And here's some pics of my caprice spindle conversion. Basically, I machined a lower ball joint pocket that will except the caprice lower ball joint, used a guide and a hole saw to cut out the old ball joint location and the guide helped maintain the same distance and centering for the ball joint, then just welded on the new pocket. I'll see if I have more pics but this is all I have for now. The end result is a stronger and better spindle, cheaper way to add disc brakes and will allow me to run the 13x7s. (I'm building a lowrider)

 

 

 

heres more of the build, hers my firewall. i shaved it all

 

before



after

 

oh here was the donor that save my rag, it was SOLID And complete and as clean as they come....i had no problem cutting it up

 

Nice. I'm running the caprice spindles and screw in lower ballpoints on my 63 rag. Be ready to invest in a stock of 13" tires. What headers did you run?

 

There's a set on eBay. Stainless shorty style for $199 I'm got coming. My buddies running them in his 64. Werked perfect for him.

 

Been steadily collecting parts.

 

Chrome coil covers

 

Stainless headers

 

Went ahead and chromed my rack. I spent 3 weeks pre-polishing it before it went to chrome. It was like glass when it was shipped out. Came back amazing. Well worth the prep time I took

 

Since I shaved my firewall a lot of people forget to delete the controls on the dash. I used an industrial grade 2 part glue mix, and glued in a piece of aluminum since this is pot metal. Gonna mud it and smooth it and make it pretty

 

I'm curious. What are you doing for a heater? A/C?

 

Deleted it. Don't need it.

 

Haven't seen any posts lately. You still around?

I'm curious about the firewall smoothing. I'm close to starting on mine. I haven't investigated much yet, but I do notice a few things I'm curious how you handled:

• there are bolts on the outside, on the drivers side. I'm assuming maybe they are mounts for the emergency brake.
• There are posts sticking out that I think are for holding in the inside firewall padding
• There is a ridge sticking out, over the wipre motor area. Seems you cut that out. I'm wondering if that is a brace/stiffener for the firewall area. I'd be concerned about weaking things
• In fact that ridge mentioned above, looking at mine, appears that the firewass itself bows out. So, did you actually space the sheet metal you installed out to where that took out that hump? That seems tricky too.
  [EDIT]NVM on this one. Looking at your pics again, I see the hump there.

Just curious what you did about/think about those things.

 

I didn't really take any of those things mentioned into consideration. I'm not running an e brake, so I chopped out the said bolts, I won't be running wipers, so the ridge and hump area I just smoothed over. I used .09 sheetmetal, which if I remember right is 18 gauge. The extra metal stiffens the area right back up. I also used one whole piece to cover the wall, no sections pieced together.

 

Haven't posted anything on here in a while, I'm on Instagram thou. Here's where I'm at, I'm looking for a trans ASAP

 

Thanks for the input above.

And that LS is lookin' good...

 

Got my trans, found a 4l60e, it's from a 2000 chevy express van. I didn't get the torque converter, it was stuck on the fly wheel. I have a torque converter that came with my motor, can I use that one? Someone told me torque converters should be matched....motors and transmissions arnt my field...lol