86 WH1 restomod

[Mike E]

Thanks for all the compliments.

I refinished my front engine compartment sheetmetal this weekend. Core support and inner fender supports were painted gloss black. I cleaned up the plastic inner fenders, but they really need a coat of paint. I'll get some pictures of it all if I get a chance to hang it next weekend. I'm getting married in four weeks and work is rediculously busy right now, so I have very little spare time for the car.

 

[jcuadra]

subscribed

 

[mat231v6]

Finished the bead rolling. For once, the glare from my shop lighting helps with a picture.

nice work on the turbo6

 

[Mike E]

I got the front sheetmetal cleaned up, painted and re-hung on the car. I decided to paint the turbo6 panel just like the one at the top left corner of this page next to turbobuick.com. I just have to go pick up the paint.

 

[regal81455]

As usual great work Mike. Your moving really fast with this too. Keeps me motivated too!!

 

[Mike E]

No real progress on my car lately, but I did finaly spend some money.

I did some trading of parts and ended up with a Hartline hood. Without a doubt the nicest glass hood I've ever owned.

I also bought all my front suspension parts. I'm still up in the air on brakes, but I'm leaning towards the willwood vented rotor drag kit.
TRZ pro-series a-arms for coilovers
1st gen camaro spindles
afco double adjustable coilover shocks
I'm making my own steering arms and bump steer kit.

All these parts combined should shave another 100lbs. off the front end.

 

[The_Six]

Looking good. You have passed me in progress now I desided to strip my GN down and paint it so Im going to flip a coin this week to decied if I should pull the frame and notch it. That front suspension looks like its going to be a cool set up.

 

[Mike E]

It's like christmas in my shop.

Parts have actually been rolling in for months, but I've been too busy to even mess with them. The big pieces, the TRZ a-arms, showed up today. I'll be busy this weekend.

The front suspension:
Afco double adjustable coilovers w/ qa1 10" 350lb. springs
67 camaro spindles
TRZ a-arms with ball joints for said a-arms and coilovers
The loose rod-ends and hex shaft will be my new outer tie rods/ bumpsteer kit.
The two large aluminum blocks will become steering arms for the new spindles.

The rear suspension will consist of:
A home built 9" rear narrowed 2" vs. the stock 8.5 rear
35 spline moser axles with 5/8" drive studs
Afco double adjustable rear shocks
QA1 12" 130lb. springs in the stock location with ride height adjusters
Home made double adjustable upper and lower control arms with QA1 3/4" heims and 1 1/4 x .120" wall chromolly tube

Rearend components. The housing is an HD piece I scored cheap at the JY. The axle tubes are 3 1/4" x .250 wall DOM tube and the 3x2 is for the back brace.

I did a little machine work last weekend making the pucks for my rearend alignment jig. I've had the materials for a while and I finally got around to machining everything.

 

[charlief1]

Looking foward to see how it all comes out Mike. Why did you pick the 1st gen Camaro spindles though? Never thought about using them but I have thought about using a set off of a Pinto since it's easily adapted.

 

[garyk1970]

very nice.subscribed.

 

[Mike E]

The camaro spindles are about 8lbs. lighter per side. When you put drag brakes on G-body spindles, sometimes it widens the track width enough that you can't lower the car. The camaro spindles almost narrow the width up front. You can pick up the camaro spindles for ~$100 for the pair new. I could also use spindle mount wheels with these spindles if I want to cut more weight down the road.

 

[charlief1]

Makes perfect sense to me Mike. That's one of the reasons the dirt track guys yse the Pinto spindle. Super light and really strong.

 

[Mike E]

I got the front suspension hung under the car today. I had to make some new upper spring locators because the coilover springs are much smaller than the stock spring bucket. TRZ sells some for $100, but I've got more time than money so I made my own.

 

[Mike E]

Freebie. My Father-in-law gave me a BOP TH400 yesterday.

I got my control arms assembled and tacked together today. I also spun out an inspection/filler cap for my rearend.

 

[Mike E]

I got my steering sorted out today.

I made my outer tie rods. I had measured center to center on the stock tie rods before they went in the trash, and I made these to match.
I started with 1" hex stock.

The spindles I used don't come with an integrated steering arm like most spindles. The 67-69 camaro, a-body, chevy II, etc... spindles use a different bolt on steering arm depending on what car they go on. A few places make billet steering arms, but they all seem to use the camaro geometry which isn't quite right for a g-body. The stock spindles have pretty good geometry, so I copied that and made a few small changes to reduce bump steer.


I measured the stock spindle and the new spindle and drew them up in autocad. I used that to design the new steering arms.
The chunk of aluminum is what I started with.

I layed out all the radiuses and holes in the mill.

Then I cut away anything that wasn't a steering arm.

Three hours later, the semi finished product. I'm still going to cut some more material out to reduce the weight.

I had to put a wheel on to see how it's going to sit.

 

[Mike E]

I finished the steering arm. Now I have to make the mirror image of it for the other side.

 

[charlief1]

You do purdy work Mike.:biggrin:

 

[WillRideAgain]

MeanMike that looks very good, I went to Bowling Green Friday and Saturday were you there?

 

[Mike E]

I went Friday.

 

[DCVING 6]

Wow, that is some AMAZING work you do! Can't wait for more pictures.