Fab53... fixing other people's work since 2011.... :lol:

Brett, we know you'll get this thing dialed in for Chad. :thumbsup:

Looking very nice! :thumbsup: What size are the fronts? 18x?

Fronts are 18x9
Rears are 18x11

There are 4 locations at the front inner fenders that will need to be trimmed for clearance to the frame.... Actually one spot hits the passenger top upper A-arm.

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2847.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2846.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2845.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2843.jpg

Here are a few pictures of the Opps. See if you can spot them. It happens and that's why its a good idea to check your work.

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2835.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2827.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2830.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2841.jpg

http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...o/IMG_2823.jpg

This is exactly whey I don't let ANYONE touch my car unless it's absolutely neccessary. As the old saying goes, "If you want it done right, do it yourself" In this genre, it's never been a more factual statement.

With that being said, I'd let Brett work on my car. :thumbsup:

I couldn't agree with you more Vegas. I dealt with a similar debacle that cost me over 5 g's and nothing to show for but shoty work. My car is safe and sound in my possession now.

After seeing some of the high-quality work done by a handful of shops on here, I would sleep well knowing my car was in there hands.

Sucks you had to deal with this Chad, but at least now you are on the right track now and will have your car finished soon and done right this time. Car looks awesome with those wheels!

Why does the frme not line up with the inner fender?

Wow........unfrickenbelievable. Chad, your in great hands with Bret :thumbsup:

The TCI subframe upper bar is much higher than the stock subframe. Nornally the inner fenders ride on top of the stock subframe. With the TCI frame being narrower and the second bar being higher the fenders make slight contact. My fenders have 40 years of tweaking on them. No idea if you would have to clearance virgin perfect fenders or not (guessing not).

its hard to find a shop that will put quality before profit these days.

My AME sub (and most C6 based I would guess) required inner fender clearancing in he same spot....

You're in good hands Chad! :thumbsup:

Chad,

Sorry you had to go thru the bad to get to the good. Looks like you are in good hands now.

Zero attention or checking on life critical items. Yikes.

Fab53 has your back Chad. I owe you a phone call too.

There's gotta some be some good progress by now.... :unibrow:

Ok Dave has motivated me to jump on here and give an update. I was still so sick and worked up over the previous shop's experience and delays on the car it was literally keeping me awake at night so I took a break from the car world.

However, the good news is that Dave's post was timely. Two nights ago I stopped by Fab53 to pick up some parts we weren't going to use and check out the progress on the car. Brett has the trans out of the car and all the second skin sound deadening scrapped off the trans tunnel and is in mid surgery. I'm glad Brett scrapped off the sound deadening and not me lol. He was also about to start scalloping the corners of the fuel tank and running a ss hard fuel line up to the front.

Yesterday I did some parts acquisition which really relit the fire on the project for me. These are some of the last bigger ticket items I needed.

Sexy new shoes! Toyo R888 tires. My old set up was the standard first gen 245 front and 275 rear. New set up is 275 front and 315 rear. Yes!!

http://carphotos4.cardomain.com/imag...7006_large.jpg
http://carphotos2.cardomain.com/imag...6998_large.jpg

How about a very sick looking aluminum driveline from Inland Empire Drive Line.

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...6997_large.jpg
This thing is beefy... I wish I could weld like that too...
http://carphotos4.cardomain.com/imag...7008_large.jpg

Sal and the gang at TCI has been the vendor that consistently delivers on this project. Always fun to stop by their shop even if I couldn't stay long. I picked up new springs front and rear to increase the spring rate to what they run on the TCI test car. Also, we are swapping out the rear two link bars with ones that have Johnny Joints and will allow Brett to get the rear end perfectly centered.
http://carphotos3.cardomain.com/imag...7010_large.jpg

Double adjustable coil over goodness :drool:
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...7012_large.jpg

I can't wait to drive this car!!

About time!! Now get back to work and let Bret do his thing. If you dont make Buttonwillow you'll never hear the end of it from me!! :lol:

Oh man that's some eye candy there Chad. It's really getting closer... happy for you man :thumbsup:

R888s + Johnny Joints - serious bidness :lateral:

I know I know... I hope to make many events before September Buttonwillow! Before I tore the car down I started to make a track event almost as frequently as once a month. I hope to get back into that. I'm also dying to just get the car on the road so the debugging can begin.

Thanks dude. It was exciting to pick up those final "big" pieces. Still tons of little stuff but its a lot more manageable now! I dropped off all that stuff at Brett's last night. He was pretty motivated last night to get the car wrapped up enough to free up his lift for another car. Won't hear any complaints from me on that!! :yes: :unibrow:

Haha Ron, yeah I'm starting to feel a bit of the pressure from all the "serious bidness" parts going into this car. I used to have a laundry list of reasons I could use as excuses if I wasn't fast. I'm pretty sure that list is going to be pretty small once done... as in maybe only one item left... the driver! ha ha

Embrace that pressure! :D

It's gonna be fun and I think you'll be better prepared than you think. Remember, lots of fools are getting on the track for the first time with big power. You have many days under your belt with that stockish 350. I think that can only help serve you in the safe "growth" and learning your new car. :thumbsup:

Good to hear on yanking the car from the other shop and getting it to Fab53. That clutch line around the steering column yikes!!

