Lateral-g Forums - Ironworks to build Fairway Chevrolet crate engine test car

Lateral-g Forums (https://www.lateral-g.net/forums/index.php)

- Project Updates (https://www.lateral-g.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=16)

- - Ironworks to build Fairway Chevrolet crate engine test car - 1970 Chevelle ZL1 (https://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php?t=37941)

Ride height is dead on Roger! Gives a new meaning to "sitting pretty.":clap: :clap:

Stance looks great .. That will be a fun, clean ,fast etc.. ride when complete
Roger

That car sits just right! Makes me glad I'm building a Chevelle. More pics please!!

Can't wait to see that dash. Would pay good money for a GTO version!

The first one is always the hardest. And with this big complex piece that takes alot of time. I cannot imagine how many lines of code it takes to program this part. I'm sure millions.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psed60f635.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psf9958b00.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps48dad669.jpg

This is just rough cut on the initial stage. It will get fine tuned in the finishing stages.

Car part porn. That's what that is. I wonder why my firewall at work didn't block it!

:thumbsup:

Great looking stuff! Wheels are very cool.

That dash is something else! wow

NICE WORK!!!! :confused59:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironworks (Post 459705)

The first one is always the hardest. And with this big complex piece that takes alot of time. I cannot imagine how many lines of code it takes to program this part. I'm sure millions.

This is just rough cut on the initial stage. It will get fine tuned in the finishing stages.

wow, wish I could tell you buy my keyboard caught fire before I could come up with a number. Your guy is good.

Impressive! :thumbsup:

Roughly how much milling time so far?

My guess is 6 to 8 hours to rough that out...

The machine time is the easy part, getting the part all programmed and fixtured properly is the time consuming part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironworks (Post 459882)

The machine time is the easy part, getting the part all programmed and fixtured properly is the time consuming part.

Make me a deal on some custom LS Valve covers this weekend

I wont have them yet this weekend. But soon. These dashes have slowed up my other parts. But soon enough.

Time for a bigger CNC mill, looks like you've run out of travel in X on your dash panel, two set-ups suck. On the next machine, make sure you have enough travel to make the rear bumper pad (70 Chevelle) out of aluminum.

Rodger look's great so far.:thumbsup:

This thing is awesome. I keep going back to the original picture to remember what mine looked like before I pulled it apart.

then you add the chassis and see the stance. This thing is dead on perfect. thanks for the inspiration.

HEEP

Wow!! Another home run!!

Well done Rodger. :thumbsup:

It aint done yet. Just getting the fab done for this ride height.

That's a purdy car you guys built Rog!
:popcorn2:

Love the wheels. They look very similar to what is on my bumble bee. However I like these a little more then the Niche wheels I have. Looks like I might upgrade to these.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironworks (Post 458870)

Alright guys time for a late Friday afternoon update.

A couple weeks ago we decided we wanted to run a bigger rim in the back of this project. The 19 was just not doing it with the ride height we had. We got the car way down on the ground. But the Formula 43 wheel we liked was not available in a 20" wheel. So we started looking around at other wheels. It is a never ending task. At that point in time Ben Hermance was unveiling his new Grip Equipped wheel line through Forgeline. I sent some pics of about 5 wheels I thought the customer might like. A few days later he flew over from Vegas for Lunch and to drive his LS9 57 Chevrolet home for the winter. We looked at the 5 choices over and over and really liked the Laguna wheel. The vinyl top on this car really kind dirties down the vibe of the car. So some of the other styles of wheels we were considering where not lining up. Plus we really thought the Laguna in a dark gray center would be our accent or 3rd color in the pallet. Black, Chrome, and Dark grey with a red ox blood interior.

So I contacted Ben to discuss the wheels. He told me about the complexity of the design and all those kinds of things. I told him I needed to get my stuff together because I was going to Hawaii for 2 weeks over Christmas and we planned to display this car as a fabrication display for our frames and what exactly needs to be done to the body to fit our chassis's with the lowest ride heights in the industry. We got that squared away. I went to Hawaii and had my fun time.

Well I'm getting ready to get on the plane to fly home and txt or email Ben to just check and see how things are going. He says good but the guy who orders materials has not returned his emails and he is not sure if this is good or bad. Sometimes no news is good news and sometimes it is not. Well we found out that the guy he emailed to order these special center forgings for the Laguna wheels was on vacation also. Slacker... :D :D

So now we have a big scamper to try and pick up the pieces. OK PAY ATTENTION, This is where a guy is a good vendor. Ben knows I want to display this car at GNRS the end of January, and we are 3 weeks away from the show and 4 weeks from getting these special blanks. So he tells me to get me out of a bind he is going to build me another set of rims that don't take a special forging to build and send those to me for the event.

