Dropped my '56 off at Cnut's today

[rockytopper R.I.P 5-13-2017]

Looks Sweet!!!! I have an out now if my bolt on solution fails LOL. Laz as proven he can convert a finished car!!! Great job looks great!!!!

[567chevys]

What bottle? If you mean the argon bottle it's attached to my TIG welder.

The one next to the welder

[chevynut]

Oh, that's an empty bottle we just changed out. How did I not see it?

[hutchenc]

Still waiting for a good day to paint the frame here in Wyoming. Keeps frickin' snowing!!! Rain this weekend. Might have to do it inside.

Got new del-a-lum bushings and other odds and ends to rebuild the front suspension. Checked out the wheel bearings and the tie rods on the rack Lazlo sold me...nice and tight. Ball joints feel good, but the boots are shot...got some new ones to go on. Pop and I are planning to spend a weekend coming up working on the control arms with his new hydraulic press and/or his neighbor up the road who is bored, has a nice '65 fuelie Vette and likes to work on random stuff like this!

Turns out that the GTO hub bore centers are .8mm (yes, less than 1mm) too small (70.3mm vs. 69.5mm). Hit it with a cutting bit on a Dremel...took care of that on the front at least. Waiting for some wheel adapters for the rear...got that F**d 8.8 rearend and GTO wheels now so I sold the older Mustang wheels that were on it, but now I have GM wheels and a F**d bolt pattern! I think in the future I might have the axle housing ends switched to a F**d 9" deal, change to bigger brakes, and run custom axles from Mark Williams. Might add about 1" per side so modern positive offset wheels fit without spacers. Would like to mini-tub it too, but all in due time I guess.

Showed my neighbor (who has a very nice '68 Camaro) the frame...he just shook his head. Wonders why I keep tinkering with it, but was pretty wowed by Lazlo's workmanship...he never drives his car though so I can give him plenty of grief too

[chevynut]

Get that thing on the road ASAP Chad! Did you get the steering hardware ordered yet? Let me know if I can help.

[hutchenc]

Got the frame painted yesterday...finally was warm enough to shoot paint. Laid down pretty nicely. Kinda hard to see in the low light.





Also got my control arms rebuilt...my pop and I worked on them pretty much all weekend last week. Took us 14 hours (but that included cleaning and disassembling them). I rebuilt them with Global West Del-a-lum bushings. Ball joint were nice and tight so I left them alone, just needed new boots.

Here's the uppers:





I'm going with C6 Z51 brakes. 13.4" rotors front, 13" rear (Kore3 makes adapters for 8.8 Ford rearends, who knew?!). I don't know if they'll fit inside the stock GTO wheels I have on the car right now...we shall see. I know it'll be tight if they do. I'll move to 18's when I actually get it on the road, but for now, I just want to be able to move the thing so fingers crossed!!!

[chevynut]

Looks good Chad. I see you had to pin the nuts onto the a-arm shafts. I'd be interested to see how those work out.

How long til you have it running and driving?

[NickP]

Looks good Chad. I see you had to pin the nuts onto the a-arm shafts. I'd be interested to see how those work out.

How long til you have it running and driving?

Pins? Is this due to the style of bushings?

[hutchenc]

Figure I need to update this.

The pins are because of the style of bushing (del-a-lum bushings)...I suppose a cotter key, an interference nut, or maybe even a nylock would work, but you're only supposed to torque those nuts to like 15 lb/ft and then drive the pin in. It really wasn't a big deal since my pop has a Bridgeport mill...I'd hate to have to take them apart though, that's for sure!

I had planned to run 13.4" C6 brakes but they won't clear the GTO wheels I have for the car right now (wheels aren't permanent...just waiting to order what I really want).

So, I ordered 12.8" C5 rotors and the correct caliper brackets to get me by Had to wait about a week for the parts to arrive. Aaand...yeah, GTO wheels still didn't fit the 12.8" brakes so today I bought a set of 18" wheels for the car. Turns out that the GTO rotors are not the same size as C5 rotors like I though they were...they're 12.6" vs. 12.8". Doh!!! Kinda pissed at myself...I coulda run a set of 14" Z06 brakes at this point but oh well...I'll use the 12.8" brakes on my '72 Camaro. The GTO calipers work though. The coil-overs are here...but, the fellows at Viking recommended springs that are 8" instead of 9" so I went with their recommendation and lo and behold, I think they're too short. So, I got a set of 9" springs (which is what Lazlo told me to get in the first place). Yeah. Hotrodding at its best!

Got everything cleaned up, painted, rebuilt, and put back together for the most part. The sway bar bushings were kind of a pain, but oh well.

Here she is for the meantime...should have her back on the ground this weekend.

Also, 2005/6 GTO calipers are the same as C6 calipers and the spare set I had were in better shape than the C6 calipers I have. So, I cleaned them up and put them on. I'm gonna blot out the "O" in GTO and turn into a "6" so it'll read "GT6." Clever I know!

[chevynut]

the fellows at Viking recommended springs that are 8" instead of 9" so I went with their recommendation and lo and behold, I think they're too short. So, I got a set of 9" springs

Longer springs are better because you can pre-load them more and use a lower spring rate. Coilovers typically take a pretty high spring rate and due to their short stroke have a pretty high wheel rate. So as long as you don't risk coil bind I'd use as long of a spring as you can and preload it. I typically recommend QA-1 shocks that are 12" at ride height and use a 10" spring.

The sway bar bushings were kind of a pain, but oh well.

What was the problem with the bushings? If you order the universal metric bushings for your swaybar size it should be a bolt-in.