tshort

Doug,
My thoughts on your front springs and height/stance: this would be best to have done before attempting any passes at the strip. This sucker is going to go WELL over 110 mph in the quarter and the 110-ish mph is where a fairly stock bodied stock suspensioned C3 starts lifting at the nose. With my old 383 I had these problems at the track and it was a little scary. Luckily at my 450-500-ish HP level in the 383 I was pretty much done when the nose started lifting. When I put in the 427 two things changed: A) weight on nose went up with no change to smallblock springs and B) I added the stock chin spoiler. These 2 relatively minor things really helped plant the nose down better and I don't feel it lifting past 120 mph. I also have those tractor tires on the rear so that gives the car more rake than a stock setup.

My point, keeping the nose down and as much spoiler on the front will help keep the front end from getting light at the top end of the track. So waiting 'till later to change the front springs if you're going to do it anyways to bring the front down might be best to do now rather than waiting until after Cruise-In.

$.02

68 NJConv 454

Doug, not sure if you've finalized your spark plug/wiring plans but i went with Taylor blue race plugs and the 45 deg boots worked best with my 509 and hooker sidemount headers. I also used the taylor fiberglass sparkplug socks to protect the wires should they get too close to the headers.
Something similar to this http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku

Wish I lived closer.

Snowman

Yeah. My 3rd set of wires didn't work. Say BB HEI and 90 degrees but those didn't work with the headers. Back to the drawing boards.

Thanks for the tips. I have the socks already just waiting for the wires.

Thanks

Doug

BB72

Does this give you any ideas? These Ultra wires have the rubber sleeve covering the wires.

Snowman

Wow what a day! Had 4 of us (Stan and Tim from Boston and Mike Dyer from DFW and myself for the day 9-130 working on this.

We started the day with a new 80 gallon compressor which froze up mid-morning. I took myself and my diplomatic negotiation skills over to Lowes who had no trucks, no drivers and couldn't swap out for a new one (when we started) and had a new one at the house 90 minutes later. Never fear about 2 hours later the motor on the new one overheated and crapped out so back to Lowes I went. This time not such good luck. So Monday they are coming out and taking this one back for a refund. In the meantime, the motor cooled down enough to fill the tank a couple more times tonight if used sparingly.

Tim and Stan (with help from Mike) did some amazing body work today. They saw-zalled out old frame mounts in the rear and replaced. Rear of car was sagging but that is now corrected. Also completed dash wiring and those packages are ready to go back in the car. The hood is partly fitted but will need more work.

Got a temporary cross member that we will fit to the car in the morning. Will swap it for the final one early in the week. Thanks to Mike Gregory for his help with that. Have drive shaft ready to go in (thank you again Patrick) and will have proper spark plug wire set to install in the morning. Even MSD tech line person told me the wrong set to buy today! This is set #4.

We finished body prep tonight and sprayed several coats of gelcoat at about 12:45am, then cleaned up and closed up the barn before two many night creatures gave their lives to immortalize themselves in the first round of gelcoat. While looking like orange peel city as one would expect before it is worked any, you can really see the lines of the final car beginning to emerge. Was very exciting to watch!

Tomorrow, we ARE going to get the car started for my birthday which is still quite a trek. You are welcome to come help anywhere in 8:30am-3pm range if you like. Please call before you come!

Doug

713 907-5289

Snowman

Travis, I spoke with Randy at SpeedDirect today. Great guy, very responsive. I have 450# springs in front. If I go to 350#, the spring is longer so net effect is the same.

Finally ended up deciding to cut a coil. They suggested 2 shops in town they have worked with in the past. Does anyone know a shop they trust in this area who I could go to?

Thanks,

Douig

Snowman

Hey Gang!!

What a long day! When we started, neither Mike nor I thought that Bruiser was even going to BG. We had trouble with strange sounds coming from tranny, were contemplating pulling motor and tranny to trouble shoot. Were able to pull tranny from under car and make the changes we needed to make.

Somewhere this afternoon, we started completing the projects that had been hanging out with 1 thing left on them....and got some momentum going finally. Dana's brother Scott helped some, we just kept going.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZmwpEcHwUA

I'll send a note tomorrow with what I have left but major stuff yet is installing final version of cross member, building new driveshaft, get brakes working, plumb PS/PB, plumb hydraulic brakes and install radiator/assemblist

Thanks to everyone for tonight. Thanks for your support

427Hotrod

It's alive!! Bruiser has a ticking heart now!!

Congratulations.....you guys are animals! There can't be anyone else working as hard as this group to get a car to the Cruise In!!

