BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
Well, The Juggernaut finally has a permanent transmission tunnel again for the first time in a very long time.
I just went slow and steady, welding up the seam between the floor and the tunnel an inch or so at a time and then going back and grinding down what I just welded.
Even the transition at the top front turned out really well.
Just in time too, because when Mike was over on Sunday we realized how close I was to needing to start on the driveshaft tunnel next. We did a lot of figuring and calculating, ran a string line and found center for our measurements after cutting out the old tunnel.
The purpose of building a new driveshaft tunnel is so that I can safely run a larger diameter driveshaft and have the clearance I need when the car is aired down. I plan on using an aluminum or maybe chromoly one this time around, so the diameter has to be significantly larger to accommodate the horsepower.
As luck would have it, I found out none other than my dear friend Mike actually has access to a slip roller at his work. (Wish I had’ve known that before fighting with the trans tunnel!) So before he left Sunday evening, we made sure he had some sheetmetal material to create the new tunnel after work one day this week. Hopefully I’ll get a call from him tonight or tomorrow that it’s done and ready for me to grab from him.
Tonight I finished up welding the passenger side of the transmission tunnel, enlarged the shifter hole (the boot is more than big enough to cover it), did some hammer and dolly work to straighten out a few creases, shifted the rear of the tunnel to the passenger’s side slightly, and began the metal finishing process.
This view through the back window reveals that the tunnel is pretty good, just leaning ever so slightly to the driver’s side. This will get straightened out and fixed once it gets welded to the driveshaft tunnel.
I have a fair bit of metal finishing work to do to make it look as seamless as possible, but a lot of it is going to have to wait until I drop the transmission. The welded seam has a tendency to pull inwards which is easily fixed with a little hammer and dolly work, but I don’t have the clearance to the transmission to get any hammer swing room in there right now.
So I’ll clean up and blend in what I can for now.
Tomorrow night I’ll probably mark and drill the holes for the shifter boot, install the nutserts for it, and start some of the metal finishing work.
That’s it for now, we’re not too far away from reinstalling the driver’s seat and figuring out the ergonomics/positioning of the E-brake handle and the transition from the trans tunnel to the driveshaft tunnel.
Things are really rolling along nicely now!
D.
I just went slow and steady, welding up the seam between the floor and the tunnel an inch or so at a time and then going back and grinding down what I just welded.
Even the transition at the top front turned out really well.
Just in time too, because when Mike was over on Sunday we realized how close I was to needing to start on the driveshaft tunnel next. We did a lot of figuring and calculating, ran a string line and found center for our measurements after cutting out the old tunnel.
The purpose of building a new driveshaft tunnel is so that I can safely run a larger diameter driveshaft and have the clearance I need when the car is aired down. I plan on using an aluminum or maybe chromoly one this time around, so the diameter has to be significantly larger to accommodate the horsepower.
As luck would have it, I found out none other than my dear friend Mike actually has access to a slip roller at his work. (Wish I had’ve known that before fighting with the trans tunnel!) So before he left Sunday evening, we made sure he had some sheetmetal material to create the new tunnel after work one day this week. Hopefully I’ll get a call from him tonight or tomorrow that it’s done and ready for me to grab from him.
Tonight I finished up welding the passenger side of the transmission tunnel, enlarged the shifter hole (the boot is more than big enough to cover it), did some hammer and dolly work to straighten out a few creases, shifted the rear of the tunnel to the passenger’s side slightly, and began the metal finishing process.
This view through the back window reveals that the tunnel is pretty good, just leaning ever so slightly to the driver’s side. This will get straightened out and fixed once it gets welded to the driveshaft tunnel.
I have a fair bit of metal finishing work to do to make it look as seamless as possible, but a lot of it is going to have to wait until I drop the transmission. The welded seam has a tendency to pull inwards which is easily fixed with a little hammer and dolly work, but I don’t have the clearance to the transmission to get any hammer swing room in there right now.
