1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

Subscribed and bumping for a hopeful update.

Looking for a 61 wagon tailgate if anyone sees this and has any leads.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated this in a while.

I've gotten some work done to the car since I last posted, but haven't been able to work on it much recently due to a new job and another project car.

I'll post a bunch of pictures here in just a bit.

Thanks for the interest.

-Aaron

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

So here's the original drive shaft that my dad and I cut down on the lathe. Since my car has a two piece drive shaft with a carrier bearing, we had to cut down the front drive shaft because of the longer 4L60E, and we added a slip joint to the rear drive shaft so that when the car goes all the way down the drive shaft can slide forward because of the solid mounted rear end and two link setup we built. I thought I had pictures of it after I welded it all up but I guess I didn't get finished pictures.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

The floor pans were pretty bad when I bought the car, and it came with full length floor pan halves, so since I've come this far on the car I figured I would go ahead and put the new floor pans in it.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

I actually enjoy this stuff. Making new brake lines. It's a challenge to route them nicely, and flare them so they seal right. LOL.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

Sorry if I'm just kind of jumping around here.

So after standing back and looking at the engine bay, and the giant holes in the firewall, I decided it look like hell so I pulled the engine/trans BACK out and decided to cut out the passenger side firewall and fill all of the holes in the firewall. I'm a glutton for punishment, what can I say ?! Haha ! The paint code I used on the firewall is actually a metallic gold from an '02-ish Chevy pickup. It was a VERY close match to the original color on the car.

This is the point the car is to now. I've started gathering turbo parts to put a turbo on the car, so that will be getting started here soon.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, we cut a piece of 4 1/2" pipe down the middle and used one half per side of the frame. We ended up just notching the frame up to the bottom of the body mounts because I didn't want to cut into the rear floor area and lose any cargo room in the back. The car could go lower by changing a couple things up but it will be fine for now. ;-) Part of the reason it goes so low is because of the 2 link John and I built for the rear. The travel is not limited by the factory upper 3rd link on the rear end.

I can get you dimensions on the bracket, or could just machine you one for $75.

Thanks. It's getting a 6.0 put in it as we speak, and the style of the car does not really lend itself well for a straight axle setup.

Thanks !

Yeah, my buddy John's car has a hydroboost setup on it and that sold me on them. I did the cheap way and used a Chevy Astro van unit and just bought a new '77 Corvette master cylinder.

Thanks ! I'm not sure if it's still available, but I found a '61 Parkwood (Bel Air trim level) on Craigslist in Oklahoma City that I thought about buying just because it was a good deal and it was super solid.

Got any pictures of yours ?

I bought the mounts off eBay. I don't remember which ones they were.

I'm just going to have to do some metal work and fix my tail gate.

Thanks for all of the compliments on the car, guys.

1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

What are those long U-bolts for on the rear housing? Did you convert to leaf springs in the rear?

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

No, I actually built a completely new rear 2 link suspension.

I'll elaborate and post more pictures of the setup when I get home from work.

-Aaron

1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

Looking forward to the pics. I bet it's a "Truck Arm" type isn't it?

I am keeping the 61 Parkwood rear suspension mostly stock, but on my 61 Bel Air I did all I could to make it completely tuneable at the track. It has billet aluminum LCA's, double adjustable uppers, (adding a 2nd UCA to the driver's side) adjustable panhard bar, custom UCA to frame brackets to allow instant center adjustment, and aluminum adjustable coil-overs. I designed an upper crossmember that bolts in with no modifications to the frame for the coil-overs. The lower coil-over mounts are standard "L" type that weld to the housing and allow for quick height adjustments. The only thing I may change/add is an anti-roll bar to get the launch level.

12.hr

iTrader: (1)

Awesome build man. Love the wheels and patina!!! The way these cars should be !

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

It is similar to the truck arm suspension.

We started by cutting the original lower control arm mounts off of the frame. I then built some new mounts and welded them to the frame farther forward so we could build a longer two link bar. Since the rear end is fixed to the two link bars, the longer they are, the less the pinion angle changes when raising and lowering the suspension.

