BUILD THREAD Janky- A Mexican Monte Clone

[UC645]

Found out later that the driver’s side pipe was far tighter than I originally thought, and it was rubbing on the rear axle. It’s now throughly cut up and has a couple of dings in it to get it to clear everything. One day I’ll remake this exhaust, but that’ll be in the far future. The upper torque boxes from Trick Chassis cut a lot of available space out of here for 3 inch pipe.

That covers Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Monday we tackled the front suspension.
That consisted of installing Speedway upper control arms, and cutting half a coil off the front springs:

These were Moog 5660s, and the drop is practically perfect since it now makes me want to drop some 11 inch springs from Landrum in the rear to cut the rake down.

Then the rest of the week after Labor Day was a max effort thrash to get this pig ready for inspection. The hood installed, insured, and the nose put on. And good lord I don’t think I’ve ever worked at such a pace, and adding that on top of the trip to the shop for inspection being the car’s maiden voyage? Nerve wracking doesn’t begin to cut it as a description.

But it made it.
The speedometer reads 25mph too fast at 60 so it reads 85. The ride was horrid because the driver’s tailpipe was acting as an improvised bump stop and the front bump stops need shaved down by half an inch to get some suspension travel. Half the interior wasn’t (and still isn’t) installed and was laying about inside the car. And to cap it all off, the pinion seal I installed was made incorrectly, and didn’t have enough press fit on the yoke to keep it from leaking!
But the damn thing made it. And boy, it moves. Half throttle blasts for fun made my Dad’s old Mustang feel like a Ranger running 2 cylinders.

The last 2 days I’ve been fixing the exhaust and getting the required info to fix the speedo situation, and have a new set of speedo gears on the way. Hopefully I’ll have all the trim installed and the interior finished so I can stop monkeying around with this crate for a minute.

The projector headlights make it look absolutely sinister, even on jackstands.

 

[mclellan83]

Man do you have that thing look good

 

[UC645]

It’s been a minute. With winter officially here in Pennsylvania, I’ve stored the car for the season.

Stored back in the tarp garage with a few changes: added in 2 extra pairs of uprights, and traded the sketchy rails for a makeshift floor. Hopefully the floor will help the moisture issues I had last year. At least it’s more comfortable that gravel!


Picking up from the last post:
Tailpipes were installed the next day, and fit ok. The exhaust is a miss-mash of a bunch of used components but it works. I do have a joint to fix- mostly because I didn’t fully weld the v band flange into the muffler- but it’s not a concern.
Once those were on, the lower trim got fitted:

And found out a couple interesting things in the process: the driver’s quarter on this car isn’t made to spec, and there may only be 1 source for Sport Coupe trim clips, being OPGI. I haven’t ordered any yet, but the alternatives you can find won’t even fit the dimensions that the sellers supply.

After finally being able to drive it semi regularly, the need for front spacers arose. 18x9.5 wheels will work with a blazer spindle swap, but the barrels of the wheels will scrape on the control arms depending on alignment specs (or at the time, lack thereof).
With tubular lower control arms, the rubbing may not even be a concern, since the inner barrel was only rubbing on the bottom edge of the lower control arm at *just* about full lock.


From there on out, it was just driving. Seriously, I have no photos for like 2 weeks? In short:

I’ve kept up with a C class on a road I really shouldn’t have be capable of driving. It honestly kinda scares me, because I haven’t found a limit I’m willing to take the car to. Some driving classes are in my future for sure.

Now for the bad.
The 350 is burning oil in 6 out of 8 cylinders. I don’t know if it’s because it was never really broken in, fuel wash, or valve seals sitting for so long without being run for extended periods. Either way, it’s going to come back out again at some point. May try to replace valve seals with the heads on, might not. It’s been getting progressively worse as time goes on, and it’s only bad when the engine is warming up but I still don’t trust it to be just valve seals. Gives me an opportunity to replace some leaky seals at least.

And speaking of changes, springs need switched around. It’s too high in the rear and too short in the front. Some taller 5660s (just a 1/4 coil cut instead of half) or 5662s depending on some bench racing I have yet to do. Rears will need to have an adjustable perch installed as no one makes a 12 inch tall spring with a rate under 175 pounds an inch, and that’s a tad much for a street car.
I want to sway out the rear rod ends for Roto-Joints to help the ride quality a tad, but the front uppers will have to be something different since the mounting point is narrower than stock because of the instant center brackets.

Next is some changes to cooling, the power steering cooler needs moved so I can get some airflow into it, or I need to direct some into it where it currently is. Hydroboost makes things very, very hot. I’m thinking about altering the turn signal housings to double as air intakes for coolers, but I only have one cooler to worry about right now, although I am thinking about an engine oil cooler in the future.

