[Yelcamino]

Since Photobucket kinda messed up my original Chevelle thread, I decided to just start fresh with a new one. So here goes Chevelle 2.0, AKA, The Blue Car.

The plan is to make this version a more dedicated track car along with some autox. The first step is to update the chassis and I decided to build my own (more or less) because my budget doesn't allow an aftermarket chassis.

This has been going on for some time so there will be an overload of pictures with or without comments just to get caught up.

As a side note, this is the first chassis I’ve built. You may see some things that don’t make sense to you or it may seem like I’m doing things the hard way, and I probably am! I’m learning as I go and ask for help when I need it.

This is the donor '66 chassis I started with:

00001 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

The first thing I did was to strip it down to the bare frame.

00006 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Next I got it sandblasted.

00007 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Then I sprayed some primer on the areas that I was going to keep.

00008 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Once I got the frame mounted on the frame table, I installed all of the suspension from my car on to the new frame. That way I could locate the front and rear axle center lines. Once I cut the front and rear sections off the frame, I needed to know where to put the new stuff.

00009 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00010 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Speaking of new stuff, back when I worked at Ridetech, I bought a front clip from Scott Mock that uses C5 components.

00012 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With the suspension mounted I was able to locate the front axle center line. To ensure I put the new spindles in the same place, I made a pair of stands that I could bolt to the hubs and table to keep things from moving around.

00013 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00014 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

After I felt confident about the center line, I placed the new front clip on the frame to get an idea of where I needed to cut.

00015 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Instead of cutting off too much, I chose to be a little more cautious. I cut the main cross member off…

00016 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

And then I followed that up with more precision cuts.

00017 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

 

[Yelcamino]

After I was happy with the cuts, I lowered the new clip in place to see how it fit.

00018 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00019 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00020 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

After I got it in place and the fit seemed good, I needed to fine tune the location. I did that with string, bubble levels, and spacers.

00021 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00022 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00023 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

After I was happy with its location, I tacked it in place and started figuring out how to permanently attach the clip to the side rails.

00024 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00025 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00026 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With that out of the way, I made a wheel fitment tool because I’m too cheap to buy one!

00027 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With my new tool, I was able to mount a 315/30-18 tire and adjust the back space to simulate a wheel to check for clearance around the frame and suspension components.

00028 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

00029 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Next comes the rear suspension…

 

[Blown1932]

Looking great.

Love the tire mount, backspace, fitment thing! :thumbsup:

 

[Upstate]

Subscribed.

:thumbsup:

 

[senna]

Nice project.

 

[Yelcamino]

Looking great.

Love the tire mount, backspace, fitment thing! :thumbsup:

Subscribed.

:thumbsup:

Nice project.

Thanks!

 

[Yelcamino]

As promised, it’s time for the rear suspension. When I started this project my original plan was to get the rear frame kit from ABC Performance so I could stuff 335s out back. After thinking about it for a while I decided that if I’m going to go through all this work I wanted to try something different. During my dealings with Ron Sutton while I was at Ridetech, I learned about his suspension kits, specifically his offset three-link. After some discussion and numerous emails, a big ol brown box showed up on my door step with this stuff in it…

10015 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

After having cut the front end apart with a 4 ½” grinder, I broke down and bought this Eastwood plasma cutter. It was relatively cheap, has a better warranty than the big names, and it works awesome! So far it has been able to cut ¼” plate without the slightest hiccup. Highly recommended if you’re in the market for a plasma cutter.

10020 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With the old 9” in place, I located the stock rear axle centerline using a good old fashioned plumb bob. (I added the red line to show the plane I was using)

00012.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With the centerline marked, I removed all the rear suspension and started measuring for the new parts.

10027 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Wanting to keep the body mount, I was able to do some fancy cutting thanks to the plasma!

10028 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10029 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With all my cuts made, the engine hoist made quick work of getting the old stuff out of the way.

10030 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

The first thing I did was get the new crossmember tacked in place so I could start fitting the new rear frame rails. After spending too much time trying to get these rails in the proper position…

10031 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

…I got in contact with Ron and he sent me a new set of rails that were a better fit for me. He’ll probably chime in with more details, but I think these are now the standard rails in his rear kits. A couple of cool features is the holes for the watts link crossmember and sway bar tube are already in place, and there’s a line cut to locate the axle center line.

10032 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10033.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

The next step was getting the new rear end housing in place so I could locate the suspension brackets.

10033 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Here the watts link crossmember and sway bar tube are tacked in.
10034 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Lower shock mounts tacked in.

10035 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Third link tacked in.

10036 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10037 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

 

[Yelcamino]

Driver side watts bracket tacked on.