Your gonna love the R888's they are an awesome tire.

And oh your new wheels look awesome mocked up.

Your not far off Chad, keep at it and it will get done. :thumbsup:

Nothing like a text message Sat night showing progress on your car!!

Teaser cell phone pics

315mm of meaty goodness out back
http://carphotos2.cardomain.com/imag...1439_large.jpg


275 of meaty goodness up front. Front fenders will need to be rolled and inner fenders clearanced to make this work.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...1443_large.jpg

I can't wait to see this in person!

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Looking good Chad!

Nice progress:thumbsup:

Chad, what backspace are you running with the front wheels?

Thanks guys. I just left Brett's. Car looks good with more rubber and lower ride height in the rear. I took some pics with a better Camera so well see how they turned out. Brett has found some more Gremlins that well have to overcome.


Gaetano the front are 18x9 with 5.75" BS. Due to the full mounting pad fiasco I don't get much outer lip. I do have over 3" of caliper clearance though...

love seeing the progress Chad! see you out on the track!

Oh no. Hopefully not expensive or time consuming!

Well the TCI kit positioned the axle farther back in the wheel well than center. I don't know if this is just because of the 12 bolt version prototype. We moved it forward to better center it and got new two link rods with the Johnny joints to accomplish it. It may be slightly too forward now but the torque arm down bars may hit the floor pan. Brett is going to try and adjust the axle back maybe ~0.5" This also had the unintended consequence of putting the shocks out of alignment with the mounts. I know Brett can fab whatever is needed to get around these things, but it is more time before the car hits the road.

Then when he pulled my trans he found out that PVC used SAE bolts on my metric LS bellhousing. Fingers crossed that Brett's retapping the holds to the correct 10mm is all we needed and that the bellhousing isn't compromised.

But for some good news here are some better pics of the car at the planned ride height. Front and rear wheel wells are centered at this height. May raise the rear a tad to facilitate more shock travel. We'll see.

I got a little picture happy lol

http://carphotos4.cardomain.com/imag...3266_large.jpg

http://carphotos3.cardomain.com/imag...3261_large.jpg

You may notice inf the two pics above that the drivers side front wheel is a bit back in the wheel well. Car hasn't been aligned yet. Passenger side is fine so hoping it is just an alignment issue. I want to be able to run at least 5* of caster and not worry about fender clearance at the back of the wheel.

I've already gotten used to 275 up front. It doesn't even look that big in this pic with those 315s peaking out back.
http://carphotos3.cardomain.com/imag...3273_large.jpg

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...3270_large.jpg

http://carphotos3.cardomain.com/imag...3274_large.jpg

So that concludes this weekend's update.

Wow Chad, car is already sending a message..........I see some serious attitude in that thing :thumbsup:

Thanks dude! Brett was saying the same thing. He thinks it looks much meaner than before. I think the front is close to the same ride height as before but the rear is much lower. The car used to have a slight rake and now is level. And having a few more inches of rubber in the back helps.

Chad, while more issues discovered by that hacker shop definitely sucks, it feels really good knowing you are feeling good seeing the car looking so killer like that. Looking bad ass man. You make me wanna have a pro touring car. :lol:

:thumbsup:

You leavin that 327 emblem on there? :D

Wow! the wide wheels and tires completely changed the look of that car. It's looking good parked out in the driveway in front of the (t)Ron mobile :lol:

Matt

Looks great. I saw your car briefly at the Hotchkis event last summer and it looked good but now it will be on a much higher level with all these goodies.

Thanks guys. Honestly, positive feedback on the site helps cool the pain of some of the hickups in the project lol.

I tried to find a pic of V2.0 to compare to some of the pics I took today. This is the best I could find after a quick search. Different cameras and angles but you can see how much different the rear of the car looks compared to before.

Before:
http://carphotos4.cardomain.com/imag...3334_large.jpg
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/image...3270_large.jpg

Lookin KILLER

LoL. You had a PT car and changed it into a race car. Grass is greener man. I sometimes think how much easier it would be if this was a track car and I didn't have to worry about comfort lol.

BTW I keep forgetting to bring them over to Brett's to compare the size but I bought two 427 emblems already that attach with the 3M double sided tape. I want them to be about the same size as the factory 327 even if they aren't the same font. The 427 emblems I picked up looked short in person but we'll see.

That rear shot looks awesome, and I think the stance looks nailed to me. :thumbsup: