SSM - ZF 6 Speed, Mini-tubbed, Big Plans

[SickSpeedMonte]

1985 Monte SS
~300 crank hp 350cid
ZF6 speed from a '96 Vette (also have a "black tag" '93 unit that is stronger and will get built)
8.5" GN rear w/ 4.10's, Posi, Moser axles
~3-4" drop, car looks good but doesn't handle like it should
17" wheels, 8" wide up front and 9.5 in the rear. Will get some 12" wide wheels for the rear and 9.5-10" wide for the front after building my next chassis

(Thanks to Doug Austin for these awesome shots!)


This race was shortly after getting the car back together for the first time in over a year. I took the body off the frame to do a bunch of rust repair in the body mounts, floor pans, and trunk pan.

Frame body mount repair

Body side repairs

Spare tire block-off panel

Sandblasting

Seat mounts (car was a solid bench originally, needed inner mounts for the buckets)

Go-faster holes

The ZF6 doesn't exactly "fit" in the trans tunnel... so I had to mod it.

Everything is butt welded. The floor pans, trunk pans, trans tunnel. I had rust in a lot of the lapped pannels because the seam sealer failed after 25+ years. I didn't want to give water any new places to hide.

POR15 on top and bottoms of floors

Cut down the body mounts to lower the car a bit.

Extra room from the minitub. I plan to build a whole new chassis, so no point in going crazy on this one. I just fixed the body mount holes which took a day, so that I can enjoy the car while I build the new chassis.

I guess this is a good spot for a little background on me... I'm a big nerd (at least that's what the driver's at work call the test engineers.) I do vehicle testing for the Army. I graduated from UMD with a BS in mechanical engineering and while I was there I tried to focus on automotive as much as possible. I was on the FSAE team and took a vehicle dynamics course. Since working as a tester, I have been able to go to a few SAE vehicle dynamics classes and visit places like TRC.

There is a lot that I want to do to the G chassis, and I will try my best to document it as I go. I'm going to start with some simulation using a Matlab script that I wrote to simulate a double wishbone suspension. The front suspension geometry will be completely re-worked and the rear will be changing to a 3-link with a panhard bar. Hoping I can still sneak my exhaust out behind the rear tires when it's done. I don't think I could pull that off with a Watt's link. The chassis will allow me to run big rubber all around too, and I should be able to build a good bit of tuneability into it. Planning on using adjustable spring cups if not coil-overs. Definitely needs a lot of work in the steering department and a faster ratio box. The steering geometry is built into my simulator as well. This is all going to be a huge challenge, but I think it will be very rewarding when it's all together.

I also have a 010 1970 high Ni 355 engine to go in the car. All forged rotating assy, 215cc Dart Pro1's (~8.5:1), and I plan to twin turbo it with EFI run by a megasquirt. I dont have the induction or snails yet, I figure the chassis should come first so I don't twist the car up or wreck it with all that power.

The car hasn't had an interior in a little while... thinking of insulating the floor, putting down carpet, and making aluminum door panels. I've been working on a fiberglass dash and console too. Here it is before the glass, it's the stock dash with marine pour-foam added, a few pieces cut off too. The console was from scratch out of a cardboard form.

 

[jdietschweiler]

very cool

 

[-83MONTESS-]

Holy t*ts! Thats some work! Car looks great lowered like that. Im really curious to see how the dash/center console comes out.

 

[dixon_ronald]

Wonderful work! I'm really loving the fact that you are accomplishing all that on my favorite gbody. Keep it coming! !!

 

[dixon_ronald]

How tough was widening the fender wells? I would like to do the same since I'm going with a wider abody rear end to give me the option to add more hind rubber.

 

[silverfox]

Car looks great I love the stance, How did you lower it?

I am in MD and I can swear i have seen this car around here before, where are you from?

 

[SxFxZ]

This picture gives me a chubby, so sexy!

 

[SickSpeedMonte]

Thanks for the responses! I'm flattered 🙂

How tough was widening the fender wells? I would like to do the same since I'm going with a wider abody rear end to give me the option to add more hind rubber.

It was a b*tch the first time but the second side went smoother. I had a lot of rust to contend with, so that complicated things. I figured if I had to fix all of that rust anyway, I might as well go a bit further and just tub it. My advice to anyone that wants to try this would be to sort of follow the same cut marks that I made (I can post more details of that if interested) and make sure that the cuts kind of converge as they go towards the center of the car. This way, when you move the tubs inboard, they overlap the existing sheet metal a bit and you can take a body saw and "trace" either the tub or the rest of the body and get a perfect joint to butt weld. Have a lot of clamps to hold it all together, prep the areas to weld by removing all paint and I use acetone to clean the surfaces on both sides to keep them contamination free. I also learned by the second one, that when filling in the 3" gap around the circumference of the wheel well to overlap the gap with a larger piece and cut it with a body saw to the exact fit. I tacked, cut, tacked, cut, etc until it was all in and then final welded.

Car looks great I love the stance, How did you lower it?

I am in MD and I can swear i have seen this car around here before, where are you from?

It's lowered on Belltech spindles and one coil cut off of the F41 front springs and in the rear I currently have CPP 2" A-body drop springs. The first picture I posted of the car going down the road was on cut IROC cargo coils which was a bad idea. There was no top pigtail and I had one come out on me once. It could have been really bad but it wedged it self in there and kept the tire out of the body. I have a custom build exhaust using a Flowmaster mandrel bend assortment that tucks into the driveshaft hump as much as possible, a custom pass-through crossmember, and we tweeked the headers to get them up and provide ground clearance. The frame is the lowest point. I also had to get adjustable upper trailing arms because the pinion angle gets all out of whack when you get that low, and my next frame will move the frame mount of the upper link up to reduce the change in pinion angle with suspension travel.

I'm from Rockville, College Park, Parkville for ~2 years, and now Cecil County. I see your car parked by the exit 56 sign (I-95?) in the link in your sig. If so, I guess you might have seen me in/around Parkville.

This picture gives me a chubby, so sexy!

LMAO! Thanks, that's probably my favorite picture of my car. I need to get the stance back down to there in the rear in a safe way with this next frame.

BTW, this is what I started with:

Bone stock other than a shift kit and the paint job which was peeling.

 

[silverfox]

Car looks great I love the stance, How did you lower it?

I am in MD and I can swear i have seen this car around here before, where are you from?

I'm from Rockville, College Park, Parkville for ~2 years, and now Cecil County. I see your car parked by the exit 56 sign (I-95?) in the link in your sig. If so, I guess you might have seen me in/around Parkville.

No the Exit 56 is off Rt 70 in Frederick. I woek in Rockville and grew up there. I think i now remember. Did you go to Rockvill Speed on Gude Dr. I used to go there and get items from time to time.

 

[jlcustomz]

Pretty cool, I check in on your thread here & there on pro-touring.