Less progress this weekend than I would have hoped.

• The Detroit Speed quick-ratio rack and fender flange protectors are installed.
• I pulled the wheels and tires out of the garage and gave them a nice blasting with the pressure washer to clean off all of the cobwebs, dust, etc that has collected on them since the car was parked in 2017. The inner hoops are still absolutely caked in brake dust.
• Made a bunch of progress stripping surface rust off the axle housing. I'd say it's 90% done. Most of what's left are the little nooks and corners I can't get to with the 5" flap disc. I spent a solid hour with a tiny flap wheel on the Dremel yesterday. Probably another hour of work left to finish it up, and then we can get started with the POR15.
• The replacement axle bearings should be here today; we'll finally be able to complete the press operations.
• After much analysis, I've decided there's a decent chance that an SSRA will fit after all. If it won't, it'll be close, and I think I can just cut it a bit to make it fit. If it comes to that, I'll cut the back side so that some of the airflow goes through the AC condenser. That'll hinder the ram air effect, but I'll still have a much better supply of cool, fresh air (and approximately zero chance of ever sucking up water all the way to the intake!). So, I ordered an SSRA Jaws. I really like how it opens up at speed.
• I spent a decent bit of time cleaning up the garage so I have more room to work and can more easily find my tools. I'm really bad about keeping things decluttered as I go, and I've found that it's most efficient for me to pause my work periodically and do a full cleanup. Probably an ADHD thing.
• Still waiting on parts from UMI. They said they have a 3-4 week lead time on most parts, and I only ordered last week.

 

More progress:

• Re-mounted the PS pump. (Had to remove it to mess around with the length of the return line; it needs to be shortened because I removed the factory PS cooler.)
  • I'm using ICT Billet's billet aluminum mounting brackets. This was the first time I had installed the pump on the engine with the engine in the car, and holy CRAP is it difficult! I had struggled a little previously, but this was way worse. I ended up drilling out the three mounting holes on one of the parts in order to get all three bolts to thread in. I'm thinking one or more of the holes in the bracket were not quite where they're supposed to be -- which is weird, because I think it's a CNC part. If I ever have it off again, I think I might drill one of the holes one drill size bigger, and then maybe find somebody with a TIG and have the three parts of the bracket tacked together. That would make installation much easier! As-is, the round aluminum spacer that goes over the bottom bolt is always falling off as I manipulate the pump into position.
• Shortened the low-pressure PS line and attached it.
• Found that the O-ring is missing from my high-pressure PS line. This is probably where the leak was coming from on the other rack. Local dealership doesn't stock them (discontinued), so I have one coming from RockAuto.
• Removed the upper radiator support / lower airbox and the AC condenser shroud, in prep for the SSRA install.
• Started fabricating a new alternator splash shroud. Mine is torn, and I can't find new ones anywhere. I bought a pair of plain black polyurethane truck mudflaps from Amazon. Yesterday I traced my existing shroud onto one of the flaps, cut that shape out with my oscillating saw, and did some final shaping and smoothing with the belt sander. It came together really nicely, but the mudflap material is significantly stiffer than the factory stuff. I was hoping that once I had it cut out, it would be flexible enough to fit, but no such luck -- it's way too stiff. So now I've ordered a different sheet of material from McMaster-Carr. Will try again when that gets here!

Shipments:

• The axle bearings came yesterday as expected; I should have the shafts back from the friend-of-a-friend in the next couple days.
• Driveshaft should be here today.
• SSRA should be here tomorrow.
• I reached out to PLX Devices to find out about the wideband O2 sensor+controller I ordered. Apparently that won't be here until late next month. :/

 

Finished the custom alternator splash shroud in the new, softer material, and mounted it in place. I used 40A durometer urethane sheet, 1/4" thickness, which I purchased from McMaster-Carr. The material is a bit softer than I would have preferred, but I think it'll work. If anybody wants to follow in my footsteps, I'd recommend something in the 60A ballpark.




Next, I drilled a hole in my trans crossmember so that I could use it to mount the O2 sensor connector. It's pretty much the perfect spot. Will come back and treat the hole with paint when I'm doing the POR15 on the axle.



Also:

• Steering rack mount bolts have been loctited and torqued.
• Steering column bolts have been loctited and torqued.
• Started assembling front suspension.
• Driveshaft has arrived!
• SSRA didn't come yesterday after all; now expecting it today.
• I think I'll have the axles back with reluctors and brand new SKF bearings installed either today or tomorrow.

