Been jumping from project to project on the car all day/night. Got the rear under the car, threw on my cobra r's to see what I can do for wheel width/tire size, started messing with some ideas for the upper control arms, pulled out my back seat and threw my turbocoupe's back seat in, tossed the full power tc seat in the driverside, messed with paint on my valve covers and started scrubbing my intake so I can paint it.
So first, the rear and wheel/tire situation.. the gbody lower control arms line up almost perfectly, just had to shove them around a little, to get the bolts through the brackets. The tops, both off by half an inch, so I'm debating on making tubular uppers that have an 's' bend to them. Other option is to cut the mounts off the frame and relocate them, but that'd screw me if I ever needed to put the 10 bolt back in, for any reason. As far as the wheels/tires go, my 17x9 actually fits, but the tire is too close and will rub any time I corner. At first I was thinking it was hopeless, but when I actually put the rear in and bolted the wheel up, I noticed a small change in tire width would go a long way. The wheel currently has a 275/40R17 on it, but with a 270/40R17, I'd be in the clear with a rolled and trimmed lip. The small reduction in the tire width, with same aspect ratio of 40 will reduce tire width and height just enough to make everything happy.
Surprisingly, I have to do little to nothing to my rear tc seat, to make it fit nicely. Add a little foam padding to the sides, to fill in the little gap between the interior panels in the seat and trim a little off the back of the frame of the lower cushion, so it will slide back far enough. It surprisingly looks really good in the car. I threw it in there to screw with a couple of my buddies and my jaw hit the floor once I got it in. It even matches the dark carpet perfectly. The driver seat track fits right down on the front 2 studs in the floor, have to weld a little piece to the rear of the tracks, for them to line up. Full power, 6 way adjustable(seat back is manual) with power lumbar.. I sat in it and it just feels so right in there.. the bolster needs a little work to be fixed, but otherwise it's nearly perfect. I just don't know if I like them better with or without the headrest. I think without the headrest, it gives the interior a bit more of a muscle car feel. I just have to dig through what's left of the tc's stock body harness and pull out the power seat wiring, switches and relays, so I can run a power feed to them and figure out where to mount the controls.
I was going to leave my valve covers all black and maybe take the paint off the letters, but then I came up with the idea pf painting the raised portion with the 'aluminum' paint I picked up for my intake. I like it a lot more than I originally thought I would.
I'll be back at it again tomorrow, hopefully with at least a functioning driver seat and the rear all wrapped up, minus brakes. Need to get all new brake lines and run a bigger line from the proportioning valve. Also have to switch the proportioning valve to 1 meant for 4 wheel disks. But unril then, pics of todays progress and a couple of the motor, since I don't think I posted any
So first, the rear and wheel/tire situation.. the gbody lower control arms line up almost perfectly, just had to shove them around a little, to get the bolts through the brackets. The tops, both off by half an inch, so I'm debating on making tubular uppers that have an 's' bend to them. Other option is to cut the mounts off the frame and relocate them, but that'd screw me if I ever needed to put the 10 bolt back in, for any reason. As far as the wheels/tires go, my 17x9 actually fits, but the tire is too close and will rub any time I corner. At first I was thinking it was hopeless, but when I actually put the rear in and bolted the wheel up, I noticed a small change in tire width would go a long way. The wheel currently has a 275/40R17 on it, but with a 270/40R17, I'd be in the clear with a rolled and trimmed lip. The small reduction in the tire width, with same aspect ratio of 40 will reduce tire width and height just enough to make everything happy.
Surprisingly, I have to do little to nothing to my rear tc seat, to make it fit nicely. Add a little foam padding to the sides, to fill in the little gap between the interior panels in the seat and trim a little off the back of the frame of the lower cushion, so it will slide back far enough. It surprisingly looks really good in the car. I threw it in there to screw with a couple of my buddies and my jaw hit the floor once I got it in. It even matches the dark carpet perfectly. The driver seat track fits right down on the front 2 studs in the floor, have to weld a little piece to the rear of the tracks, for them to line up. Full power, 6 way adjustable(seat back is manual) with power lumbar.. I sat in it and it just feels so right in there.. the bolster needs a little work to be fixed, but otherwise it's nearly perfect. I just don't know if I like them better with or without the headrest. I think without the headrest, it gives the interior a bit more of a muscle car feel. I just have to dig through what's left of the tc's stock body harness and pull out the power seat wiring, switches and relays, so I can run a power feed to them and figure out where to mount the controls.
I was going to leave my valve covers all black and maybe take the paint off the letters, but then I came up with the idea pf painting the raised portion with the 'aluminum' paint I picked up for my intake. I like it a lot more than I originally thought I would.
I'll be back at it again tomorrow, hopefully with at least a functioning driver seat and the rear all wrapped up, minus brakes. Need to get all new brake lines and run a bigger line from the proportioning valve. Also have to switch the proportioning valve to 1 meant for 4 wheel disks. But unril then, pics of todays progress and a couple of the motor, since I don't think I posted any
