Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

Ah, duh. I remember talking to them about a year ago about these, but it's a little blurry. They said to select the frame mounted ones if you plan on retaining something. I don't remember what the something was though.

chrismorales75

I am making my own, I have a buddy of a buddy with a pipe threader, so I will just make my own out of 2 1/2" pipe and thread the outside then weld um up.

I drilled my new shock holes, almost broke my wrist when the drill bound up =/

Stretched the rest of the wheel wells today, it was actually pretty easy once I made my pattern out of card board, just traced it on, the rear bumper takes about 2-3 minutes to trim with a hacksaw blade, then the front was easy too, used a cut off wheel and the grinder after I ruff cut it.

Will start to cut out the rest of the factory tub, already cut one side up, have to cut out in outer tub that attaches to the wheel well, then have to do the drivers side which still looks fun, bought a bunch of cutting wheels, but my grinder died =) Good thing for warranties.

I am going to buy new shock for the rear, seems the stock shock size is too long and won't let me lower the car, which I plan to lower another 1.5" in the rear so it stays at the same ride hight when I put on the 315 60 15.

Cut the front fender lip 1.5" at the bottom and gradually decreased the size on the way up, I went about 1" in the rear since it will be a hair over 32" that's plenty for a 30" tire.

More photos and updates soon.

chrismorales75

Cut out the passenger side tub. There are two brackets you have to cut out and trim, one in the middle of the fender and one toward the bottom of the fender, looks like I will be cutting a few more pounds. Might pass the 60 pound mark of metal cut out.

dlove

iTrader: (23)

have you took out the brackets inside the car? like the rear seat ones

i started on those and took out about 4 or so and got an easy 5lbs or so

chrismorales75

I took out all of the rear brackets on or around the rear seat, my mini tub goes all the way to the bottom edge of the trunk, just under the tabs where the plastic attaches to.

I cut out the outer and inner half of the tub, there is a bracket you can't see in the middle of the tub behind the metal and also one you have to trim some next to where the middle speaker mounts.

I am using a 36" tub so I only have to trim that one about 1/2" or so. I have a nice pile of metal going, before I cut out the other half of the tub I had already taken out 56.5 pound of metal just relating to the mini tub and brackets.

I am sure I will easily pull out over 60 pounds of metal by the time everything is cut out. Then I am using a tub, 1/8" plate to box the frame and I have to box and weld the panhard bracket and the new mounting hole location for the panhard rod and make some fender lips for where I stretched the wheel wells.

So I hope to put back as little weight as possible.

I stuck a 31" truck tire under it yesterday and it fit nice with good clearance and had a nice shape around the tire.

I am probably going with a 31" tire vs the 315 60 15.

Maybe the 31x14.5 ET Street Tire or Hoosier QTP Dot 31x13.5

I should be able to tuck these tires 1.5" from the fender well.



I'll take more photos soon, I am a broke dick and don't have a digital camera LOL.

pmbmax

i used wolfs but his bracket is off a little . A note without shocks and springs level car and with rear at ride height use plumb bob to find the center of where spring purch will be . i have seen cars with 2.5 inch springs that are not straight .

chrismorales75

I am making my own adjustable spring mount, my rear end won't have any brackets welded on when it comes, my spring mount, shock mount and lower control arms have all been moved inside, the only brackets on my rear end will be the torque arm bracket and housing ends.

The panhard bracket, shock mount, LCA mount and spring perches will be welded on after I set the car at ride hight and set the pinion angle and center the rear end and set the wheel base.

I know some one who actually got a adjustable wolfe spring mount and the spring isn't aligned right, I have to make one because my coil over spring sits in probably an inch or more than the factory one, I went 17" from the fender to the tub, the spring and shock sit behind the tub, the lower control arm is 16.5" from the body.

chrismorales75

Photo For Alex Of Coil Overs

ALLBOTTLE

iTrader: (13)

thats exacctly where my wheelie bars are.

pmbmax

sounds good i was the first fbody he sold the adjusters to he sent them to me cheaper than i could get the threaded tube for . What size tire you think you can get under . I can do a 315 and still put my hands between the tire and anything close . i moved my arms in as well and cut all the way to the frame and past the lower mount. only thing now is that i wish i would have gone more narrow on the housing prolly going to cut it this winter . mine is narrowed 5 inches wish it was 6 but back then 275 60 was a big tire. but back then you could not even run a antiroll bar and still be stock suspision. so things are changing for the good.

chrismorales75

Maybe you can mount them on the spring side of the frame?

chrismorales75

PMBMAX the car has 16.5" from the LCA to the fender lip, I could put a 29.5x11.5w under it, which is 30.6" with a 15.2" section on a 12" rim. I have 16.5" to play with so pretty much anything with a section width up to about 15" which would give me .75" clearance inside and out.

