79 Cutlass Wagon G-machine build

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Got some updates-

I picked up a couple new used items. Mark at SC&C gave me a great deal of info when we talked the other day. One of the things he talked about is how ineffective the g-body rear sway bar is and how a link style bar is way better. To keep it budget minded I went to the wrecking yard again and found a 7/8" bar (same as the largest factory g-body bar) on an early 90's f-body. I also bought a pair of Cutlass Salon grilles off ebay. I like them because they're deeper than my originals. Unfortunately they're beat up a little more than the seller led on. He said there were "light scratches" but forgot to mention one of the bolt tabs was broken off, one of the grilles is cracked front to back, one has been melted, the chrome is peeling in areas on both, and both are warped as seen in the photo. Why can't folks just be honest? At $55 "buy it now" I pretty much think I paid too much. Oh well, I'll try to salvage them.

I finished up the trailer hitch brackets. I bent a couple small lengths of 1 5/8" tubing and used some angle iron to make the bracket. To keep it sturdy I welded a 1/2" pipe through the frame for the 1/2" grade 8 bolts. It may not be suitable for a lot of tongue weight but it should pull (flat tow) just fine.

 

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Got the frame notch knocked out. The plasma cutter made quick work of cutting it out. The cut out side was trimmed down just enough to slip between the top and bottom of the rail to help with support and to get a better weld. Again these are 274-40-17 on a 9.5" wheel with 5.5" of backspace and a 1/4" spacer between the wheel and drum. Before there was just a hair of clearance, now it has a little over an inch of extra clearance. While I was in there I beefed up the factory weld area on the top too.

 

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Got some good and bad news...

First the bad- my professor has had some hereditary heart issues for most of his life but he never told any of us. After a recent check up the docs told him he needed a heart valve and part of his aorta replaced like yesterday. Sounds like it's common procedure but we may not see him for the rest of the semester. We're all praying for him that all will go well. On a side note the sub we have is there more to cover Cris' notes in lecture time and open the shop for us. They don't have Cris' knowledge and the shop now closes at 12:00 instead of 3:00 so I'll be dropping my weekly shop time by about 15 hours. As a result there will be a couple things, such as narrowing the 9" rear, I need to hold off on until I get out to Georgia and start working at Bulldawg. Joe has stepped up and has assured me that all the help I may need is waiting for me there. It's nice knowing I'm going from one shop to another, otherwise finishing my car would take a whole lot longer. I guess I just got a reminder of what it's like to build a car on the side as a hobby instead of basically full time. That's a bit humbling and a big pat on the back for all you guys who are persistent and get the garage builds done.

Now the good news...

More chassis work completed. First off I took a break from the rear half and fixed a common G-body problem: LS headers hitting the right frame rail requiring the header tube to be modified. For now I have a set of cheapie used Flowtech headers I got for next to nothing. I really didn't want to bang them up and cause potential flow issues and eventually I will switch to Pacesetters, so I opted to fix the issue itself. With the motor out, a cut off wheel, a 5lb sledge hammer and a welder anybody can do this simple mod. First I used the plasma cutter to cut a triangle shape from the frame. Notice I cut a vertical line to make room for the two sides to come together, and I scored the rail with the cut off wheel on either side to control the bending motion and make sure I didn't affect the control arm mount position at all. Once to this point I simply banged on it a bit with the small sledge hammer which closed up all the gaps and created about 1/2" of clearance.

Next I did some preliminary welding and repeated the process to get a little more movement inward.

Here's the end result after welding all gaps, score lines, and grinding it all smooth. It made quite a difference.

 

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Talking to Joe at Bulldawg and Mark at SC&C they both told me anything I can do to stiffen a normally weak g-body chassis is a good thing. So I decided to create a rear triangulated shock mount brace. Same process as before, table plasma cut out the brackets, the press squished flat the ends of the 1" bars, tubing cutter made the angles fit tight and they were all welded together. This one will be getting painted orange too.

Today I started working on bracing the "floating" front lower control arm mount. Basically same process as above. On this one the forward mount bolt area on the frame cross member is indented, so a little persuasion with the sheet metal brake created a step so it sits good and snug against the frame. Orange paint coming for these too.

Here's the frame upside down and starting to weld in. I tacked the brackets to the frame so I can drill the bolt holes using the existing mount holes as a guide.

 

[Longroof79]

Ben,
I've been thinking about you lately, and wondering how you were progressing with your project...and there you are :lol: .
I like what you're doing with the additional frame bracing. That is going to be one firm frame. I agree what Joe and Marcus said, that any bracing you add to a G-body frame is a plus. With the body off, naturally you have complete access to make these upgrades. Outstanding work on the notch job. You handled that well..and also the clearance for your LS headers.
Sorry to hear about your professor...that's a rough break. I think that will put him out of commission for a while. The cut in your shop hours is certainly a setback. Prayers and best wishes go out to him.
Keep up the great work, Ben. We're all rooting for you and want to see you succeed.

I love your braces...they are too cool!

 

[78mali350]

As always, great work, love the pictures and the detail you put into explaining the steps. Makes it feel like anyone could do it. Great job and keep it up

 

[mebe007]

outstanding work bro. yah know if you patented those braces and went into production you could be a big cheese in the gbody world lol.

 

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Thanks as always Jack!

78- That's mostly why I'm doing this. I do have the advantage of having some nice shop tools, but almost all of what I'm doing can be duplicated with a welder, a decent set of hand tools and a little ingenuity. Maybe some minor help from the local machine shop or repair shop here and there.

mebe- I'm sort of hoping it will head that way. There's a lot of development though, I'm sure my wagon's floor pan and frame are not exactly the same as other g-bodies. Joe, owner of Bulldawg Muscle Cars, is a huge g-body fan so partnered up with him I think we can do just that. When I get to GA I'll have a chance to see what other g-bodies are like and can work some bugs out of the design.

I finished up the front a-arm brackets today. Honestly in hind sight I think I may should have gone a different direction. They are a bugger to remove and install once they're fully welded to the brackets. Will they really make much of a difference? I dunno, but it was good practice if nothing else.

 

[mebe007]

I just love how you designed it all to be able to bolted on and removed. very nice touch. id love to have that shock mount/ frame triangulated brace. hell i would love to notch my frame but just not in the cards right now. Again outstanding work.

 

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Thanks again. Two reasons for bolt in- I plan on auto crossing and road coursing the car when I can, and it'll be my daily driver. With all that abuse, there's always a risk of crashing. Hopefully if that happens I can simply unbolt and swap to another vehicle. Also I've had in mind the possibility of reproducing them from the get go. I've been a Nova fan and have owned at least one for 25 years. This is basically my first g-body and I see a ton of potential in them with the right parts. So, if I can help improve everyone else's cars, well I'm all about that.