So I’ll clean up and blend in what I can for now.
Tomorrow night I’ll probably mark and drill the holes for the shifter boot, install the nutserts for it, and start some of the metal finishing work.
That’s it for now, we’re not too far away from reinstalling the driver’s seat and figuring out the ergonomics/positioning of the E-brake handle and the transition from the trans tunnel to the driveshaft tunnel.
Things are really rolling along nicely now!
D.
Dude, I hate to break it to you... but, you are probably going to be building the other half of that tunnel between the rear seat pans. The stock stuff won't work for how low your car is (especially if you ever channel it or cut the body mounts) and for how high your driveline is sitting and wanting a beefier driveshaft.
Have you considered if there is enough room between the differential pinion/yoke and the torque box?
Do something creative and raise the whole tunnel.
Have you considered if there is enough room between the differential pinion/yoke and the torque box?
Do something creative and raise the whole tunnel.
You’re not “breaking” anything to me.
This is just in the very preliminary stages of planning for the driveshaft tunnel, only the top has been cut off and a centerline established. We stopped where we did because of the rear floor brace, if we need to cut into it and section and box it, then we will. But for now, because that would entail major surgery, we stopped where we did.
The driveshaft tunnel remaking is more to accommodate a larger diameter ‘shaft, ie width. If we find that we need more height as well, then obviously that will happen. But I’m not about to go cutting helter-skelter ahead of time just on the off chance I might need to. Too much tunnel height at the back won’t jive with my rear firewall, so we’re proceeding cautiously.
And yes, the pinion yoke clears everything currently. In fact the stock driveshaft cleared everything. It’s just going to be a little tight through the tunnel with a larger one for my liking. Keep in mind, the car will be virtually undriveable when it’s aired all the way down. 3/4’s of an inch ground clearance to the header flanges, no suspension movement, and won’t be able to turn the front wheels because of the aggressive tuck. So this is to ensure nothing contacts anything else more so at ride height.
I need to pick up some 4” tubing to use as a mock-up for the larger driveshaft, not that it’ll actually be that diameter, but that’s what we’re planning for worst-case scenario.
I’m a little disappointed, I thought you knew me better than to run off half cocked. I try to plan these things out meticulously and consider all the variables before committing to anything.
Sorry if I sound a lil salty, it’s been a day.
liquidh8
Comic Book Super Hero
Looks awesome, glad to see you back at this project.
Us, Pee On's believe in you Donovan and your ridiculous attention to detail. Looking Great👍.
You think he hasn't thought about the driveshaft tunnel??
This is Donovan thinking about what shade of Semi-Gloss Black to paint the the rear floor brace IF he has to cut it out, section, brace, and reinstall said floor brace.
You're thinking checkers...he's playing automotive 3D Chess. 😛
Hutch
This is Donovan thinking about what shade of Semi-Gloss Black to paint the the rear floor brace IF he has to cut it out, section, brace, and reinstall said floor brace.
You're thinking checkers...he's playing automotive 3D Chess. 😛
Hutch
On the injured list with a bum hand after an injury at work today, so I figure I’ll do an update rather than push my luck out in The Skunkworks tonight.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time out in the shop lately, but haven’t gotten a lot of actual work done yet. It’s been a lot of thinking, measuring, cycling the rear suspension and trying a few different things mostly to determine what’s going on in the back.
I put the car up in the air on stands to install the mock-up driveshaft for determining driveshaft clearance when it’s aired down, and of course one thing led to another to another, to another.
Basically I found that with the back aired completely down, none of the suspension components were resting on the bumpstops. Puzzled by this, I started looking hard at what was holding it up.
Shocks weren’t fully compressed, upper A arms weren’t hitting the trunk floor, lower arms weren’t contacting the frame. So wth was preventing the diff from going higher? Long story short, I found that it was the collapsed height of the rear air bags themselves. They physically can’t get any shorter due to the internal construction of them.