I don't have any of the factory tubs any more so I can lower the car without it rubbing.

I want to run a tire with about a 14-14.5 section and tuck it in about 1.5" from the fender lip. I am still debating a 315 60 15 or 30x13.5 ET street or 29x14.5 hoosier QTP dot.

I want to fit the biggest tire I can within reason and be able to have enough room to lower it.

I don't know how much I am going to narrow the rear end yet, I am going to order the rims and tires I want first then set them up where it fits and looks best and then I'll measure to narrow the rear end.

I am going to run a 15x12 so I will most likely end up narrowing the rear end 10-12" (5" or 6" per side).

How much space do you have from the LCA to the tire? Do you think 1/2" will be enough clearance? I really want to tuck my tire in a good amount.

ALLBOTTLE

iTrader: (13)

5-6 inches is huge.... you won't be able to use the stock spring or shock mounts.

mine is 3.75" per side and brake caliper is no more than .5" from the panhard bar bracket
and the housing end is almost touching the shock mount and spring perch.

chrismorales75

I measured it will be fine, I am moving the LCA and spring mount in anyways, the outside of my LCA is 16.5" from the fender lip, most offset LCA's are 14.25" from the fender lip.

That's a 2.25" difference in clearance which that alone would let you go 6" per side.

My coil over spring sits all the way inside of the frame remember I cut 17" from my fender so my spring sits in an inch more than the 16" tub guys, my shock also is moved in an inch. my frame is 17" from the fender and the shock where I moved it is sits behind where the tub will go.

As far as the panhard bracket that doesn't matter, I will order my rear end without brackets and put that bracket to clear and make my panhard rod to fit the new bracket locations.

I will have to take more photos and measurements so I can map out all of the stock locations and things like that for references.

Take a look at the other photos I posted, thats a 275 60 15, which sits flush with the outer fender, and there is a hair under 6" of clearance on the inside, and look down at the rear end and you can see how much clearance there is to narrow the rear end.

chrismorales75

Look at these photos, Photo one the spring is straight up and down and look how much it sticks out, over 1/2 the coil over spring which is 3.25" OD, I'll be moving the lower spring mount in at least 2"

In the second pick you can see where the new shock location mount is, the shock will be behind the tub which is 17" from the fender. That's the 275 60 15 that has almost 6" to the frame on the inside. the 275 60 15 is about 11.2" section width. That gives me 5.8" of clearance to the frame and 5.3" of clearance to the LCA.

In the 3rd pic you can see the spring tucked in where it will mount, that spring is 3.25" OD and will sit on the inside of the frame.

The 4th pic is the front of the LCA again so you can imagine how much you'll move the bracket on the rear end,

The outside on the offset lca to the outside of the relocated offset lca is a 2.25" difference so that bracket will be moved a bit in plus I am using rod end/ rod end arms I can make my LCA bracket narrower so that will give me close to or around 3" to move the LCA bracket on the rear end.

Like you said you went 3.75 and are like 1/2" from the spring mount, my spring will move inside 2", so that would equate to running a rear end 5.75" narrower per side.

It sounds like a huge amount but when you move the stuff inside some it actually fits with as much or more clearance than people narrowing stuff 3".

I can move my panhard bracket in 2" or 3" and have a ton of clearance even with the rear narrowed a lot.

Oh I forgot that rear end is a 3rd gen, so it is already 1.5" per side narrower than stock, so you can see there is a lot of room to gain by me moving the brackets in.

ALLBOTTLE

iTrader: (13)

looks good.

For some reason i though you has said that you where staying with the stock suspension mounts and locations, thats why i was saying it wouldn't work.

chrismorales75

I am mounting the stuff using the stock brackets, but relocating everything.

