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  #11  
Old 02-03-2013, 09:54 PM
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got a little further today - took about 5 hours but I worked and worked until the car was perfectly level, then the main frame section, then got is squared up in the car, plumb bobbed like a freak, and finally cut two of the tie tubes that will go between the rockers rails and the main frame and tacked them in. That should be the hardest part of the build - getting things square and level - especially when I am dropping points off of a nearly 50 year old body = a major PITA.

I took one of the wheels I used to run on the front of the Porsche a few years back and tucked it up in the rear to get an idea of overall ride height. For those not in the know, "2 by" and "4 by" chunks are completely scientific. Actually it measured out to be within a ±1/8" of what I expect the height to be so this should be close. And those 245s barely fit up in there, my 275s were close but no cigar, so going to a 13" wide tire is going to take a fair amount of cutting in the rear. Good thing I won't need the rear subframe anymore

Hard to tell from the somewhat uneven floor (in Colorado the ground moves a fair amount so your garage is level for about the first month) but the frame is level here and the rocker rails are leveled as well and set for ride height, so you can sort of see the rake that I put into the body. Without front fenders it is a bit tough. Rockers at the front should end up about 3-3/4" ground clearance with the setup I finalized on using the 16" wheels and 24" front tire, 25" rear tire. For the street I will likely go 18" wheels as mentioned which will push front to 25" diam and rear around 25.5", raising the rocker to 4-1/4" on the street. 'Course, that is probably ±1/2" until I finish it and actually measure it hahaha. This is a garage project after all.

Oh yeah, I had those tires stacked on the front because I found the cg of the body with the jack at one point. The front was rather light while I was messing around getting things in place. Now everything is pretty solid but I figure I would rather stay safer than sorry.
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  #12  
Old 02-06-2013, 04:15 PM
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So talking with some co-workers and showing some photos of the progress, I was looking at how far the rear tire was tucked up in, then looking at my 914 and realized the front tire on the 914 is almost completely visible thru the fenderwell. That car was meant to be 5" off of the ground... the Nova, not so much. I grabbed a fender out for the Nova, placed that 245/50/15 tire and wheel at ride height on those blocks of wood, and I can say there is no good way I can put the car that low and turn the tires! The tire runs right into the fender immediately. If I spaced it in about 1-1/4" I could get enough motion to make a turn, and I planned to run steering stops for track use anyway (going near full lock with 11" tires and manual steering can rip the wheel out of your hand pretty easy) - but I don't like the look of the tire tucked in that far, nor do I like the idea of loosing another 2.5" of track width - the flared 914 already has a 2" wider track than the Nova.

So I am at an interesting point in the build already - either narrow the track which while being low would look cool and keep weight low, I think will look weird overall, or I raise the car up a couple more inches and see if that helps. I can keep the center part of the frame low, physically just raise the body up, which keeps the bulk of the car (all the drivetrain) at a 4" ride height which is probably what I will do at this point. Gives me more room under the hood for the tall intake and so forth, just sort of a bummer to not have the car as low as I wanted. Guess I didn't need to french the center frame into the floor after all which is also a pisser. Good excuse to replace the rusty floors anyway I guess - look at the bright side, right!

The joy of going from paper to the real world! The other thing is those old cars have a fair amount of scrub which sweeps the tire around when turning - my custom suspension I designed on the 914 to have 1" of scrub on an 11" wheel so the tire pivots more than it sweeps, which while good for track use, I think exacerbates this issue.
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  #13  
Old 02-06-2013, 04:23 PM
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Flares!

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Old 02-06-2013, 05:54 PM
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I know, right! Sadly, the early Novas are called "box Novas" for a reason - I have looked at the car since getting it trying to see if there would be a good, clean way to introduce flares into the design and I am not seeing it. The Porsche, and your Camaro for that matter, have a more rounded shape to them so flares fit well and look like they belong - I may need to figure out some way to pull the fenders out and not disturb the overall look. The body line right down the side of the car sort of honks up any good ideas I thought I had as well

Maybe I will just graft some 914 GT flares on it and call it a day! The cars do have similarly shaped fender openings and the 914 had pretty flat sides
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Old 02-07-2013, 11:44 AM
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Default Here is an idea...

well it is not mine but I liked it. Ring Brothers did the black and orange mustang. Widened the car 2 inches on each side, and brought the doors out to match. You could go wider if need be, but you would still keep the car visually intact.

http://ringbrothers.com/1965_mustang_producer
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Old 02-07-2013, 12:52 PM
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The Mustang coupes are pretty dang boxy and I think this looks bad ass.