“Hmmm, ok. So that must mean it can get lower if I remove the ‘bags right?” I mean afterall, Shockwaves are available for G bodies for the rear suspension if there’s any real gains to be had here. Expensive, but possibly worth it depending on what I find.
Well, it’s not worth it.
After removing the ‘bags and jacking the diff up as high as it would go and then setting it down on stands under the axle, I only gained maybe 1/2”, if that. So no, spending $1150 USD on rear Shockwaves to gain 1/2” lower is most certainly not worth it IMO. Good news is, now the axle sits on my cut-down bumpstops. So what I’ll do now is pick up another set of bumpstops and cut them down a 1/2” less so that the axle rests on them instead of the ‘bags. The rear wheels sit up in the quarters about 3” as seen in this pic with the outline traced on the quarter, that’s enough to tuck almost all of the tire when viewed from the side.
I still have lots of room inside the wheelwells height-wise to go lower, about 3” with my current wheel and tire combo, but far more things are going to start hitting other things long before that becomes an issue. No, we’re going to start getting into diminishing returns for the amount of work and cost required to get much lower. I’m only looking for a cool stance when it’s aired down, not a “laying rocker panels on the ground” lowrider.
Performance on the road is far more important to me.
I had a real good look around at everything underneath the car, and I think I’m still going to go with my initial plan to remove 1/2 - 1” off of the body mounts. The area that’ll be the closest is the rear upper control arms to the underside of the trunk floor. I believe I’ve got clearance to everything else to afford up to that 1”.
So yeah, that’s the rabbit hole I quickly went down investigating driveshaft clearance. Speaking of which, I am going to have tons of clearance at my rear firewall keeping the stock portion of it from the floor brace back. Even with as large as a hypothetical 4” diameter shaft. (Which I won’t need, looks like 3 1/2” will be more than adequate according to driveshaft critical speed calculators).
Mike was able to get the sheetmetal material I gave him run through the slip roll he has at his work, and it turned out beautifully.
I’m going to have WAY more room for a larger ‘shaft with this one vs the original.
On the transmission tunnel side of things, once I got the car up in the air and was able to have a good look underneath, I was rewarded with nothing but good news. Absolutely everything clears, the tightest spot is between one of the shifter boot screws and the reverse lockout solenoid. Easily fixed by shortening the screws which stick out about 1/2”.
The new trans tunnel was more than well worth the effort.
I got some of the metal finishing done on the top and passenger side, it’s looking pretty good but I won’t be completely satisfied until I can hammer and dolly it out a bit.
As mentioned, the shifter boot is now attached, did it with nutserts and #10 x 32 stainless screws.
As for the transition between the transmission and driveshaft tunnels, I think I’m going to keep the height here where it is. The top of my driveshaft safety loop is going to be too close to the top of the larger driveshaft when it’s aired down, so I’ll keep the height of the trans tunnel where it is and make the top half of the loop taller.
Hell, I might even have to make the entire loop a bit bigger, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
On the interior, I’m going to hold off on spraying epoxy on the inside of the floorpans until the body comes off the frame again. I know I’ll probably find the occasional weld pinhole or area that needs repair, and I don’t want to burn the epoxy on the inside if I have to do any welding.
That’s about all I have to report on for now, not much work is likely to happen in the next 2 days, but I’m planning to log in some serious hours on it in the week between Christmas and New Years that I have off.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
D.
I’ve been spending quite a bit of time out in the shop lately, but haven’t gotten a lot of actual work done yet. It’s been a lot of thinking, measuring, cycling the rear suspension and trying a few different things mostly to determine what’s going on in the back.
I put the car up in the air on stands to install the mock-up driveshaft for determining driveshaft clearance when it’s aired down, and of course one thing led to another to another, to another.
Basically I found that with the back aired completely down, none of the suspension components were resting on the bumpstops. Puzzled by this, I started looking hard at what was holding it up.
