2118 replies to this topic

[rexy]

Heath is too young to know what a bush is. 

 

It’s weird how no one has pubes anymore.

 

Where do all the crabs live these days?

[Rockoz]

 

It’s weird how no one has pubes anymore.

 

Where do all the crabs live these days?

 

 

Blokes beards?

 

 

Cheers

 

Rob

[Heath]

Golly. 
 
Look I'm well enough travelled in that area to know what you're talking about, but they're a rare sight and I consider that a blessing of being in my generation.
 
I decided that my K-frame locating blocks were stupidly heavy and over the top, but I didn't want to lose the nice precise look of them.


Oh my god where did the mass go?
 

Ah!
 
Cleaned up the heads and squirted a bit more assembly lube down onto the cam.

 
This is why you dry-fit parts... did a dry fit of the inlet manifold (which was machined to suit the heads and I slotted out all the bolt holes at the time as well!), oh my god no chance of getting these bolts in the holes with the throttle bodies in situ.

Bit of work in 4 places with the die grinder:



I test fit the dizzy & clamp using the Aeroflow unit that my motor came with. Not sure what was was for... it didn't really fit around my inlet manifold, bellhousing or even my distributor very well, so I grabbed out some ally plate and got to work.



A few little dabs with the TIG in the right areas made some 'feet' on the bottom and a curved boss to ensure it has a good clamping effect in the right spots.



Also clears everything around it nicely and fits the dizzy beautifully.

 



 
Lifted her up and the assembly under.

 
I am actually going to use some hubcentric slip-on spacers for fine adjustment of the wheel fitment at the front end, so I bought some 2.5" long wheel studs from Strange and pulled my hubs apart to install them:


 
Together with some springs, shocks, and swaybar.

[Peter UC]

Why did you paint the springs red and not orange?

[Heath]

Oh, that's just so they go faster.

[76lxhatch]

I would have just bolted the manifold on before attaching the throttle bodies... could be why I have bolts everywhere that require contortionist skills to access :-/

 

Those throttle bodies still look great, will be a shame to close the bonnet!

[myss427]

What's you plan with no booster, VE Vacuum pump?

[jeffblanco]

Hi Heath,

is the " hubcentric " spacer to push the rim further to the outside of the car? 

Is that a word you made up?

Are they legal?

Why do you need longer studs?

Why are the spacers needed between the K-frame and body?

 

Regards Mando.

[neglectedtorana]

Are the k-frame spacers for engine clearance?
How do the spacers change the rear k-frame bolts lining up with the chassis rail?

[myss427]

I have the spacers, it helps with the engine angle to get 3 degrees, extractor clearance, also more tunnel clearance for gearbox height, especially with T56ers. Most of the reason with mine is big engine no room, ground clearance with big pipes.

[Heath]

I would have just bolted the manifold on before attaching the throttle bodies... could be why I have bolts everywhere that require contortionist skills to access :-/

When you heavily modify a car, you have so, so many opportunities to make things hard to service.

I have fallen into that trap enough times on this car, I really want to try and avoid/revise those areas where possible. Plenty of things need to be assembled in a particular order etc. - I don't need to add to that list! LOL
 

What's you plan with no booster, VE Vacuum pump?

Certainly not, I want manual brakes on this car.

I think my motor would still make enough vacuum for a booster to work if I wanted one, though? Like it's only got a 238/238 @ .050" cam so not absurd. 
 

is the " hubcentric " spacer to push the rim further to the outside of the car? 
Is that a word you made up?
Are they legal?
Why do you need longer studs?

Yes, it will push the wheel to the outside of the car a small amount. 
Haha it may not be in a dictionary but it is an established term.
Are hubcentric spacers legal? A Porsche 930 came standard with 20+mm hubcentric spacers and nice long studs, so, maybe? Don't know/don't care. Mine won't be very thick, they'll be sized up correctly and I have 1/2" UNF wheel studs, so they'll be safe and that's all I am concerned about.
The longer studs are just to ensure there's plenty of thread engagement even once there's a spacer installed.
 

Are the k-frame spacers for engine clearance?
How do the spacers change the rear k-frame bolts lining up with the chassis rail?

The spacers are the same height as the standard rubber bushes. In my case they don't help with gearbox clearance, pipe clearance, engine clearance, or anything. It is just to locate the crossmember further forward in the body to move all of the suspension pick-up points and wheels forward.

 

I cut my engine mounts off the crossmember and moved them back to compensate for the crossmember coming forward, so it still sits in the standard location (apart from where the Tuff-Mounts move them)

 IMG_20170611_122054.jpg   511.63K   18 downloads
 

You are correct in pointing out that the rear bolts of course do not line up. I solid mounted those with some small adjustments.

 IMG_20170612_195035.jpg   456.57K   17 downloads

 IMG_20170613_182939.jpg   463.25K   19 downloads

[myss427]

Wow missed that part with crossmember forward shift and spacers. You will still enjoy a little added room out back around bell housing and crossmember out riggers. With the shift forward, how does your tyre to flare clearance go, did you move them too, or just cut a wedge out of the flare?

[ls2lxhatch]

FWIW spaces and adaptors are not legal in any state unless they were a factory option.

NCOP11 Section LS Suspension and Steering V2.1 15Nov2015
 

4.2.2 Wheel Attachment
 
Wheel spacers (or adaptors for dual wheel conversions) between the wheel mounting face and [/size]the road wheel must not be used unless fitted as original equipment by the vehicle manufacturer.

[jeffblanco]

Hi Heath,

did you drill the holes on the fire wall for your wiring loom before or after you painted?

If after, what did you use?

 

Regards Mando.

