When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
hey fellas long time no see! I am starting down that rabbit hole once again.
brought this turd home this summer. was on the back burner finishing up the busy season for transmissions and now it's the heart of winter and I need stuff to keep me from drinkin and smokin my days away
so I hosed all the leaves off and vacuumed as many mouse houses out as I could and drug it inside
first thing was to yeet the interior since it's gonna be a RACECAR
i was about halfway though the dry ice treatment on the sound deadner when i realized the welding gloves i was using to handle the ice released it's dye with the presence of rubbing alcohol
looks like i earned my backstage pass to the blue man group show the hard way
aside from giving out HJ's to the whole smurf village I managed to pull the motor
I kind of wanted to make it run, but a fella from sloppy mechanics facebook was hot to trot on buying the 2.3 Lima/SROD combo
and as per usual, he flaked as soon as I put the effort into yanking it.
If I had room I'd buy a car just like this and keep track of how light I could make it without buying fiberglass / lexan / carbon fiber other than maybe the hood.
no quad shocks on this one & switching to coil overs that I can move just about anywhere. Quite a bit less cluttered around the rear axle than the G bodies thankfully.
well i called my metal supplier today and damn wouldnt you know it, there isnt a single stick of docol on the west coast today. and when it comes back it'll be roughly $240 a stick!
okay well how much is moly? $185 a stick! thats almost $9 a foot. and he tells me thats actually a "good price"
so I'm going the easy route and buying a pre-bent cage kit. I put a team Z cage in awhile back and it was really really nice. even with shipping it will only be about $400 more than buying sticks, and it'll save me countless hours of bending and notching. It seems like every time I pull my bender out I have to re-learn how to use it.
Anyone here do their own cage work? I'm only going to 8.50 cert but I do want to add front bars through the firewall. I'm not sure if it would be better to just tie into the strut tower or totally cut them out have the upper strut mount be part of the cage. It looks like most people leave them be, even in 25.5 cars.
well i called my metal supplier today and damn wouldnt you know it, there isnt a single stick of docol on the west coast today. and when it comes back it'll be roughly $240 a stick!
okay well how much is moly? $185 a stick! thats almost $9 a foot. and he tells me thats actually a "good price"
so I'm going the easy route and buying a pre-bent cage kit. I put a team Z cage in awhile back and it was really really nice. even with shipping it will only be about $400 more than buying sticks, and it'll save me countless hours of bending and notching. It seems like every time I pull my bender out I have to re-learn how to use it.
Anyone here do their own cage work? I'm only going to 8.50 cert but I do want to add front bars through the firewall. I'm not sure if it would be better to just tie into the strut tower or totally cut them out have the upper strut mount be part of the cage. It looks like most people leave them be, even in 25.5 cars.
For ease of fabrication, leave the strut towers. If you're concerned about weight, maybe do a tubular rad support. A 15x10 with 6.5" BS will fit with a stock width 8.8 rear. Some "massaging" may be necessary for tire clearance. You can loose some weight on those doors by cleaning them out completely of everything. Of course they'll be flimsy as aluminum foil, lol
thanks for the confirmation on the 15x10 w/6.5 BS.
I will run front bars though. Maybe just tied into the top of the existing tower and go tube from the strut tower forward. Looks like a lot of guys go that way.
to be transparent, my local track has a worse surface than most Oklahoma/Kansas/Missouri no prep street races. Add in the 6500lb dodges and teslas on street tires and its a skating rink.
pulled the glass today...windshield didnt make it. Oh well. Continuing my theme of putting new windshields in every car I buy. Such a good upgrade! Glass you can see though!
Love the exterior, don't change a thing. Those wheels are awful though.
Any details on the planned drivetrain setup?
hey i thought you were a bimmer guy? dont you love the 4 lug m-par reps? they are for sale
I have a forged LC9 I was gonna put in the malibu, but it may require a cam change from the BTR stage 3 turbo cam. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do for a turbo but I shouldnt need much to run 8.50's in a 2800lb car
I might go upmarket this time around and buy an american made turbo. I'm split between the forced performance HD8088 and the HD8588.
Just perusing their website it appears they have a special going right now on their 7875. comes with a pass side turbo manifold, 38mm tial and two choices of A/R for $1200! it's hard not to grab one and stash it for some sillyness in the future. But I need less stuff in my garage not more lol.
The backglass thankfully survived and now the car is ready to start cutting up.
I'm gonna leave the quarter windows in for the cage install, just cover them with cardboard or something. They appear to be really expensive to replace and it was kind of a beast to cut this old *** urethane out. How can it be super hard and gummy at the same time!!!! woof my hands hurt just thinking about it.
also did some horse trading. dash and heater went to a crazy russian in vancouver and scored me some v8 car spindles w/ 11" 5 lug rotors in pretty nice shape.
gave the 2.3 to an old fella who's building a '51 MG and he gave me these 15x6 steelies.
I'm half tempted to widen the rears and narrow the fronts and run some era-correct wheel covers. We'll see how much time I have after the cage.
6 Common C5 Corvette Failures and What's Involved In Repairing Them
Slideshow: From wobbling harmonic balancers to failed EBCMs, these are the issues that define long-term C5 ownership and what repairs typically involve.
Retro Modern Bandit Pontiac Trans AM Comes With Burt Reynolds' Autograph
Slideshow: A modern Camaro transformed into a retro icon, this limited-run "Bandit" build blends nostalgia with brute force in a way few revivals manage.
Top 10 Greatest Cadillac V Series Performance Models Ever, Ranked
Slideshow: Cadillac didn't just crash the high-performance luxury vehicle party, it showed up loud, supercharged, and occasionally a little unhinged...
Coachbuilt N2A Anteros Is an LS2-Powered C6 Corvette In Italian Clothes
Slideshow: A one-off sports car that looks like a vintage Italian exotic-but hides a C6 Corvette underneath-just sold for the price of a new mid-engine Corvette.
Colonel Mustard 
