BUILD THREAD 86 GP 2+2~Blown 6.0

[81cutlass]

Fired up the welder



And on to the clutch pedal! The John Bzdel pedal is nice but I plan on driving this car quite a bit and I am not a fan of no firewall reinforcement, no provisions for a cruise cutoff switch, ect. GSI interiors is $520 so nope.

I picked up an 86 S10 pedal and found out there is a ton more to the system than anything you can buy so I ended up getting an entire brake and clutch assy out of the same S10 style.

The G body brake assy is on the right, S10 on the left. S10 is way too big to fit in a G body but the pedals are the same length. S10 pivot is just moved 2" farther from the firewall.

Nice thing with the S10 clutch pedal is it has 1 big bolt, 2 spot welds, and 6 rivets and it comes off. And it most entirely just bolts on in perfect location to the stock G body brake pedal. The reinforcing rods that go to the firewall are too long (by 2" or so) so they need to get cut down. I cut a little material off and replaced some of the rivets with bolts. Its getting there.



S10 brake pedal bottom, G body brake top.




Looks good!

 

[81cutlass]

Got the shifter in and driveshaft is cut to length and welded. I found myself banging gears for a childish amount of time. I used a 4th gen boot and a hurst shifter stick and mr.gasket ball.



How to people live without a lathe?





Probably screwed up the balance a touch with my big welds but this is just til I get my new rear in. Cool thing is I found out I have a posi 3.08.

 

[81cutlass]

Finished it up today and got it moving. Clutch engagement is a bit low, i think i should have used a 7/8 master instead of 3/4. But overall it disengages the clutch fine. I might have to bleed it a bit more too.

Bought a 3rd gen master and cut the rod off to find it was threaded


Cut it down and welded a nut extender to the rod end.


Cruise grommet location. Had to grind the top and bottom a bit to oval the hole. I made a template and drilled the holes.


And it moves great! Just gotta let it hibernate til the white stuff goes away.




An my room mate is putting the l67 in his fiero tomorrow I think. Thats kinda the drive for me to get my junk outta the garage.

 

[Opie Knievel]

How to people live without a lathe?

That is a BIG lathe. Do you have any pics of the entire thing? Do you have that at your house?

Good to see you've made some progress. That shifter looks like it's in the perfect spot. Do you still have some tuning issues to straighten out or did you already fix them?

 

[81cutlass]

The lathe is a 1941 monarch. About 15" swing by 35" long or so. Its a tank, like 4000lbs. Monarch made the best lathes by far. I got really lucky finding that. It's not THAT big capacity wise its just huge with the gearbox and how solid its made. It's not at my house, it's at a friends house. He has a bigger garage than me and he has a mill also.




The shifter is about 2" or so farther back than the stock auto shifter. I would say if a stock 4 speed auto is in 1st that is right about where this sits.

Tuning, yeah its junk. This thing has no 02's and pops bangs and runs like junk right now. It still runs but needs some work. Thats not trans related thats fueling. I need a wideband and a full exhaust before I mess with that.

Next up my waterpump leaks like a sive. I need an electric fan too. So cooling system. Exhaust too.

 

[Opie Knievel]

That lathe and mill make for a damn good looking shop! I would love to have a setup like that. That lathe of yours is for sure a tank. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

 

[black_aerocoupe]

You made some great progress and are thinking outside the box doing it. Keep it up!

 

[81cutlass]

More out of the box stuff coming.

Needed a better rear. Bought an 8.5 with 5x4 3/4 pattern with 3.73 and disks. 98-04 S10 ZR2. The only bad news, its 63" instead of stock 57.5. Thats easy to solve with 3" more backspace wheels. 7" BS is stock vette and easy to get with aftermarket for F bodies.

Just have to get mounts on it. I have a plan that I will be designing over the next month or so. Should allow people to buy a zr2 rear and my kit and bolt the rear up with stock control arms and just get different offset wheels.



Drug my old 9" fixture I made 5 years ago or so.

 

[motorheadmike]

TIL ZR2s had 8.5s. Thanks!

 

[81cutlass]

A little info

Stock G body rear width wheel mount to wheel mount- 57.5
Zr2- 63"
4wd S10/Blazer-59"
2wd S10/Blazer-55"
8.5 caprice rear- 62" (but 5 on 5")

The holy grail is a manual 4x4 4.3 S10 pickup, they reportedly came with a 59" 8.5 with disk, 3.42 posi, and G body similar width.

These axles also have 30 spline axles so they are very strong. This axle should be able to run 9's with no internal mods except swapping the carrier from the stock gov-lock to a clutch or torsen style posi.