very nice work everything looks factory

 

It's been a couple of days since the last progress report.....I got the Grille and all the other parts lined up and installed........I was assembling the bumper and lower grille assy getting ready to install it tonight.......then I found one of the lower bumper trim pieces that ended up having a stripped hole in it.....so....I take it to the shop tomorrow and put a Heli-coil in it so I can finish the install........A couple of loose ends that need to be resolved........I didn't feel the brakes were working correctly....so ...I checked and came to the conclusion that the rear disc's weren't operational.......So....After Bitching about the crappy products, I went back and read the Instructions about proper adjustment during install......OOPS!!!........
And......I'm taking the car next week to have the Doors and Fenders aligned by people more talented and experienced than me..........I got everything close.....but, It needs to be a little better and as I've learned......Convert's are a "Bitch" to get the alignment correct.........I threw in the towel and waved the White flag......LOL

 

Here are some progress pic's from today......Got the Bumper assy and hood installed......Drove the car about 10 miles and I realized I forgot to change out the Fan controller.......Tonight's project!.......I also tried to get the rear brakes working a little better....the rear calipers supplied in the kit are mid 80's Seville calipers with built in parking brakes........Gonna throw in the towel here also and take the car over to Dave and Pete and have them get everything working........beyond my skill level.......Any how ....Here are some Pic's....












Nu Yawk!!!

 

I had the A/C system charged at Jeffery Motors in Kenosha by Dave, Pete and Jeff......they also found a couple of "Rattles" under the car.....Loose Bolts.....Duhhhh!!!.....




Then the car went down to Nostalgic Auto Body in Island Lake, Ill where Joe and Kevin worked their magic on aligning the doors, fenders, window glass, added the rocker trim and found more loose bolts......Duhhhh!!!





Drove home and decided to put it up on the lift and check every bolt.....LOL........Now.....I still have the problem of the rear pads being loose in the Seville Calipers.....worked the parking brake like crazy and still loose....so....I wasn't happy with the braking of the car....while on the lift I noticed something on the inside of the rear wheel....looked a little closer and realized that the axle seal was leaking and the rotor was covered in oil........Took everything apart and found that the seal was riding right on the edge of the axle surface that was exposed to the weather and the pock marked area ate the seal...DARN!!!!........After looking around for one of those repair sleeves to fix it, I couldn't find the right size....Darn!!.......so I bought another seal and I was able to install it another 1/8" deeper into the housing so it would ride on a good surface........I also noticed a lot of metal flakes in the drained rear end grease......Double Darn!!!.......Two weeks to Power Tour......Ordered new axles and ring and pinion today...LOL!!!

 

Dah! that sucks man, sorry to hear it.

Hey what springs do you have on it? I mean, how low is it?

 

Complete Ridetech coil over suspension......

 

Just got home from the "Maiden" voyage....400 trouble free miles..........Issues that need to be corrected for Power Tour.....The Digital Gas gauge doesn't work too good....gonna have to check and see if I have it programmed for the GM sender correctly......the Ridetech suspension is awsum when you are going straight, but.....when turning a corner it seems the Ackerman is off as there is some minor tire squeeling..........I'll call Ridetech on Monday and ask for advice on solving that issue......the brakes are O.K.......but not great.......have to hook up the drain lines for the A/C........And need to get a couple of power outlets for the Satelite radio and charging cell phones.......minor stuff.....anyhow....here is a pic from the show.....

 

Looks great, Ken! Not that I was expecting anything less. Have fun on the Power Tour. It's looking like I'm going to miss it again this year, but hopefully next year they'll go somewhere new and I can try harder to get the time off. Be safe, drive carefully and watch out for the morons on the road! Oh, and take some pics so I can experience the Tour vicariouslythrough you!

