KUDAJONES

Hey all
I've Decided to go ahead with this project
I picked this up not to long ago with hopes of doing a partial restore

Well,I'm gonna do that...plus!
The Beginning
98 WS6 vert,
83k miles
Auto
In pretty good shape,mostly stock

Has an slp cat back
Set of msd wires

Now...to start...
I'm a kinda old guy,50ish....
Father of 3....
Grandfather of several..lol
Work a ton of hours...nights...65 + a week
So this build is gonna take some time...so please bare with me

Pics of her as she sits now....


















Now....
I'm starting with the interior. ...since she a driver
This will be an easy upgrade
I ordered the custom interior yesterday
All Leather!
New carpet
Going with an aftermarket Bluetooth stereo
With some quality speakers and smallish amp

Here's the new leather coming..






Now,I know it's not the solid white like the original, but man....it looks awesome!

My goal drive train wise is....
425 rwhp
Extreme handling
****Absolute Reliability ***,

I would love to hear some ideas or thoughts on this...

I believe the car already has a Gear in it...probably a 373
Already has something done with the Trans also

Shifts extremely well,barks without trying! !!
Please chime in with thoughts and ideas

****Things I may be in the market for....
Ls2,ls6,ls7 motor set up....something that will give me the HP I'm wanting without having to do a lot too.
Obviously. .something with lower miles...
Will need everything to make it run.....and pass emissions. .lol
Suspension parts
Headers
Wheels

I have roughly 2 years to getter done
That's when my son will graduate
He's had a very rough several years dealing with Cancer
After all he's been through....He Deserves it!!!!

It's gone for now,and with the Grace of God...it will Stay Gone!

****I can't afford to go out and buy New a lot of the time,
(My son's Dr's get most of my extra cash)
I've been cutting corners and extra jobs to get this far,
So Money is a major factor with this build,so the more used parts the better for me in this case...Just Please...no junk





Thanks in advance!!!
And God Bless

JD_AMG

Great looking car!
My advise from being around for a while and having a very close build to what you want: research research research, then research some more. That and realize that you will have to pay for quality and reliability.
How much can you get away with emissions wise? Does the car have to pass the sniffer test and visual test or just plug into the diagnostics?
That will make a difference in what you need to do to make the power or what engine to swap if you end up wanting to swap engines (not necessary for 425rwhp IMO).

Next is the "extreme handling", and thats easy. Ill tell you what not to do first, don't run poly bushings as they will bind, don't be tricked into buying drag parts (like drag coilovers [viking, afco, strange, qa1]-terrible handling, feel and ride, false advertising), short torque arm (causes brake hop).
Now handling parts in the order of biggest gain/necessity(excluding tires):
Good shocks, by far the biggest gain you will see in not only overall handling, but feel, ride, balance, and overall driveability. Good shocks will totally transform the car, good shocks im talking about are Koni sport single adjustable or above(KW, ridetech, penskie). If you have to go cheap somewhere don't go cheap out on shocks, that will be the foundation to your setup, especially if you want "extreme handling". If you have to run koni SAs with otherwise stock suspension while you are saving for other parts then do it, you will love it, that along will have the car handling really really well, and riding better than you could have thought.
Next would be springs and/or swaybars. Both will make an equal difference, the car will be flatter, sharper and hold more speed in turns. However swaybars won't change ride quality(hardly) while springs will, that is something to consider if you want to have the best possible ride. You need balanced swaybars and spring rates for balanced handling.
There are quite a few mismatched setups out there, some companies like to run a bigger bar in the back which will cause more oversteer. Generally speaking stock SS/WS6 bars (32mm front/19mm rear) is neutral balanced. A 35mm or 36mm front bar and a 21mm or 22mm rear bar is neutral balanced as well. You may be able to find used 1LE swaybars that are 35mm front and 21mm rear for cheaper or you could get some from UMI or stranoparts.
Same scenario for springs, if you want to be lowered to improve handling stano springs are pretty much the best off the shelf spring for handling, the guy developed his setup based off his years of auto-xing his camaro and winning national championships.
Then would be ideally a watts link to control the rear lateral movement and give you roll center adjustment. This will improve rear grip, feel, and allow you to dial in how the car behaves in a turn (understeer vs oversteer)to your liking. It also gets rid of the arc movement that the panhard bar setup moves on with the rear.
^These parts are the big game changers, everything else is little in comparison, so if anything buy the above first before anything else suspension wise, then afterwards if you want things like rear LCA (i suggest rotojoint) torque arm (full length adjustable), SFCs ,stb, front control arms, k-member (umi road race) and whatever other little things.
Braking wise don't waste your time on drilled rotors as they don't improve braking and can crack. Get a set of good blank or slotted rotors with good pads (not some autozone ceramic garbage).
Wheel/tire wise a square setup is ideal for handling on these cars, so matching front and rear. You can run 17x11s (17/35/315s) on front and back if you want ultimate grip.

