slocaddy

Feel like most these pics look the same, but still a lot happening.
So, I had to put air shocks on the rear because when loaded down the drive shaft would come in contact with one of the floor pan crossmembers. Also, another thing I was never really happy about was I couldn't get the tailshaft angle on the trans any less than 5/6 degrees, preferred seems to be around 3/4.

Now that the air bags are going in this is being addressed. Like I just cut the entire trans/driveshaft tunnel out
Plotting everthing out....
Also, the reason for the horizontal laser line is because I'm flattening the rear floor to put in bucket seats. So, one more crossmember to rebuild.....

slocaddy

Needed a Little more clearance from floor pan crossmembers, I'll have to Jack the axle all the way up to see how high the tunnel needs to be

slocaddy

Well, clearanced everything out for drive shaft and jacked the axle all the way up to see where drive shaft ends up and new tunnel will be...

Project GatTagO

iTrader: (7)

WOW....are you really going to drop it down that far?

Andrew

Bad Apache

With buckets in the rear, they'll have an armrest integrated into the interior. lol. That is going to be LOW!

slocaddy

Ohyea!
Gonna do a console front to back next year, can't wait to make it all fit

slocaddy

Yes....and no.....
The pic is basicly dropped all the way down to the ground, looks cool , however one little issue.... can't get the wheels off, not enough drop in the bags, they only extend about 11 inches, and when you try to get the wheel off it touched the brake and can't get it out.
Also, once the 14" rotors are on Gonna be that much harder.
So for the axle to be able to drop far enough to get the tire past the Fender skirt Opening, I'll need a triple bellows air Bag, they have 14 Inch extension
So for now the upper bag
mount will Stay mounted in a position that lets It drop all the way down-and still be drivable. This was the whole reason that I bolted them in.If the fenders didn't already cover so much of the wheel this never would have been an issue

squarles67

I feel your pain, I have to disconnect the shocks and take the driveshaft out in order to get the rear low enough to get the back tires off.

slocaddy

Haha, as soon as I saw it was you , I was like "he knows"....lol
I guess I could just take one bolt out of the bottom of the bag and it wouldn't be a problem.......

slocaddy

Well guys and girls...... I just dropped the f'n mic and walked off stage

Double triangulate 4 link.

C5_Pete

iTrader: (8)

Good lord, the fab work you're doing is really cool. And the fact it's a gigantic caddy, makes it even better.

Rock on, Sir! Epic build.

slocaddy

Thanks very much.

When I first started what has become this back half project , I was all gung Ho, once I cut the frame out and it hit the ground I was like s***! Whatever got myself into. Now that I have an axle connected back in the car , very happy again.
When I finally had all the brackets tacked in and moved the axle up and down with no binding , I was like , "this calls for a beer!"(or 4).......

slocaddy

Think I'll head to the shop and ponder shock placement

etijsma

I enjoy reading your updates, this build is just awesome. on my build I went thru the same thing. Cut everything out and wondered wtf do I do now. Haha.

slocaddy

The problem with overcoming challenges like these, is once you figure them out, you go on to something else and get yourself in deeper lol!

slocaddy

So, made some simple adapters to mount the shocks to the lower control arms brackets, and useing some leftover tabs I will mount to inside frame rail.
The lower pic is with the car all the way lowered down/aired out.
I need to find a shock that Is 11/12" compressed and 22/23" exteneded, these double convoluted bags don't actually need that much drop(tripples would wink,wink) but the drop would make get to the wheel off a lot easier lol

slocaddy

Well ordered rear shocks that are 12" closed, 16.5 open, might have to unbolt to change a tire, we'll see..... I did also order the tripple co convoluted airbags, gonna play with their mounting height and see what works best, this is all new to me, just want to build as smart as possible, sucks to but stuff twice, but this is my education =)

slocaddy

Well, all the link brackets are welded in the car, so pulled the axle out of the car to start giving it some lovin' there Is literally nothing I'm gonna reuse on this thing, heres the rundown im planning:
9" ends with 05-10 mustang brake mounting bolt pattern, that should make my brakes bolt on. Moser is the only company I know of that makes real ends, not just c-clip eleminators.
35 spline street/strip axles,
Strange s-trac diff,
Billet main caps,
Diff cover with main cap support,
Brace axle tubes from bottom and front.
Think I'll do 3.73 gears

Bad Apache

Good choices on the rear. Should be pretty well bulletproof. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?

slocaddy

Yea finally......lol
I hate to spend so much on the rear end, but I have so many "old timers " that don't believe in anything besides big blocks and carburetors who are betting on it to fail Lol! That would be a lot of crow for me to eat.
Basicly because it's not a nine inch there's no possible way for it to work.............

And no matter what I had chosen, it would have gotten all these same parts, no 9" or most any axle for that matter, that has a lot of power and weight in front of it, is whatever it started life out as anyways, but I digress.
I did forget to add that it will have a thick aluminum cover with supports for the main caps, and the tubes will be braced from the front and bottom. I'll update my list.