Need help perfecting the budget build hemi swap

[kingdragon]

Funny stuff.

 

[kingdragon]

What I typically do when working with AN fittings and SS hose is:
After I mark location of my cut I wrap the spot VERY TIGHT with electrical tape. Only 3-4 wraps but do it tight so its almost stretching thin. Take the thinnest cut-off wheel you can find and spin it up fast. Slice through hose strait and steady when you get close to almost through twist the hose so you have a clean cut. Leave the extra hose with tape on it for safe storage. On the needed hose carefully and slowly pull tape off. All the wires should be nice and tight still. Spray down the inside outside of hose end with thin oil (wd-40 is too thin) Twist or press coupler down to it bottoms out. Screw in AN fitting. Bingo! I keep a super clean sealed container of mineral spirit's around to rinse the hose thoroughly inside and out.

 

[kingdragon]

convert a nipple from your air tools to a common AN fitting. You can use this to pressure check your assembly's and blow them out.

 

[garyfish340]

A friend in Austin Tx. wrote on facebook, how the whole city was paralyzed. They had a little snow, and he was stuck at a gas station / convenience store for hours, because there was no snow plows for the roads.
The roads by my house look like this, and have for several weeks. It's not a lot of snow, but it never gets moved, except to be packed down into a compressed ice sheet. One of the things that really sucks is when I leave our van to warm up, the snow, and ice beneath of it melts level, and than refreezes into a smooth surface.

 

[garyfish340]

[ame]http://youtu.be/H2rB5SoyGSY[/ame]

 

[garyfish340]

A friend on facebook sent the top photo of what is supposed to be GM's new Chevelle concept car. It's obvious the are trying to reuse the roof line from the Camaro, but it looks like ***. I'm no computer guru, but I grabbed a photo of a nice pro touring Chevelle, grafted on the new Camaro roof, fattened it up a bit and added ground effects in the front, and rear. Why is that so difficult for car companies to understand. Well, at least the people in the newly legal marijuana zones of Wash, and Colorado might tolerate GM's design studio with a little less uproarious fan fair. I hear they are going to revolt nationally for a free marijuana country, but first they need a little nap, and some munchies.

 

[garyfish340]

convert a nipple from your air tools to a common AN fitting. You can use this to pressure check your assembly's and blow them out.

Thanx cool info...

 

[Buschi340]

Winter sucks, Gary. Snow looks beautyfull but in combination with cold it sucks!

 

[garyfish340]

Winter sucks, Gary. Snow looks beautyfull but in combination with cold it sucks!

Instead of getting 2 feet all in one shot, we're getting 3-4" a day, which means, everyday I get to shovel the side walk, and the 54' down to the road. on the wall next to my car is my backyard. It's probably got 1 1/2' to 2' of snow, the scary thing is the first 4" is solid ice, the roof too.
Weird, everybody always touts the benefits of front wheel drive, but the only way I can get my Nissan Quest out of the ice covered driveway, is in reverse. Else I get stuck.

 

[Joe Dokes]

Instead of getting 2 feet all in one shot, we're getting 3-4" a day, which means, everyday I get to shovel the side walk, and the 54' down to the road. on the wall next to my car is my backyard. It's probably got 1 1/2' to 2' of snow, the scary thing is the first 4" is solid ice, the roof too.
Weird, everybody always touts the benefits of front wheel drive, but the only way I can get my Nissan Quest out of the ice covered driveway, is in reverse. Else I get stuck.

The only benefit to FWD in the snow is that the car understeers instead of oversteers, so you hit the pole with the front of the car instead of the back of the car.

Regards,

Joe Dokes

 

[garyfish340]

The only benefit to FWD in the snow is that the car understeers instead of oversteers, so you hit the pole with the front of the car instead of the back of the car.

Regards,

Joe Dokes

I knew I should be driving backwards...

 

[garyfish340]

God Seagrams 7 sucks, I might as well be the dog, drinking straight from the toilet.

 

[garyfish340]

While Rich, @ Klein's Autobody In Orwigberg, PA is getting my hood straight for dirt cheap, he's gotta be a bit discouraged that his Plymouth is still in mothballs. I told him I'd be more than willing to help him get his together.

 

[garyfish340]

Well I asked a lot of tech questions to people over the winter, and literally I was pulling my hair out, to make baby steps. At 26 degree temperatures, and moderate snow accumulations, I was physically able to work on the car, but I was doing a lot of work, to get very little accomplished.
Than all spring I had to wait for the rain, and mud to stop streaming down the mountain side. Finally the summer heat baked the earth, and a funny thing happened. Within a few minutes of jacking the car off the ground the rear axle was aligned, and the same goes for the front end, I jacked it up removed the strut rod, shock, and upper control arm, and sway bar, backed out the torsion bar. Reclocked it, did some minor adjustments to the upper control arm, and re-installed the strut, sway bar, and shock. Cranked the torsion bars and whammo, That part was done. All told, it took maybe an hour, and a half to do everything. It's insane how cold temperatures affect things.
Now admittedly, I set the suspension a slight bit high, in anticipation of the spring breaking in and settling, but Wracker says, I can probably go ahead and set the final ride height, because the springs probably won't settle much.

 

[garyfish340]

People have told me that I don't need to have down bars for my front frame rails, and tying up the shock towers, ( I value their opinions, but I'm a paranoid guy. ) those people are also excellent builders, working off really great foundations they built themselves. I have such little faith in the unit body car design once they get some age in them, that I feel, to trade a bit more weight, for the extra stability, and strength can't be a bad idea. Might as well do it, while the opportunity is there. So "Dan the welder", mached up some tubing, while I did what was necessary to stay out of the way.