KUDAJONES

All excellent info
As far as emissions

Plug in test. ....no sels, cels,...Pass!

Stan1911

Nice......look forward to following your progress.

Tipnitty

iTrader: (3)

I can't believe how much I like the triple white. That's so glorious and I'm incredibly envious.

KUDAJONES

I just came back from the Pigeon Forge rod run, it was the Only triple white ls1 I saw.. .all though I dI'd spot a 95 lt1 twiple white TA....for sale too.... $8900 in Nice shape!!

I really like the X3 white too.....
The new interior has some black but I think it will look Amazing!

428 78T/A

iTrader: (3)

Who makes that interior. Gorgeous.

KUDAJONES

They are done by 6LE Designs



They carry A LOT of cool stuff for our Cars!!!!

They are hear on ls1 tech
Great guys to deal with
My seats should be in by Friday

I went full leather with custom embroidery! !!

michaelhawk

A picture of an 6LE seat cover installed 1 month ago.

Zlow28

iTrader: (11)

Those seats are going to look really nice on your car. Cant wait to see more pics!

jeffz

Ditto!

KUDAJONES

Hey Jeff!
I think they will look awesome too
Of course yours looks Killer itself!
Obviously, I've decided to keep the Vert and pretty much go all through her,thinking about doing the Storm Trooper look
,may end up doing a set of Black Miro wheels. ..

6LE finished the interior Friday,hopefully they ship them to monday

jeffz

Sweet! You one-upped me on the embroidery, bro.
BTW, good luck putting 6x9's in the rear. I had a PITA just putting in the deeper CDT 6" rounds. I painted the magnets white to see better if they would hit the top frame. They don't, but there is a little click on one side when putting the top back up. Annoying. That's what you get with cars, tho. Sometimes I wish I just had a horse! ;-)

bgw70

iTrader: (1)

I went a similar route.

KUDAJONES

Very nice,I was looking at doing all white like factory, but I fell for the black/white combo
Btw,like the Raptor hood
I'm considering the WSQ for mine... $900 shipped though!..OUCH!

KUDAJONES

Btw,I'm trying to find a reasonably price front license plate filler
Any ideas?or anyone have one?

BGW,next time I'm in Florida we need to get together, I'm down there often...lots of kin down there
I'd like to get together for some cruising and pics
I should have my interior done in the next couple weeks!

Who did your interior? ??

bgw70

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like a plan! Cocoa Beach area...send me a PM when you come down.
I ran across a guy in Texas who did the head rest embroidery. The interior was this way when I purchased the car.
The previous owner also replaced the entire stereo with a very powerful system. He also installed the raptor hood.
I just had to take care of a little paint work and a few small parts here and there.
Sun visors, console armrest, installed an XM module and antenna. I put the antenna inside the trunk lid and it works great!
It's really a nice fun car!

bgw70

iTrader: (1)

I cannot believe how expensive the front plate covers are!
This one had the best sticker shock value! ;-)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-OEM-Fire...JXBrAW&vxp=mtr

Zlow28

iTrader: (11)

if you have a hook up with a paint shop, you can buy the bare piece here
http://www.ws6project.com/user_stor/...e-plate-cover/
Just needs to be painted
Or check out part outs in the classifieds

bgw70

iTrader: (1)

Not sure of the year and the edge looks different. Way to far for me to drive and pick it up, 4+ hrs, but it may be worth asking about shipping...I know, it's craigslist.
http://fortmyers.craigslist.org/chl/pts/5546567165.html