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Got the new trim and shift boot in. Also painted the brake handle black to match the console better. One day I'll get around to hiding these wires and putting the carpet in.
Thanks, despite it's age it's way better built and more secure than the Camaro console. Much more useful as well. It's high enough that it feels like you are sitting lower in a sportier car, which is cool. After I took those pics I switched to a short throw shifter handle and it is a huge improvement. Shifts take more effort without the extra leverage, but they are much faster. Now I'm on the lookout for a 3rd member for a 9". I've found one but it's 3.25:1, which might or might not be cool. It would make first gear good for more than 5mph but would drop my 6th to something only useable at 75mph (which is actually less than what people go on the interstate between home and work, so that's ok). I'm kind of thinking that a 3.25 might be better for autox, as once I got into 2nd I could pretty much stay there indefinitely. Hard to say.
Decided to follow through with the 9 inch I was tossing around earlier and am having this sent to my place in TN. 5th gen Camaro diff cooler (won't hook that up yet), Ridetech brackets and spacers, new axles, Torino big bearing ends (goodbye C clips) and various other things. I was on the edge but it's also a bit narrower than stock and of course that means more wheel options.
95-2001 era Ford Explorer rear discs and parking brakes fit on here with the use of a small spacer, so other than the backing plates I can replicate most of this kit at Rockauto pretty cheaply. This is a link to the small ford version, but there is a large version as well.
After looking around and comparing prices it looks like the kit might be the best way to go for the brakes. When you factor in redrilling Explorer rotors (which depending who you ask might or might not even be safe to begin with) and shipping the difference was under $50, and that was with used backing plates and without the spacers in the kit which I would need. Long story short, I emailed the guy on ebay selling the kit and am getting one for about 10% off the ebay price. Selling my current brakes will offset about half of that. For anyone else considering this kit, there are two generations for big Ford bearings. The old with the internal shoes and a new one with a caliper-based setup. Given the space constraints in a lowered car with a narrowed rear I opted to go with the old one.
After coming to grips with the prices of new and rebuilt Ford 3rd members, I bit the bullet and picked up a Strange. I figured I've had enough trouble with going used on important things, and it's worth a few bucks to avoid the headache.
The only other thing I plan on buying for the foreseeable future is some sort of access panel for the trunk. The gaskets on the Aeromotive/ Tanks Inc are trash so I'm just going to cut a hole for access and address them. This will also make fuel pump swaps much, much easier. After that (and a trip to Atlanta for a tune) I'm done spending money on this thing. Except for maybe a cheap double din android head unit.
Then I'm done for sure.
Santa is coming a few days early this year; this stuff either just made it to Nashville or is en route shortly. I saw the Strange on ebay then checked the Craigslist where it was located and found it listed there as well. Turns out it was a shop out in CA, Gotelli Auto or something, but they were super cool and made me a really good deal on it.
The rest of it is getting shipped out later this week and barring anything unforeseen happening it should beat me home.
With the rear covered I started thinking about roll bars again and came across this over at P-T.com. His thread died years ago so I have no clue how it turned out, but it looks pretty cool.
There is also a guy there who had an incredibly expensive roll cage made that (aside from the rear seat situation) looks even better. I'm wondering if it would be possible to have the rear posts come down more along the midline instead of the sides. The whole point of a convertible is to feel unobstructed so I don't want a bar between passengers and the view. I don't plan on flipping the car but if possible I would like something to at least decrease the likelihood of being flattened if I do.
The whole build thread is worth a read but the more or less final product is on this page. http://www.pro-touring.com/threads/6...ertible/page14
If anyone has any thoughts about cages feel free to post. I'm thinking about finding someone who can bend to a template I make.
It only took 12 hours and several trips to Lowe's and the parts place but I got my old rear pulled and the new one installed (mostly).
Aside from the fact that each part weighs a ton, assembling the 9" was pretty straightforward. After getting the pumpkin in I installed the Wilwood brake kit, and it too was easy and fit well. Even getting the whole assembly back under the car turned out to be a fairly painless process, relatively speaking. Of course things wouldn't be right if it were a truly happy ending, and there are a few things that need addressed. For whatever reason my Wilwood kit only had three brake pads in it, so now I'm stuck waiting for a new set to come in the mail. Sucks. I also have to get some Ridetech 5/8 shock studs; for now though I'm using a bolt and shims as a placeholder.
