Lateral-g Forums - redss86 Truck Arm Build LOTS of pics!!!!

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

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

- - redss86 Truck Arm Build LOTS of pics!!!! (https://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53447)

86 Monte Carlo SS Truck Arm Build LOTS of pics!!!!

I finally decided to actually start a build thread. I started this project over 10 years ago, but that was before becoming a homeowner, a husband, and a Dad. Now I am trying to get back to working on the car regularly. Hopefully I can get it driveable before my kids get to involved in school/ sports. My oldest will be 5 this December. So the clock is ticking.

This is an 86 Monte Carlo SS. Here is the original plans:

Body:
mini-tubbed 3"
spare tire well delete
rear floor board mod to clear suspension
stripped car to bare steel and epoxy primed
cut tunnel for t56 shifter clearance

Frame:
2x4 rect tubing from firewall to rear horns
truck arm rear suspension
screw jack rear spring perches
custom fabbed full floating 9in
truck arm x-member bracing
adjustable phb

Additional Plans:
SC&C AFX stage 2 kit
Bonspeed Delta wheels (18x9f, 18x10r)
315 rear 275 front tires
Approx. 550hp 383sbc or 600hp 434sbc
Viper t56 (already have)
Glass cowl hood (already have)
Complete original pattern leather interior w/ modified front seat foam (bigger bolsters)

Basic plans are still the same as I started with. That being something that I can daily drive if I choose, but yet still be able to tear up an autocross, or road course as needed. So please follow along and I will listen to any comments/ suggestions. Hopefully between 3 different forums I will be able to get the motivation to work on it.

Disassembly (I even got the "girlfriend/ wife now" to help):

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

I did a mini-tub by drilling out the spot welds and cutting along the inner/ outer wheel house seam, and dropping the entire piece above the axle out. Then I cut 3" out of the center, welded it back together, and re-welded it into the car. By doing this I was able to retain the #5 body bushing. While I was back there, I removed the spare tire well, and did some rust repair on the trunk flange.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Cool build! This is old school NASCAR stuff. Good luck.

I originally had planned to use SC&C's stage 2 kit with the afx spindle, but with more companies now offering front suspension setups I am trying to decide what to go with. I still have to do some more research, so let me know what everyone's thoughts/ opinions are in that area. Looking for pros/ cons of each. Plus I am open to any, and all suggestions on any other part of my build.

With that, more updates:

Had to modify the rear foot wells for the arms and braces.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Built transmission cross-member.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

My "helper" hard at work!

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Just some pictures of the frame while I had it upside down for welding. Some good shots of the "x" bracing for the truck arm cross-member.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Put some round tubes in the frame rails for the #3 body mounts.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Ended up cutting out the axle kick-ups because I didn't like what little room I had for suspension compression. So I cut them out and welded a piece of 2x3x0.125 tube across the top. I know an inch isn't much, but it's better than what I had.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Welded a 2x2x0.125 tube across between the axle kick-ups as support for the spring perches, and for upper shock mounts. I also cut out the original spring perches from the removed frame section, and welded them to the new rails/ cross-member. I wanted to keep the #5 body bushing, therefore I reused them. They are welded to the frame and cross-member, and have a 1/2" dom tube for support on the front inside corners. I modified the perches by welding a screw jack plate so that the rear height will be adjustable.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Very cool build,I will be watching this one for sure.Thats a lot of incredible hard work so far,great job.

Very cool... in for the ride. I have a Monte SS to play with, at some point.

Cool project, I love the fabrication. You're putting the custom in custom car for sure!

Here are some pictures of the rear end in the frame, and building spring perches on top of the axles.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

And the truck arm mounts

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

I will have to get some pictures of the finished spring perches. They supported a lot more than what is in these pictures.

Here is a picture of it when I got it out of my Dad's shed. From here, it went into a storage unit for 2 years I think. These were taken on April, '07.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

I know it leans in the last pic. I think I bent my ride height simulator on that side.

Now this puts us up to May '14. I took a weeks vacation to work on it. Unfortunately it took a good part of the week just to figure out where I was at on it. So that's a 7 year gap from working on it.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

And of course, when you have toddlers and some sidewalk chalk around, they tend to draw on "everything". I guess they were just trying to help me out with getting color on it.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

You can also see part of my new shed I built to be able to work on it.

After I mocked up the ride height, I put it up on stands to take a look underneath. I got to looking at the potential driveshaft clearance, and was a little concerned. So I found a piece of 3" conduit that I had laying around from building the shed. It just so happened to be the correct length to fit between the trans, and rear end to mimic a driveshaft. What I found was that at ride height I only had about 3/8" or less of clearance. So in turn I decided to raise the tunnel 1". So here is that process.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

In turn, I also had to raise the floor bracing.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Welded up the firewall- floorpan seam, and cut off the pinch welds on the outside. Hopefully to serve to clean up the firewall, provide more bell housing clearance, and possibly some strength.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Part of the reason I had to raise the floor, was because I decided to change my transmission cross-member. This raised the trans up, therefore I felt better raising the floor.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Since I am setting this up so low, and with the truck-arms, I am forced to have the exhaust exit in front of the rear wheels. I plan on using something like the borla xr1 or similar mufflers, and I have some "Nascar boom tubes" that I am using for "tips". So with all the extra bracing running through the center of the frame, I decided to put some exhaust pass throughs in the bracing. I intend to add some bracing on the tops and bottoms of the pass-throughs. I also have to put them in the front "diagonal" braces, but I have the body on the frame currently so that will wait. I will be using some oval exhaust tubing. The pass-throughs are made from some 4.25x0.250 dom tube that I heated and smashed into an oval.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

I had started doing the body work on the doors a looonnnggggg time ago. Needless to say they had some surface rust on them. So for Valantine's day this year, the wife's present to me, was working on my car!!!!. So I put her to work stripping the doors back to bare metal so I could get them back in epoxy. I did the same with the fenders.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

While the body is still on the frame, I decided to go ahead and see if I can get all the panels "fit". Needless to say, that is going to take some WORK!!! Gaps are not horrible, but where they are off, it's pretty bad (to me anyways).

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

This now gets up to date!!!

The only place I have changed direction from my "original" plan is the engine. Originally planned on a ~600hp sbc, but have change to a late model LS6 block and the intent on a pair of "hair driers". I don't actually have them yet, but I am still collecting parts as I find deals. The hope now is for ~650-700 whp. This will also retain a/c.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i1...20-%20Copy.jpg

Update's will slow now, as I have to actually work on it to have an update.

My friend Giff is selling a set of stainless up and forward headers by Stainless works. Also, a pair of truck manifolds with the bolt flange cut off and a set of v-bands work well, too.

Keep going !!!!!

I just went thur your build blog, I'm really impressed what you have accomplished so far ( and very surprised that your better half is helping out lots ) it's a donting task to build a chassis with limited shop fixtures ,but with a lot of creativity and knowledge it can be done. I have my project at my home garage ,trying to finish it, it's a 66 Chevelle NASCAR style chassis ( copy of the real thing ) give your better half and yourself a pat on the back for tackling such a big project as a do it yourself project in your home garage , best of luck the rest of the way, subscribed Ed