But I’m kinda dead set on another change- brakes. The current setup has some issues, mainly leaks, and I think I need to step up the size of the master cylinder. The brakes will stop the car quite well, but I need to bury my foot in the floor in a panic stop situation and I feel like I’ve left some brake performance on the table. Going to a 1-1/8” bore MC should help without being overkill, and should be properly sized for these:

13.6” and 13.3” front and rear brake calipers from a 6th gen Camaro SS. Completely overkill, but the price was too good to ignore vs something with Wilwoods. I’ll have to take some measurements to verify if I can run C7 Corvette rotors front and rear, or if I’ll have to try for Camaro rotors but since those need the center bore opened up I’m trying to avoid those.
Even grabbed myself an early Christmas present since these are hideously expensive to assemble new:

Backing plates for a 5th Gen Camaro are needed for the rear brakes if you want parking brakes, and I certainly want a parking brake with the things I have planned for this mess.

More on that later.


But for now I’ll leave this here, waiting for next spring and the looming autocross/closed course event schedule.

 

[UC645]

Oh, I forgot one thing.

I’m going to attempt the drop the fuel tank back out over the winter to modify it. Long story short, as much as I like the Tanks Inc tank, it has a major issue: it won’t feed fuel into its fuel pan below 1/3 of a tank. For racing this isn’t an issue, since racing below a 1/2 tank is asking for trouble, but for road tripping it? Buying a 10 gallon fuel cell would’ve been cheaper and less of a hassle. That and this tank can only fit a single in tank pump, so it’s just like having a stock G body tank.

I may have a simple (yet complicated) solution to this, but this will be the first priority over the brake upgrade.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

It’s been a minute. With winter officially here in Pennsylvania, I’ve stored the car for the season.
View attachment 249047

Stored back in the tarp garage with a few changes: added in 2 extra pairs of uprights, and traded the sketchy rails for a makeshift floor. Hopefully the floor will help the moisture issues I had last year. At least it’s more comfortable that gravel!


Picking up from the last post:
Tailpipes were installed the next day, and fit ok. The exhaust is a miss-mash of a bunch of used components but it works. I do have a joint to fix- mostly because I didn’t fully weld the v band flange into the muffler- but it’s not a concern.
Once those were on, the lower trim got fitted:
View attachment 249048
And found out a couple interesting things in the process: the driver’s quarter on this car isn’t made to spec, and there may only be 1 source for Sport Coupe trim clips, being OPGI. I haven’t ordered any yet, but the alternatives you can find won’t even fit the dimensions that the sellers supply.

After finally being able to drive it semi regularly, the need for front spacers arose. 18x9.5 wheels will work with a blazer spindle swap, but the barrels of the wheels will scrape on the control arms depending on alignment specs (or at the time, lack thereof).
With tubular lower control arms, the rubbing may not even be a concern, since the inner barrel was only rubbing on the bottom edge of the lower control arm at *just* about full lock.


From there on out, it was just driving. Seriously, I have no photos for like 2 weeks? In short:
View attachment 249052
I’ve kept up with a C class on a road I really shouldn’t have be capable of driving. It honestly kinda scares me, because I haven’t found a limit I’m willing to take the car to. Some driving classes are in my future for sure.

Now for the bad.
The 350 is burning oil in 6 out of 8 cylinders. I don’t know if it’s because it was never really broken in, fuel wash, or valve seals sitting for so long without being run for extended periods. Either way, it’s going to come back out again at some point. May try to replace valve seals with the heads on, might not. It’s been getting progressively worse as time goes on, and it’s only bad when the engine is warming up but I still don’t trust it to be just valve seals. Gives me an opportunity to replace some leaky seals at least.

And speaking of changes, springs need switched around. It’s too high in the rear and too short in the front. Some taller 5660s (just a 1/4 coil cut instead of half) or 5662s depending on some bench racing I have yet to do. Rears will need to have an adjustable perch installed as no one makes a 12 inch tall spring with a rate under 175 pounds an inch, and that’s a tad much for a street car.
I want to sway out the rear rod ends for Roto-Joints to help the ride quality a tad, but the front uppers will have to be something different since the mounting point is narrower than stock because of the instant center brackets.

Next is some changes to cooling, the power steering cooler needs moved so I can get some airflow into it, or I need to direct some into it where it currently is. Hydroboost makes things very, very hot. I’m thinking about altering the turn signal housings to double as air intakes for coolers, but I only have one cooler to worry about right now, although I am thinking about an engine oil cooler in the future.