That right there is the way it is done. When things happen because something always will. Do what you can to fix the situation. Then they 2nd day aired the wheels to me to be sure we can complete everything in time for the event next weekend.

So enough sappy happy vendor story crap. Check out these Drop Kick wheels from Grip Equipped.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psc623e48d.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps4763331c.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps9fb91da9.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psd698b7fa.jpg

The Centers look more bronze then they are in showing up in the pictures.

I hope to have the car on the ground and finish up some loose ends on Monday to do a full on the ground stance shot.

Thanks Ben for doing all you could.

Also if anybody is interested in these wheels we are the newest West Coast dealer for them. http://www.forgeline.com/products/grip-equipped-series/

Rodger

Well it's Monday after the show. Unloaded the cars out of the hauler in the chilly 32 degrees this morning. BURRRR.

The show went great, I think we may have sold the most frames ever at an event. And we got a ton of new project interest. And took and very reasonable offer on the Super 69 Camaro project with a very serious client. The Grip Equipped wheels were a hit and the Rick's Tanks flyer disappeared like free candy.

Here are some ride height pics of the Chevelle after we took it out of the hauler.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps0e62e93c.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psfab8a65d.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psa2f985cd.jpg

This last picture is an excellent example of why you powder coat or paint the fuel tank black on these cars. HAHA

Back to work.

I would be very proud to own that. Excellent job and killer execution.

Checked our the Chevelle this weekend. The car sits low and looks bad ass just setting there.

Congrats on the prosperous weekend Rodg. :thumbsup:

I hate to be the one that points this out, but, if you would hurry up and make that aluminum rear bumper pad, I would'nt be staring at that crooked rubber one on there. :poke:
I totally agree that that tank sticks out like a sore thumb, got to do something about that!

Rodger
:popcorn2:

Great job on the Chevelle ! What a stance !

Congrats on having a big show !

Tom

Quote:

Originally Posted by SS454 (Post 460859)

That rubber one is JUNK.

Thanks

No complaints here. That baby is sitting pretty like a deer on a hunting range.:guns:

Looks great and the stance is spot on! Congrats on what sounds like a very successful show.

That looks killer. Great job.

Stance is perfect. Did you have to do any modifications to the body or is this how any chevelle with your chassis under it will sit?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironworks (Post 460784)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BBT FAB (Post 460905)

Stance is perfect. Did you have to do any modifications to the body or is this how any chevelle with your chassis under it will sit?

Our chassis bolts right to the car but it does require floor mods for clearance.
Drive shaft tunnel, for the lowered ride height and the trans tunnel for the bigger trans.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps7ec02d9e.jpg

The rear floor behind the axle housing will require some mods to the floor. We cut out this section to just replace a big section instead of cobbling up some patched up sections. Just nicer results.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...toshoot027.jpg

Then work has to be done to the inner fenders. This is probably the biggest task. They only need to be widened for running a 10 front wheel if needed. I'm looking at having these made from carbon and glass. Running an 18" front wheel instead of a 19 will minimize this work quite a bit.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps4c40ab4b.jpg

In my opinion the ride height is what sets our frames apart from the other out there. We do not sacrifice ground clearance for this stance. Plus we also work to helps solve other issues on the car. There is no way anybody is going to get there car this low without a drive shaft tunnel. Our frame has a 4 inch beam height under the rocker and the later model Chevelles do not suck up the frame as deep as the early model units. But we have done some extra work to add strength and minimize visual impact of the frame on the side of the car. You can barely see it in these pics and it is still baremetal not powdercoated black yet.

Thanks

Rodger

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironworks (Post 460784)

That is bad ass Rodger. Congrats on the success.

Rodger nice fab work I can really relate to the amount of work that people just don't see it is such a shame to cover up so much work that most people will never see but rest assured that there is alot of people like myself that really appreciate how much work goes into such a feat just lower it a little more,oh yea a wider tire in the front and the rear thats the kind of thing that takes so much time most people just can't comprehend. That's what puts builds like this to raise the bar and boundaries of what can be done. Thanks for your efforts and inspirations!!!!!:thumbsup: :thumbsup: