Mr. Wizzard

Once again, thanks guys.

Inside to inside on the upper control arm mounting plates I get exactly 32 inches on my car. I believe that Gary moved all of the suspension points 2" inboard on the new car he's building for Ken.

As soon as my new front brakes arrive, I plan to do the suspension swap and I'm keeping records of everything, so if anyone else wants to do the same thing, I can provide both information and parts (we kept the program for machining the lower shock mounts).

My engine and headers are spoken for Ty, but we will build a jig which will allow us to reporduce them (better). I might want to fit some pieces to your car to determine if the clearances are the same. They really hug the chassis motor-mounts up front with the first tube from each bank, so I think that will be the area we'll have to be careful with.
I will say one thing....I'm quite sure the power my headers make over block-huggers would be significant. I'm thinking that your engine may need a 1 7/8" primary pipe rather than the 13/4" headers on my car.

We've been selling the heck out of the hinges. I've finally taken to having the stainless wear plates laser cut, 150 at a time. Doing those with our mill has really consumed a lot of end mills. They still require hand-fitting, counter-sinking the bolt hole, and edge-grinding... followed by polishing once everything is bolted together. We also have mil-spec bolts that fit the pivot bores perfectly for long-service life.
I do have them in stock in all three varieties. (Super-light (with holes), light, and stock appearing).

Larry

KS69Coupe

WOW, what a project, what a gorgeous car.

Thanks for all the play-by-play notes and pictures.

Kevin

tyoneal

Larry:

I think you are right about the 1 7/8 primary on my engine. How do you feel about the "Tri Y" headers? I have heard that they help extract more usable power out of the engine.

I'm glad to hear you are having good success with your hinges. Good Job!

I will keep in touch as I move forward, I know you have some items I would like to have on my car.

Are you selling hinges for a lot of C2's, not just Grand Sports?

Ty

Mr. Wizzard

I've sold a number of (stock-appearing) hinges to guys running C2's in vintage competition and most recently, five sets of the super-light's to guys building restomod C2's.
Our biggest problem doing the hinges is the fact that they compete with racing cylinder heads that we port on that same CNC machine.

tyoneal

Do you run your CNC machine 24/7?

Is this something that you could farm out to keep you machine more available for porting?

Some people I know joined a local CO-OP for machining equipment access. He mention that there CNC machine had a lot of down time through the week because of peoples schedules.

Have you looked into anything like that?

I'm not trying to pry, as a small business owner myself I like to see other owner owned businesses do well and grow.

Someday as I get things around here a bit more settled, I would really like to meet you and see your business, and put a face with the name.

Anybody who likes the original Grand Sports is a friend of mine.

Ty

Mr. Wizzard

Bob (our CNC expert) designed and built the fixturing on our machine. While we do have the Mastercam digital files for the hinges, other machines (that don't have an identical center of rotation) would require all-new files, fixturing, lots of test pieces, and patience....and I'm not interested in going through all of that again.
I look forward to meeting you too Ty. We're easy to access on the freeway system here in Cowtown, so just let me know when you have time to drop by.

Mr. Wizzard

I've added a few items to the article on TheOldOne web site. The narrowed front suspension has been going together like a model kit. So far the only hitch has been that the standard issue front shocks don't have enough vertical travel so suit me....and some of the local roads here.
I should have some QA1 double adjustables with springs arriving in the morning so we can button things up. I also increased the front spring rates from 250 to 300. My Honda Civic runs 450's in the front, so I'm sure 300's won't be too uncomfortable.
The Wilwood brakes fit so well behind the structure of the wheels that they should be an option for anyone doing a serious build.
I'll have more to report tomorrow (and more pics as well).


LW

groovyjay

You really are taking this to a new level!

silverslashstreak

Looking good Larry. QA1 is on our list. I am looking forward to your input on how effective the double adjustability of the shocks works out for you.
Jeff

jim lockwood

That's nice work, Larry. I like the safety wire on the rotor hat bolts and the Nyloks on the bearing hubs.

What are the rotor dimensions? Would that package clear 15" wheels?

Jim

Mr. Wizzard

Hi Jim,
The rotors are 13". The caliper extends .500" past the rotor at it's greatest diameter. I could probably trim them a little if need be....or perhaps a cast 15" wheel could have a little additional internal machining to make clearance?

jim lockwood

Hi Larry,

I don't think a 15" wheel would clear.