But I’m kinda dead set on another change- brakes. The current setup has some issues, mainly leaks, and I think I need to step up the size of the master cylinder. The brakes will stop the car quite well, but I need to bury my foot in the floor in a panic stop situation and I feel like I’ve left some brake performance on the table. Going to a 1-1/8” bore MC should help without being overkill, and should be properly sized for these:
View attachment 249053
View attachment 249054
13.6” and 13.3” front and rear brake calipers from a 6th gen Camaro SS. Completely overkill, but the price was too good to ignore vs something with Wilwoods. I’ll have to take some measurements to verify if I can run C7 Corvette rotors front and rear, or if I’ll have to try for Camaro rotors but since those need the center bore opened up I’m trying to avoid those.
Even grabbed myself an early Christmas present since these are hideously expensive to assemble new:
View attachment 249055
Backing plates for a 5th Gen Camaro are needed for the rear brakes if you want parking brakes, and I certainly want a parking brake with the things I have planned for this mess.

More on that later.


But for now I’ll leave this here, waiting for next spring and the looming autocross/closed course event schedule.
View attachment 249056

I'm super happy for you, man. That's an awesome car! I looked into the coil springs and found Moog 81011: double pigtail, 12.79" free height, 5.57" inner diameter, 0.56 bar diameter, constant rate of 145#. Discontinued but available from Mevotech for $80.

 

[CopperNick]

What's the plan for the tank? Do a mod to the leading edge where it curves into the bottom to create a pocket that you can use for an AN pickup fitting? Maybe take a peek at the stock fuel pickup to see if the pickup tube is long enough that it reaches the bottom; might need to be extended maybe?? Some kind of cofferdam or well around the pickup that would trap and keep fuel handy for transfer out to the fuel pump??

Great looking "garage" and adding the floor was a smart thing to do. Now all that you need is the 50 pounds of moth balls to strew around both outside the car and inside on the floors and under the hood and in the trunk as a deterrent to the critters. And yes you will have them come, it's like that line in the movie, "if you build it they will come". Somewhere enclosed and dry and sort of warm? No odds against there.



Nick

 

[UC645]

I'm super happy for you, man. That's an awesome car! I looked into the coil springs and found Moog 81011: double pigtail, 12.79" free height, 5.57" inner diameter, 0.56 bar diameter, constant rate of 145#. Discontinued but available from Mevotech for $80.

View attachment 249057View attachment 249058

Thanks for the find Johnny, but I ditched the stock pigtail springs for 5” OD springs the circle track guys use.
I’m going to inquire about some custom springs if anyone will make them. If no one will, adjusters it is!

What's the plan for the tank? Do a mod to the leading edge where it curves into the bottom to create a pocket that you can use for an AN pickup fitting? Maybe take a peek at the stock fuel pickup to see if the pickup tube is long enough that it reaches the bottom; might need to be extended maybe?? Some kind of cofferdam or well around the pickup that would trap and keep fuel handy for transfer out to the fuel pump??

Great looking "garage" and adding the floor was a smart thing to do. Now all that you need is the 50 pounds of moth balls to strew around both outside the car and inside on the floors and under the hood and in the trunk as a deterrent to the critters. And yes you will have them come, it's like that line in the movie, "if you build it they will come". Somewhere enclosed and dry and sort of warm? No odds against there.



Nick

For the tank, I think I’m going to try to expand the opening in the front section to something more along the lines of a fuel cell top plate. It’ll likely need to be custom, but with how much screw plates cost, custom makes more sense. Then something about a transfer pump…

 

[spongbob]

Not really much of an update on progress but I’ve got the size of the AC box bolts.
Factory (on an 84 at least) is a size 14 sheet metal screw with type A thread. I wasn’t able to find ones at the hardware store with integral washers, but was able to get ones in stainless steel. Factory OD on those washers is 7/8 of an inch.
I’m hung up on what to do about the 3 battery cables I’m running through the firewall opening for the computer harness. I do have the grommet for the harness, would it make sense to cut it up to fit the cables, or does anyone have another suggestion? I’ve got both the 90 degree elbow style and a style with 2 holes that used plastic plugs to hold the harness.
View attachment 152369

Urethane or a boat stopper ? Maybe an inch of pipe with tak-ed flange ?

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

My apologies for the poor recommendation, I forgot that you'd swapped and I didn't re-read anything before posting. If you're still looking for cable grommet ideas (thanks for the reminder, spongbob) I've considered cable glands or grommets for Asian vehicles.

 

[UC645]

Urethane or a boat stopper ? Maybe an inch of pipe with tak-ed flange ?

My apologies for the poor recommendation, I forgot that you'd swapped and I didn't re-read anything before posting. If you're still looking for cable grommet ideas (thanks for the reminder, spongbob) I've considered cable glands or grommets for Asian vehicles.

View attachment 249097View attachment 249096

View attachment 249094View attachment 249095View attachment 249093View attachment 249092

Thanks for the ideas guys, those are better than what I did. Just took the A/C harness elbow, pulled the harness, cut the center out ran the wires through and used sealant to hold them in place.

I’ll keep these in mind for the eventual LS swap….