Up next:

• More front suspension assembly
• SSRA install
• Finish stripping the axle housing and start painting.

My goal had been to have the car ready for the local car show this Sunday. It's not looking like I'm going to make it, but there's still a small chance!

 

Enjoying following along with this build. Love your attention to detail.

 

Well, for the most part, the alternative is a car that doesn’t work well or reliably. I probably could have gone without the alternator shroud, and the axle would have been fine unpainted, but most of the rest of what I’m doing is necessary!

Before this build, I did HPDEs a couple times a year. I want this build to be even more reliable than it was before. (I had minor overheating issues in stock-ish form at the end of a 20-minute session.) I’ve added a ton of horsepower, and I’m trying to match that in the cooling, traction, drivetrain, and general chassis/suspension/brake robustness departments.

 

Got the top portion of the SSRA installed last night (bottom portion has to wait until I put the bumper back on). It was a VERY tight fit, but I got it in there! I actually had to use a block of wood and a bar clamp to pull the lower airbox forward enough to bolt it down. I'm not super happy about the amount of shear strain on those bolts, nor the constant clamping pressure being applied from the upper support through the SSRA to the condenser (basically undermining any isolation between the chassis and the condenser), but I'll go with it for now at least. If I'm not happy with the AC performance, I'll cut an opening on the backside of the SSRA like I described above to make some more room in there and give the AC some additional airflow.

All of the instructions and write-ups I could find about cutting the hole in the lower airbox suggested using a Dremel or an air saw. I used my Makita , and it couldn't have been easier! Took about 90 seconds and made hardly any mess. Everyone who does any kind of DIY stuff should own one of these.

The SSRA included a rubber seal for the hole in the front of the airbox, and the instructions said it was optional; you can choose to install the seal and maximize the ram air effect, or leave it off to allow additional airflow (although I suspect that leaving it off would actually allow some of the air brought in by the SSRA to go out through the front). The factory ram air setups on SS and WS6 apparently feed through there (I've never been up close and personal with one to see this for myself), so for them it makes more sense to leave it open. Since I don't have a ram air car, and based on my suspicion about how it would behave unsealed, I opted to install the seal. Once I have the car running, I plan to experiment a bit with it installed and not, watching what it does to my AFRs. I don't expect it will make much difference.

I also made a bit more progress bolting up the driver side front suspension.

 

Super productive weekend!

Saturday

I started by finishing the front suspension on the drivers side, then moving over to the passenger side and finishing up there as well. I got the shock tower brace and the Strano master cylinder brace installed. All that’s left of the front end is to install the swaybar and bleed the brakes!

In the evening, I finally got the axle shafts done! My father-in-law Doug has a friend Brad, and Brad has a home shop where he builds drag cars and show cars. Brad and his assistant Mike took great care of me. They have both dealt with this process multiple times before and were well aware that this job is a lot more complicated than the six simple press operations I had initially expected. Note that this process is specific to axles with C-clip eliminators and 4-channel ABS (traction control); I’m not sure how broadly applicable it is beyond that.

First, Mike cut off the bearing and the retaining ring with a cutoff wheel. This is necessary because the retaining ring is an extremely tight fit with extremely hard steel, and if you just press it off, the ring almost always shatters, throwing shrapnel everywhere. I had been told this in advance, so I came prepared with a pair of new SKF bearings and retaining rings.



Once those were off, it was time to install the reluctor wheel. Doug held the ring up with a long wire while I heated it for a few minutes with a MAPP gas torch. I’d estimate we heated them to 400°F. I wish we had had an IR temp gun handy! Once heated, Doug quickly dropped it onto the axle, and Mike seated it with a few soft taps with a hammer. A bit more heat would have been better; ideally the ring will drop all the way into place with no hammering. Then we repeated the process with the other axle shaft. We tried to use more heat, but without any way to measure, we ended up pretty much the same, and still needed to hammer it home.

After the reluctor, you slide the backing plate and dust shield on. It’s easiest if you begin with the parking brake shoes removed from the backing plate. Next comes the bearing, which is the only simple press operation here. A proper bearing press plate adjusted to fit closely around the axle is strongly recommended. Mike pressed the bearings on relatively easily.