[Smog]

Hi Heath,

I’m new hear and just stumbled on your build thread and you have just blown me away with your attention to detail, skill sets and the

dedication to the vision you have with this car.

A build like this is always going to be a long road, but the exciting finish line is not that far away where you can enjoy the fruits of your hard labor.

This will be one very cool ride.

 

Not sure if you have answered the question about running straight LPG. Interested in your thoughts?

Also on that issue, when you finally crank this thing, can you fill the tank prior to fitting it to the car or are you going to have to trailer the car to the servo to fill it?

Cheers Tim.

[Bigfella237]

Not sure whether it's legal but I had an adapter hose made up to fill my Caprice from an upturned 9kg LPG cylinder, kinda like a jerrycan for gas.

 

But it looks like you can buy them pre-made now. Have a look on ebay for forklift LPG filler hoses...

 

 

You could always put some gas in the tank before you fit it to the car if you know a servo attendant who will look the other way while you do it!

[claysummers]

Servo attendant? Aren't they extinct?

A mate made one of these up years ago so he could fill 4.5kg bottles in the boot of his car to run his barbecue. That certainly wasn't legal, but worked very well.

early Holden nut

The gun fitting would have been female come to think of it.

early Holden nut

[Heath]

A few things to reply to here...

 

You will still enjoy a little added room out back around bell housing and crossmember out riggers. With the shift forward, how does your tyre to flare clearance go, did you move them too, or just cut a wedge out of the flare?

Yeah I also did all this stuff to the crossmember to buy more space. Is the real estate I gained actually useful? I don't think it's anything life-changing but no harm of course.




Regarding the front flares and wheel clearance... I don't want to profess a good outcome until my car is on the road with an alignment. I may have challenges ahead still.

The test fit I did prior to paint showed promising results regarding clearance but everything on this car seems to go very wrong, so I'll assume I might have a challenge by the time I actually get to that bit.

The flares were not "moved". They were manipulated a bit with some fibreglassing efforts of mine. If I have to cut a wedge out of the front of the flares, I'll probably just throw the car in the bin at that point. That would be an AWFUL outcome I'd be very unsatisfied with.

 

FWIW spaces and adaptors are not legal in any state unless they were a factory option.

Nothing revelationary there.
 

Hi Heath,
did you drill the holes on the fire wall for your wiring loom before or after you painted?
If after, what did you use?

lol I put masking tape over the paint, triple checked the location of them, clinched as tight as I could and drilled away with a holesaw. Then changed pants.
Followed that by cleaning up the edges with a die grinder for a good final size, deburring, then I used a small paint brush to add some paint around the edge to try and seal it up.
Certainly this is NOT best practice. But what else was I to do? I've never built a car before and didn't know any better. A full dry build would have been smarter.
 

Hi Heath,
I’m new hear and just stumbled on your build thread and you have just blown me away with your attention to detail, skill sets and the
dedication to the vision you have with this car.
A build like this is always going to be a long road, but the exciting finish line is not that far away where you can enjoy the fruits of your hard labor.
This will be one very cool ride.
 
Not sure if you have answered the question about running straight LPG. Interested in your thoughts?
Also on that issue, when you finally crank this thing, can you fill the tank prior to fitting it to the car or are you going to have to trailer the car to the servo to fill it?
Cheers Tim.

Thanks so much, Tim. It certainly feels like it isn't too far away! Which is refreshing.

Just on the weekend I did a dodgy and connected a spare filler hose, went to the servo with my LPG tank in the boot of my Chaser surrounded by packing materials, and put 30L of gas in it. One less thing to worry about later.

What was the prior question regarding straight LPG? 

[Smog]

Yeah Heath, just wondering why you went LPG over petrol?
Cheers Tim.

[Heath]

Oh, just a personal preference of mine mostly.

 

What comes out the tailpipe is a lot more comfortable for people to breathe, I like that a lot. And I am a huge tightarse and want it to be cheaper to run than my other cars so I don't feel guilt about driving the wheels off of it.

[Bigfella237]

LPG has a pretty good octane rating too, generally over 100 octane, so a good alternative for performance as well as emissions.

[rexy]

Over the 20 years I had my old LX sedan on GRA straight LPG I saved enough money on fuel to pay for all my engine upgrades and general maintenance on the car.

 

Still went hard enough to win the traffic light derbies.

[Smog]

Fair call.

Also, bold move on the interior ..... but love it!

[myss427]

Regarding the front flares and wheel clearance... I don't want to profess a good outcome until my car is on the road with an alignment. I may have challenges ahead still.

The test fit I did prior to paint showed promising results regarding clearance but everything on this car seems to go very wrong, so I'll assume I might have a challenge by the time I actually get to that bit.

The flares were not "moved". They were manipulated a bit with some fibreglassing efforts of mine. If I have to cut a wedge out of the front of the flares, I'll probably just throw the car in the bin at that point. That would be an AWFUL outcome I'd be very unsatisfied with.

 

I did the triangle wedge thing to mine, so long as you keep the inside curve looking round and do not cut off the inside return edge, you cant really tell its been cut. You can get up to 30-50mm extra room with this. Also you can make some A9X flare supports, they push out the bottom of the flare and bolt to the base of the radiator support panel, they make a huge difference with tyre scrub at the base of the flare. I run a 10 inch wheel on the front with a 245 tyre and have heaps of clearance.

[Heath]

I think I misunderstood your post. I thought you meant the corner off the flare like some people do. Yuuuuuck.

I have already re-shaped the return lip on the flare to change the shape of it, I assume that's what you're referring to, and also expect to make a flare support for it (once I hang panels).