Thursday, July 19, 2012

Positive traction anyone?

Yet another update from the long list to get you all caught up is the finding of a posi rear. I went along with my good friend Corey Buckwalter and his dad to pick up a posi rear that he found in a early 80's El Camino for his '78 Malibu that I will be featuring on the blog in the next month or two. As his dad and I walked around looking for a potential motor swap for my car, we came upon a mid 70's Pontiac Le mans station wagon and just as we pasted it, his dad goes. "How about checking this for a posi rear?" I said there's no way but still checked just to make sure. When I looked underneath the car, I was blown away. Not only was it a posi rear but the spring and shocks were in the same location. My mind was officially blown away with astonishment. So we walked up to the entrance and told the guys that I wanted the rear. So 20 minutes later we had two posi rears loaded in the back of the truck and on our way home.
When we got home I started doing a little research on my rear that i bought and couldn't find a darn thing on it. But from looking at pictures of rears like it i think its a Pontiac 8.75 rear end, but I'm not certain. As we installed it into my car we took one of the drums off and it could actually fit completely over my old rears drum. It was amazing, and as we looked at the brakes on the Pontiac rear, it looked as though the pads were changed not long before the car was sent to the junkyard. Which was a big plus for me since i can hardly find any info on the rear let alone bake components. When we finished it, we dropped it down and Corey and I took it for a test spin. At first the posi didn't want to break free around turns like it had a spool, but once it started getting used again and started driving it, it loosened up nice. An let me tell you one thing, having posi is so nice, even though it still has 2.73 gears, its still so much more fun then peg leg.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Update Part: 2

The next thing on the list to update everyone is my suspension upgrades. Now some I did at different times but I'm just going to give most if not all of the upgrades that are currently on the car. First off I bought and installed Hotchkis 2 inch lowering springs for the front end. They were for a mid 70's Camaro/ Firebird but still would fit my car. The front shocks I swapped out the crappy stock shocks from '79 and added Monroe's Sensa-Trac Coil over shocks to help with some pretty bad bouncing and give it a stiffer ride. They also helped in overall driving considering I like to take turns too. I also added front sway bar bushings to help the sway bar end links control body roll.
Now moving to the rear suspension, I added stock wagon rear springs that are the variable weight, combined with Monroe's Sensa-Trac rear shocks. I also added a rear sway bar from a Cadillac to help the rear end body roll. I then bought mini spring compressors to lower the rear end of the car and inch or so to even further help with handling and body roll. Overall the car had a very aggressive stance and is a force to be reckoned with on the roads.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

It's been a while...

 I know I know its been forever since my last post but over these last couple months i've made lots of progress one my car. So to catch up to when I currently am, im going to break it down into different posts each week till your all caught up. So I will start from where I left off which was with my exhaust system.
I went with Hooker long tube headers and the coupled them to "gutted" cats, which were then attached to a Jegs 2.5" true dual cat back exhaust kit. The exhaust kit came with cheap "turbo" mufflers but I didn't really like the sound and it was just to dang quiet for me. So I replaced them with Flowmaster Super 40 series mufflers. They sound great and give it a very deep tone under WOT. Stay tuned for next weeks Catch Up Part: 2 to see what was done next.