All the above has been done since the end of May and I just haven't had time or made time to do any more. Today I got the angles and mounting points calculated and measured for the new control arm mounts. The measurements and calculations took more time than attaching the tabs. You can see that with the new mounts the heim joints are at the proper angle, check the pics with the stock mounts and you can see they are at quite an angle. I also widened the arm a bit by moving the rear mount further back, this makes adjustment easier. Now I get to start on the other side.
Believe it or not the steering and oil pan are going to be quite easy. The factory oil pan clears everything, I am going to build a custom sump to hold around 8 quarts of oil. There are some pics of the oil pan clearance in earlier posts. The steering is all stock s10 pickup and I have built the custom parts around that.
Yes, I saw your pics, making progress. Like I said a very "ambitious" project.. Be interesting to see how the transfer case and front diff. will hold up to the torque of a 455..
I haven't posted for quite awhile, but I got a major part of the project finished. The front suspension is all fabbed up. I finished the control arm mounts for the passenger side and completed the shock mounts.
I have some time off during Christmas and I hope to finish the firewall and build a new trans tunnel and transfer case floor. Anyone good at sheet metal fab? My plan is to use the existing floor parts that will work and just "cut and paste" new pieces to fill in the gaps. Obviously I will have to fab the entire portion that goes over the t-case. Any suggestions would be food for thought. Thanks
Maybe cut the floor out of a pickup truck and use parts of it to patch in your floor.. would have the t-case hump.
Agreed, cut way more than you need and massage it into place to match up with the factory sheetmetal.
Haven't posted for awhile again, the following is work from about the last 6 weeks. I had to cut out part of the floor support to fit the transfer case so I fabed a support out of 3/8 plate and welded it to the original support from the top side. The floor is now just as strong as before maybe even better.
The idea to use a a floor from a 4x4 vehicle sounded good, but I have the trans and t case mounted so high no existing floors would cover it. So the best solution was to just build it. I used the original trans tunnel moved it over, raised it up and patched it all in. Don't make fun of the welds, sheet metal is the devil to weld.
Next we pulled the frame. I thought that would go pretty well, but it took about 4 different plans to make it happen. Where there is a will there is a way, it came off. I have been soaking the bolts on and off for about 6 months, they all came right out. Now I need to finish fish plating the frame, box it in, and flip it over to weld the bottom side.
Next I finished the out side of the firewall and recess. filled a lot of stuff in and put a plate over the right side to cover everything up and smooth it out. Notice the 3 holes in the trans tunnel. They are to access the hard to reach trans bolts from inside the car, pull back the carpet and pop them out.
This is what I finished today. The front diff assembly, 3.42 gears, and a helical gear limited slip. Can you say 4 wheel burn outs. I'm Excited. Now I only have about 27 more lists to cross things off of.
