BUILD THREAD Rustier then I thought!!!

[RabbitHoleSS]

I made the frame mounts out of 1/4" I had lying around.

Got them all welded in and remembered

Looks good. Be prepared to check for interference with the floor boards, expecially on the driver's side.

I didn't really wanna find out when the cars being put together, so I started measuring. It was definitely gonna hit like this. I had welded the mounts on upside down so they set 1.5" higher then they should. So I cut them off and rewelded them on right. This time I just tacked it and started measuring.

The humps sit about 1/4" higher then the jegs crossmember, but about 3" rearward. At 23.5" from the #2 body mount hole to the middle of the crossmember, the humps are in the optimal position for clearance. It's dead center of the pass side hump and at the highest point of the driver floor board. I'm at 22.5". Looks like I should have over 1" of clearance on the pass side and about 3/4" on the driver.

I had to add a 4" pc of rec tube to the pass side. It was too thick so I split and welded it back together. I'll use 1 factory hole and drill the other out. Then stack washers inside to keep from collapsing it. Instead of trying to weld the box straight to the frame I welded an L shape bracket to both.

I then leveled the frame and made the engine sit at 0° but my level shows its biased up a hair. It sets the transmission mount about 1" higher then the crossmember. So I made another mount out of the scrap angle iron. My stepdads friend is cutting the slot in it tomorrow. Then I'll weld it on and it's done. All in I have about 60$(45$ in metal,16$ in welding wire)and around 6 hrs. Probably could deduct an hr for mistakes. I also got the axles cleaned up and installed. I'm gonna try to find some decent shocks for the rear. The car is lowered 2" in the front and back. I don't know if that matters much for shocks though.
Next on the list is fix the transmission harness and replace the converter. Should be fun.

 

[motorheadmike]

The shocks care if they are single tube or twin tube. Twin tube shocks lend themselves best to being excessively lowered.

 

[64nailhead]

Looks like you could use a digital protractor/angle finder. In the photo it looks like the trans is too high.

 

[RabbitHoleSS]

Looks like you could use a digital protractor/angle finder. In the photo it looks like the trans is too high.

Yea, good eye your right it definitely tilts up. but it's another operator error. Lol. I was setting everything up backwards. Drivetrain up, pinion down. It felt really high when I set it, but then you said something so I had to investigate where I screwed up. I used tremec tool app to set it again. It was corresponding with the mechanical angle finder so I went for it. It's sitting on the front wheels so I leveled the frame from there. Then put the rear-end with just control arms. I set the wheel next to the axle and lined it up height wise. Then leveled the diff side to side. This is the best simulation I could think up. Since I don't have a d/s, I used angle iron sitting on the output shaft and pinion nut as a stand in. According to the tremec app.
Crank pulley: 2.2 down
D/s: 4.5 down
Pinion: 2.6 up
Ang1: 2.2°
Ang2: 2.0°
Driveline operating angle: .02°
I'm not sure what that all means but the numbers were green instead of red 🤔. I'll try to look into it and figure out what those numbers mean and how close to red I am. Transmission looks normal now, sitting about where I thought it would.

it dies seem like a drastic angle down on the d/s but it went from 4.8° at the highest point to 4.5° at the lowest so I don't see much more to be gained with the engine sitting where it is.

 

[64nailhead]

If your crank pulley and pinion measurements are correct then your in great shape.

 

[CopperNick]

You don't have to go with a complete floor pan if the situation doesn't warrant it. When I did my floor I went with the two side halves, driver's and passengers and grafted them to the tunnel, which I left in place because it was okay. For your driver's side though, the area under the pedals appears to be so eaten that you will likely have to come up the toe board all the way to the seam, remove all the seam sealer, and start there. You may also have to do some archeology into the lower A pillars to see if they have issues where they meet the toe board. Finally, that internal brace that runs from side to side under the seats will have to be carefully removed and there are a lot of plug welds involved. The back foot wells come up almost to the point where it becomes the sill under the rear seat. That section of floor pan adjacent to the pocket for the shoulder harness retractor will pretty much have to be made from scratch. For some reason that is a hot spot for rot. Not going to offer any thoughts on the cabin mounts and their holes in the frame. Not going there again, once was enough.

Do be aware that as you lift out the old floor you may find that along the section where the floor pan rises up to meet the inner door sills could have issues. The pans do not come with the extensions necessary to bring them all the way to the multiple layer seam where the inner and outer rocker panel connect to the floor pan. Also be careful as the main line for the rear brakes and vent line for the gas tank both run along the frame under the rockers and could end up being collateral damage as you cut away the rusticles.



Nick

 

[RabbitHoleSS]

You don't have to go with a complete floor pan if the situation doesn't warrant it. When I did my floor I went with the two side halves, driver's and passengers and grafted them to the tunnel, which I left in place because it was okay. For your driver's side though, the area under the pedals appears to be so eaten that you will likely have to come up the toe board all the way to the seam, remove all the seam sealer, and start there. You may also have to do some archeology into the lower A pillars to see if they have issues where they meet the toe board. Finally, that internal brace that runs from side to side under the seats will have to be carefully removed and there are a lot of plug welds involved. The back foot wells come up almost to the point where it becomes the sill under the rear seat. That section of floor pan adjacent to the pocket for the shoulder harness retractor will pretty much have to be made from scratch. For some reason that is a hot spot for rot. Not going to offer any thoughts on the cabin mounts and their holes in the frame. Not going there again, once was enough.

Do be aware that as you lift out the old floor you may find that along the section where the floor pan rises up to meet the inner door sills could have issues. The pans do not come with the extensions necessary to bring them all the way to the multiple layer seam where the inner and outer rocker panel connect to the floor pan. Also be careful as the main line for the rear brakes and vent line for the gas tank both run along the frame under the rockers and could end up being collateral damage as you cut away the rusticles.



Nick

Keep reading thru. That was a few yrs ago.

BUILD THREAD - Rustier then I thought!!!

I learned a few things this past week. 1k seam sealer shouldn't be topcoated with epoxy til its cured. Even though it says paintable in 30 mins. It wont cure. I had 3 small spots I missed. I put it on about 2 hrs before I sprayed epoxy over it. I had to scrape the epoxy off and let it dry this...

gbodyforum.com

 

[CopperNick]

..................As long as you had fun........................




Nick

 

[64nailhead]

..................As long as you had fun........................




Nick

I’m going out on a limb with this comment, but I’m sure he’s gained A LOT of knowledge and skill along the way also.

More power to him, certainly is a better past time than other things that he could be doing IMHO

 

[CopperNick]

No disagreement here on that score, Mr. 64, For myself I wouldn't wish a floor pan job on anybody. Been there, done that, on my own Monte and no matter how much time you might budget for the work, it always takes longer, gets lot dirtier, and raises your blood pressure higher than recommended. In my case the only saving grace was that it was not my daily driver so I could come and go on the work as time allowed. And it almost always becomes a case of "While you're in there" as the floor pan work revealed that I had damage to the firewall under the heater box and that had to be cut away and replaced as well. Sorry, no photos of me in my bunny suit, sitting on the floor in the empty engine bay and applying wire feed love to the problem; it's better that way.



Nick