LS7 Fiero swap
#361
#368
TECH Senior Member
iTrader: (2)
Archie never returned my emails. He may be too busy.
Have you ever seen any threads that explain how it's done or has pictures of the process?
From what I heard, the stock windshield is leaned back, but what about the side glass. Technically it would no longer be the right shape to match the front edge to the windshield. Does Archie have custom made glass or is it polycarbonate with a scratch free coating?
I ask because I plan to chop the top on my Trans Am and it's proving to be quite the challenge.
Have you ever seen any threads that explain how it's done or has pictures of the process?
From what I heard, the stock windshield is leaned back, but what about the side glass. Technically it would no longer be the right shape to match the front edge to the windshield. Does Archie have custom made glass or is it polycarbonate with a scratch free coating?
I ask because I plan to chop the top on my Trans Am and it's proving to be quite the challenge.
Last edited by JasonWW; 01-26-2009 at 02:51 AM.
#369
Archie never returned my emails. He may be too busy.
Have you ever seen any threads that explain how it's done or has pictures of the process?
From what I heard, the stock windshield is leaned back, but what about the side glass. Technically it would no longer be the right shape to match the front edge to the windshield. Does Archie have custom made glass or is it polycarbonate with a scratch free coating?
I ask because I plan to chop the top on my Trans Am and it's proving to be quite the challenge.
Have you ever seen any threads that explain how it's done or has pictures of the process?
From what I heard, the stock windshield is leaned back, but what about the side glass. Technically it would no longer be the right shape to match the front edge to the windshield. Does Archie have custom made glass or is it polycarbonate with a scratch free coating?
I ask because I plan to chop the top on my Trans Am and it's proving to be quite the challenge.
Contact Information
V-8 Archie Inc.
11411 Summerwood Dr.
Machesney Park, IL 61115
Phone:
U.S. Toll Free 1-800-891-3608
All others Call 1-815-282-9226
Off Hours Cell Phone 1-847-212-3909
Email at Archie@v8archie.com
Hours: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Monday thru Friday
Give him a call , he is a very helpful person and if he is in the shop he will answer. Archie gets so many Pm's and emails that sometimes he gets backed up until he has a few free hours.
#370
TECH Apprentice
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Copenhagen
Posts: 369
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Archie never returned my emails. He may be too busy.
Have you ever seen any threads that explain how it's done or has pictures of the process?
From what I heard, the stock windshield is leaned back, but what about the side glass. Technically it would no longer be the right shape to match the front edge to the windshield. Does Archie have custom made glass or is it polycarbonate with a scratch free coating?
I ask because I plan to chop the top on my Trans Am and it's proving to be quite the challenge.
Have you ever seen any threads that explain how it's done or has pictures of the process?
From what I heard, the stock windshield is leaned back, but what about the side glass. Technically it would no longer be the right shape to match the front edge to the windshield. Does Archie have custom made glass or is it polycarbonate with a scratch free coating?
I ask because I plan to chop the top on my Trans Am and it's proving to be quite the challenge.
#371
The Fiero is a space frame chassis, making it a lot easier to chop than an "F" body. I really don't have any info that would be helpful in chopping anything but a Fiero.
Archie
#372
TECH Senior Member
iTrader: (2)
It's not really a bonneville chop. The windshield is laid back about 9* more than stock to get a more aero look, however, the rest of the chop is 3" straight down.
The Fiero is a space frame chassis, making it a lot easier to chop than an "F" body. I really don't have any info that would be helpful in chopping anything but a Fiero.
Archie
The Fiero is a space frame chassis, making it a lot easier to chop than an "F" body. I really don't have any info that would be helpful in chopping anything but a Fiero.
Archie
Maybe you can describe the side windows.
Do you make them yourself?
Is there a certain thickness that works best?
What is used to prevent scratches on them?
#373
They are vacuum formed & made out of my own tooling.
You can PM me if you have any more questions.
Archie
#374
update
Originally posted by Archie:
It's been a while since we've had an update.
The last update was when it was very cold outside.
As most know, Troy plans to pick the car up in late May & debut the Perfect Union at this years Dells Show.
If all goes to plan, he will arrive before the Dells Show, inspect the car & then take it to the Dells.
So since it's nearly finished, we've been working on other projects for the last several weeks.
