LY6/4L80e from rough van into rough 69 camaro
03-22-2012, 03:58 AM
#663
Man thats great!!! In the end you will be glad your rolling with a new staight body and fresh paint. When you said you were going to do it all at one time you werent bull-shitting! Good time to think about a cage if you were going to put one in. Keep the pics flowing, cant wait to see the finished product. What color you going with? Burnished brown?
03-22-2012, 09:20 AM
#664
You know what though? A car that old NEEDS that kind of rebuild unless it has spent it's entire life in Arizona. You can find and repair every little spot of rust in the car and end up with what will basically be a new body. Great job.
03-22-2012, 12:37 PM
#667
Now to Come Clean Over the winter, I was going to pull my dash and install the vintage AC system. I kept looking at the patches of metal stick welded onto my floor board. I also ground off the bondo that had bubbled up on top of my patch quarter panels to find they had been stick welded over top of the old metal. I have a couple of patches in my frame rails, a rocker panel is rusting through, and there are holes in the roof on top of the a pillars. Then, there is the unknown.
Since, I completed my swap, I made friends with the owner of the body shop at the Chevy dealer around the corner from where I live and he offered for me to bring in the car and restore it. I really himmed and hawed over it because I knew that my car would have to be disassembled to the level you see in the picture above, and even then, still need patch work in the bottoms of that inner structure. Also, I wasn't looking forward to the downtime.
So a couple of weeks ago, the inner structure you see in the photo above, blasted and sealed, along with new framerails, pans and firewall mounted on a jig plus most of the metal to complete the car appeared on Craigslist for $2900. I immediately bought it, and it just arrived at my friend's shop. I plan to do most of the work myself and get help along the way when I need it. When I am finished, I will move my subframe and front clip over to the new shell. The car will maintain it's identity as an rs/ss and I plan to reuse as much sheetmetal as I can from my old cowl.
The plan is to go back to the factory look with the original ss hood, new spoilers, burnished brown, white hockey sticks, ivory houndstooth and an rs grill. I will use amd 2 inch wider than stock wheel housings, because they don't eat most of the way through the framerail like dse's. Since this involves moving the leaf springs inboard, thereby requiring notching the tank, I am just going to leave the old springs behind and get a ride tech rear suspension with coil overs and reuse the spectre tank. The cost of notching the tank, new calverts, leaf springs and shocks will be within $700 of the ridetech setup. Instead of strengthening up my 8.5 ten bolt, I will have a new custom nine inch built, slightly shortened. When I account for the sale of the old diff, this is actually the cheaper way to go.
I'm happy to be doing it this way, since I will still get to drive the car while I am working on it. It's just a different way to look at it.
Since, I completed my swap, I made friends with the owner of the body shop at the Chevy dealer around the corner from where I live and he offered for me to bring in the car and restore it. I really himmed and hawed over it because I knew that my car would have to be disassembled to the level you see in the picture above, and even then, still need patch work in the bottoms of that inner structure. Also, I wasn't looking forward to the downtime.
So a couple of weeks ago, the inner structure you see in the photo above, blasted and sealed, along with new framerails, pans and firewall mounted on a jig plus most of the metal to complete the car appeared on Craigslist for $2900. I immediately bought it, and it just arrived at my friend's shop. I plan to do most of the work myself and get help along the way when I need it. When I am finished, I will move my subframe and front clip over to the new shell. The car will maintain it's identity as an rs/ss and I plan to reuse as much sheetmetal as I can from my old cowl.
The plan is to go back to the factory look with the original ss hood, new spoilers, burnished brown, white hockey sticks, ivory houndstooth and an rs grill. I will use amd 2 inch wider than stock wheel housings, because they don't eat most of the way through the framerail like dse's. Since this involves moving the leaf springs inboard, thereby requiring notching the tank, I am just going to leave the old springs behind and get a ride tech rear suspension with coil overs and reuse the spectre tank. The cost of notching the tank, new calverts, leaf springs and shocks will be within $700 of the ridetech setup. Instead of strengthening up my 8.5 ten bolt, I will have a new custom nine inch built, slightly shortened. When I account for the sale of the old diff, this is actually the cheaper way to go.
