budget-minded '79 malibu street & strip build

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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
32
70
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Hi all, I came over here from Ls1tech after Motorhead Mike suggested I reach out to g-body enthusiasts.

My name is Doug and I run a small fabrication business (very small haha) in Portland Oregon.

A short time ago I sold my long-term project to help finance a move to a new house with a bigger garage and shop, and I immediately started the search for a new project.

Before we even had all the financing for the new place go through, I picked up this low option brown & camel malibu. Originally a v6/th250 car, someone had put in what turned out to be a cammed 305/th350 combo and some 40 series FM's



Here she is the day I brought it home. Look that those centerline Prowlers! If you look closely, you can see the awesome chrome skull lock knobs :)




she's got some lumps, but mostly complete and very little rust.


 
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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
32
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I wanted to dig right in of course, but I needed to keep it a roller since we were selling our own house at the same time. So I worked on replacing the open highway geared 7.5" with something that could handle power.

I am fond of the Ford 8.8" and in this build I decided an upgraded fox body 8.8 was my best bet to get 31spline axles, discs and limited slip.

here's the axle I picked up. it came with the parts to upgrade it to 28 spline 5 lug drums using two short side ranger axles, but I needed 31 spline



apart it came for stiffening and straightening.



added pads to attach the front truss, zapped the axle tubes in place and straightened the housing itself



front truss hoop



31 spline tru track from an exploder with 3.73 gears



abs tone ring does not fit in the fox housing



added 31sp axles from motive gear

 
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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
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next up was to add some LCA axle side bracket extensions



threw on some discs from an SN95 by swapping the backing plates side to side and cutting them to fit inside the axle flange.



at this point I could pull the 7.5 and start eyeballing for the frame side UCA boxes



it's under there!

 
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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
32
70
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I had momentarily contemplated a back half 4 link set up..but I want to stay budget friendly and most importantly...race this year

so I cleaned everything up for a trick chassis style frame side UCA bucket.



got as much of the undercoating off as I could before I started zappin




and then used up the rest of my stock of axle side LCA extensions to fab the buckets



mocked in there.....downside of this set up is the LCA's end up really short...like 9" long hoepfully the added adjustability is worth all the effort



zapping em in



added a little horizontal gusset for some reason....it made sense at the time haha

 
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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
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70
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next it was time to create the control arms. ordered some heims, bungs and adjusters from barnes 4x4 house and some dom from the steel yard



lowers are easy. cut, weld, rinse and repeat



uppers took a little work









assembled and sprayed


 
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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
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I decided against coil over on this car for, again, budget reasons. Some used SA QA1's and some circle track weight jacks and springs



my homemade press brake




thats the lower spring bucket




the upper bucket holds the end of the jackscrew



and you can add spring preload like so

 
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truckdoug

Not-quite-so-new-guy
Dec 23, 2018
32
70
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after that was all in, I could swap on some new wheels.

amazingly, someone wanted the prowlers immediately after listing them on CL and I snagged some cheap dual bolt pattern rally reps





oh I forgot about this gem...looks like fisher carriage co's aim was off on this lap weld





so that needed to be ground out and repaired. guess I didn't take any pics of it though
 
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shoedoos

Master Mechanic
Jul 3, 2012
406
403
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loving your work....great to see it being all done at home.....
 
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