Extreme budget GN build thread

[wiseman]

GREAT job! I am in the process of trying to get my GN road ready after almost 4 hrs of scrapping, painting, building, and spending tons of money. It is nice to see that you have completed your project. It looks awesome and thumbs up for the pics that your posted showing us the progress pics!

 

[BuickMike]

Alright, got a few more things done with the car. I got in my new window motors and regulators from A1 Electric. I took the old setup out of the doors and added 2 layers of E Dead sound deadening material before reinstalling. The new motors are AWESOME!!

Edit: Missing pic


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[Daniel Jost]

Looking good, I've been following your thread as I have the same philosophy as you. How much of an effect did you get by adding the sound deading mat, do you think it's worth doing?

,Dan

 

[BuickMike]

Looking good, I've been following your thread as I have the same philosophy as you. How much of an effect did you get by adding the sound deading mat, do you think it's worth doing?

,Dan

The sound deadening mat will keep the metal from resonating. If you tap on your doors, they sound like hollow cans. My door is now a dull thud. This keeps vibrations and rattles down and will keep some low frequency sounds out. You also need to add a a sound absortion material like open / closed cell foam to cancel out road and engine noise. Before I just had a layer of Jute padding inbetween the door panel and the inner door skin and it worked fantastic. I'm going to do that again with my new door panels and the quarters as well. I can get it much cheaper than Neoprene and it works almost as well. When I run out of my mat I'm going to buy the DEI Boom mat spray. I've seen good reviews about that stuff and will use it on the floor / trunk / firewall.

 

[AZMotorgod]

Mike,

Man those windows work good. Is A1 Electric a local company?

 

[BuickMike]

Mike,

Man those windows work good. Is A1 Electric a local company?

They are just a vendor out of CA that had the best prices with shipping. The motor assemblies are made my Electric Life I believe. You can get them from Summit too. There are different models though. These are all metal. I've seen other ones that have plastic regulators. Check out my power window thread for more info.

 

[6togo]

Was the regs and motors direct replacements ? I see they list them as manual conversions just wondering if all the switches and plugs were the same and any idea where this stuff is made any chance the US?
Chris

 

[BuickMike]

They will bolt right in, but they use different plugs for the motors. You have to splice the wires that come with their kit into your harness. They are made in Italy. At least its not China.

 

[WIKEDV6]

Awesome work!!!!

Wow Mike, very very impressive, posts like this will put a fire under the a$$ of procrastinators like me. Your workmanship is second to none. I admire your hard work and dedication. I thank you for listing the prices of items and where to obtain them. This will help all of us immensely.

Thank you!!

Prasad

 

[BuickMike]

Bumping this. Will add progress soon.

 

[Soldier_GN]

Wow, Im a fan. Top notch work done inhouse... Wish i could do half that...LOL...

 

[BuickMike]

Alright folks. Time to start catching up on this thread. So far the car is a BEAST!!! I LOVE my combo. My turbo hits full boost instantly and torque is insane! Even with the DR's I can light up the tires from a 50mph roll. I am only running 20psi of boost with pump gas / alky due to the limits of my old alky pump. I will deal with that later.

I took the car to Firebird a couple weeks ago and it ran pretty good considering things. My best run of the night was 11.62@118 with a 1.85 60ft. I could not hook to save my life, so I had to baby it off the line. I will be getting the Baseline suspensions UCA relocator kit to fix that. My instant center is currently 2 feet in front of my car. I wish I could so something less expensive to dial in the rear suspension, but none of the other options will get me to where I want to be.

 

[BuickMike]

Wow, Im a fan. Top notch work done inhouse... Wish i could do half that...LOL...

Thanks man. It was a ton of work, but the compliments I have been getting make me proud of myself for going through it.

 

[BuickMike]

Ok, so here are a few things I've done:

I got a MAF translator Gen II and needed to make a cold air intake for my LS1 MAF, so I rummaged around the garage to see what I had. I already had a 3.5" 90 degree elbow and a 3.5" AEM filter. I bought some polished aluminum 3.5" tubing and a 45 degree silicone bend for about $50.

