the wiring harness is almost completed and rerouted so I can mount the pcm on the rad support where it and the main harness will be hidden

upside down corvette manifolds for the twin turbo setup soon to be fabbed up

 

 

Interesting build. Keep us informed.

got some done over the weekend

got the old motor and tranny out and down the road to its new home

swapped out the old power steering box with 4.2 turns lock to lock for a 3.1 high ratio box out of a jeep grand Cherokee - direct bolt in as the new metric fittings work with my 2003 pump

next on the agenda was swapping out the old booster for a hydrostat system for the upcoming four wheel discs that are on their way from the US

the hydrostat was out of the same vehicle as the motor so everything just bolts up from lines to fittings - still have to change the end of the push rod for length and attachment - so just have to cut the rod off and thread it so the old clevis fits on

its going to be far more work just cleaning everything up and painting than it was fabricating

 

 

 

 

Where did you get the Holley LS swap pan from, I will need one soon. I am hoping the dollar gets better before I buy it.

Ebay was the cheapest and shipped to the door was about $500
what are you building Mike? there my be cheaper options out there - I did a lot of research

car is now stripped to the bare frame, and body shell
all old suspension now out, and the frame cleaned and painted semi gloss black even though body is still on the frame
all new tubular control arms, front and rear, and 4 wheel discs on 2" drop spindles should be installed by next weekend
new extreme duty sway bars ordered so I can do some parking lot slalom racing
new 3:73 posi 12 bolt here, cleaned, painted and ready to install
old gas tank is out and new TANKS INC efi tank with Wallbro 400 lph pump ready to install
the new hydrostat brake booster is now modified for brackets and installed

I am kinda stuck on what kinda black paint to do the firewall in - flat, semi, gloss or? suggestions?

semi.

more progress

anyone contemplating the LS install, and needs a wiring harness - it isnt hard to do  - just time consuming.

For sure those guys in the US offering rewire services are not making a dime at $250, and if you dont have the time thos e $750 US harnesses are pretty good value

so I completely redid my engine harness from the van, and made it so 90% of the wires are hidden under the fuel rails rather than running over the top of the motor everywhere

Its crazy how much wire is removed - easily as much as I left in the harness

so the layout now will allow me to place the pcm in the front corner of the passenger fender out of sight for a very clean install

all connections to the pcm will run inside the frame out of sight to the firewall and starter, etc

so the first two pics are where I started - of the complete stock motor

and the last pic are where it is now

the injectors were turned 180 degrees so the wiring can stay on the underside of the fuel rails

because of the reversed manifolds for the twin turbos - the coils will sit under the manifolds and just behind the motor mounts so the harness for them has been moved there - so at some point there will be new valve covers with no coil mounts

 

On the LS truck/van motors they ran everything through the engine harness - heater controls, a/c, fuel tank senders, and of course all of the old gauge senders, that are not used anymore, purge solenoid, oil level, 2 of the four 02 sensors etc etc etc
yes - to relocating everything to make it more suitable to my hot rod installation.
I had to shorten most wires, and lengthen a couple - there were some wires that went entirely around the engine for no reason - I took almost 4' out of those three wires, and many were like 3' longer than necessary.
contrary to many of these rewires - I kept the starter relay, tach, speedometer, and all of the transmission controls so instead of a four wire hookup I have 8 wires
I thought about but did not keep a/c pcm control as it is unlikely this car will ever see a/c and if I decide to add a/c and need pcm control it is only 3 wires to easily add to the pcm plugs

doesnt look like much - but I got the steering column rebuilt, switched over from column shift to floor shift and painted Hot Rod black and the new tubular upper and lower control arms and big disc brakes installed

couldnt get the springs installed in the new arms as the spring pocket is too deep - so on the hunt for a spring compressor to borrow

its crazy how much time little things take to do like cleaning and painting

-- Edited by Seeker1056 on Sunday 17th of January 2016 07:26:55 PM

lots of work this week that you don't see when done, so no pics this week

had to rebuild/repair four body mount locations on the top of the frame with 1/8" plate, and four of the body mount supports on the body with 22 gauge , none of them in the same locations and installed all new body mounts- not much fun when the body was only 4" or so up off the frame - by the way - does four inches up count as body off, for my restoration??? lolololololololol

rear axle is now stripped, new axle seals installed, and disc brake brackets installed.

nice job ken. nice clean install on the plumbing.

all I have to say is...WOW! Nicely done sir.

ken, are you still on schedule for armdrop in may ?