After that, it was time for the retaining rings, and this is the hardest part. Doug and I started by heating the first ring with the MAPP torch, continuing until the steel lost its shiny surface finish and developed a bluish hue. Once heated, Doug dropped it on, but it didn’t slide all the way into place, even after several fairly aggressive hammer hits. So we quickly moved over to the press before the ring cooled and locked into place. With thirty tons of hydraulic pressure, Mike pressed the ring into position one millimeter at a time, with each tiny jump accompanied by a loud bang. About halfway on, one of the jumps went maybe 3mm and made a much louder bang; at first we thought we had cracked the ring. Luckily, upon inspection we found that it was fine, and Mike quickly went back to pressing it into place. After a few minutes, it was on.

On to the second retaining ring, we decided we needed more heat, and it was pretty apparent that the MAPP torch was not going to do the trick the way we wanted. So, Brad got out the oxy-acetylene torch, and heated the second retaining until it was glowing red-hot (about 900°F). I grabbed the blazing hot ring with a pair of channel locks, and dropped it onto the axle, where it slid all the way into position with no further encouragement. But now there’s a nine-hundred-degree heat source literally touching the rubber seal of the bearing, so we started spritzing it with water in order to cool it rapidly and carry heat away from the seal while avoiding quenching it too quickly and embrittling the ring.

Anyway, that was that. We hung around for a bit while things cooled, checked out Brad's latest show car build (a better-than-factory-original 1971 Buick Skylark GS 455 Stage 1, which we all think will win best in show at next week's AutoFest in Frankenmuth), and then climbed in the truck and drove home.

Sunday

With the axle on my transmission jack, I rolled it under the car. I swung the rear LCAs into place and bolted those in, then the panhard bar. Then I got the torque arm into place (that was hard!), and bolted it in. Unlike the factory ten-bolt, the Moser 12-bolt uses four shorter bolts — two on top and two on the bottom. Using a rubber mallet, I encouraged the torque arm into just the right spot to align all four holes, then bolted things down. With the axle fully located, I installed the new driveshaft, which along with my Kooks longtubes is one of the finest bits of man-jewelry I’ve ever seen.




Monday

I installed the axle shafts into the axle tubes, bolted down the retainer plates, and installed the speed sensors and parking brake shoes. I started to install the front swaybar, then discovered that I had a part which I didn’t know where to put, so that went on hold while I waited for answers. As of this morning, I believe I have things figured out!

What's next?
Install front and rear swaybars. I have new shackle bolts coming for both, but I have what I need to put things in place for now. I'll swap the bolts when they arrive. New bolts provide confidence that I can thrash on the car and not worry that the suspension is going to come apart!
Install rear shocks and springs.
Install rear brakes.
Set pinion angle.
Build/install the actual door for my fuel pump trapdoor. I'll use weatherstripping and faux Dynamat to keep things quiet back there.
Put the interior back together.
Reinstall front bumper and hood.
Add and bleed all fluids.
Start and drive it; start tuning!
Get it aligned.
Get it detailed. (After sitting for six years, it's truly filthy.)

I'm putting off some upgrades and additions in order to get the car on the road, aligned, and tuned before Winter. Hopefully I can get through this list before Spring:
1. SKF X-tracker front hubs
2. Brake cooling ducts
3. Oil cooler
4. UMI adjustable panhard bar and DS loop (I'd do these now, but I'm still waiting on the parts)
5. Finish stripping the rust off the axle and paint it.
6. Completely new stereo -- speakers, amp, and head unit. My factory Monsoon speakers are all blown! I'm stepping up to a double-DIN CarPlay-capable unit and some decent components throughout the rest of the system. I'm not a huge bass nut or anything; it'll be a robust setup focused on sound quality, with enough power to be heard over the exhaust when cruising.
7. New front seats -- going for something with more lateral support and five-point harness compatibility.

 

Got the front swaybar installed tonight, including the mystery part, which turned out to be a shield that protects the cruise control servo module and cable in the event of an accident. Here's where it goes (looking at the driver side front suspension from next to the car). Here, I have the bumper removed and am pulling the inner fender rearward (to the right in the photo) to see it.


it's more visible from the bottom if everything is together:



Also torqued my diff cover bolts, checked my pinion angle (it was at 1°, which sounds good to me, so I left it alone), and installed a replacement for the little rubber thing that holds the battery down. Mine was looking pretty dry-rotted.

I tried to install my old LCA relocation brackets. It seems like they might not be precisely compatible with the 12-bolt. I need to do some googling and might end up doing some grinding. As mentioned earlier, I have new ones coming from UMI eventually, so I might just leave them off and wait and see if the UMIs fit without modification. (My current ones are BMR, purchased secondhand.)

