silverslashstreak

Here are a few pictures of progress of my 63 roadster project. I have run the engine an hour or so and sorted out a few little problems and it is ready to go. Just have to add brakes and chassis is ready to go.

Blk63Vette

Hello

You done and excellent job..One day.. I hope when I do my restoration on my 1963 Corvette ragtop it will look half as good as yours!

NICE JOB!

BADBIRDCAGE

Jeff:

GREAT looking job. ANd I know it is not only great looking but well done also.

Rich

40ZR1

Hey Silverslashstreak, Very nice job on frame and motor. What brakes and spindles are you using on your car. I want to put disc on my car, so I'm curious!
40zr1

silverslashstreak

Thanks guys, it is the first time I have been able to take my time and not be in a hurry to get it on the road and that makes it alot more fun.

ZR1, I am using all stock 76 spindles and brakes. I am probably going to use Muskegon Brakes stock stainless calipers because they have the best price on powder coated units.

The only mods I have done is the jeep box and slotted upper a frames (to get 5 degrees positive caster) and fiberglass rear spring.

Black_Magic

Jeff

Loooooooking Goooooood

George

LouieM

SSS - Is it necessary to have so much caster with the addition of the jeep box? Did you run the jeep box with stock caster and the steering was somehow unsatisfactory? I'm close to ordering a jeep box for my 67 but had not anticipated slotting the a frames. Is it necessary for some reason? It is not mentioned at the Corvette Steering site. More info needed from an informed user!

Louie

Gman58

Thats beautiful. Greg

aworks

First let me say that chassis looks great. As far as caster go's. No it is not necessary. but it sure helps with the way the car feels with PS. I'm going for 5 to 6 degrees of caster in my current project.

mudbone64

I remember from your previous thread you test fitted your body to the frame in order to verify that all of the body mounts were going to line up before you performed your final welding. I was wondering if you "pre-fitted" your rear bumper brackets and your gas tank too. This particular frame conversion is of great interest to me as I may do the same process.

Mudbone64

LouieM

I still don't understand. I've had C2 with and without PS and, except for lighter steering, the PS didn't make the car feel different. What difference in feel will 5-6 degrees of caster make as far as the driving experience? I autocross a lot -- will the additional caster be noticeable while doing that? Apologies for the questions, but I've never heard about so much caster being added to a car, to the extend that mounting holes have to be elongated.

Injected Stingray

Louie the reason for more caster is that when you install the jeep PS box it is very sensitive!! If you do not add the caster the car will dart from side to side and you will be constantly correcting on the wheel.

By adding more caster you make the car want to go straight down the road. This would make the car harder to turn if you did it with a manual box, but with the power it makes the car easyer to drive.

silverslashstreak

Louie, Injected and Aworks are correct, it is not necessary to add the caster, you will be ok with the stock recommendation of 2 degrees, but when you add the positive caster it makes your car much more directionally stable at high speeds. As for the Jeep box being to sensitive I ran my first one for a few years with 2 degrees and I never felt like it was twitchy or to sensitive.

The reason + caster makes a car more stable is when the tire turns out it tries to lift the front of the car so it is harder to turn the wheel and it makes the tire try to stay on center.

This also helps in auto crossing. First rule is that weight transfers diagonally across a cars chassis. (If you lift the right front of a car you will transfer weight from the right rear wheel to the left rear wheel). So when your car starts to slide to the right when you are coming off a left turn and you counter steer to the right you are lifting the right front of the car and transfering weight to the left rear thus tightening up the rear of the car so you can get off the corner faster.

This is my SWC last year at Eureka and it ran 4th fast on the day out of over 120 vettes, about 90% late models. You can watch the rear end tighten up as it is coming of a corner. Long winded explanation, hope it helps.

[IMG][/IMG]

LouieM

Jeff - Nice line thru the autoX! What HP does that 63 animal produce? Very cool that you were so fast in a crowd of new Vettes. I'm planning to redoing my 327 soon and being lots faster on the circuits.

Thanks for the caster explanation.... finally it is clear. Thanks also for mentioning that the jeep box is not too twitchy to live with given normal alignment settings.

Louie

silverslashstreak

Thanks Louie, the engine is a bone stock L98 out of a 90 Vette with a Street and Performance mild street chip running through a Stock T5 transmission.

I have said it before, if I had to choose 1 mod only, it would be the Jeep box.

Jeff

firstgear

WOW....very nice.....big undertaking!!!!

Herb

LouieM

Jeff,
The fact that you don't have a Monster Motor shows how well your car.... and your driving ... are dialed in at the autox track.

Now I HAVE to get the jeep box! You've recommended it year after year, and my resistance has finally crumbled...after seeing you autocrossing with it!

Louie

silverslashstreak

Hey Mudbone, I actually fitted the front and the rear bumpers and bolted everything down. The rear was a natural fit because I used the 63 rear frame from the rear end cross member back. The front frame horns are a little different so I had to drill new holes for the bracket for the front bumpers.

By the way Louie that steering box will lower your times by a good 20%.

LouieM

20%!
CONSIDER IT DONE!

jntdysf

Neat video. I've never seen a C2 move like that. Impressive.

Mike