Thanks for the encouragement Marty and Rick. I was going to sleep in but ended up getting up early to go on a bike ride. I logged in and got a chuckle out of your posts !

Likewise, I didn't even pay attention to the MNF game. Awesome thread with great detail. Look forward to your future posts.

Nice garage night !
 

Thanks guys. I try to post up as much detail as time will allow. Always wish there was more time, or that one photo you forgot to take !

It was a great night in the garage, beautiful, cool evening, just fun to be outside. I didn't get that much done but sometimes it is just about being out there, rather than wasting time in front of the TV, or computer.

I took the differential housing off the dolly and finished all the welds on the dolly which was pretty easy. Not very fancy but it works great.

https://i.imgur.com/vZNd4BWl.jpg


I also mounted the differential housing back on the welding table to get started on the final TIG welding. I am looking forward to that so I can mount some brake lines and get it off to powder paint, a huge step.

Got the Kook headers sent back to Summit yesterday. I have mixed emotions there because they were pretty nice. I placed the order for Ultimate headers today, hoping to pick up more ground clearance.

Couple photos from tonight and that's about it.

https://i.imgur.com/cW2SjjZl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/hSL0VH4l.jpg

Welded the diff. housing
 

Well, I finally got some time to weld up the differential housing. What a lot of work. It took me all weekend. Here are the nicer welds. I am not going to show all the bad ones.

https://i.imgur.com/U1vVdhPl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2bIJ7U8l.jpg

I still have trouble going around a tube. This was a great project to practice on because there are so many angles and hard to reach places. I had to buy a short back cap to get into some places.

https://i.imgur.com/0cstnpBl.jpg

I thought this was a cool picture of my welder. It is old, mechanical and worn out just like the operator. But it hung in there for me all weekend and didn’t miss a beat.

https://i.imgur.com/9LzCy1Ml.jpg

These old housings always weep a little around the axle tube. I decided at the last minute to TIG braze the tubes to the housing with silicon-bronze rod. It won’t really add much strength, but hopefully it will keep it from leaking. I tried both DC and AC settings. AC seemed to work the best. It looks pretty ugly before grinding.

https://i.imgur.com/uaZEkiTl.jpg

But it ground down fairly well !

https://i.imgur.com/PoxnqASl.jpg

I decided not to weld the ends on until all the brackets were finished. Good thing because there was a large mismatch on one side and I had to reposition the ends for final weld. Both of my axle tubes are bent slightly. Rather than scrap the housing, I decided to just live with it. This means there is a mismatch where the end and tube come together. I made three passes and then a weaving pass at the end to smooth it out a little. I told my coworker that I probably created some sort of metallurgical taboo doing this but it is done !

https://i.imgur.com/YP9A0qzl.jpg

Afterwards the alignment jigs still slid in the ends fairly easily with the alignment bar, so everything is straight and fine. I snooped around on the DSE site and found a housing where they put the brake hose tabs in this location. I just blindly copied it so I hope it doesn’t interfere with anything later.

https://i.imgur.com/mQwq10rl.jpg

I finally got to cut these housing stands off my welding table. It is great to have those out of the way.

https://i.imgur.com/8IT1bIPl.jpg

I mounted the housing back on the cart and I will do just a little clean-up before taking it to the powder painter this week.

https://i.imgur.com/5yH3eJAl.jpg

Next weekend is Goodguys, so I will be crawling all over the cars getting ideas for the next phase of the project. Probably won’t get much done this week but looking forward to some nice times at Goodguys !

This is a major milestone that was beautifully executed. It's done! No more worrying about how it will turn out. All your careful planning and yards of laying bead produced a perfect rear end. Have a great time at Goodguys.

Ultimate Headers Arrived !
 

Just a quick mid-week update, Brown Santa arrived with the Ultimate Headers today. These are just really nice pieces of hardware. I will admit I was a little worried they would get damaged in transport, but they are packed really well for shipping. This is my first set of shorty/mid-length headers and it was cool to see just how small the box is.

https://i.imgur.com/zXbQU7Pl.jpg

Here is a quick photo fresh out of the box. I had the low profile ball style coupling installed which I think will really reduce stress when things heat up and move around.

https://i.imgur.com/zlo1XaIl.jpg

Everything fit really well, improving my steering box, control arm and ground clearance.

https://i.imgur.com/plzPL45l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DWvHL3ol.jpg

Both headers go in from the top now which was an unexpected bonus. The passenger side has an amazing amount of room.

https://i.imgur.com/NOaM1Y1l.jpg

The only down side is they are so nice I will have to build a really decent 3-Inch exhaust now. I am very pleased with this purchase. Jim Browning at Ultimate was very good to work with, answering all my dumb questions. I can tell he has a passion to deliver a really high quality product. Also need a shoot out to Joe VanNus at Dutch Boys. I called him out of the blue one day asking which headers fit their Camaro projects the best. He spent a bunch of time on the phone with me, in spite of how busy he is. I had heard of Ultimate from Camaro XV, but was actually not seriously considering them until we talked. I want to extend kudos to Joe for the good advice.

Next up the differential is getting powder painted and should be done tomorrow. I will start putting that together this weekend and hope to complete it if all goes well this weekend!

Anyone in Phoenix Area
 

Anyone in the Phoenix area have a new 12-bolt pinion nut ? Hate to admit that I misplaced the new one in the Moser setup kit. I am about ready to wrap up the differential and can't find one. I can replace early next week. You could PM your contact information - appreciated !:ohsnap:

Sorry I can't help you with the nut I'm loving the progress


Marty-mj
www.garagescene.net www.syborgtwinturbo.com www.2ndcamaro.com

Rear end in process
 

Finally started setting up the differential and gears. I Ended up not working on it the last two weeks because I was missing the 1350 input yoke. Funny I took for granted that the local drive-train shops would have it in stock due to my lack of experience. I had to order it costing me a weekend. As mentioned above I also misplaced the pinon lock nut. I called GM and they said they had one. Unfortunately when I got home it was 7/8-14 rather than the 7/8-16 thread that is needed. Gosh I have forgotten all the little things that can go wrong with a simple axle build-up. I need to start planning a little better. I will post up some more pictures tomorrow. If I can't find the locknut tomorrow it will be shimmed and the pattern set, but I will have to stop there.

https://i.imgur.com/UFOiOItl.jpg

its always the little things isn't it.