SS_Sean
Oct 25th, 04, 11:49 PM
Made it back over to my friends shop this last weekend. We spent saturday pulling the axles and checking them on the lathe. We found the used M/E axles I had bought were bent, with the worst being 55 thousands out at the center, and 24 thousands out at the flange.
We spent five hours mapping the axles, marking, pressing, and remapping using a dial gauge. What a frickin' mess! We ended up getting them both back to within tolerance, so all was well... We had a good time doing it, screwing around, and in the end we were pretty happy we were able to do it with a twenty ton press, a lathe, dial guage, and some redneck engineering!
The point of this is, you get what you pay for. Axles twist and bend, and if you're buying used ones you can not expect them to be perfect.
We turned the flange down a fair amount to get the 11" disc brake setup I bought from www.quickperformance.com (http://www.quickperformance.com) to fit. This turned out really nice, though it took a while. Those axles are seriously heat treated, and the steel shavings came off the lathe a nice blue color.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu33-1.jpg
The first thing we did was mount the wheel on the axle and mark how much of the frame rail would have to be cut to get proper fitment. We had to consider growth of the tire under acceleration, and the curve of the frame, forward aft of the wheel well opening. Once the mark on the frame was made I took a cut-off wheel and made a vertical cut into the frame to the depth I wanted to shave the frame. In my case I chose to shave the frame one inch, which would leave approximately one inch left. We then took a plasma cutter and cut the top and bottom of the frame along the original weld seam, until we had the outer face of the frame removed.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu38-1.jpg
Using a grinding wheel I cleaned up exposed edges on the frame, and the removed frame face. Plasma cutters leave a bit of a jagged edge. I also did the same for the face. I took my time, ensuring there was plenty of material to make adjustments as we went. I had to stop and check fit by placing the face back on the frame several times. I ground the edges down until I had about 1/8" of material left from the frame stops inside the frame. These are the little metal tabs inside the frame, used by the factory to stop one part of the frame as it slides into the outer part of the frame. One slides into the other and then they are welded together.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu36-1.jpg
I then made my angle cuts at both ends of the frame, where it was shaved. This would make fitting larger tires easier. Basically I cut a triangle shaped piece from each end of the frame shave, working back towards where the original frame face was removed.
Once the two pieces of frame were ready we slid the face back into the frame, up to the original stops, and tacked it in place. I took several photo's of this process, but they didn't turn out for some reason. It's pretty straight-forward, however. Slide them in and tack them in place. I double-checked fitment, and then welded them together, top and bottom. Again, I took a picture of this, but it didn't turn out.
Once this was done we rechecked everything by mounting the tire back on the axle. All was good, we had about one inch between the frame and the inside of the tire. We then did our final welds, top and bottom, ground everything down to look good, and rattle bombed the frame primer black.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu30-1.jpg
I still have to fabricate two small pieces at either end of the frame shave to fill the holes where the frame face was and where it is now, since the amount was removed, and this portion was cut at an angle, have to make about three inch long pieces to fit in there. I haven't done this yet, but will.
Here's how the car looks sitting on the ground. The car sits lower because of the Moroso trick springs. The tire sits lower, and the tire is sucked up under the wheel well opening. In looking at the tire, compared to the wheel well, I'm going to have to tub the car. We're going to go with aftermarket tubs, and will completely removed the old wheel well, all the way to the outer sheetmetal, allowing the tire to rise and fall completely, without hitting the inside of the wheel well. We're also going to have to roll the wheel well lip, and get it out of the way.
I used Weld Prostar 96's, 15x8, 4.5 bs rims, with M/T ETS's 28x11.5 for my setup. This is a standard Chevy A body wheel tire combo.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu40-1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu44-1.jpg
Two weeks from now I'll bring the car back to the shop. We're going to finish the frame shave, mount the 11" disc brakes and install a cross member to tie the frame rails at the rear. If we have time we're going to weld patch panels into the floor where we installed the roll cage...
We spent five hours mapping the axles, marking, pressing, and remapping using a dial gauge. What a frickin' mess! We ended up getting them both back to within tolerance, so all was well... We had a good time doing it, screwing around, and in the end we were pretty happy we were able to do it with a twenty ton press, a lathe, dial guage, and some redneck engineering!
The point of this is, you get what you pay for. Axles twist and bend, and if you're buying used ones you can not expect them to be perfect.
We turned the flange down a fair amount to get the 11" disc brake setup I bought from www.quickperformance.com (http://www.quickperformance.com) to fit. This turned out really nice, though it took a while. Those axles are seriously heat treated, and the steel shavings came off the lathe a nice blue color.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu33-1.jpg
The first thing we did was mount the wheel on the axle and mark how much of the frame rail would have to be cut to get proper fitment. We had to consider growth of the tire under acceleration, and the curve of the frame, forward aft of the wheel well opening. Once the mark on the frame was made I took a cut-off wheel and made a vertical cut into the frame to the depth I wanted to shave the frame. In my case I chose to shave the frame one inch, which would leave approximately one inch left. We then took a plasma cutter and cut the top and bottom of the frame along the original weld seam, until we had the outer face of the frame removed.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu38-1.jpg
Using a grinding wheel I cleaned up exposed edges on the frame, and the removed frame face. Plasma cutters leave a bit of a jagged edge. I also did the same for the face. I took my time, ensuring there was plenty of material to make adjustments as we went. I had to stop and check fit by placing the face back on the frame several times. I ground the edges down until I had about 1/8" of material left from the frame stops inside the frame. These are the little metal tabs inside the frame, used by the factory to stop one part of the frame as it slides into the outer part of the frame. One slides into the other and then they are welded together.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu36-1.jpg
I then made my angle cuts at both ends of the frame, where it was shaved. This would make fitting larger tires easier. Basically I cut a triangle shaped piece from each end of the frame shave, working back towards where the original frame face was removed.
Once the two pieces of frame were ready we slid the face back into the frame, up to the original stops, and tacked it in place. I took several photo's of this process, but they didn't turn out for some reason. It's pretty straight-forward, however. Slide them in and tack them in place. I double-checked fitment, and then welded them together, top and bottom. Again, I took a picture of this, but it didn't turn out.
Once this was done we rechecked everything by mounting the tire back on the axle. All was good, we had about one inch between the frame and the inside of the tire. We then did our final welds, top and bottom, ground everything down to look good, and rattle bombed the frame primer black.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu30-1.jpg
I still have to fabricate two small pieces at either end of the frame shave to fill the holes where the frame face was and where it is now, since the amount was removed, and this portion was cut at an angle, have to make about three inch long pieces to fit in there. I haven't done this yet, but will.
Here's how the car looks sitting on the ground. The car sits lower because of the Moroso trick springs. The tire sits lower, and the tire is sucked up under the wheel well opening. In looking at the tire, compared to the wheel well, I'm going to have to tub the car. We're going to go with aftermarket tubs, and will completely removed the old wheel well, all the way to the outer sheetmetal, allowing the tire to rise and fall completely, without hitting the inside of the wheel well. We're also going to have to roll the wheel well lip, and get it out of the way.
I used Weld Prostar 96's, 15x8, 4.5 bs rims, with M/T ETS's 28x11.5 for my setup. This is a standard Chevy A body wheel tire combo.
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu40-1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/seanthomas/malibu44-1.jpg
Two weeks from now I'll bring the car back to the shop. We're going to finish the frame shave, mount the 11" disc brakes and install a cross member to tie the frame rails at the rear. If we have time we're going to weld patch panels into the floor where we installed the roll cage...