It's going to be a long week...but that was a major accomplishment! Now just keep attaching things to the car and you'll make it!

Let's see...that was ALMOST on time for your birthday right??


JIM

0Road-Race Vette

The motor sounds awesome!!!!!
I wish I could have heard it in person. Congrats.

Snowman

Had you been in the garage, your ears would still be ringing! Mike who has heard a few motors in his time said it was louder than a stock car racing motor. He was impressed.

Now we have a long list of stuff to complete before next Tuesday morning when we leave for BG. A long list. I will ship your stuff back to you today.

DP

tracdogg2

My ears are still ringing!
It took 14 hrs yesterday to run the engine for 10 seconds. I didn't think there was a chance since yesterday morning started off with the engine just sitting on the mounts, nothing hooked up, and having to pull the trans to find a scraping noise in the clutch. Just down to a little more fabrication and a whole lot of assembly.
Stan, I wish you guys were here to hear it run. The video doesn't come close compared to hearing it in person. I'm just wondering how many phone calls Doug got this morning.LOL. I don't remember what time it was when we fired it but it was late.
Mike

tshort

Congrats guys! I can't believe it either. I dropped by Saturday afternoon and it was nowhere near being able to startup. Wish I could have heard it. Forgot to tell you Happy Birthday while I was there, Snowman.....Happy Belated!
Are you planning on putting the inserts in the pipes or just run open headers, Doug?

Budman68

Mike/Doug/Jim,
What size carb did you guys decide to run? That looks like my little 650 DP or that is one big a$$ motor. Very impressed with all the hard work you guys are putting into this project.
Buddy

0Road-Race Vette

Mike, you are a good man. It was a pleasure working with you.

0Road-Race Vette

Well, here goes:

I got the call from Doug to be involved in this project, and needless to say I was pretty excited.
As a result, on May 2nd, I,and my right hand man Tim took off for Houston, after we shipped all the tools we were going to need. We had a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. The car was found as expected(almost. It had a few secrets to reveal that had to be dealt with). More on that at a later time

We worked day and night, and had a bit of good help from Mike Dyer, and did accomplish the task at hand.(fraring the car glassing in the tail pan, fitting the hood, and a few unexpected surprises.

Doug is a great motivator and organizer,and without his help(and motivational speeches) this "OVERHAULIN FOR TWO "episode would have been a lot harder to do.

Here are some behind the scenes pics of what went on :


The car as we found it. It definately needed flares




We set up shop





And went to work fitting the flares








Then came the glueing and glassing in



Here is Mike lending a hand








Then the body work started








There we are in our uniforms



You think this suit was mislabeled as an extra large???



After a bunch of body work, the car started looking like something









The next day, our new compressor broke and Doug had to come to the rescue with another one (WHICH ALSO BROKE SHORTLY AFTER THIS DELIVERY)




At this point Dougs garage was not looking so good!!!!




After some more work, the car was roughed in and ready for some gelcoat.





The next day, this is what she looked like.










Here is a group pic of the dream team



JUST BEFORE WE LEFT, WE EVEN MADE SOME NEW FRIENDS!!




Overall, it was a great time, and we will return soon to finish the job!!!!

This MOBILE RESTORATION SHOP THING IS PRETTY COOL !!!

427Hotrod

Those show an unbelievable transformation! WOW!!

You build some killer flares...those just look RIGHT!! Much better than usual for sure!

Buddy....that carb is a 1000HP. It chokes to the low 800HP range!


JIM

tshort

Jim,
You gotta see these flares in person. They are about the best I've seen. To give you an idea, when you look at the car broadside you would think it was a stock bodied car. Then as you walk around it's like the flares and the wheels jump out at you like a 3D picture. MOST EXCELLENT WORK!!! Gosh, makes me wish I had the money to flare mine. I would do it in a heartbeat. Great work guys!

427Hotrod

I'm looking forward to it!

You know Travis...*what you need to do is......*

They're coming back to do paint....no reason not to flare the Voodoo Vette while they're here!

Better make sure we have bump stops adjusted......hope someone measured for the slicks...sure hate to smack a flare on a good launch! Or wheels coming back down!!


JIM

0Road-Race Vette

Thank you my friend. We would be glad to flare your car if you need it. It seems like Houston is our home away from home now!!!!

Just make arrangements with our agent, Doug

Snowman

Travis, you just need to decide which kid is going to need to get a scholarship to college, that's all! If I could tolerate the dust, we could line em up for miles! I do think they would be smart to open 2nd Gen Restorations Houston Branch though!

DP