10038 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

It’s slowly starting to take shape. You can see in this photo the back brace is tacked to the rear housing. Down the road you’ll see I had to modify it to clear the coil overs.

10039 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

From this angle you can see there’s about ½” of space between the back of the rear end housing and the watts a-frame.

10040 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

I made these gussets to help reinforce the joint between the rear frame rails and crossmember.

10041.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10041.2 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10042 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

At this point just about everything is welded in permanently except for the housing brackets.

10043 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10044 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

I added this rear crossmember which I cut from the original frame rails that Ron sent me.

10045 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With all that done, it was time to connect the original frame horns to the new rails. They didn’t turn out quite as pretty as I imagined them, but they’re pretty sturdy and put both bumpers where they should be.

10046.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10046.2 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10046.3 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

I tried to make both sides as similar as possible.

10046.4 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10046.5 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

The bumper fits nice and doesn’t bounce around!

10054 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

 

[Yelcamino]

Here’s the front…

10046.6 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10046.7 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10046.8 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10046.9 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

And then I made a pair of boxing plates and welded them in. (For some reason this is the only picture I took)

10046.91 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

The next big hurdle was permanently welding the suspension brackets to the rear end housing.

10046 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Here you can see how I shortened the back brace to clear the coil overs.

10047 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10048 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With all the brackets welded on, I made a trip to Moser and had them weld on the Baer floater ends and cut axles for me.

10049 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10053 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10050 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

I also picked up some gear oil and axle seals.

10051 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

And some Redline grease for the axle bearings.

10052 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With everything welded, I put the housing back in to see how it all fits.

10055 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

 

[Yelcamino]

Here’s the Ridetech coil over with a spring in place.

10056.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10056.2 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Plenty of room!

10056 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

With the rear wheels and tires in place, the track width is 72” just like it was before. With these little 10” wide wheels and 295 tires, there’s 7 ½” between the inner side wall and the frame rail so I have lots of room to fit a 12” wide wheel with 335s!

10058 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10059.1 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

 

[Yelcamino]

A while back I came across a set of Jake’s Rod Shop C6 tubular arms being sold by Jon (Jtomas801) on Lateral-G. The price was right and I liked the way the lower arm was designed for a coil over vs the factory arm which requires a weak (IMO) trunnion to mount a coil over.

10059 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10060 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10061 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Here’s the Jake’s Rod Shop arms mounted along with the new Ridetech Track 1 C7 hubs.

10063 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Now things are starting to get fun! Just to help me visualize things, I put my P-Ayr mock-up engine in place. In this position, it’s about 12” rearward of the stock location. The plan is to get the engine behind the front axle centerline.

10062 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10064 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

For the most part the front suspension is all in place. I did a quick check of the alignment and I have 5* of caster on both sides, -1.5* of camber on one side and -1.4* of camber on the other. Not too bad as a starting point.

10065 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10066 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

It’s finally starting to look like a real chassis!

10067 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

Now you’re all up to date. I still have a few little things I need to get done on the frame but the next big step is test fitting the body. Due to the rear suspension, I’m going to have to cut out some sections of the rear seat area and trunk floor. Before I can do that, I have to get the interior stripped. To get myself motivated, I took the rear wheels off the Z06 and put them on the frame to see how some big meats would fit…

10072 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10073 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10074 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10075 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10070 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

10071 by Yelcamino, on Flickr

The Z06 rear wheels are obviously too wide for the front and they have too much backspace. However, they actually turn quite a bit so that tells me 11” wheels (with the proper backspacing) and 315s will fit! They fit great out back but again, due to the offset, they actually narrow the rear track width by 2".

 

[Dan65ss]

Awesome work Herb! Great thread start. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Blown1932]

Wow, words can't begin to express how impressive this build is!

 

[Yelcamino]

Awesome work Herb! Great thread start. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Dan!

 

[Yelcamino]

Wow, words can't begin to express how impressive this build is!

Thanks, but don't get too excited yet. Let's see how it goes down the road first!

 

[-SS454-]

This build is incredible!

Are you at all concerned about the weight?

 

[shelteredv]

sweet build, but why not just get a complete chassis? Besides money....

 

[Yelcamino]

This build is incredible!

Are you at all concerned about the weight?

Thanks and yes weight is a concern. I would like to get it down from 3750 to 3200 if possible. By gutting the interior and going to an all aluminum engine, I figure that's probably around 200 lbs. So only 350 more to go! Easy peasy!

 

[Yelcamino]

sweet build, but why not just get a complete chassis? Besides money....

Thanks. I'm doing this because I like to build stuff and I wanted to see if I could do it... and money of course.

 

[cstraub]

Damn that is some "Shoe leather" on her!!!!!!!!! Very nice Herb, very nice....