Chassis/ Suspension
Goals for Spring 2010:
1. Mount sway bars- Done! 5/9/10
2. Weld in motor mounts- Done! 4/11/10
3. Fabricate transmission crossmember- Done! 3/28/10
4. Box frame under cab- Done! 3/14/10
5. Weld in a rear crossmember/ bumper- Done! 3/20/10
6. Finish gusseting around fabricated frame rails/ fill holes- Done! 4/11/10
7. Sandblast completed frame
8. Paint completed frame with ceramic paint
9. Install new shocks/ relocate brackets- 50%
10. Upgrade to C5 Z06 brakes up front
11. Get Z06 rims on rubber and mounted
12. Polyurethane ALL bushings
13. Weld in crossmember/ driveshaft safety loop- Done! 3/28/10
The bed full of misc. parts in the pen at school.
Up on the lift at school. Bed, spare, and gas tank removed.
Again on the lift.
Front clip pulled off. Looks nasty
Front end neatly set aside.
Eww. The little slobbery 2.8L and T-5 pulled out.
Engine and heater housing removed.
My roommate/helper sitting on the truck.
C4 Corvette suspenion and Z28 rims.
Another look at the donor suspension.
Rear suspension pulled off.
Front suspension and bumper pulled off.
Tack welded to fixtures on a frame bench.
More fixtures holding the truck at ride height.
Rear crossmembers removed.
Frame rails squared up and cleaned off.
Front crossmember and suspension mounting points hacked out.
Truck sitting at ride height on the frame bench. Front:5" Rear: 6"
Boxing plates partially welded onto frame rails.
Filling unwanted holes in the frame rails with the welder.
Me welding the plates on the frame.
A properly metal-finshed corner weld.
Top edges metal-finshed. Using the original crossmember as bracing.
More hole fills.
New sticky rubber. Falken Ziex 245/50/ZR16.
Free mounting onto the Z28 rims by an instructor at school :).
All welds metal-finished.
Frame boxing complete.
Original crossmember welded in and plug welded through rivet holes.
Cross member in place and brace removed.
Donor rear and wheels.
Both rear crossmembers in place.
I cut the orginal crossmember to fit inbetween the boxing plates and welded it in.
Donor rear bolted in to brackets I fabricated and welded in.
View of the brackets holding the rear in place.
Bracing for the brackets. Diminishing holes to dress them up a bit.
Donor rear at ride height.
4-link held at ride height with a "height adjuster". (spare tire jack)
Fabricated torque arm and Micro-flex bushing.
Masking tape pattern to fill the void.
Torque arm in place. More diminishing holes.
Bracket to hold torque arm. Holds pinion angle at 2*.
Finished torque arm assembly.
3/16" plate tacked in place to hold the 4-link bracket.
Only thing held with height adjusters now are the control arms.
Finshed bracket and bracing in final position.
Bracket holds 4-link dogbones out away from the frame 1 1/4".
Yet another view of the bracketry.
Leaf spring bushing hole filled with one of the hole-saw
blanks from the torque arm fabrication.
4-link assembly complete.
Dogbones level at ride height.
Fabricated shock mounts with the dimishing holes.
Both brackets complete.
Both brackets welded in place at 4.8*.
Close-up of finished product.
KYB shocks hanging in place.
Mono-leaf and links installed.
Donor front and wheels. Setting the anti-dive angle
with a digital angle finder. Accurate to .1*.
Drilling out spot welds on factory front shock mount.
Front frame rails squared up and cut at even distance.
Boxing plates tacked up to cap frame rail ends.
Caps welded in and metal finished.
Donor front in place in relation to axle centerline
and lower control arm mounting height.
2x4" .188" wall tubing for replacement frame rails.
Cut a releaf for the angle of the attachment brackets.
The factory front crossmember attachment brackets dettached from the donor frame rails.
3/16" plate to cap the releaf cuts welded in.
Oops. Forgot about clearance for the steering rack...haha.
More 3/16" to cap the new releaf cut.
New frame rails tacked up in place.
That....would be me. Caught a little off gaurd haha.
Risers welded on to frame rail and metal-finished
to hold crossmember mounting bracket at 12.5*.
Front end coming together. Yes there is a person in the cab haha.
Frame rails completely welded in place.
Shock mounts loosely bolted in place to get ideas for bracketry.
Two 1x2" .120" wall tubes tacked together to make a 1x4".
This will make my frame rails 3x4" where the shock mounts locate.
But, bracket also tilts in towards the top so I made a tapered releaf.
Tricky stuff haha.
The beginning of the front shock mounts.
Finished front shock mount.
Shock mount tacked in place.
Shock mount fully welded to frame rail.
Shock mount's bottom lip also helps hold the
crossmember in place for the 12.5* anti-dive angle.
Corvette front frame rail brace narrowed to
fit fabricated frame rails and welded in.
All Corvette peices welded in place.
Making templates for transitions between
fabricated frame and S-10 frame rails.