The stock 12x.8 C4 rotors and stock two piston PBR caliper just barely fit inside a PSE wheel. The 13x1 C4 rotors and matching calipers definitely won't, but I don't know how much farther the larger C4 caliper extends.

When I put the C5 calipers on my cars, 11.6" was as large as the rotors could be.

How thick are those Wilwood rotors?

Jim

Mr. Wizzard

That would leave me the option of going to a smaller rotor when I install 15's.
The thickness of the rotors is 1.100" on the money.
The short springs I ordered with the QA1's are too short (good for static display only!), so I have some more springs that are 2" longer arriving this morning.
Out of curiosity Jim, what diameter front sway bar are you running (my Z51 bar is awfully thick and heavy), and what spring rates are you using?

BTW: Interesting to see this at a much more affordable price than what Alan wants:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Chevr...1f8f70fb#v4-43

silverslashstreak

Hey Jim another brake question. We ran our coupe in HST at Hallett raceway last weekend and experienced very early rear brake lock up. I currently have the stock c4 brake setup with 12 inch front rotors.
Do you run any kind of front to rear bias adjusting system?

Thanks
Jeff

jim lockwood

Looks like I had massive brain fade this morning. I wrote up a response to you, Larry, previewed it and then I must have closed the window before submitting. Dumb, Lockwood, dumb.

OK, let's try again...

Short version: 13x1.1 will give all the braking durability you'll ever need. A friend tracks his D&D #094 with the GM 13x1 rotors and PBR calipers.... never a brake problem.

Springs on #80:

Front: 250 lb/in and 26mm anti-roll bar

Rear: 500 lb/in and no rear bar

This combination has proven to give me a stable platform that feels neutral at the limit to my uncalibrated Seat-Of-The-Pants-O-Meter. In any event, there is no tendency to oversteer. Good thing, too because I'm certainly no Dave MacDonald.

Jeff, I adjusted brake proportioning on #80 by judicious selection of caliper piston size based on an assumption about weight transfer under decel. Still, I encountered some rear wheel lock-up so I guessed wrong about the amount of weight transfer.

I'm not a big fan of the aftermarket proportioning valves. They work by just limiting the rear line pressure.

In any event, I solved the rear lock up problem by putting street pads in the rear and keeping the high zoot Carbotech pads in the front. By sheer dumb luck, fronts and rears wear at the same rate which makes me think I'm getting the correctly proportioned amount of work out of each end.

Jim

silverslashstreak

Makes perfectly good sense to me Jim. I know there is going to be a lot of sorting out to be done.

Thanks
Jeff

Mr. Wizzard

My car's back on the ground now. We used the tried and true "string" method for setting front toe-in.
I purchased a digital caster/camber tool a few months back. It has a rare-earth magnet on the end of it's case, so it sticks on the end of the knock-off hubs and it worked like a champ.
We spent most of the afternoon bending a new front sway bar and designing the brackets for attaching it to the lower control arms on each side. I probably won't have all of that completed until next weekend.
The plan tomorrow is to fill the power steering system with fluid and drive the car back to my house (with no front sway bar).
The car really looks "killer" with the front tires tucked under the fenders like they should be. I'm very pleased that we've managed to make all of this work out.
LW

jim lockwood

You know the rules in these parts, Larry.... we gotta have pictures!!!

Mr. Wizzard

Drove the car home this afternoon...primarily because we need the space the car was occupying for several of our Honda projects that were put on hold for the last week. This has been eight days of vacation for me, and I really enjoyed being able to work on just one project for that many days on end.
On my 6-mile drive home, the brakes were good and it handled well considering there was no front sway-bar. The quicker-ratio steering rack was very noticeable. I can’t wait to push it a little once the guys at Texas Track Works align it next week.



I hope to have a set of Toyo's for the front this next week. They're a little taller, a half-inch wider, and sticky as heck, so the car will like them.
Now I can start working on the mods necessary to narrow things up in the rear......

silverslashstreak

Very very nice Larry, I'm with you they really look good with the front tires tucked under the fenders.

Could you tell us again what brand and size tire you are running on the rear, they fill the space under the fender just right.

Jeff