this weekends work:

new wheels n tires mounted to check fitment and ride height - there is 1/2" clearance on the rears, and tons on the fronts - not too shabby for 295/50/15s and and 265/50/15s. It is very likely this is as big a tire as you could ever fit without tubbing the car and I wont do that to a car ever again. Sitting on the ground  - forgot to take a pic - it is just about perfect stance - may need to lower the rear an inch but will wait till all the front end is back together as the bits and pieces add up to about 250 pounds and may drop the front another inch which would then require 2" out of the rear to make the stance right

spent a lot of time rethinking the rear disks as the factory kit wont work with a 6.5" back set 15" rim the calipers hit everywhere  - found some stock car rotors with a 3" back set that will work - hopefully be here next week

fabbed up the drivers side turbo exhaust - did it first as it is the hardest to get around everything - and quite happy with the results - just need to grind out my mig tacks and then tig over those spots so it looks good - was a lot of around , down, up and over lol and 17 pieces of 22 degree wedges, one 11 degree wedge, and a few straights  later - now just have to mirror image the passenger side  

all in all a good weekend

 

good job ken, nice clean work.

well a little bit of work last weekend and this weekend too

got the new to me front bucket seats that were green dyed black, and all of the seat hardware and plastics done in semi gloss black

worst part was getting rid of the huge mouse nests in each seat back and dousing them liberally 5 different times in hydrogen peroxide and vinegar to get rid of the smell - so far so good

this week I got the gas tank installed and ready for fuel lines

spent a good part of the week on the 61 actually so will post over on that one shortly

 spent about 5 hours today teaching myself to tig weld - turned put pretty decent for my first efforts - using filler rod however is much harder and will take a LOT of practise

 

Very very very impressive....Love to see this in person

ghost post - you or anyone else is always welcome to drop by my shop to see the things going on

Very nice Ride an quality is shining through in you're work.

-- Edited by Ground Pounder on Sunday 12th of March 2017 10:00:31 PM

more goin on all at once

body lifted off the frame to fix some punky body mounts

quarters getting a blocking and straightening until I can afford to put quarters on it.

exhaust is all fabbed and done except for a couple tig welds on the tail pipes

man o man but chinese panels are twisty - blocked out the hood and it has more highs and lows than the Himilayas

 

Very nice. Thanks for posting the progress.

well  - another month gone by  - life got in the way so not much progress- sure wont be making Picton on the 21st.

wire wheeled all of the floor pans and coated them in rediculously expensive POR15, then laid sound deadner everywhere.

frame is done welded, but not cleaned up and painted as yet

roll bar mounts are made and installed into the floor. Will allow me to unbolt the whole thing and remove should insurance be difficult about it

 

 

well its been a long summer and not a lot accomplished - lots of one step forward and 6 back

lowered the car 4" but no one makes a suitable shock  - took  a month to find some thing the right length that i could modify, and a couple hours worth of fab to make GM T mounts

took the glass out and found serious rust in all four corners of the window channels. another 8 steps backwards - thought  i was doing myself a favor when the repair work was finished and painted all of the channels in Por 15 - well you can not paint over it, or sand it, or much of anything else - so had to wire wheel as much of it out again as i could and redo a lot of prep work 

made my own version of the Tiger Cage by Air Ride - they woulda been 6K by the time it landed  - lots o trial and error but its done, and a great place to hang the 3 pt shoulder harness - total cost including the seatbelts and paint - $350

Vinyl wrap - man it looks easy on U-Tube lol - in reality its a ton of work, and one can screw it up in a fraction of a second and have to start all over again - and clean  - no such thing as clean enough - a speck of dust looks like a friggin mountain under vinyl. Redid several parts a few times because of errant dust

made an aluminum rear shelf panel to replace the cardboard **** as they buckle and warp like crazy - looks good in carbon fibre vinyl too - all of the interiro door tops and dash and window pillars are now wrapped in carbon fibre vinyl - looks amazing with the all black interior - the pics do not do it justice

dyed the front seats to match the rest of the interior, and dyed the headliner black again - another faux pas - washed it because it looked dingy - well 60 years of dust keeps percolating down through the material, and leaving white/grey stains that i could not get rid of - and headliner was too nice to scrap so it got the dye job for now

new shifter for the 4l80 installed - its a really cool piece by Killduf

doors are ready hang back on the car but a few things to finish first - thanks to Chris for the work on the doors - they look amazingly straight

had to open up the headlite buckets and rad support for the new HID lights

sent some stuff out to be sand blasted because it would be too hard to sand and some came back full of holes you couldnt see before - thankfully now and not later after assembly had i not blasted.

carpet is not installed - one of those 6 steps back deals - it was extremely dirty from sitting round  - power washed it and left it outside in the sun to dry for a couple days - sun turned it orange almost everywhere and it would not dye back to black - so new yet to be ordered carpet will be very last thing to install.

notice the little vent window handles in the back seat  - another faux pas - built the roll bar and mounted it where it needed to be for head clearance and exiting etc and voila - the regular length handles were too long and hit the bar upright

 

-- Edited by Seeker1056 on Sunday 26th of November 2017 11:09:32 PM

-- Edited by Seeker1056 on Sunday 26th of November 2017 11:36:34 PM

-- Edited by Seeker1056 on Sunday 26th of November 2017 11:37:43 PM