 

[toplscuda]

Looking good:cheers:

 

[garyfish340]

Looking good:cheers:

I hope when this thread is finished, it shows a few cheap, and basic mods, that anybody can do, and make their outdated pedestrian mopar, a bit racier. I've seen a lot of beautiful, big dollar, builds here, but I think, for those of us on a budget, we have a right to play too.
At the beginning of this project, there was a 1969 Barracuda. It got totaled before I could paint it. So I recycled whatever was good from that car. Even the moly roll cage tubing. Than there were people who suggest a few high dollar, kick *** products, but that just wasn't going fit my wallet. Than there were people who suggested not to attempt some of the more unorthodox ideas I had. Due to money, those idea were inevitable. ( Wait until they get a load of my industrial strength shock tower bracing, I tend to raid International Harvesters part bin. ) Now we're pretty close to getting the motor running again, and seeing if the boat floats, or sinks. ( lower, leaner, and meaner.)

 

[garyfish340]

I wanted to add a little extra back bone to the front frame, and the shock tower. So this is what we came up with since I'll probably be going with a pair of stock mount Viking adjustable up front. The two 1/4" J bars going down to the shock towers are pieces of a safety cage from a Case I.H. fork lift, so they're beefy. So now we'll finish welding them in, and clean, and paint them.

 

[garyfish340]

It was a pain in the butt to color match the firewall plates to the existing paint without dripping, or painting everything around it. I think I'm going to wait a long time before I try to blend it all together, but for now it looks pretty close. The paint in the engine compartment could use a good cleaning, and a buff, but it's all there, thank god. The worst thing is somebody must have sand blasted the hood. Be cause every time I open it, I find sand right under where the little holes would be next to the hinges. Sand blasting is bad news for sheet metal. View attachment vlcsnap-2014-09-05-18h17m44s850.jpg

View attachment vlcsnap-2014-09-05-18h15m06s186.jpg

View attachment vlcsnap-2014-09-05-18h17m17s840.jpg
Oh, my bench seat interior, and my home made pistol grip shifter. I took the Hurst pistol grip handle that they sell for racing, and filled it, reshaped it, and re-tapped it. I have two wood gun inlays that will be screwed into the recessed sides.

 

[garyfish340]

So this is as close as I could get on the ride height, and getting the front suspension kind of straight before I send it to get an alignment. The rear suspension will be lowered about 1 more inch. For now it needs to stay put, because my exhaust is connected to my headers with flex couplers. Once it's road worthy, I'll head to Klein's Auto, and have him bend up some tubing, and I'll gain a bunch of ground clearance. I imagine it still won't be as low as the Pro touring cars at the Good Guys events, but it'll be a compromise between good street, and competition looks. Next year I intent to go to 18 x 9 in the rear, mini tub it, and mount the lower control arms in the frame rails, plus a different transmission. For now I'd like to get running, and tuning.

 

[sireland67]

How close are you to driving it?

 

[garyfish340]

How close are you to driving it?

There's a small dent in my right rear 1/4 panel, from trying to get the car off jack stands after a rain storm. One of the jack stands started to sink, and was leaning, and the one next to it started to follow. So now the frame needs to be checked, or untweeked. My friend Rich has a body shop, and wants to see if he can figure it out, and " Welder Dan " thinks we should probably do a 4 point cage, torque boxes, and some low profile door bars. All the stuff I didn't want to do.

 

[mguner]

I'd like to see more of your lower suspension bars on the rear axle and the shock setup. Looks great!

 

[garyfish340]

First a qualifier: People do not understand that my wife has M.S., and I can't just go wherever, whenever, so I am home a lot, the phone works both ways, and the welcome mat hasn't moved in years. So therefor when it comes to getting help for a situation like - getting a car down from a pair of jack stands that have shifted, I am basically on my own 24/7, because of the fishing trip I did do, http://youtu.be/HXNcZN9sCjE?list=PL1g818MSrarWRTPRi4zKvselos340Za2c or the hanging out that didn't happen. I'm sure a lot of parents here know what I mean. 2, I got stung by a freakin' hornet, and almost died. ( How the hell does a little bug, kick a man's ***.) It was like " honey I got bit on the elbow by a BAMMMMM!!! -I hit the ground, 30 second from stung to bam, on the floor. Neighbours trying to shove benadryl down my throat, and vomiting like Linda Blair. Next thing I'm in a hospital, blood pressure 60 over 37, and I'm scheming on all the different ways to kill bugs. They live in the ground so explosives are not out of the question. That said, it is what it is, and if I have to tube frame the thing, so be it. On the bright side, the engine needs the springs for the carb/ accelerator cable, all my heater hose is bad, and I'm hoping I found a work around for the seat belt interlock. I need to get the trans cooler in, fill the trans, change the oil, and get the correct U-joint for this driveshaft. The fuel line is already formed, it just needs to slide in, the braided hoses need put together, and the steering column plugs need plugged together. 4 screws need to mount the MSD hemi6 box, and plugged in. The tach needs mounted. I want a electronic oil pressure gauge, and I need an adaptor for the temperature sending unit to fit the block. It's all nickle, and dime junk. P.S. had to use the tiny air cleaner because, one it's a budget build, and two once I cut a hole in the hood it'll be floppy enough without cutting into the supports.

 

[garyfish340]

I'd like to see more of your lower suspension bars on the rear axle and the shock setup. Looks great!

I think there are some photos on the 4 link here at the beginning of the thread, if not I'll be sure to post some. ( Paranoia speaking ) if you want to see photos for diagnostic purposes Visa-via my twisting frame Eeeek...

[ame]http://youtu.be/f3tgpuOopHI[/ame]