78 GMC caballero (elky love)

[the ghoul]

Not unless you are running them over, lol

Unlikley, I want this car lying frame one day..
Speaking of today I dropped the body to the ride height I wish to archive one day

Finished the gusset welds and welded in the spanner plates in place (painted them blue just so the design will show)

And lastly I re-welded a few frame joints that seemed critical to me... It didn't work out that great... it was impossible to clean the joints properly...

 

[the ghoul]

Most unproductive productive day ever!
After dropping the body on the ground yesterday it became very apparent that the wheel wells get very constrictive near the top in the rear.
I have been on the fence about tubbing the rear wells. I even picked up a cap incase I needed to go that rout. I wanted to avoid it as the metal in the rear was very solid. but with the body on the ground (ride height I would like to achieve one day with this car on air bags) I realized it would be required with any decent width tire. While I was at it I might as well take a decent bite out of the rear rails to run a wider tire.
I poked around a bit online and decided 22" rim is about the biggest Id ever want to run and with 315 tires in the back (again arbitrary goal) and respectable sidewall that puts me at an overall tire diameter of 28". I then mocked up my suspension and set the axle/hub centers at 14" from the ground.
Front end doesn't look too bad, just need to clearance the frame for the tie rods, and a few places for the lower control arms

The rear seems a bit more trouble...
The LS1 rear calipers look like they will contact the rails


Again, as I said, rails will be narrowed so this shouldn't bee too much of an issue. The tricky bit will be getting the stance I want. It looks as if with any thing over a 24" tall tire the rear end will contact the frame rails with the frame laying on the ground.
So I made the decision that if I have to tub the rear wheel wells any way might as well do a bit of metal work between them.
So I braced the frame in front of and behind the rear axle and cut out the stock cross support (mounts the rear springs, shocks, and upper control arms)

And with some 1.5x3.5" 1/4" wall tubing here is a quick mockup of the frame "Z" I am planning...

This will do nicely as it will yeald a 4" drop in the rear with stock shocks and springs. This with the 2" drop spindles and some cut springs up front will be a good static stance till I can scrape the $$ together for the air bag system.
And there we have it, a few short decisions yielding lots of new work for me to do!!!

 

[liquidh8]

Nice, you will definitely have to do some metal work to the bed. I seen another Elky that just modified all the stock metal, the bed bottom and sides, and just added to the wheel wells with strips. IOW, you could cut the bed out around the wheel well, separating it from the wheel well. Then move that piece of floor in a few ribs and re weld. This way you can keep the factory edge, Section the wheel well, move it in, etc. This would keep it "stock" looking .

It is also allot more work. 😀

 

[the ghoul]

Nice, you will definitely have to do some metal work to the bed. I seen another Elky that just modified all the stock metal, the bed bottom and sides, and just added to the wheel wells with strips. IOW, you could cut the bed out around the wheel well, separating it from the wheel well. Then move that piece of floor in a few ribs and re weld. This way you can keep the factory edge, Section the wheel well, move it in, etc. This would keep it "stock" looking .

It is also allot more work. 😀

I had considered it, however my sticking points on that idea other than the work as you mentioned:
#1 to accomidate the tire size I want I have to add to the height, width and depth of the wheel wells and would still end up with the tear drop shape up top which would restrict the wheel well
#2 I would need to find a ribbed donnor section for the axle "hump" i need to make (section between the wheel wells)
#3 with the extent of the modifcation that I need to make to clear every thing Im affraid once its done the wheel wells would look misshaped and hacked together, and they wouldnt flow with the ribs in the bed side metal any more. I just feel that it would look much cleaner if I bought some summit wheel tubs, a bead roller, and using my break fabricateing an axle hump.

again I have no issues running a cap or tantu cover on this car so that will keep every thing protected from the elements and keep a clean stock (ish) look.

Your idea however does pull at my "thrifty" side..

 

[the ghoul]

Its nice to have access to the right tools!
This morning I made a cardboard template for the frame notch brackets I wanted to create.
Took the template to work and modeled it in auto CAD and printed it to scale.
Just now at lunch I fitted the print out to the frame to see how it looked... Id say not bad, asthetically it looks OK, and it seems like the calipers will be well accomidated for. With any luck I will get it programmed into our waterjet softwear and cut 4 of them tonight before I go home. I plan on using these plates on the inside and the outside of the rails. I doubt I will ever tow any thing with this car but my welds arent the best so id rather over build it than to have it tweak down the road.

 

[liquidh8]

NIce. That is sweet.

 

[the ghoul]

NIce. That is sweet.

Thank you, it means a lot comming from you!
Just a quick one.
I was able to cut the plates out of 1/4"
And found some beefy 1.5x3" tubing with 3/8" walls
I was able to tac one of the plates to one of the tubes before a massive headache took me down for the night...
The test fit seems really promicing; can't wait to get more of a chance to work on it...

 

[liquidh8]

Thank you, it means a lot coming from you!

Don't stroke my ego too much :!:

It looks like it will definitely be beefy there. I mean, have you seen the SZ kits for the trucks, they aren't even using that heavy a wall of steel, you should be good. As long as you can keep it square you should be ok.

 

[the ghoul]

Thank you, it means a lot coming from you!

Don't stroke my ego too much :!:

It looks like it will definitely be beefy there. I mean, have you seen the SZ kits for the trucks, they aren't even using that heavy a wall of steel, you should be good. As long as you can keep it square you should be ok.

The only thing thats re-assuring me on that end is the fact that the axle seems to be primarily located off the LCA mounts so any thing I do behind that point wont effect my alignment, only the body mounts. I have some angle iron welded between the LCA mount area as well as across a set of the rear body mounts to help steady it... but I will be sure to weld in the notch plates before I cut away the rail just to be safe. I wanted it over built because I plan on after getting the notch tubes in place narrowing the rails to 3/4" thick to accomidate wider tires.
However I am kinda in unexplored waters here, I have never done any frame modifications before other than installing a bolt in notch kit in the rear of my 2013 silverado and that was basically just follow directions.

 

[liquidh8]

You are correct sir. The LCA mounts primarily locate you rear for your wheel base. But remember, as the rear goes up into the frame, you will be shortening the wheelbase some. So, if you driving ride height is drastically different than stock, you may need some adj. UCA's/LCAs to center the wheel in the wheelwell. I think you should be ok though, since I don't think you plan on driving the streets draggin frame Just some food for thought.