Had to cut some of the fender mounting brackets away for transitions.
Front transitions tacked in place.
To cut down on cutting, welding, and grinding; I chose
to bend some of the pieces to cover two areas at once.
Templates for the rear portion of the front frame rails.
3/16" plate cut with the plasma torch to match template.
Gussets tacked in for the rearward front transition.
Another view of how the front transition fits
with the mounts for the radiator support.
Transitions for rear part of front frame rails metal-finshed.
Starting to hang front suspension.
Front suspension on. Just missing mono-leaf and sway bar.
With slight fender flares, the tires should fit the body quite nicely.
Most of that stuff in the bed is useles. Haha.
As expected, the truck sits all stupid with
the Corvette springs. Wayyyy too stiff.
From here you can see the extreme anti-dive angle.
Those lower control arms should be level....
engine weight should compensate.
Even with all that junk in the bed, the rear suspension
doesnt sit where it should. Guess Ill need custom springs.
Its like Christmas. Everything I need to mount the
body, radiator, and bed. Courtesy of LMC.
Thought it looked cool without the bed..
Corvette kit car in my living room?
The fronts are 18"x9.5" and the rears are 18"x11".
Trans Dapt polyurethane LSx motor mounts.
The part of the mount that bolts to the engine.
Summit sent more toys today.
Polyurethane T-56 trans mount.
Makes C5 brakes on a C4 possible.
Hmmm...something's missing.
After a little cross-member removal procedure.
Filled the holes where the orginal trans. cross-
member bolted up; and other misc. holes.
Welding in more plate to box the frame.
The welds all ground and beveled down.
Back to the drawing board on the rear.
Not bad after a short weekend's work.
Drilled an access hole under bed mounting loaction.
Cut underside of frame rail straight and cleaned off rust.
Starting the final frame boxing.
Welded in a rear crossmember that also gives
rear-end crash protection. 2x4" tubing.
Looks a little bare again...
Scrap! I've decided that if im going to all this trouble to
make the chassis perform well; I'll use new steel.
More of a pinion snubber than a torque arm.
Controls the angle better being closer, though.
New crossmember for the pinion. 2x3" tubing.
2x2" tubing to help keep the suspenion
locations in place.
Closed the end of the frame rails with
plate that also serves as tie-down loops.
Got the engine/ tranny combo up in place.
Set at 2.0* of rearward slope.
Beginning of a transmission crossmember.
Nearly completed crossmember.
Has 4" of drop to clear the exhaust.
Alot of progress for a single day of work.
Something's gotta give. Most likely U-joints.
Driveshaft safety loop from Competition Engineering.
I REALLY regret the way I mounted the 4-link
to the frame. So I'm starting over. This time around
I made a "jig" that holds the knuckles/axles at the
correct height and fore/aft loaction.
Plate holding the hub up. I sneezed and
it went from perfect 90* to 89.9* haha.
Lifted front clip on to get an idea on
the amount of clearance I have.
Engine/tranny in its final resting place..I think.
Another view of the jig doing its job.
Add that to the scrap pile.
Frame ground/ sanded back down.
5/16" plate for new 4-link brackets.
Plate tacked up in place.
Bushing stock for the bolts to go through.
Fully welded up bracket.
Bracket in realation to the suspension.
Outter sleeve welded on for the torque arm.
Torque arm brackets welded up.
Mocking up the rear sway bar.
My neon green driveshaft.
Safety loop welded in place.
Changed the tranny crossmember a bit.
Heavy angle iron brackets for the
trans crossmember.
Made sleeves out of scrap square tubing
so the tube doesn't crush when bolted down.
Completed transmission crossmember.
C-notched the frame for sway bar clearnce.
2 1/2" tubing to cap the notch.
Another short weekend of progress.
Notice the shock brackets are missing...
New brackets for the shocks.
Had to make a bigger notch for the swaybar.
The links were binding through the suspension travel.
Capping the notch with 3 1/2" diesel exhaust tubing.
Notched, capped, and metal finished.
Swaybar brackets tacked in place.
Rear suspension complete less bump-stops.
Need to make those brackets bolt to the frame as well...
Dropped the front suspension out to work up font.
Grinding welds on the gussets.
Filling the stampped holes with 1/8" plate
blanks I cut with a hole-saw.
Transitions between frame rails all done
and blended together.
Underside of the transitions.
Front cradle kick braces tacked in place.
Completed braces utilizing old motor mount loaction.
Engine strapped in place at the proper angles.
Motor mounts fully welded in.
At last, no more jack-stands.
The drivetrain is now self-supported.
Fron rails notched for swaybar.
Bar in place.
Notch for front bar capped.
Plates for swaybar brackets welded in.
Just needs bolted in.
Welded old shocks solid at ride height.
Bump stops in place in rear.
Gussets for 4-link plates.
Sits low. I like it!
The pop can test. Pass.
On bump stops.
Jacked up to ride height.
All chassis fabrication DONE.
