The only problems i really had with the hooker stuff is the distance of the headers to the ground. Otherr than that, its a good product for a good price, also gets your pinion angle just right, i didnt like the face that it moves the engine over a 1/2 inch, screwed up all the power steering stuff and alternatlr bracketry...but yeah, the mid lengths are the ticket.

Now we have what we think are some coil's not firing, almost ready to bring home, detail then auto-x, then cage and mini tubs, rims and torque arm or four link.....

While the Hooker stuff was a disapointment, Mike's car was really nice to work on, and will now run with the big dogs! We beefed up his subframe, installed our coilover kit, added additional bracing, and powdercoated the frame. We installed a set of our subframe connectors and solid body bushings. We also installed new upper and lower control arms. The underside of the car is stunning. We installed the Hooker headers, and also re-worked Mikes Dynatech exhaust system to tuck the X pipe up another INCH! Unfortunately the headers are the low point. I was able to tweak the driverside to at least match the clearance of the passenger side???

We also installed the entire Holley accessory bracketry. Fo anyone with a 2nd gen interested in using this stuff we have some work arounds and I suggest calling us to assist in making it work, it is the cheapest way to go, and looks factory, oh it is!

i see a new avatar.....anything new?

Going up to Chico today to trailer it home. Since we had to move the coil packs from behind the engine to the stock placement back on top of the valve covers (the holley system moved the engine back 1/2" so no room), we had to install the stock LS1 coils i got when i bought the engine, turns out about 1/2 of them are bad.

Keith borrowed a side from his buddy's car and it ran fine, so he drove it 10 or so miles to "shake it down". So alls well cept the coil's..plus he'd rather me trailer it home and do small trips for a while to make sure everything's good.

So, i get to pull a Camaro behind my Trailblazer SS, in the rain for three plus hours and i've never pulled a car before...it will be a Loooonnggg drive home, as i wont see anything over the double nickel....with a cold. wahwah.

You haven't left yet!

Mike you wants cheese with that wine??? :headspin: :D

Oh and don't forget we need pictures?? :popcorn2:

That was a lot of whining wasn't it?!?! You'd think going to pick up your car is EXCITING -- take two cold pills -- jump in the slug SS -- and go towin' dude!!


HAHAHAHAHAHAHA



Towing in California SUCKS! That whole 55 mph thing just kills me.

Plus it was dark wet and cold, it was scary....haha. Piece of gravy!!! The TBSS towed it sweetly, and yeah Greg, i found myself doing 68/70 at times, whoa slow down nelly.....Too bad i got home in the dark, no pics.....now to the coils and gas guage....

It's only a problem if you get caught.... not like I followed that too much when I was driving for Keith

Mike post some pics. :poke: I'm in suspense over here! :)

That's for sure! I've been pulled over for that one before.

BTW, thanks for driving! You coming for Laguna Seca? I'm working my ass off to get car finished

Seriously, we need pics.

Glad it's home, Mike.

Pics are coming, need to get the coil paks fixed so i can drive her!! possibly tomorrow, right now the whole left bank is not "fired", so its wiring or coil paks.

I will post pics asap.....

OK. So Josh and i got the coils (well Josh) squared away, got her runnin and took her out on her maiden (new suspension) voyage tonite at dusk. Wow, just wow. If you can "picture" whats something is supposed to feel like, thats is how my suspension and steering now "feel" like, its just right. Baked first and second and the steering and the car are planted just right.

The subframe connecters, Gbar bracing, Speedtech UCA's and LCA's and AFCO coilovers and new steering box, its like driving a whole new car, no comparison to the way it was before.

Like to give Keith at Custom Works a shout out, great service, great pricing and overall a great job. He did the Holley/Hooker mounts/exhaust conversion. Powder coated the subframe, door hinge bushings, and new front accessory package.

Pics to follow and some slideways video....

How's that steering box feeling?? Yep, Keith puts out a great package.

Good for you Mike!!

Funny -- If a guy has not done suspension before - they hesitate to spend the money, time, and effort to. Once they have - they can't believe the difference! And it's the first thing they do on their next build! HAHAHAHAHAHA

Thanks, Mike. When you specialize in one vehicle, it makes it a lot easier to get something right. Mike's car rides solid and tight like a much more modern car, which is what we "middle agers" are looking for. No secrets here, Mike got the same set up I run beneath my personal car

Holy Crap are you telling me I am going to make it to 94 years of age. I think I am going to look pretty bad at that age.

You 47 too? i though you were a baby haha. Besides, its not the age, its the mileage....Like our friend Rodney Dangerfield once said, "you know your getting old when you go to bed feeling pretty good and wake up injured"...

Fricken awesome!!!

No doubt. I thought i was doing myself favors by the hotchkis TVS, but man this new steering, bracing and coil-over package is just the ticket. I've always been a suspension first kinda guy (like us dirt bike nuts), Suspension, Brakes, Power, and then on down the line in that order...

Close I will be 47 in May and that is best quote I have read all year.

Yeah, Rodney's full of them, one of my fav's was "hey, you scratched my anchor" from that golf movie.....

Marty, what rear tail lights did you go with? and do you like them??????

Fessler Billet - They fit great on my NOS tailpan

http://garagescene.net/gallery3/var/...amaro_0074.jpg

Mike, I'm glad it worked out the way you wanted! I went back to the beginning and read your whole thread. Your car looks great! That was quite an ordeal on the headers.