 

Update..........I bought the CPP 4 wheel disc brake assy.....it came with Wilwood front calipers and mid 80's Seville rear calipers with built in parking brakes.......Which (In theory) simplify everything.....LOL.....The E-Brake levers that are part of the caliper are key to setting these units up....The way they are supposed to work is to use an internal ratcheting device to keep the pads adjusted as the Parking brake is used........In the initial install set-up I fought with these things to get the pad clearance set-up correctly........Couldn't do it........after a week of messing with them I ended up modifying the arms by cutting and weldind to get the hex to time out with the stops so everything was adjusted correctly......
So....we took the car to the Dells for the show up there.....the brakes didn't seem to be working coprrectly even though I had a great pedal......Hummm!!!.......So.....The other day I stopped at the Frame-up Street Rod shop and talked to Donny and explained my concerns.....He took it for a test ride and hit the brakes pretty hard a couple of times.......got out the infrared temp gauge and shot the front and rear rotors....Front "Hot"......rear "Cool".......Hummm!!!......I left the car with him and 4 hours later I get a call that the car is fixed.........It seems the supplied factory proportioning valve was "Junk"......They put a adjustable one in and then "Fine" tuned the system...........Can you say "Stopping Power".........Man.....Instant Stress Relief........My hat is off to Frame-Up and Donny.........Sometimes is best to swallow your pride and just admit that other people know more that I do...........Lesson learned to not assume because it's new it must be O.K........

Ken

 

Ken, great news that the brake issue is fixed and the car is ready for the Power Tour. This car is just plain gorgeous! Love it Looking forward to seeing it in person next week. I will be on the lookout for sure!

 

Look forward to seeing this car in a few days.

If you see a lemans blue half c6 half c6z with comp grey wheels and z06 brakes and NC plates - yeah thats me.

 

Ken, I enjoyed your post and learned a lot from it. Hopefully I will be at the Power Tour in my Buick. Drive safe and have fun.
Ken

 

I had another "Nagging" problem that wouldn't seem to go away.....I have all Ride Tech suspension on the car.....I had the front end aligned three times and when turning a corner the car would lightly squeel the tires ......and the Castor never looked correct.....I had it aligned again yesterday and after pulling out of the shop.....same thing....Tires squeeling.......So......I call Mark Webster to see how his car steers....(66 Impala with suspension)......his car had no issues.....so...I explained what was going on with my car.....as he's thinking about it, he ask's me if I put the original GM bushings from the old control arms into the new arms.......I say what Bushings???......So....he explains that these Bushings take up the difference in the bushing hole and the ecentric bolt o.d., and the head thickness allows for the compression of the unit after setting to lock everything in place........
I noticed the clearance he was talking about when I put the front end together and checked the Ecentric bolt in the old arm and it was sloppy also, so...I didn't think any more about it.....I went home and got the old arms out and noticed that only one side had the bushings in it (obviously I checked the bolt in the one with the missing bushings).....that's why the tire on the original Nu Yawk survivor was chewed up on that side.....Those Crazy Nu Yawk repair guyz......So....I take the old bushings out and measured them and made some new ones.....the car was back at Frame-Up for some other fine tuning...So, Donny took everything apart and installed the "New" missing bushings.......Back to the alignment shop tomorrow......hopefully the problem will now be solved as the alignment will now be in a controlled condition.......All this with one day to spare.......Leaving Friday a.m. for Detroit and the start of the Power Tour..........
Bottom line......I'm glad I talked to Mark!!

 

Heres a link to Power Tour pic's

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbt...opics/491941/1

 

I was just doing some research for my own car and tumbled upon this thread. Amazing job. I could have used your expertise as my car was in the shop from August until April trying to install the front suspension setup you have. My kit was sold by Chris Alston's Chassisworks but all parties explained it was just a Ride Tech kit rebranded.

The major issue we ran into was the spindle (Alston said to use drop spindles - which is wrong) and then once I went with the stock spindle, the steering arm wouldn't clear the lower ball joint housing. What did you do to get around this? I see you have what looks like a new steering arm, is it different than the original?

Also, mine sits high due to clearance issues, did you encounter this? I bought this kit to be able to lower the car to my desired height, and it's not what I want.

 

I didn't have any problems with the steering arms......I would think that whoever told you to use dropped spindles didn't understand that Ridetech has all the corrections for the lowered suspension are built into the control arms..The steering arms I have are stock 66 pieces.....where are your clearance issues??.....I have 17" x 7" rims on the front with 4" backspacing running 225-55 tires..........Are your rims too wide???

Ken

 

Since I posted I spoke with a manager at Alston and he looked at some pics I sent and he said to lower the lower spring perch. I hadn't done that because my installer said I had very little clearance left to go down. So I figured I'd give it a try and see what hit what. I ended up dropping the lower spring perch to where there is 1" of thread left on the shock. The only issues I've seen is where the sway bar end links touch the lower control arms. And nothing seems to be negatively impacted by that yet. So the center of my wheel opening is now at 24.5". I'm running 18x9 wheels with 255/40s. The back spacing is off and I rub in the back without spacers at stock height but the fronts are fine. So I'm looking to drop the back and get some better fitting wheels.
I can only use one set of holes on the lower control arm because there is no space for the coil and shock to swing out without hitting the frame. I'm assuming that's the clearance issue, since I'm a good 2" lower than I was when I got it back and it seems fine.
Here's how it looks now. Time to get the rear back down a bit.

Again, you've managed to do in a very short time what I've wanted to do with mine for a long time now. It looks great and is a great inspiration.

 

Update!!........Well....The "Old" Beater has held up pretty well since the Power Tour ended.......But.....Here's what happened since then................The Big issue was that I had to send the car back to the Body shop to fix one of my screw-ups.....Since I had to replace the front fenders on my "Perfect" Survivor car, they didn't have the holes in them for the front fender trim.....so....when I got ready to install and drill the holes.......I put tape on the fenders so I didn't have to worry about scratching the paint and I marked the width of the trim right on the tape so I could easily drill the mounting holes......



Seemed like a good plan at the time......so.......I get the holes drilled, pulled the tape off, installed the trim ............and after looking at the trim installed, my stomach dropped and I was ready to puke.......I assumed that the fender spear would just be installed......Wrong!!!......The fender spear is straight and the fender reveal has a curve to it and the trim is supposed to follow the profile of the reveal in the fender........Ouch!!........I called the Body shop and because of being short on time for the Power Tour they needed the car for at least 4 days to weld the holes , Prep and repaint the fenders......didn't have the time so I said I would get it done when we got home.......fortunately......if anyone noticed the screw up on the Power Tour they were nice enough to not say anything about them.....LOL.....
As soon as we got home the car went right back to the Body Shop to be repaired.......$$$$$$$$Stupid Mistake.....But the Trim is now installed like GM wanted them to be.......




I also took the Door Panels off and added the decorative trim pieces that I mistakenly thought would have been included on fully assembled door panels as bought......LOL....again...didn't have the time to order and install them prior to leaving......but....they are now installed....








I also got sick of looking at the engine without an engine cover......I had a Camaro engine cover I was going to use but it ended up being too short....so I got some Corvette covers and trimmed them to fit.....




I also took off the Ridetech rear Panhard bar as it had spherical rod ends on it and it rattled....so In took it off and put the stock rubber bushed GM one back on.......Noise gone....and the stock one dropped right in.....

Great car......If I had to change one thing about the car I think I would put some quieter mufflers on it as the 50 series Flowmasters witgh the long tailpipes just seem a little to "Rappy" for me.......

 

During the Hot Rod Power Tour I got hooked up with the Dakota Digital guys and had my car in their display booth daily.......and they felt sorry for me and decided to use the "Beater" in some of their advertising.........Here a proof they forwarded..........

 

Congrats on the shots in the ad, that is a very high compliment!

Excellent work as always.