" I've been framed!"

So now that the rear end is pretty much sized up ( or down as it were...lol), I have been working on the rear portion of the frame for it to snuggle up to, and rather than go into all I had to do to get everything measured up in the car for it...I'll just say that I've already done all that :).

I got the basic frame here ready for the shock and ladder bar setup, the shocks having just been modified and built and installed (minus the lower brackets to the differential). The ultimate goal of mine in the beginning was to build as much myself as possible, so, even though its not as professional as possible, I think I still did fairly well. the frame at this point is just "tacked" together. Taran will be taking it to work and fully welding the unit solid. The shocks turned out great. I used a pair of simple bolt on coil over springs (rated 1250 load pounds per set) to mount to the modified ( shortened shocks). The ladder bars will be here in a couple days, so for now I will just leave this all set up here till I can put it all together as a complete unit which I will record and publish as well. So we'll see ya in a few days. :) chao!!

"Rear Ended!"

Ok, well...it's been quite sometime since the last post...Sorry, just been busy with life & stuff.

Anywho, I finally got the differential work done for the most part (minus the actual Strange Engineering Axles). Here you can see the sorry state of the original rearend pulled from a 1978 Ford F150 2wd. Overall a decent example of a good strong 9" punkin :)

We took the 54" behometh, cleaned it up by removing all of the shock mount and leaf spring mounting pads, removed the drop out gearing, removed the planetary system for minimum slip, installed a Strange 31 spline spool so both rear paws can dig, added new bearings, races etc. had the tubes shortened by Dean Averett of DA Racing in Taylorsville, Utah. (Awesome job Dean...Thx buddy!

To get the spool to install onto the ring gear I had to modify new 7/16 x 20 bolts. I shortened them to accomidate the thinner flange of the new spool. The end result worked great. I got it together, set the backlash to .012", checked the gear pattern using a little persian blue gear paint and put the rest of it together. I think so far...it looks pretty good.

" Pretty Dashing!"

Ok, with the tubs and fenders now in place, (bodywork obviously to be done later)...it's time to modify and install a new dash. Something sleek but dark.
I took out the old dash assembly seen here, and then measured and cut out a piece of metal for the new dash, then found my break points..initiated those then drilled the mounting hole and hung the new part onto the fabricated L-bracket that I had to weld into place on the upper edge of the metal frame work. This worked awesome! After that, I marked out the placements for the new Equus guages that are to give it that nice mean look. Once I had the circles cut, the switches drilled, and the black "Wrinkle" paint applied and all put back together using button head ss screw for that billet look...WOOT! Very nice indeed! and being that this car is going to be street legal..here in Utah you have to have all the electrical including the heater blower controls etc. So, I managed to keep the original heater control unit as well. And there you have it...shes coming right along would'nt you say? :)

"Installing the tubs and fixing the wells"

Ok, now the tubs are made then I had to make a template of the inside of the outer body panel that the tub will seal against, then I marked the tubs, cut out the edges and test fitted them, they fit perfectly. Now, I have just installed them by tack welding them into place making sure to keep them as even as possible from side to side for the frame rails. I think they look pretty dang good so far. then I sealed the spaces where they attach to the body with household crack and seam sealer which will be trimmed once it dries. Taran has been working on filling in and fixing the holes where I drilled out the spot welds in the arches and hammering out the bodywork on the welded edges. "Nice Job!"

Wheel Tubs

Arghh..sometimes I hate my internet( I had this post done photos and all and just getting ready to actually post it to the blog when my net quit me. :/ At any rate I tacked in the stretched fender flares then I bought a sheet of 20ga. steel to fabricate the wheel tubs, marked out the sidewall cutouts using the same template I had used for marking out the well cutouts @ a 36" circumfrence, then marking out the the tops at 20" width and 57" linear length. Taran was at work this day, so I had to weld them up myself. Surprisingly enough they turned out pretty good. All of the seems including the attachment point for the tubs to the inner and outer quarter panels will be sealed with body seam sealer and undercoated to prevent any rust AND any smoke entrance from any "accidental" burnouts that may or may not occur :D

"Recap"

Just a couple photos of the floor/susp/diff unit that I dropped out.

"On to the wheel wells"

Now that I have removed a large part of the stable flooring and support from the rear of the car, I had to replace the jackstands and add another set to stabilized the now pretty wobbly rear end, but dont worry..nothing is gonna break here...but just in case..lol! Its just alot to ask the rear pillar and roof to hold up for long periods of time.

Now I have already made a 36" 1/2 round template from poster paper to simulate the size of the wheel tubs that are going in and then I traced the lines onto the inner fender panel to get ready for cutting as you can see the marker lines here. Now that those are out, I need to open up the out wheel well about 6" for the Goodyear Eagles to fit. I was able to do this by tracing a line all the way around the upper edge of the fender flare about 3/4 on an inch from the curve of the flare in fact, then use a pair of metal shears to cut them out. Once that part was cut out, then i cut the flare in half and placed them on either side of the tire once i slide it back into place under the car. That part is actually going quite well. So as you can see..they fit in there just fine now. and I just have to tack in the flares now and fabricate the center part of the flare then do a little tacking and mudding..and were good to go. I'm actually hurrying through this step on this side cuz Im way behind here, but I'll photograph and be more detailed with this step on the other side of the car.

"Tear'n it Up!"

Once the interior was cleaned out,it was time time to rip out the floor behind the seats to clear back past the rear suspension and differential areas to make room for the new frame rails and give me room to start cutting for tubs and the fatties that are going under this baby. Now being a uni body car, it wasn't easy to find where to cut into the rear existing framework, but a little patience and a few mythodical cuts revealed where I needed to be. Once that was figured out...the rest went easy and the entire rear floor/suspension/differential unit dropped out as one completed blob.

"Getting to work!"

Ok, now that we have the car in the garage...the next thing we did was to position it in the small bay that we have to work in, so that we can get all around it after it is incapacitated. We got the car off the ground and onto jackstands. After that we had to spray insecticide in and under the car to eliminate any creepy crawleys that may still be lurking about from sitting in the field.
Then we pulled out the seats, carpet, and most of the interior trim to get to the workable metal underneath and check for soundness of the body. Honestly...I hated to cut into this thing because it was soooo perfect! :/

The Find!

Having talked long and hard about what our project should be and reminiscing about all the cars I have owned since I was 15 years old, and trying to decide upon 65 Mustangs, 70 Cudas, 69 Camaros etc. my thoughts seemed to settle on a 71 chevy vega I had when I was 18, one that my friend Alvin had talked me out of or rather traded me fro a 68 Chev Impalla with a Chrysler 440 chained into it (thx a ton Al). I told myself if I ever had the chance to find another one, that I would do it. This seemed to intrigue my son and So...We hit KSL.com, a version of Craigs list etc. in our area. Taran came to me and said he thinks he found a good prospect a clean '72 Chevy Vega...it was, I made a call, Talked to Bronson (the owner) struck a deal for $600, got the day off work, rented a U-Haul car hauler, packed a lunch and off we went. Bronson is seen (lower left) standing next to the car once on the trailer, he told me he had the car for the last 10 years, got the engine out of it and was going to convert it to a V8, then never did. This was a prime example of a nice rustless, dentless California car that he babied for 10 years making sure it didnt rust. Told me it needed a good home, I reassured him it was getting one and that I would keep him updated on the progress, so this is for you buddy. (Thanks Bronson)