I took 2"x2"x3/16" wall thickness square tubing and welded another piece of 2"x2" tubing on top of it at the back, effectively making it a 2" lowering block. As you can see in the pictures, I spent a ton of time boxing it all in to make it as sturdy as I could. I also welded two 1/4" pieces of plate on the back of the right side two link bar, then drilled and tapped two different locations to bolt in the panhard bar, depending on how low I want to drive the car.

Since these cars have the X-frame, we built the two link bars to follow the same angle as the frame.

The u-bolts basically tie the rear end and two link bars together, similar to how the rear end sits on top of the leaf springs on most cars and trucks equipped with leaf springs.

I probably over did it on all of the welding on the lower two link bars, but I figured I'd be better of safe than sorry.

Pics will be easier to understand than my description so I'll shut up for now. Haha.

We coped the end of the bars to put the bungs in for the bushings, then TIG welded them in.





You can see how the bars follow the angle of the frame in these pictures.








And the front mounts for the two link bars.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

Thanks man. I'm really enjoying building this car. I've done a lot of things on this car that I've never done before, so it has definitely been an experience.

Here's more pictures.

Here is a picture of the suspension mounted on the car so you can get an idea of how it looks. You can also see the bag cups we built in this picture. I thought I had more pictures of the rear suspension mounted and hanging but I can't find them. I plan on pulling all of it back out and cleaning the rear end and painting or powder coating it and all of the suspension pieces.



Here's the front two link bar mount gussets welded in and the top of the frame cut out for drive shaft travel. I'm going to have to cut the tunnel under the rear seat and fabricate a raised tunnel so when the car goes all the way down the drive shaft doesn't hit the tunnel.



Here's the whole rear setup, minus bags and shocks. Two link arms, upper bag cups, and u-bolt plates I made out of 1/2" steel plate. Those won't bend !



That's about all of the pictures I've got of that stuff.

1961ba427

iTrader: (26)

Thanks for posting those. They really clear everything up. I thought the arms were going to be a lot longer than you made them, but I'm glad to see they are not. I think you will be happy with them just slightly longer than stock like that. Are you going to eliminate any upper arm (s) altogether? I run dual uppers, but saw a "Y" shaped upper recently that I liked too. It just came off the stock rear housing mount and then split to use both locations on the frame crossmember.

A_Pinstriper

iTrader: (1)

No problem. I figured pictures would really help explain what I was trying to narrate.

I think the arms ended up being around 5-7" longer than the stock lower control arms.

Yeah, I eliminated the upper control arm completely. It just has the rear end bolted solid to the two link arms, and an adjustable panhard rod that we fabbed up to control side to side movement. I will probably fab up some sort of bracket to tie the top of the rear end to the top of the two link bars, to try to limit/eliminate any axle wrap that might occur under real hard acceleration.

I've actually decided to go ahead and do the turbo setup on it that I kind of wanted to do in the first place, so the extra 200 or so rear wheel horse power will mean that I will most likely have to build some sort of traction/anti-axle wrap device to keep the rear end from trying to rip the pads off of it.

I have a '57 Chevy Belair project that I've been working on that was supposed to be just a quick "buy it, fix it up a little and sell it" kind of deal and turned into a huge headache, so I need to sell it so I can get back to focusing on the wagon.

Anyway, thanks for taking interest into my never-ending-money-pit of a car. Haha !

OGPaint

How's this project going?

rides by design

nice project. keep it goin'

99ssleeper

iTrader: (98)

Looks great so far! I'd like to find a nice clean solid fullsize wagon someday

tk-mpl

iTrader: (1)

Nice build!!!! I'm building a 61 Bel Air 4 door. I see the LH valve cover is pretty close to the hydro boost. Will a LS fit in there with a 9" booster?

ronb03

Hi, would you tell me what you used for a front crossmember. I bought a rust free 36 coach with lots of dents! I plan on using an LS engine. What did you use for wiring please? Thanks ronb03@att.net