Several weeks ago we found that we had a leak from the Power Steering pump Area. With all the stuff in the car, you can't even see the P.S. pump...... you can see the pulley, but not the pump. We were pretty sure the leak was in one of the fittings near or on the pump. You'll remember that when we were originally fitting the parts into the car, we had to make a little bubble in the bulkhead behind the passenger seat to clear the P.S. pump & fittings. Instead of pulling the engine out to work on the P.S. pump, we made that little "bubble" in the bulkhead into an access panel. With that panel off, we could start the engine & actually see where the leak was & we could fit it right there. As it turns out one of the fittings that was in the pump that we got from Street & Performance was flawed & I had them send a new fitting & we were able to repair it right there.
Back when we 1st got the car started up, the fluid in the P.S. resevour was foaming up. Well this leak was the reason. We have started it & the foaming is gone now.
Another thing we found when we had originally started up the engine, we noticed a rubbing noise when we rev'ed the engine up quickly. It was ok when rev'ing it slowly & when running normally but when rev'ed quickly a noise was there. On investigation, we found that the idler that we set the car up with originally was too close to the alternator & when it moved when rev'ing quickly an area on the back side of the tensioner arm was touching the alternator fan. Once again, we didn't want to remove the engine again to address this, so we had to wait to figure out a new setup until we could figure out a new system to put on it.
We had another LS engine in the shop, so after some planning, we decided that it would be better to remove the relative parts off of the LS7 & build the new mock-up on that engine.
The pictures below show the new system as mocked up on the other engine. We then moved all of the parts back to the LS7 car & put it all back together.
It's all working great now.
Before:
After:
You will also remember that Troy had decided he needed a spot brake to use on the DS1 'Vette brake system.
We'll be putting all that back togetherr this week. To make it all work we needed some special bolts to get the new Spot brake caliper mounts to bolt on with the DS1 stuff. The bolts came in today, so Ill get some pics. as soon as it's all back together.
Pretty soon someone's going to have to put some test miles on it.
Archie
It's been a while since we've had an update.
The last update was when it was very cold outside.
As most know, Troy plans to pick the car up in late May & debut the Perfect Union at this years Dells Show.
If all goes to plan, he will arrive before the Dells Show, inspect the car & then take it to the Dells.
So since it's nearly finished, we've been working on other projects for the last several weeks.
Several weeks ago we found that we had a leak from the Power Steering pump Area. With all the stuff in the car, you can't even see the P.S. pump...... you can see the pulley, but not the pump. We were pretty sure the leak was in one of the fittings near or on the pump. You'll remember that when we were originally fitting the parts into the car, we had to make a little bubble in the bulkhead behind the passenger seat to clear the P.S. pump & fittings. Instead of pulling the engine out to work on the P.S. pump, we made that little "bubble" in the bulkhead into an access panel. With that panel off, we could start the engine & actually see where the leak was & we could fit it right there. As it turns out one of the fittings that was in the pump that we got from Street & Performance was flawed & I had them send a new fitting & we were able to repair it right there.
Back when we 1st got the car started up, the fluid in the P.S. resevour was foaming up. Well this leak was the reason. We have started it & the foaming is gone now.
Another thing we found when we had originally started up the engine, we noticed a rubbing noise when we rev'ed the engine up quickly. It was ok when rev'ing it slowly & when running normally but when rev'ed quickly a noise was there. On investigation, we found that the idler that we set the car up with originally was too close to the alternator & when it moved when rev'ing quickly an area on the back side of the tensioner arm was touching the alternator fan. Once again, we didn't want to remove the engine again to address this, so we had to wait to figure out a new setup until we could figure out a new system to put on it.
We had another LS engine in the shop, so after some planning, we decided that it would be better to remove the relative parts off of the LS7 & build the new mock-up on that engine.
The pictures below show the new system as mocked up on the other engine. We then moved all of the parts back to the LS7 car & put it all back together.
It's all working great now.
Before:
After:
You will also remember that Troy had decided he needed a spot brake to use on the DS1 'Vette brake system.
We'll be putting all that back togetherr this week. To make it all work we needed some special bolts to get the new Spot brake caliper mounts to bolt on with the DS1 stuff. The bolts came in today, so Ill get some pics. as soon as it's all back together.
Pretty soon someone's going to have to put some test miles on it.
Archie
#375
I just hope that thing will be able to kill a few exotics while it is being driven. I hate those guys, looking down their noses at you, then they cry fowl when you blow their carbon fibre doors off, oh my car is for handling and top speed.
#379