I ended up choosing to go with the Ridetech 4-link setup with the Curry rear they offer in the narrowed length. Chose the Wilwood 12" brakes to hopefully clear my 15" wheels so I didnt have to change them out right now, they do clear.
I installed the airbar and it was not too bad but had to do a good amount of hammering to get the bar in. The frame rails were spot on, only had to hammer in the front area of the trunk pan where it meets the floor pan and where the airbar bolts to the trunk floor.
This airbar is the "newer style" where the upper arms point inwards rather than outwards. This newer style's mounting plate that bolts up near the tunnel is a little different from what I've seen on the older style airbars, there are 5 bolts and the middle bolt is the center of the airbar. As you can see in the photos the center bolt is off about an inch to the left. I called spoke to Ridetech and showed them the photos and it turns out the floor pan is a little crooked from factory tolerances or it was replaced at some point incorrectly.
After the airbar was installed I put the rear in and ran some tubing for the brakes. You can also check out my badass exhaust turndowns I hacked up and installed for the time being. The funny looking wheels do not stick out anymore, they actually fit pretty damn good now. Not sure what size the wheels are exactly but they are a 15" torque thrust wheel with 3.75" backspacing and they are running a 275 tire.
My rear ended up being more towards the driverside and it needed to be shifted to the passenger side 1/4". When centering my rear side to side I found that the uppers moved it exactly 1/4" when lengthening and shortening the uppers simultaneously every 1.5 turns with the single adjustable uppers. I lengthened the DS upper and shortened the PS upper 1.5 turns and it shifted the rear 1/4" to the PS where it sits perfectly centered.
Another little issue I ran into was the 3rd member came equipped with a 1310 series yoke rather than the advertised 1330 yoke. See photo below, the width is inline with a 1310 yoke at 3.219", my measurement was 3.211". The 1330 yoke should measure at 3.622". Both curry and ridetech advertisers a 1330 yoke. It made for an interesting couple of trips to the driveshaft shop across town. For some reason, Curry did not believe me and said there was no way because they do not even stock 1310 yokes. After emailing back and forth a few times they agreed to send me the correct yoke and threw in the correct u-joint and u-bolts. I'll install the yoke later down the road when I do the motor/trans swap so I just make one more trip to the driveshaft shop.
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With all this extra articulation and my tall tires I hit the DS rear quarter and split the bondo lol. To not do this anymore I figured I would install the muscle bar but just my luck they sent me a 2nd gen muscle bar with 1st gen bushings. The 2nd gen bar is a little thinner in diameter. The quarter is shot and I'll replace it at some point. There is now a golfball sized hole where the bondo split.
I was sent the correct muscle bar and installed it but it did not help with the body twisting and all and my tire woud still make contact with the quarter on both sides going up and down my driveway. I decided to purchase DSE subframe connectors. Also built some of those stands out of 2x4s to help with the install.
I started the install to find more rust as expected on the floor pan. I knew about this when I purchased the car but did not know it was quite as bad. All 4 low areas of the pan have rot and the firewall toeboards too. I'll hold off on the subframe connectors for the time being. I need to evaluate some things and see what I want to do with the floor and quarters.
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Last edited by jasonz28camaro; 10-23-2018 at 03:08 PM.
I was sent the correct muscle bar and installed it but it did not help with the body twisting and all and my tire woud still make contact with the quarter on both sides going up and down my driveway. I decided to purchase DSE subframe connectors. Also built some of those stands out of 2x4s to help with the install.
I started the install to find more rust as expected on the floor pan. I knew about this when I purchased the car but did not know it was quite as bad. All 4 low areas of the pan have rot and the firewall toeboards too. I'll hold off on the subframe connectors for the time being. I need to evaluate some things and see what I want to do with the floor and quarters.
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You're doing good, keep after it. Don't compromise on your foundation, it'll never be cheaper to fix it then it is right now! After all, this is hot rodding, if it was easy everybody'd be doing it!
I kind of wimped our on fixing the quarters and floors due to my eagerness to get it back on the road. I work offshore and finding the time to do this work is difficult sometimes when I’m home so I just dropped it off at a local shop to get some of the metal workdone. I will be handling some of the smaller metal work items still but I’d rather not mess up the quarters and have the car look funny. I plan on doing the subframe connectors still and some cowl related items once i get it back. I’m still have few weeks worth of photos to upload and a few more new goodies that I’ve picked up I’ll be sharing soon. The shop had an 8 week wait for my car so I tried not to waisted too much time. My goal is to get her back on the road this spring.
The shop said the cheapest way to get this stuff fixed was to send in as much of a shell as I could so I started by taking off the front sheet metal and the motor.
I found a creative patch on the PS side cowl piece that I'll be repairing when the car gets back and some rust on the driver side I'll be addressing.
FWI, I placed the motor mounts back on the stands after I removed it. Dont let the pictures fool you.
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