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Old 02-07-2013, 04:46 PM
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I do like old T/A cars with flares. I had considered cutting the car in half front to back because the lines are sooooo simple on the car left to right and just widening it out 3 or 4 iches but then that is custom glass, etc etc. I was going to do that to the 914 originally and it was going to be an overall pretty brutal expense. Then, along the lines Payton points out, I thought about trying to flare front and rear like an 80s BMW M3 or Porsche 944 and just cut at the upper body lines and pull the fenders out. Physically moving the whole thing out like that Ring Bros car, oof, again, rough on the pocket book but certainly more subtle! Slick idea, and seeing their cars in person at SEMA is pretty impressive, but I am a baller, I just don't mention I run in the Little League crowd

Number one problem I have is I want the car to look like a basically stock 66 SS with a simple roll cage and nice wheels, lowered - a typical restomod. With the large backspace on the wheels, you wouldn't even think they were wide unless you knelt down and actually looked from the front or rear to see how wide. Sleeper concept. No cowl hood, no nothing. I plan to use the stock console even tho' the sequential has a funky, 2-handle shifter that will stick up through it. Flaring of any type will detract from that because that Nova is seriously as flat as a barn down the side. I was talking about the BMW/Porsche thing with a friend last night looking at the car and he said basically that same thing I have thought - the sides are just too flat so anything will become noticeable.

It will be more of a sleeper at 6" height than 4" height, and I am only raising the body and interior, so at least most everything else will be low and centered and shouldn't impact handling too much. At least that is what I have been telling myself the past couple days waiting for the reality to sink in haha.

Last edited by byndbad914; 02-07-2013 at 04:49 PM.
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Old 02-07-2013, 04:52 PM
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seeing that Mustang made me think of this picture, let's hope the Nova doesn't handle like this when I am done
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Old 02-17-2013, 12:03 AM
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Default after a couple weeks, back where I was...

I lowered the frame center section down another 1-3/4", so now I have a 2-5/8" delta in height from the main section and the rockers. That should net me around 5.5" clearance at the front of the rockers, 6-1/8" at the rear of the rockers. Still pretty low. Bummer is I would not have had to french the floor for the center section so I will now have to go back and fill all of that in

Nice thing tho' is there is more room for the torque tube and the high rise intake from raising the body up more, and it allows me a better way of putting the roll cage in but still being able to lift the body off. Engine should fit under the hood completely without cutting out hood bracing now, even with the tall filter.

Having a couple degrees of neg camber on the front for the track will help it all work out as well.

Next step pretty much is to pull the suspension out of the Porsche and start fitting it in here. I cut the inner fenderwells out of the rear today and I can see I need to go ahead and cut the rear subframe out of my way as well too, so I need to figure out some rear support for the trunk first. No way I can get that massive 13" wide tire back there with the subframe in the way

But I sort of want to hit the track in the 914 again, it was just too much fun last time out as usual. Been looking at C6 Vettes again but I need to finish a project before I start another
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Old 03-06-2013, 05:27 PM
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Cut the rear inners out and chopped the subframe back so I could fit the rear tires in. I also stripped the 914 last weekend so I am going to get plowing forward on this project with some more steam now. Will start fitting suspension next. Here are a couple quick shots with the race wheels and tires that will be on the car roughly fitted and blocked up to actual ride height. I can tip the front tires at -1deg to -1.5deg and keep the bottom out for track width while getting enough clearance from the fender to turn the tires enough to get around a track. Won't be busting U-turns with it unless they are 3 pointers but that doesn't bother me for a hot rod.

I think it will look pretty bitchin' even at the higher ride height. Still need to figure out how I am going to get the rear tires off with the IRS, I will have to make it so it can easily detach limiting straps so it can drop down 4" per side. I will also have to lift the rear as a unit so the sway bar droops. PITA making a car that serves two purposes v. just a track car - I would just get fiberglass rears and Dzus 'em on.

Carbon fiber hood is supposed to show up today from Anvil. They had a 50% off sale on what was left in stock - they had one mixed FRP/carbon trunk which is 18lbs v. the 50lb lump I took off (holy SH!T that is a heavy trunk lid on these) and my mom picked that up. the hood wouldn't fit in her little SUV so it was trucked out here and that is the full carbon version that is also 18 lbs v. the 45lb stocker. I will be painting them (not the type to wear my pants around my hips with my boxers out and bench racing my carbon look) so I didn't want the full carbon hood but it was the only one left. Lemme see, $749 for a new mixed one and 10wk wait or $800 for the full carbon shipped that day... hmmmm

Plan to run my NASCAR dual core double pass radiator and keep it low and slanted as shown in the pic. Keep all the weight as slow as possible. I will need to find a good body guy to make a front spoiler so I can duct air from below the bumper into it as well. The oil coolers will mount low in the front as well. I will just block off the upper part of the stock opening. Maybe I will just cut the core support a bunch and skin it, we will see how motivated I am to do that in the future.
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