The stock LCA bracket will be modified, the factory holes will be welded shut, the bracket will be narrowed and will have a 1/4" plate welded to the outside because I am making new holes that will be 1/8" apart and have a second set behind those, I plan to have between 8-10 holes on the LCA bracket to really let me dial in the intersection point.

The shock still mounts the same way just more inside, the coil spring mounts in the same spot just more inside.

I will use the same panhard bracket but just move it inside more.

The panhard bracket on the frame is cut even with the frame, so I will weld new tabs to the bracket to mount the panhard rod and set the car at ride hight so it will be level.

Then I will box in the panhard bracket and weld it in better than the factory spot welds.

If you look the panhard bracket is flush with the frame and see how much the stock length rod sticks out so you can imagine how much more room there is.


And with all of this done my rear seat still fits =) 30" tall with a 14 or 15" section tire, with a back seat in the car is pretty cool I think.

pmbmax

A 1/2 will be close. that is what mine was and with the 315/60 15s i had bad tire shake and it rubbed the powdercoating off the lca. i wish i would have did mine more like yours but when i orderd my rear my car was a 10.50 1/4 mile car with air and a4 now promod glide and 380ci with a 98mm so all the stuff i say is from me slowly changing as i needed them as the car got faster.

chrismorales75

Hmm I wonder how much I should space the tire from the LCa then. Think .75 would be enough? that would still tuck my tire 1.5" from the fender.

formula I am using is 16.5-14.25-.75, LCA to fender/315 60 15 section width on 15x12/.75 space from tire to LCA.

Oh yeah did you run the tire on a 15x10 or 15x12, I imagine with tire shake the tire would move less side to side on a 12" wide rim.

chrismorales75

PMBMAX, that is my point exactly, a lot of people build cars over time and the easiest part to do is add power.

Now you do that then you need stronger parts, more adjustability, more space, more clearance.

So then you are rebuilding the car again.

It may sound crazy but this is my street car, it will still have the back seat and all of the interior, stereo, power windows.

My basic point of the build was to run the biggest tire I could fit with a narrowed rear end, be able to lower the car, retain the back seat and keep it as stock appearing as possible with bigger tires.

So what I saw from the start was why go with a 16" tub when I can go 17" and still fit the back seat.

Then I saw relocating the LCA with minimum fabricating I could move it in between the frame and stock bracket and pick up 2.25" of clearance just by drilling a hole through the frame and moving the bracket on the rear end in.

Next was the shock, you go 17" it cuts off the top shock hole, so that was an easy fix, I cut the metal around the shock mount, bent it in then put a piece of 1/8th" metal to fill the gap and line up with the frame as well as give some strength to the new shock hole.

Next problem is the panhard bracket, it sticks out a lot, so I cut that down till it was flush with my frame. To fix that you obviously make a shorter panhard rod, weld new tabs to the stock bracket and box the bracket in and reweld it all up.

Next thing is if I get my rear end with brackets, they will all be off all over the place, and the panhard bracket on the rear end will be close to my caliper and the tire will be close to the spring.

To fix that I will get the rear end with only a torque arm bracket and housing ends, then line up all of the brackets to clear the tires and have everything square and level.

Next problem is every one orders there rear ends and then gets stuck with rims that don't sit how they want. I see people say I narrowed mine 2.5/3/3.5/5" but you can do it every 1/8" so why is every one going 1/2" one way or the other?

I am running weld alumastars which come in 1" back space increments, so why order a rear end without having tires under and seeing how they fit.

Didn't make sence to me since you can order a rear end in 1/8" increments.

So i will get the rims and tire 15x12 with whatever backspace looks good to me, 3/4/5, slap on whatever tire I go with and center it up to clear everything then measure my rear end width.

All I know is 1/4" makes a big difference when something hits or rubs.

I sure the hell am not going to run a wheel spacer when I spend 2-3k on a rear end.

Then with a coil over spring it is 3.25" OD so I just moved it inside of the frame more and will weld the spring mount in the rear in more to match. 17" fender to tub is also the most you can go without having the coil over spring stick out past the frame.

I want to build this car to run as fast as it can go without changing a single chassis piece or redoing anything until I make it a 3/4 frame car some day.

So with the chassis stuff I have it could run pretty damn fast and all I have to do is add the additional bars to the cage down the road which is easy.