"Rookie-Touring" '69 Dart
Well, today is the last day I have to work on the car. Unfortunately I really won't be doing much on it. I have to get the garage cleaned back up so the other half of it can actually be used again. Yesterday's progress was limited, but still progress. I got the rocker panels opened up and trimmed back so I can slide the perimeter of my chassis into the rocker. I then wire wheeled the inside of it and laid down some Rust Bullet to prevent anything in the future. I was pleasantly surprised to find mostly surface rust inside; might be the only place on the car that was so nice... I am planning to box the rocker in with 16 ga. and was hoping to do it yesterday but the steel supply yard was not open, so that will unfortunately have to wait until I return in 6 weeks.
While I was working on the rockers, I started cutting tube for the chassis. I've got about half of it cut so far but have to wait until I have the front suspension set to determine what the front rails will look like.
I also downloaded a trial copy of Performance Trends Suspension Analyzer and put in my current points with the new UCA's as close to the stock Viper as possible, just further outboard by about a 1.5". I started a thread HERE to get some feedback on the results thus far but I plan to play a little bit with it and try the optimize function to see what it offers with current parts or if I'll need to build some LCA's to get better geometry and match the UCA's. At first it was a bit intimidating, but the video's Performance Trends has on their site are helpful and I finally got my junk in order on it.
That's it for now. I'll grab a couple more pics today as I get things taken care of, but that's where I stand (sit) for now.
Well, today is the last day I have to work on the car. Unfortunately I really won't be doing much on it. I have to get the garage cleaned back up so the other half of it can actually be used again. Yesterday's progress was limited, but still progress. I got the rocker panels opened up and trimmed back so I can slide the perimeter of my chassis into the rocker. I then wire wheeled the inside of it and laid down some Rust Bullet to prevent anything in the future. I was pleasantly surprised to find mostly surface rust inside; might be the only place on the car that was so nice... I am planning to box the rocker in with 16 ga. and was hoping to do it yesterday but the steel supply yard was not open, so that will unfortunately have to wait until I return in 6 weeks.
While I was working on the rockers, I started cutting tube for the chassis. I've got about half of it cut so far but have to wait until I have the front suspension set to determine what the front rails will look like.
I also downloaded a trial copy of Performance Trends Suspension Analyzer and put in my current points with the new UCA's as close to the stock Viper as possible, just further outboard by about a 1.5". I started a thread HERE to get some feedback on the results thus far but I plan to play a little bit with it and try the optimize function to see what it offers with current parts or if I'll need to build some LCA's to get better geometry and match the UCA's. At first it was a bit intimidating, but the video's Performance Trends has on their site are helpful and I finally got my junk in order on it.
That's it for now. I'll grab a couple more pics today as I get things taken care of, but that's where I stand (sit) for now.