Project Grande Slam: Coley's Hot Rod Shop

[nlped]

Happy Turkey Day, Chad!!!

[CC69Rat]

First -- Thanks for all the compliments on my ole Camaro. I appreciate it. I miss that car man. I miss it bad. It wasn't a SEMA show winner or anything but Dad and I built it. It was #1 out of the shop. .. No way I could replace it now for $25k.


quick question - As most of you who have followed know, with the PB upper shock bar. How are you running the upper shock bolts? There is a hole in the PB upper bar that appears to be 5/8". My stock shock bolts are about a 32nd larger than the hole.

Should I just open the hole up a little? Is there a specific bolt Nate likes to use? I'm not 100% sure these are stock. I had some old parts I got in trade so they may have come from them? (Ed, possibly the ECE shock relocator kit) I'm not sure.

It looks like if I opened this hole up just a hair they'd work beautifully I just don't want to drill the PB upper bar unless I just have to. Prob not a big deal but just thought I'd ask.

Ed -- We have an idea to show you on how we got the McGaughy's emergency brake cable working. I'll get dad to send some pictures. We moved the bracket off the side of the trailing arms. (The original bracket that held the parking brake cable) We just knocked the rivet out and moved it back. It's working now but the intermediate cable has too much strech in it. We need another piece of cable and re-do it.

What do I do with the shocks? Just open that hole up a bit?

[Rusbuilt]

Will this said bolt fit though your shock snug? I say if it does and you plan to run those shocks drill the pb holes bigger! I'm with you though on drilling something thats so pretty!! lol

[nlped]

Personally, I'd open up the hole a little bit, you haven't painted it or powder coated it yet, right? Bigger bolt=More strength in my opinion, and you sure don't want the shock eye having play in it, it'll rattle I'm sure.

And I'm very curious as to your "fix" for the parking brake cables. I was just going to move that bracket back closer to the rearend too, but my problem is the dang cable that came with my kit has a spring on the actual cable (looks to me like a drum brake parking cable) that when installed on my caliper it is completely compressed and theres no movement left in the cable to actually articulate the parking brake mechanism on the caliper... does that make sense?

[lolife99]

Does Nate use a shock specific stud on his upper and lower bars?

[CC69Rat]

Not sure really (?) I just want to be sure before I drill it. I think the ones I have are slightly larger than the ones in the picture above. They look beefier ..

We'll get it figured out. I found a guy on the forum (THANKS Gringo!) with the lower shock bar and brackets possibly for sale. We'll see how it works out and I might save a few bucks. I'm in no hurry, the truck is probably down for a couple weeks anyway.

Dad and I spent the majority of the day today stripping the front stuff out. We have everything apart now, just cleaning and detailing. Maybe this weekend (supposed to be in the 70's here on Sat / Sun We can paint and start bolting things back up. I'm just doing stock arms for now. If I keep the truck, and / or LS3 in the future I will do PB arms upper and lower, front and rear.

Here are a few pictures from today. The door is only about 1/2 latched. Dad is cleaning up the rockers and we're going to re-spray them. The weatherstripping is pulled back just a little and we just don't want the door to sit fully closed and mess up the rubbers. The rear is all but finished. Shocks, lower bar, brackets, trackbar and we can put the bed back on. .. just waiting on my money tree to bloom again.

Anyway, here's the front.

[CC69Rat]

Mais Um..

[CC69Rat]

Oh, by the way .. the wheels/tires underneath are only extra caution. (My old 6 luggers) The truck is not sitting on the tires, there are stands under it and a jack under the cross member.

[nlped]

Lookin good. I did the same stuff up front too. I went ahead and replaced the brake lines at the same time since I had to replace the m/c & p/v too. Best time to do it, considering the 40+ year old lines.

Tell me about the brake cables.
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[CC69Rat]

Dad is taking pictures now.. will post in a few.
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[nlped]

If y'all are gonna be working on it Saturday, maybe Kim & I could swing by and check it out?
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[BB72CHEVKT]

When you think about it you have to be crazy not to run all new line with all the money you have tied up. I used stock brake parts and still had new hard lines run.

[CC69Rat]

Yeah man! You both are welcome anytime. Ill be there all day. Come on up.
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[CC69Rat]

Ed, here's a picture of what we did. Where you see the red arrows, those are the original mounting holes. (where the rivets used to be) From the back side of the trailing arm, I just knocked those out and got the brackets off.

Originally the bracket is facing the other direction. To make the angle of the bracket vs. the line itself more suited for the fact the trailing arms have been raised a little, the rear McGaughy's lines are a bit shorter, etc. We just moved the bracket back 6.75" (center of the original hole to the center of the new hole) and flipped it around the other direction.

Also, .. the intermediate brake cable was replaced. Dad picked up some steel cable and ends which worked great, but it has too much strech in it. As soon as we pulled the brakes a couple good times the cable just keeps streching out. We're going to re-do that intermediate cable with something different.

It needs touched up. You can still see where the original bracket was and the rusty powder stuff is just from drilling through the trailing arm.

I know, the sway bar needs to move back about an inch .. I'll fix it.

[nlped]

That's kinda what I intend on doing too. But I need to see the other end at the caliper. That's where my issue is right now.

I think I'll just see it in person on Saturday. I bought a new Harley and have convinced Kim that chatanooga would be a good day road trip
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[shawno72]

Looking really good Chad. Can't wait to see this thing on the ground.
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[Graham57a]

Very nice, what are the plans for the wheels? Find two more billet specialties just like the rears?

[CC69Rat]

I have another wheel to go on it. The ones on it in the pictures are the ones I have for my stepside. I bought the two Heritage wheels that Stiney had for sale a while back. ( in a couple of the earlier pictures)
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[67cheby]

looking great man, nice progress !

[Graham57a]

So you plan on running the wheels off the stepside??

[CC69Rat]

Billet Specialties Heritage.

I'll have to put my front ones (Dagger - G ) on for a couple weeks until my front Heritage arrive. I only have two right now.

(Big brakes up front .. )

[superflysteiny]

Nice wheels
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[CC69Rat]

Man, I cant wait to see them mounted.

Its going to make the whole truck.
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[original-71]

Originally Posted by CC69Rat

Man, I cant wait to see them mounted.

Its going to make the whole truck.
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put them on anyways without the tires take a picture for us then put them back in the box looking by the way.

[72BlckButy]

Looking good, nice progress!