I'm happy to be doing it this way, since I will still get to drive the car while I am working on it. It's just a different way to look at it.
04-05-2012, 10:50 PM
#669
Good Lord, What am I going to do with this?
On a side note. HP Tuners has a glitch with my 2009 Van program and won't let us in to change the tune. When it tries to connect it says Security codes failed. This has been going on for weeks and HP tuners keeps telling me to wait. Not cool. Time to find a friend with EFI live?
04-06-2012, 08:20 PM
#671
This little box will will turn the nitrous on and off at certain rpms (rpm window switch) and make sure I have WOT by sensing voltage in the throttle by wire. A friend gave me a 90mm plate cold fusion system so I bought this box to work with it for safety. I'll probably still find a way to blow it up. I think I'll start with a 75 shot and work my way up to 125.
I need to find some longer throttle body bolts. The system he gave me was missing fittings and some hoses and brackets so I am quickly learning how to piece together a system. Here's how far I got today:
I need to find some longer throttle body bolts. The system he gave me was missing fittings and some hoses and brackets so I am quickly learning how to piece together a system. Here's how far I got today:
04-07-2012, 10:53 AM
#674
I started with just the purge valve, then bought a T fitting, a pipe thread and an autometer oil pressure gauge line kit to exhaust the purge.
I had to go online to read the directions for a few plate kites to figure out what I need and what pieces were missing. Some of the kits have you silicone the plate to the throttle body and don't include longer bolts. Pretty cheesy. The LS3 throttle body has the same thickness as the LY6 as far as bolts are concerned and longer ones will be tricky to find.
I had to go online to read the directions for a few plate kites to figure out what I need and what pieces were missing. Some of the kits have you silicone the plate to the throttle body and don't include longer bolts. Pretty cheesy. The LS3 throttle body has the same thickness as the LY6 as far as bolts are concerned and longer ones will be tricky to find.
04-07-2012, 10:58 AM
#675
I started with just the purge valve, then bought a T fitting, a pipe thread and an autometer oil pressure gauge line kit to exhaust the purge.
I had to go online to read the directions for a few plate kites to figure out what I need and what pieces were missing. Some of the kits have you silicone the plate to the throttle body and don't include longer bolts. Pretty cheesy. The LS3 throttle body has the same thickness as the LY6 as far as bolts are concerned and longer ones will be tricky to find.
I had to go online to read the directions for a few plate kites to figure out what I need and what pieces were missing. Some of the kits have you silicone the plate to the throttle body and don't include longer bolts. Pretty cheesy. The LS3 throttle body has the same thickness as the LY6 as far as bolts are concerned and longer ones will be tricky to find.
04-09-2012, 08:23 PM
#677
I hear ya Dan the port man!! **** man your gonna be in the 10's before you know it. Hows the new body coming along? Just go ahead and buy a FAST LSX intake and 102 big mouth!!! **** man your riding around with $800 gauges you might as well. Its that simple!! 
04-09-2012, 10:26 PM
#678
My bling gauges are awesome. No f.a.s.t. in my future, I'm getting ready to buy sheetmetal. I hope you're getting those stickier tires.
04-10-2012, 03:42 AM
#679
HA ha. I wish. I don't plan to spray more than 75 or 100 hp, until I can get back into my tune and upgrade my fuel system. I want to take my old spectra pump and run a standalone fuel tank for the wet side with some mega octane fuel. Also, could use some new axles like yours before I turn it up.
My bling gauges are awesome. No f.a.s.t. in my future, I'm getting ready to buy sheetmetal. I hope you're getting those stickier tires.
My bling gauges are awesome. No f.a.s.t. in my future, I'm getting ready to buy sheetmetal. I hope you're getting those stickier tires.
I have around 150 miles on the new engine, when it hits 750-1000 miles I will definately buy some tires for the track.
04-11-2012, 12:22 AM
#680
Get a progressive timer and up the ante, no axle improvement required. I like the sheetmetal intakes. I like the cast Edelbrock Pro-Flo XT or something like that. I almost bought it but feared it wouldn't clear my hood.
I have around 150 miles on the new engine, when it hits 750-1000 miles I will definately buy some tires for the track.
I have around 150 miles on the new engine, when it hits 750-1000 miles I will definately buy some tires for the track.