Project '57 2WD
 

alrighty here we go, i've only got about a week in it so far. (4 days of that was waiting on the UPS man!!) Heres what i have:

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_0015.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/002.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/001.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/003.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...el02/008-1.jpg

Thats a mustang II with power rack & drop spindles from speedway motors. the rear end is in the bed of my truck. a ford 8.8 with 3.73's, limited slip, e brake, sway bar, and disc brakes. its supposed to rain so i may get it installed tomorrow. ladder bar setup with coil overs. engine is going to be a 5.3 vortec with a 4l60e

once i get her built im going to throw my pickup on it
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_5969.jpg

any thoughts?

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Sweet! looks the the beginings of a great project. That mustang 2 looks awsome, nice fabing.

I think you made a good decision to stick with the laddar bars. If it aint broke, dont fix it.

Did you buy that 5.3 and tranny? What are your plans for motor mounts?

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Looking good. Can't wait to see it in a few weeks.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

HRR, no i havnt picked it up yet. i was at my local yard yesterday to get my rear end and gave the motor and tranny a once over. Looks pretty clean so i told them to pull it for me. ill go back in a week or two and pick it up

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Sweet. What kind of coilovers did you get for the rear? Size, load rating? Im thinking about doing a 4 link but I dont know whats a good way to determine what type of coilover.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

i went with a set of these:
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Carrer...Overs,177.html
@ 350 lbs spring rate. but my bed is a lot heavier than a stocker. It took me and 3 of my buddies to put it on my frame. you might not need as much. also my fuel tank is in the rear.

speedways tech's are very helpful, the first one i got ahold of could tell you anything and make ya believe it. he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. call them up and tell then what you want. be sure to have your desired ride height and the angle you wish to mount your coilovers.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Looking good!! Will want to see this one come together. Did you remove the cab mounts??

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

when i built my truck originally i had to cut the mounts off of to use on my other frame. however i just cut another set off of an extra frame i had. im in the process right now of widing the rear end back out, i had to come home to get my camera lol

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

i kno yall love pics, so its a good thing i have my own camera right??

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_0052.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_0053.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_0054.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_0057.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...2/IMG_0055.jpg

i decided id rather have my rear bumper mounts line up, be able to buy an off the shelf fuel tank, not have to southern engineer my bed mounts, so on and so forth, so i widened my frame out to stock width. its not finished welded yet. i just got it tacked where i want it. still need to fish plate it and box the inside.

also, i clearanced the front stock crossmember & frame for the power rack up front. Its coming along, slowly but surely. might get my rear end put under tomorrow.... or the next day

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Nice work, lots of pictures is good.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

well, that was easy:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/101.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/097.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/098.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/106.jpg
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/j...esel02/103.jpg
psst, dont tell pa, but i did indeed jack that green "crossmember" straight off of his John Deere heh heh heh

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

also the rear coil overs are just tacked in place, are they at to much of an angle? do i need to cut em off and weld em on the side there?

EDIT:
The more i look at it the more i think they need to be around 20 degrees, instead of around 40ish degrees.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

The funny part of all this madness - I REALLY wanted to do a 4x4 but already had the Corvette front and rear suspension when I bought the truck so I used what I had laying around to save on time and money.

It looks great high in the sky and will look just as good back on the ground. Keep up the good work.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

This may give you some help.

http://www.stockcarproducts.com/pstech8.htm

Or this one, See Item 11 and Fig 11:


http://nolimit.net/instructions/FAT_BAR.pdf

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

The straighter the shock is mounted the more efficient it is, so if you would mount the shocks on a 25 degree angle (for example) you would use a heavier spring to support the same weight. All of the different coil over shock companies do not use the same size wire coils and space them the same distance apart so a 400 lb. Aldan spring may not be close to a 400 lb. spring from another company. That's a reply I got from from the guy I bought my rear coils overs from, I had to make sure to get the right springs for my project..........

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Any updates??

Also, when the rear section was narrowed, it looks like you also narrowed the crossmembers. If you are not planning to reuse them I sure could use the dog leg piece that goes down to the bottom of the C-channel. (See Pic)!! Its kinda hard to see but it's oulined in red on the left frame rail above the muffler.

Thanks!