I put the IAT in the bend, cut the pipe to fit, shortened part of the 45, shortened my 3" intake, and voila!

 

[BuickMike]

The other project I did was setup a couple relays that are activated off of a Hobbs switch. The switch activates the relays at 10psi.

One relay was intended to activate a home made volt booster found here:

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/projects/gnalt.html

According to my volt meter the signal wire is doing what it is supposed to, but it blew my fuse from my supply wire when I actually hooked it up to the alternator. I need to revisit that.

The other relay turns on a LS1 vacuum pump. Jason at RJC came up with the idea of plumbing it this way.
First, I put the stock oil filler neck on the DS valve cover so the motor is sealed.
Next, I put on the stock air / oil separator back on the PS valve cover.
I run a hose from the PS valve cover to the inlet of the pump.
The pump is mounted under the car, just in front of the battery.
I ran the outlet of the pump to a breather. Jason recommended that I put an oil catch can after the pump, but I simply cannot find a spot to mount the one I have. So far there seems to be no need for it. The baffle in the valve cover and stock air / oil separator seem to be working good. This will hopefully pull enough crankcase pressure at WOT to keep the seals from leaking bad.

 

[BuickMike]

Ok, so now I'm at the point where the car will be coming apart again soon. I am going to get crackin on body / paint work. Most of this will be done by someone else. I will disassemble and strip the car myself, but I will be getting help with the body / paint work. After my runs at the track, I was seriously considering putting in a roll bar. I did some searching to see if having a removable rear cross bar is NHRA legal, and unfortunately it is not. I cannot bring myself to lose the ability to use the back seat over this. The car is primarily for the road and I want to be able to have people get in the back. I will keep the boost down to the point where I run 11.50's when its all done and be happy with it. Hopefully next month I will get started on the body work.

 

[Instro84]

nice work!

 

[scojack_2001]

Excellent work! Like what you did with the vacuum pump there.

I have a question regarding your front suspension setup. I think I remember you said you used '80s S-10 lower ball joints? I am finishing up getting my parts together and wanted to lower the car some. I like the way your car sits in the front. Looking to get a similar stance myself.

 

[BuickMike]

Excellent work! Like what you did with the vacuum pump there.

I have a question regarding your front suspension setup. I think I remember you said you used '80s S-10 lower ball joints? I am finishing up getting my parts together and wanted to lower the car some. I like the way your car sits in the front. Looking to get a similar stance myself.

The ball joints were actually bought from a place called Power Performance Motorsports. They are now called Proforged (www.proforged.com). Their search guide doesn't work, so you will have to call them. I used their 1/2" taller G Body / S10 lower ball joints. (G body and S10 use the same front suspension parts) They also sell 1/2" taller upper ball joints. You should get aftermarket upper control arms if you want to use the tall uppers because otherwise they will sit at a bad angle and could break if you hit a pothole. I had my upper control arms built custom to accept early 80's Chevy C10 upper ball joints. These are 1/2" taller, beefier, and have the same taper. That way I can at least get replacement uppers from any store.

 

[scojack_2001]

The ball joints were actually bought from a place called Power Performance Motorsports. They are now called Proforged (www.proforged.com). Their search guide doesn't work, so you will have to call them. I used their 1/2" taller G Body / S10 lower ball joints. (G body and S10 use the same front suspension parts) They also sell 1/2" taller upper ball joints. You should get aftermarket upper control arms if you want to use the tall uppers because otherwise they will sit at a bad angle and could break if you hit a pothole. I had my upper control arms built custom to accept early 80's Chevy C10 upper ball joints. These are 1/2" taller, beefier, and have the same taper. That way I can at least get replacement uppers from any store.

Thanks!!! I've got the GBodyParts control arms so I'll see how those work out. I figured the GN & S-10 shared some of the same parts, just wasn't sure.