I'm an ex dirt bike nut too and I took the same approach on my car. Suspension first as it was the next thing behind riding ability to make me faster. Motor was definitely down the list as I've had some of my best seasons with less motor on 2 strokes.

Next you should do some light weight wheels, Carbon Fiber Rotors, LW Driveshaft, Flywheel to get rid of the unwanted weight in the best places

:hello: :hello: :hello:

Excellent news, Mike!

Thanx. KTM did a test a few years back and every body turned the fasted times on the 200 two smoker....

Thanx Martin haha, yeah, just go all F1 on that beotch....wheels and tubs are next though, gotta fill that bucket up though
Jer, you never disapoint !!!!! Friggen hilarious....

Trey,, i m diggen for pix of your 2nd gen beast.....where day at???????

I've got build threads on both PT and NastyZ. PT link is in sig and here's NastyZ http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155518

I haven't updated anything simply because there's nothing to update. I'm working on getting the seats I bought installed but work is slowing me down there. I hope to start a thread here soonish since this is my home mainly now. I'm moving really slow though so it won't be updated often.

After the seats go in, seat belts are next. Then, I'll move onto suspension and chassis bracing. I'm still not as decided as I thought I was on suspension so I'm glad to see you're enjoying your setup.

How smooth is it so far with bumps and cracks in the road? In particular, the leafs?

The leafs are fine for now, but the four link or torque arm is next, with the tubs. But the front tracks nice and genuinely feels like a "newer" car, kinda like a 5th gen vette, the front anyways....

That's great Mike. :thumbsup:

Sounds good. I've not heard of anyone having performance leafs and not having a jarring ride. Maybe I will build in stages and find out for myself as I'm more than willing to be shown other wise. That and I'm just not ready to replace my rearend yet since it's got everything I need already there. We will see. Thanks for the feed back. Hurry up with the pictures already though :mock:

sometimes you just don't know the differences till you try them both.

My thoughts as well. Though I do have a lot of experience driving 4th gens and c4/5 vettes. I may be biased from the get go but I'll give it a shot I think. I can always sell the leafs off later on when all my dividend investing makes me rich :D

I'm taking this same attitude towards building the LT up also. Keep the initial build simple but on a solid foundation. Upgrade from there if I think it'll be worth it. If not, in goes a stroker 6 liter. Learn a lot along the way and have fun doing so. Hopefully.

You are hanging out with the wrong bunch then! A multi link rear suspension costs about 7-10 times more than a good rear leafspring set up, once you factor in the well I may as well mini tub, and so on.....

We have steel leafs and composite leafs to suit any performance or comfort situation. The limiting factor with leafs is really the amount of tire you can put under them. Most of the multi link rear suspension systems out on the market are flawed in some way due to the impossible packaging under the car.

Also, generally speaking the shock valving has more to do with a rough ride than does the spring rate. Mikes car has what would be considered a pretty stiff spring rate, but rides sweet because the great valving on the double adjustable AFCO coilovers he's got. It's all in the combo!

One option, as Vince can appreciate is to modify a set of headers, VS building a custom set. Some headers lend themselves well to this.

Well after smashing several set of headers, trying to find better ones, and offering to help manufacturers re-design there headers for better ground clearance, we decided to take matters into our own hands! We had a set of Hooker Super Comp headers that fit pretty well, with near equal length primaries and 1.75" tubes. The aweful Hooker ceramic coating had gone to sh*t in less than 2 years,the "Hooker" badge had fallen off, and the bottoms were now a bit flat, so we had nothing to lose. We were able to section about 3/4 out of each tube to move the collector up approx 3/4". Our goal is to get the car about 1/4" lower in ride height, and gain a little more ground clearance. For now all the tubes are fit and ready to be TIG welded, but for now they are just tacked together to test fit. We will be doing a new custom stainless exhaust to snake around our new torque arm rear suspension, trying to fit a true X pipe in about 10" of space, wish me luck!

marking the tubes
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...54520524_n.jpg

fitting everything back, and aligning the sections
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...28/photo32.jpg

both sides tacked together
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...28/photo31.jpg

Lookin good Keith! that' should do the trick. I scraped mine twice on the freeway doin a cool 70 on my way back from Laguna two weekends ago. Todd sent me a box (thursday i believe) so i will be playing with it as time permits over the next couple of months or a hole in the headers, whichever comes first i believe.

Ordered the rest of the roll bar from CA this week, so next week it will be "cutting sheet metal thirty" in my garage. Dry fit, then have Kyle the welder do his magic. Hopefully that will be done before T-Hill on May 3rd.

Fixed the latch.

Drove it 325 miles so far since Keith has done the front end and i must say all is well with the suspenders and steering!

Now for more power, cause baking them through 2nd gear isn't enough LOL

there you go!
Before you put them on for good, ship em out to Doug's to be put into production.
have fun tig welding 4 & 6 LOL
need to put the "baking" energy into forward movement brother

more hook = go faster :)

Glad you're enjoying the ride, Mike. Funny you should mention headers. I was just laying under mine today thinking about how I want to run the exhaust because I'm not interested in scrapping headers at 70. Making my own is still the route I intend to take. Hopefully, Todd/Holley can get the issues resolved and offer a great fitting header.