HZ calipers, so simply swapping to the larger HZ pins makes everything fit together. HQ rotors are thicker than Commodore ones but there is just enough space to squeeze a full thickness rotor in with new pads.

 

The flexible line from the Commodore is longer and attaches to the caliper with a banjo fitting that points upward, which would foul the cross member at full toe in. However it can be moved 180 degrees to point down which gives lot of room. I'll move the bracket on the chassis rail to above the front cross member mount bushing, and rotate it to run the line horizontally. This will suit the flexible line and make the end of the hard line a bit simpler. The hard lines already needed custom making since I filled the holes in the engine bay sheet metal.

[claysummers]

Matched components should work well and keep the engineers happy if that’s possible.


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[76lxhatch]

Dug out the sway bars to see what fits and what doesn't. Front was touching the trans inspection cover so bent a little shape into it, clearance for exhaust is good with the shorty headers.

 

Rear just bolted on, but hard against the diff cover and it doesn't even have a gasket.

 

Dropped the rear holes in the trailing arms by half a diameter to angle it down a bit.

 

That did the trick.

[76lxhatch]

Not much to report today, reconditioned some hardware.

 

Cleaned and painted some parts.