EDIT: confirmed, regular bolt-in LCA relocation brackets (from any manufacturer, as far as I can tell) don’t work with the Moser 12-bolt. UMI sells a weld-in bracket that’s compatible. I guess I need to see about changing my order — or modifying the bolt-in brackets when they arrive and welding those in.

EDIT 2: contacted UMI; my order had gotten hung up in their system somehow. They changed it out for a set of weld-in brackets, and it's shipping out shortly!

 

Ohhh man it's getting so close! You're making up for lost time these last couple months! Hopefully see it at the Cider Mill Run if MSURC does one this year.

 

I'm managing to spend some time on it almost every day -- but most days, only about an hour. Most steps have little hidden complications that slow me down, and I get less done each day than I hoped, or I finish one thing and add two to the todo list. I love that I'm making progress, but I feel like if I could just have one solid weekend, I could finish the whole thing! As it is, I'm honestly probably two weeks out.

 

Damn the progress on this went WOT in 2023. Don’t get discouraged, your 5-6 years into this build what’s another 2 weeks? Just keep plugging away at what u can, you’ll be driving it in no time.

keep the updates coming

 

I got laid off in early May and didn't find another job until late July. That made a lot of extra time that I could spend working on the car! It was enough that I was able to build up some decent momentum (and, notably, get the new engine in the car), I'm close enough now that I won't let myself stop. My wife has been super tolerant of me constantly spending time in the garage instead of with her.

Winter is approaching. Two weeks is like a third of the total time I am likely to have remaining in the season. Meanwhile, I'm so close to having it drivable that I can hardly stand it. Every second I spend working at my job (I'm a software engineer, and I work from home, maybe ten steps from the garage) is a battle to focus on work instead of the car. (For example, I should be working now, and instead I'm here on the forums!)

 

You're killing it! Keep it up! You're so close to banging through the gears again!!

I sent you an invite to the cider mill run on FB. October 7th!

 

I took last week off of work, so I wasn't at my computer much, but I made a decent bit of progress on the car! (and helped a friend move, and slept in, and had some quality time with my wife and kids, etc. Then this week I’ve been sick, so not mich has been done in the past few days.)

• Worked on installing the door for the fuel pump access. I got hung up for a bit waiting on parts and tools, but everything is here now and I can continue making progress.
• One thing I was waiting for on the fuel pump door was a Cleco kit. The door is designed to be installed with rivets, and Clecos make it soooo much easier! I have just a bit of assembly put together with them, but got pulled away after just a few minutes.
• Installed rear brakes and connected parking brake cables, using custom cable guides I formed from some thin aluminum bar stock, as the factory guides were not playing nice with the 12-bolt.
• Installed rear shocks and springs.
• Installed Strano SP4000 hub adapters and SKF X-tracker front hubs.
• Removed the factory panhard brace and my old BMR panhard bar; installed UMI panhard brace and on-car-adjustable panhard bar.
• Installed UMI DS loop. Had to adjust the exhaust a bit so they don't interfere. It's still super close, and I may need to revisit. We'll see just how stiff the poly engine and trans mounts are. Maybe they're stiff enough and the exhaust and the DS loop won't rattle against each other!
• Discovered that bolt-in LCA relocation brackets are not compatible with my 12-bolt; I have to use weld-in. Got lucky; UMI hadn't shipped them yet. Got them to change my order to the weld-in variety. Those are here, but not yet installed. I need to get the car aligned without them, then add them in so that I don't mess up the geometry.
• Took the front suspension partially apart again, because I discovered that the rubber isolator parts were in really awful shape on both sides. I ordered new upper shock mounts; those came and are now installed. I also wanted new upper isolators, which are typically only available as part of the upper control arm bracket. I was able to find one replacement available (not counting used ones in mediocre condition). I decided to order UMI's replacement upper brackets, and those will be here today.
• Installed the front and rear swaybars. Front endlinks are temporarily disconnected while I work on the upper control arm brackets.
• I now have everything I need to put the front suspension back together, and I’ve been working on that. I have new upper control arm brackets from UMI to replace my rusted ones, and to eliminate the small rubber isolators which sit on top of the factory brackets.
• I also bought new front shock mounts. Separating the old one from the driver side assembly was easy, but the passenger side was a battle against rust. My solution involved soaking in PB Blaster for several hours, then attacking it with an air hammer, and finally chasing the threads with a thread die.
• I nearly have the passenger side suspension back together. Just need to get the shock mount lined up so the bolts will slide into their holes, while battling interference between the bottom of the shock and the lower control arm. Then I get to repeat that battle on the other side! I’m thinking I might bail on the battle entirely by just unbolting the control arm. Pretty sure it would save some time!
• I’ve been a bit under the weather this week, so less progress than I would have liked. I worked on the car last Friday, then not again until Wednesday.
• Once the front suspension is done, I’m back on the fuel pump door.