All this stuff and yet only 3 brake pads. Such a stupid thing to be causing a delay
The shock mounts are about an inch closer together than the stock rear, so I'm going to have to pull my exhaust in just a little bit, which shouldn't be too bad. It's worth the price to get all this extra tire clearance, I went from almost scraping to thinking I need bigger wheels. Should've held off on buying these tires.
The inboard side of the tire is closer than it was before but there is still plenty of room. This picture makes it look much closer than it
It's going to take a bit of playing around with the control arm adjustments to get the angles right, but it's roughed in enough now that I think it's safe to say it's going to work. An unexpected bonus was that it the driveshaft fits even better with this than it did with the 10 bolt.
By the end of the day it had started to drop into the 40s and I had gone pretty much as far as I could given the missing parts. Hopefully everything will be here shortly after Christmas so I can get this wrapped up. Once I'm sure it's going to work I'll replace these threaded rod adjustable lower arms with some beefier steel ones. I haven't read of anyone using these, but they look pretty cool https://www.ebay.com/itm/MSS-Control...19.m1438.l2649.
For now though I'm just going to focus on Christmas and unloading my leftover parts.
Thanks. I was hoping to end up with a bar that could be removed somehow, maybe mount the bases and have the rest be bolt on. Just something for auto-x days.
After a few more days of freezing temps and rolling around on the cold floor I finally got things wrapped up and mostly squared away. My brake pads, control arms and ridetech shock studs came in after Christmas and it was reasonably easy to swap the new stuff in.
By flipping the aluminum shock mount over I was able to get more clearance and avoid having to move the exhaust any. Doing this also gave me enough spring-to-axle-housing room to bring the pinion up to a proper angle.
The rear came with some threaded aluminum rods with spherical ends to use as lower arms, and while I'm sure they would be okay I wanted to get something beefier. I've had good luck with UMI, BMR and Speedtech but I thought I'd try these Massive arms that are made in Illinois. I also picked up their control arm braces. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with them and they seem super sturdy but I'm not sure about the seemingly odd sizes of the parts used. I worked around it and doubt it would matter with the weight of the car on it, but the inner diameter of the purple thing is a tad larger than its bolt, and the eyelet hole is bigger than its bolt too. Fortunately I was able to use some leftover ridetech shims to make everything tight. To their credit, the guys at Massive were really quick in replying to emails and getting my parts out. The people at ridetech were also easy to reach as well which came in handy when messing with the studs/mounts.
Here's a shot of everything installed
With that done I got the brakes back on then used my ghetto bleeder to get them working. Super simple one man job.
With the car frame still on blocks I started the car and eased it into gear to make sure things were working. There was an occasional knocking noise coming from around the rear, but from what I gathered it turned out to be due to an uneven idle and unbalanced tires. As the speed between wheels and idle varied in relation to one another it would stutter a tad. It was faint, but just to be sure I ran it for a few minutes, took it around the block then drained the gear oil. It looked aerated like 20 degree oil churned by gears would, but I couldn't find any metal in it. I put a strong magnet in a bag and poured the oil over it a few times and nothing ever stuck.
Since it didn't look like anything was catastrophically wrong I took it out for a spin. I only got up to 80 or so but there was no vibration at any rpm and it drives quietly and smoothly. There was nothing wrong with my 10 bolt, but this 9 inch just feels more solid. Maybe it's placebo. Not sure yet.
The 3.25 gear isn't as much fun as the 3.73, but around town driving is way better since 1st and 2nd are useable.
Once I reroute my fuel lines and filter from above the rear I can drop the car back down a couple inches, but here is where it is now. After I drop it I'm not planning to do anything else to the drivetrain for a long, long time.
Before the sun went down I managed to squeeze in the new stereo. It's just a low-range model but it runs Android 7.1 and is pretty fast, no real lag to speak of like some of the ultra-cheap ones. Plus it runs apps (like Torque) and records from a USB dashcam. The large screen for the backup cam is cool as well.
