Patrick's Twin Turbo 350 Build Thread

Just do the minimum for now and then do it all
How you want when funds allow.

 

i even have good experience with the Ebay special tubular control arm kits ( on my 72 LS Prolark). If you want to lower it do it with drop spindles so you keep the geometry right.
on my 68 i have all stock control arms with new rubbers, and new steering linkage parts and i used a 3" drop spring from OPGI with KYB Gas shocks ( rockauto) it rides really well.
If you have nice Chevelle lowers and you need to replace them i would go with the "stock" setup for now with the lowering springs. well you can always cut the coils but that is always a guessing game and i had mine to low with 1 coil cut.

Regarding the fenders.... no need to worry... thats a common thing in hot rodding to take them out to create space for fender headers etc. + you can catch better air for a wheelie

 

Inner fenders are overrated. Just make sure to brace them.

 

The progress has been slow for a long time but these past few weekends I've had some time to wrench.

Patch panel tacked in:







Got the patch panel fully welded in. It's not pretty but I was using TIG which is tough for me on thin, rusty old sheet metal. Did the welding from the bottom:







The body mount that's still tack welded in the above pictures I decided to fully weld onto the patch, maybe was a bad idea because I got some undercut on the backside, but hopefully it's stronger now.

Pulled the old steering out:



Now for where I got super lucky. I was dreading this job for a long time but I finally got brave enough to tackle the body bushings. All of my bolts came out with nothing more than my Harbor Freight air ratchet! I didn't even PB blaster the hidden nuts in the floor/trunk. I guess having a CA car makes a difference. Here's what one side looked like:



Borrowed my Dad's router and made a 1/2" slot in a 2x6, used it to lift the body with no probelm:









I was just going to slap the Energy Suspension body bushing kit in and call it a day, but my co-worker convinced me that it'd be much easier to box my frame now than later. I know he's right and I'd regret having to lift the body again, so I went and bought a boxing kit from ABC performance as well as an Everlast MIG 140E, and a bottle of 75/25 gas. Should have gotten a MIG a long time ago! My Everlast TIG has been great so we'll see how this machine does. Ordered it 2 days ago and it showed up today! They are in San Francisco so makes sense.

Planning to reuse my stock fuel/brake lines until I get the EFI and hopefully bend them to fit the boxed frame. We'll see how that goes!

 

Slowly but surely.
I still use the stock fuel lines, mine are in great condition... for the EFI I just opted for a efi surge tank (RobbMC) feed by the oem mechanical fp.
Edelbrock has a newer nice unit of the shelf mount it anywhere and feed your EFI from it

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/...OFEFHiZHqG3zgjMA075R_B24wV3vkzKRoCI6UQAvD_BwE

 

Tig would be nice, I used a Lincoln arc on mine. 6010 rod.

 

The problem for me is that with TIG I'm worried about not getting the frame clean enough for a good weld. Also with a MIG I'll be able to put less heat in and reduce warpage. Tacking the plates will also be much easier! With some ER70S-6 mig wire I'm hoping to get a good weld with slightly dirty old metal.

 

Frame boxing plates from ABC are here! I sprung for the version that's dimple died, they look pretty sweet:



Got the passenger side fuel EVAP line removed and thrown away, starting here since it's easier than relocating fuel/brakes lines that I'll have to tackle on the driver side. Clampled the plate to the frame and of course the bottom edge is all bent up after 51 years on the road. So I used a large pipe wrench to bend the bottom edge as straight as a I could.

I ended up trimming about 3/16" off of each end to get it to lay flat against the rest of the frame. Clamped the plate up again and I'm happy with the fitment. Ran out of time before I could get it tacked up, but I did prep the plate and spray the back side with weld through primer.







Next I have to wire wheel the frame, then get welding!

 

LOve it

 

Nice work

 

I like the holes/dimples.
Actually makes the boxing more serviceable if need be

 

Apparently dimple died holes make it stronger too? I actually wasn't aware of this, I just thought they looked cool. And as you said you can still kind of get tools (or paint?) in there if need be!

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1609-dimple-dies-make-stronger-panels/

 

Yes a bead roller or dimple die makes it strong and light. One can get freakish strength from light material with proper bends

 

Yes it does!
Take a flat piece of sheet metal, its easy to bend, form, or shape.
The same piece with creases, folds, formed edges or formed holes (not punched) that piece is much more resistant to bending or twisting,

 

The G body frames could benefit from this mod, many G body owners do this, I was considering doing this to my GN, especially since it has T tops.
The A body frames seem more rigid to me, 'course my GS is a hardtop verses my GN with T tops.
The G body frames are like wet noodles

 

So I was talking to my coworker (same one who built the 180 degree headers!) and he told me he'd seen a few cars where welding was done to the frame, then when body was bolted back on, it pulled the panel gaps in weird places because of the frame warpage from heat. Right now I've got the frame on 2 jack stands on the front and 2 jack stands on the rear axle. I'm planning on welding 1" beads and skipping around to opposite edges but will be doing one side at a time. Should I worry about warpage making things not line up?

I read an article where someone suggested bolting in the stock crossmember to help keep things square, and even tacking pieces of tubing to the bottom of the frame in a few places. And that brings me to my next question . . . How should I mount the crossmember? Not being under the car right now, I can only visualize but I didn't realize the crossmember might get blocked by the boxing plates. How do the convertibles do it?

EDIT:

Looks like ABC themselves sell a crossmember option made for their boxing kits, probably should have noticed this the first time:

http://www.abcperformance.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_93&products_id=63

Got info by reading through this:

https://www.chevelles.com/threads/need-help-boxed-frame-now-crossmember-issues.725409/

Not sure which direction I'll go in yet . . .

 

is there a specific reason you want to do this frame work ? for handling , For Power ? I know on chevelles you where able to get the Elcamino Frame that was fully boxed thats a old hotrod trick/swap.
I personally would skip that for now nd get her running 1st, but who am i to judge my Turbo car sits in the shop ahahaha ( getting there)

 

What gauge or thickness is the Boxing metal? Are you going to stich weld it in? That will look great.

 

The boxing plates are 1/8", and so is the frame as far as I can tell. I haven't put a caliper on it though. I'm planning on a form of "stitching" technique when I weld, where by moving from place to place and keeping beads to about 1" (and letting everything cool after a few beads) I can reduce heat input and hopefully minimise distortion. However if you mean only welding sections in a linear pattern, it will be fully welded when done. Don't want to create any stress risers. This is also why I'd be hesitant to simply notch the boxing plates for the stock cross member.

I'll probably end up welding some beefy angle iron to the outside of the boxing plates, and modifying the stock crossmember to lay on top and use the same bolt patterns/locations to allow switching between TH350 and 2004R. If I mess up the stock piece I can always buy an aftermarket one!

Nice to hear from you! We still need to link up sometime, if you're ever back visiting CA!

I'm doing this 100% to improve handling and compliment my new poly body bushings. While I kind of dislike the "pro-touring" look personally, I want this car to handle on a road course. I'm planning on a tiger cage in the future, and figured this would be a good step in getting everything down there rigid. Also, I'm trying to do it now while I've already got the body lifted, more of the "while I'm in here" phenomenon we all know and love (or hate). It definitely pains me to have a running engine sitting there laughing at me while I roll around on the cat litter and ATF stained floor wrestling sharp pieces of sheet metal . . .

 

Looking good!