 

Bump! We need updates!!

 

Caught COVID and have been down for two weeks. Shoukd be back at it this week.

Before that, I finished the front suspension; just need to connect brake lines.

On the rear I have a bit of brake line routing to do, and I need to create a place to mount one of the brake line brackets, as the Moser has no provision for it.

Just a couple little things after that!

 

Took quite a while to get back into the swing, but I worked on the car some more last week!

I got that brake line bracket mounted. This is the axle-side bracket for the rear brake lines that go from the soft lines coming from the body, to the rear axle. The bracket mounts to the top of the axle near the diff. Then two hard lines divert from there to either side of the axle. The factory rear axle has a mounting provision for the bracket, but the Moser does not. I had to find a place to mount it. I ended up putting it on top of the torque arm. The chosen spot was a bit further away from the driver side than factory, so I had to bend and flare a new, longer line for that side. Then I bolted up and connected all four calipers. At this point, the brake system is fully assembled and sealed up!

I also set final torque on the diff cover load bolts and jam nuts.

Next steps:
* Fill diff with fluid + additive
* Reinstall bumper and reassemble front end (headlights, splash guards, inner fenders, bottom half of SSRA)
* Grease all the zerks and fit them with dust caps
* Fasten a couple cable and wire loom guide clips
* Install the wideband O2 sensor that finally came last week
* Fill and bleed brakes
* Put the wheels on and set the car on the ground
* Fill transmission with fluid
* Charge air conditioner
* Fill and bleed power steering
* Apply some dynamat on the area around the trap door -- this is the biggest source of boomy road noise
* Reassemble the interior (carpet, seats, center console)
* Reinstall hood
* Do some final torquing on the suspension with it loaded
* Check driveline angle
* Adjust the McLeod clutch master
* Put together a workable tune
* Get it aligned
* Finish the fuel pump trap door (an actual hinged door with an airtight seal)
* Continue working on the tune
* Get my LCA relocation brackets welded on (bolt-on brackets aren't compatible with the Moser)
* Eventually, get a professional dyno tune

The end is definitely in sight. It's getting cold here in Michigan, but there's a chance I can get it on the road a bit before the county puts down any salt.

 

So…what are you gonna do after lunch? 😜

 

Only a little bit of time to work on it so far this week.

I filled the diff with fluid+additive. I had a little manual transfer pump with a pump like on a soap bottle. Doing that under the car was incredibly tedious; took like forty minutes to do 2.5 quarts, and my forearms were sore the next day.

I greased all of my zerks last night. In the process I found that I had installed one end of one of my rear LCAs upside down, so the zerk wasn't accessible. I had enough time to get that unbolted and flipped around. Still need to bolt it back in and grease it.

I put the bumper back on. It's not fully fastened yet; just the alignment pins where it meets the fenders and the five push-in fasteners that hold the top part. But it's out of the way, which is huge, because this whole project is happening in a very confined space and the bumper was taking up a significant portion.

 

On a weekday? Work!

Didn’t have any time for the car yesterday, but I had a super productive day today:

1. Cut off and ground the part of the brake line brackets for the rear axle that go around behind the control arms; that part isn’t compatible with the Moser. Got them nice and smooth so they’re ready to be painted with POR-15 later when I do the axle.

2. Bolted those brackets back on (they share the rear LCA bolt) and reattached the parking brake cables.

3. Greased that last Zerk. Found that the dust caps I bought are for brake bleeders, not Zerks. Ordered proper caps.

4. Bled the brakes. Fitted them with dust caps.

5. Finished installing the bumper.

6. Installed the headlights. Verified they’re functional.

7. Installed the lower portion of the SSRA.

8. Installed my lower splash guards and air dam.

9. Installed the driver seat. Verified the power seat is functional.

10. Installed the lower shift boot.

11. Installed the upper and lower center console.

12. Ordered a pack of those little christmas-tree fasteners that hold wire looms. A couple of those in various places on the car broke on removal, and I need a few fresh ones to tie things together properly.

The clips will be here Friday. Once I have those installed, it’s time to bolt up the wheels and set the car on the ground!