I'm still in the bowels of NC so this is more of a note to my future self and a PSA than an update proper. This probably goes without saying, but open the things you buy as soon as you get them, you never know what might be in there.
In my case I was selling a bunch of stuff to a guy from P-t.com and at the last minute decided to check out a few things I had never actually opened, one of which was a DSE Camaro wiper motor, the one that's $400 or something stupid like that. This is what was inside -
With a note, presumably from someone who had also received this then sent it back, saying that this was a used junk part. Clearly someone stole the real one then returned their trash.
On a similar note, this afternoon I came home to find my JW Speaker headlights on the porch. At least that is what I thought until I opened the box -
Cheap knockoff Chinese headlights in terrible condition. Garbage.
A couple months ago I ordered a Yukon ring and pinion only to get a new ring and someone's used pinion (complete with greasy and somehow sandy bearing still on it), and worst of all I ordered a Tremec T-56 and got a T-5 with a T-56 sticker half stuck to it. This is how UPS brought it out to me; the lady manning the dolly was totally confused when I asked if it might have made more sense to put the end with the part sticking out facing upward instead of down.
Needless to say all of this stuff went back, but it's pretty sad that there are assbags out there returning their old garbage like this. Such a huge inconvenience for everyone involved.
It hasn't been all bad news though, and I did get a couple things that turned out to be as advertised.
First was this new lazy man's e-brake, which will, in theory at least, let me remove the brake handle that is currently awkwardly crammed in place next to the passenger seat. You guys have probably seen this before, but I didn't know it existed until recently. It's pretty compact and stays taught when the power is cut, so while it won't be much use when taking off from a stop on a hill like a handle would be it should do a good job when parking on an incline.
Still on the safety theme, after seeing a car burnt to a crisp on the side of the road recently I started thinking about how bad that would suck and how lucky I've been to avoid it. After some browsing around I came across this
which looked cool and was only $270ish through my Amazon business account. It's basically water and foam that you can wash off with no fumes that will kill you. The only downside is you can't leave it in the car if it's freezing outside, which is only a minor annoyance given the nature of my car. I hope to avoid a situation requiring me to test it, but it seems like a fairly foolproof system. Fill, pull. Easy.
Finally, I picked up this ZL1 fuel pump. I'm going to sell the Aeromotive tank, fittings and extra E85 pump I recently got and switch to Rick's tank when I replumb the car. This is a massive piece, feels very substantial. The fuel float won't be needed but I don't think there is any reason to cut it off.
From a performance perspective I'm sure the Aeromotive stuff I have now is more than adequate, but I need to reroute my fuel lines anyway and I'm planning to go with the nylon factory-style stuff. This pump does not require the use of an in-line filter, and driving it with a PWM controller means I don't need an external fuel pressure regulator either. This means I can get rid of my rubber fuel lines while also ditching the Corvette filter/regulator that is currently stuck directly above my 9 inch housing. The new line will run in one piece from the pump to the rails, the only interruptions being at the ends for fuel pressure sensor fittings.
That's pretty much it for the time being. Not much car work done but I do at least have a lot to do. If anybody in Nashville is going to be needing an EFI tank let me know.
Got the new trim and shift boot in. Also painted the brake handle black to match the console better. One day I'll get around to hiding these wires and putting the carpet in.
Man I hope you start having better luck buying parts !!!
Comes with the territory I suppose. I've been buying tons of stuff lately, mostly for other things or people, and I guess that has increased my exposure the types of pathetic losers that do this sort of thing. Pretty sad and embarrassing but it is what it is.
The block off plate is from Amazon. It's not quite right but it has the silver ring and some texture to it so it's not totally terrible. Mine is misaligned because of where I mounted the switches in it, but even so some two-sided tape should make it good enough for a while.
Comes with the territory I suppose. I've been buying tons of stuff lately, mostly for other things or people, and I guess that has increased my exposure the types of pathetic losers that do this sort of thing. Pretty sad and embarrassing but it is what it is.
The block off plate is from Amazon. It's not quite right but it has the silver ring and some texture to it so it's not totally terrible. Mine is misaligned because of where I mounted the switches in it, but even so some two-sided tape should make it good enough for a while. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
11-25-2017, 03:48 PM