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

they are worthless to me, send me your address and ill blow the rivits out and ship it to you. how many do you need? have an extra frame or two, so i have alot.

as far as updates go, ive been pretty busy here lately. deer season is upon us and ive been doing a lot of scouting. however i did get my motor and tranny from the junk yard, and i am in the process of mocking it up. just got to make me a coupla engine mounts and we'll be good to go. ill try to get some pics up soon

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Here's a template I used to make mine. You can get rid two of the holes and make it rectangular for your application.

as always, post the pics!

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

what motor/steering setup did you use? my steering shaft is going to have to go under the driverside motor mount to the rack and pinion.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

I cant help you very much with that, I clipped my frame with a camaro front end and welded those adapter plates to the original camaro motor mounts to bolt in my 5.3

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

thanks, ill see what i can do. ill post pics after i get er done

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

How's it coming??

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

been kind of at a stand still. trying to catch up on work (i cut firewood for a living) and deer season opened saturday and i've been hitting her hard ever since. i've been meaning to get a set of motor mounts ordered. anybody have something they recommend for a ls motor??

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Look at the template above. Mine is similar but I made the rectangular version which pushes the mount back on the engine about an inch or so. The mount we are referring to is a 70 Z28 mount. It is the pedestal type which is smaller and easier to package. Later years of Camaro used a huge mount bolted to the frame rather than the engine. You have to make an adapter plate to fit the block and drill it to also bolt on the mount. You have four block holes and three engine mount bolts. On mine the front top hole is shared and goes through both into the block. Once on the engine all I had to do is position the engine where I wanted and build a pedestal up to it somehow. I'm going to try to post a pic...it's kind of crappy but maybe you'll see what I'm talking about. It's on the driver side aimed toward the firewall.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Found a better pic of another persons setup...

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

blackdiesel whats the color on your truck? I could live with that on mine. Thanks.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Hey Brian any updates on the truck?

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Nope. that involves money. trying to plan out this whole college thing and i dont have the thousands to dump into this frame i thought i would. oh well, might get back around to it one of these days. not to mention its sooo cold, and it takes alot of propane to head that big of a shop.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

hey sorry for the late reply, i think they call it a malicious strawberry pearl? or something like that. its a factory color off a late model chrysler i believe.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Same thing in this neck of the woods. Just thought I would check.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Ordering a set of those ls to sbc motor mount adapters. need to pick up a set of sbc mounts then i'll get this motor mounted where i want it. then time to tear it apart, dress it up, sandblast it then paint it. put it back together and off we go.

Need a set of headders or maybe some vette manifolds like okgmc. anybody else have pics??

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

I love the Vette manifolds and the stainless ones that early LS F-bodies used. They look better than cast, flow better than the truck manifolds, and are ALOT cheaper than some of the headers I've found. The center dump Vette parts may not work for every application though...

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

hey that is a lot better picture than the ones on your tread. i need to get me a set of those...

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

i despise waiting on the mail man. weather it be ups, fed ex, or usps. my relocation brackets for the motor mounts (ls1-sbc) should hopefully be in tomorrow. picked up a set of motor mounts from autozone for a '66 chevelle and they look just like these:
http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1258670918
except they are rubber. but @ 5 bucks apiece i decided i could live with it instead of the 60-80 dollar polyurethane mounts.

the adapter plates were 29 dollars, comes with the bolts and free shipping off of ebay. decided i couldnt build them for that. the rest i will fabricate. hope to get this thing mounted tomorrow so i can blow it all back apart and get it dressed up and ready for sandblasting.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

Nice build so far, killer set up on the frame and a great selection of parts you have there!

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

I've got a set of GTO manifolds, they are similar (cast, not stainless) to the vette and were cheap on LS1tech.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

oh yea? im a member over there too. joined back when i built my smokey and the bandit TA. i shall go check them out

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

leevon, i never found your manifolds. maybe you could shoot me a link?

got the motor mounts done and i *think* im done dressing up the frame. Itll be off to the blaster here in the next few days then back to the shop for paint.

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

ooops, I didn't mean to imply they are for sale on ls1tech but that's where I got my set. They have no EGR or O2 bungs and they exit low and to the rear which works better with the frame rails and engine mounts, just thought you might want to consider them as a cheap alternative. They look alot better without the heat shields too:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8...II-IV/GTO1.jpg

Just found a set for sale, I think this guy might be a member here too...his avatar looks familiar. Anyways:
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/lsx-pa...manifolds.html

Re: Project '57 2WD
 

ah, thatd be a good reason that i couldnt find them! hahaha