Shocks weren’t fully compressed, upper A arms weren’t hitting the trunk floor, lower arms weren’t contacting the frame. So wth was preventing the diff from going higher? Long story short, I found that it was the collapsed height of the rear air bags themselves. They physically can’t get any shorter due to the internal construction of them.
“Hmmm, ok. So that must mean it can get lower if I remove the ‘bags right?” I mean afterall, Shockwaves are available for G bodies for the rear suspension if there’s any real gains to be had here. Expensive, but possibly worth it depending on what I find.
Well, it’s not worth it.
After removing the ‘bags and jacking the diff up as high as it would go and then setting it down on stands under the axle, I only gained maybe 1/2”, if that. So no, spending $1150 USD on rear Shockwaves to gain 1/2” lower is most certainly not worth it IMO. Good news is, now the axle sits on my cut-down bumpstops. So what I’ll do now is pick up another set of bumpstops and cut them down a 1/2” less so that the axle rests on them instead of the ‘bags. The rear wheels sit up in the quarters about 3” as seen in this pic with the outline traced on the quarter, that’s enough to tuck almost all of the tire when viewed from the side.
I still have lots of room inside the wheelwells height-wise to go lower, about 3” with my current wheel and tire combo, but far more things are going to start hitting other things long before that becomes an issue. No, we’re going to start getting into diminishing returns for the amount of work and cost required to get much lower. I’m only looking for a cool stance when it’s aired down, not a “laying rocker panels on the ground” lowrider.
Performance on the road is far more important to me.
I had a real good look around at everything underneath the car, and I think I’m still going to go with my initial plan to remove 1/2 - 1” off of the body mounts. The area that’ll be the closest is the rear upper control arms to the underside of the trunk floor. I believe I’ve got clearance to everything else to afford up to that 1”.
So yeah, that’s the rabbit hole I quickly went down investigating driveshaft clearance. Speaking of which, I am going to have tons of clearance at my rear firewall keeping the stock portion of it from the floor brace back. Even with as large as a hypothetical 4” diameter shaft. (Which I won’t need, looks like 3 1/2” will be more than adequate according to driveshaft critical speed calculators).
Mike was able to get the sheetmetal material I gave him run through the slip roll he has at his work, and it turned out beautifully.
I’m going to have WAY more room for a larger ‘shaft with this one vs the original.
On the transmission tunnel side of things, once I got the car up in the air and was able to have a good look underneath, I was rewarded with nothing but good news. Absolutely everything clears, the tightest spot is between one of the shifter boot screws and the reverse lockout solenoid. Easily fixed by shortening the screws which stick out about 1/2”.
The new trans tunnel was more than well worth the effort.
I got some of the metal finishing done on the top and passenger side, it’s looking pretty good but I won’t be completely satisfied until I can hammer and dolly it out a bit.
As mentioned, the shifter boot is now attached, did it with nutserts and #10 x 32 stainless screws.
As for the transition between the transmission and driveshaft tunnels, I think I’m going to keep the height here where it is. The top of my driveshaft safety loop is going to be too close to the top of the larger driveshaft when it’s aired down, so I’ll keep the height of the trans tunnel where it is and make the top half of the loop taller.
Hell, I might even have to make the entire loop a bit bigger, but I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
On the interior, I’m going to hold off on spraying epoxy on the inside of the floorpans until the body comes off the frame again. I know I’ll probably find the occasional weld pinhole or area that needs repair, and I don’t want to burn the epoxy on the inside if I have to do any welding.
That’s about all I have to report on for now, not much work is likely to happen in the next 2 days, but I’m planning to log in some serious hours on it in the week between Christmas and New Years that I have off.
Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.
D.
You think he hasn't thought about the driveshaft tunnel??
This is Donovan thinking about what shade of Semi-Gloss Black to paint the the rear floor brace IF he has to cut it out, section, brace, and reinstall said floor brace.
You're thinking checkers...he's playing automotive 3D Chess. 😛
Hutch
I believe you have something on your chin.... and it's D's nuts.
