78 caballero

[The ghoul]

Momma likes Christmas
Daddy likes tax return!
Flanging dies for the bead roller
Drop spindles for the cabby (note, 2000 GMC jimmy 2wd to complement the brakes I'm running)
Sheet metal shrinker/stretchers
1/8" 5/16" cleco set
Poly engine mounts
Energy suspension assembly lube
Covell bead rolling basics DVD
And they sent me a free shop hat! I spend way too much at summit..

All the wood and hard wear I need for a new work bench

Even had a little bank for some brand new used front upper control arms (some rebuilding required) thank you again for the deal mike!

 

[The ghoul]

Got most of the work benched knocked together, still need to make drawers and a slide out shelf for the saw.. pretty happy so far.

 

[DRAG-ULA]

Lookin good dude!!

 

[DeFormula]

Looks like a great bench. Man, I can barely remember when I had energy to do stuff like that!

 

[The ghoul]

Looks like a great bench. Man, I can barely remember when I had energy to do stuff like that!

Me too!!!
I defiently have gotten to the point where I have to force my self to be productive these days!

well it seems Im spending more time working on tools than cars!

I bought a woodward fab bead roller thinking that the little extra paid would get me a better quality unit than harbor freight.
The woodward fab part number is #WFBR6
After using it once or twice and seeing Covell's presentation on his bead rolling basics DVD I came to the conclusion that this unit is just as poor quality as the harbor freight one. It also appears who ever assembled it from the factory scored up the bearings very badly.
Normally I would not bad mouth a company but I have contacted them to see if they would allow me to return it for store credit so I could step up to a better quality unit, they said I was SOL...

So attempting to make the best of the situation (after all it did come with 6 dies that if bought separately would be way more then the price I paid) I have decided to take some of covells tips and tricks to improve this unit.

Please note I am obviously a novice and this unit in the proper hands is probably not as bad as I make it seem. Also the improvements I plan on making to it are based on covell's bead rolling basics DVD. I am not an expert, I am not trying to pretend I am, I just feel the need to document the improvements in case anyone else finds themselves in the same situation.

The Issues I have with the unit that I hope to address:
- When you roll a bead the body has a tendency to twist and deflect causing an uneven appearance to the bead.
- Mittler brother dies have a smaller diameter hole in the center and a larger outer diameter
- The hand crank is very difficult to use while you feed the material into the machine (especially for me as I am still recovering from a shoulder surgery)
- The unit clamps into a bench vice nicely but in order to clamp it to a table you have to remove your entire bench vice, clamp that to the table, then clamp the unit into the vice.
- The pressure adjusting screw requires a wrench to operate
- The top roller needs to be lifted each time you load or unload material
- There is not provisions for a material guide so maintaining a straight line is near impossible (I suspect the hand crank, and body flex are also contributing factors)

 

[The ghoul]

Finished modifications on the bead roller (yes, that is a gbody steering wheel welded to it)

Went to Lowes for a few screws, cutoff wheels and perhaps some new drill bits... it kinda got out of hand...

Also the Whitney roper steel hole punch I ordered came in. I'm geeked about that!

 

[The ghoul]

so between the cold and PT for my shoulder again Ive been slacking off... Till today.

thru helping a friend trying to adapt c5 calipers and hangers onto his Jimmy spindels I realized the c6 zo6 (aside from being a massive 355mm diameter) has the same bolt pattern and hole in the very center as the jimmy rotor.
Also the clamping surfaces are only about 1/8" thicker than the Jimmys, and the overall thickness of the z06 rotor is 3/8" thinner than the Jimmy. This means (if we make the assumption that the thickness between the wheel mount surface and hub mount surface of both rotors are equal) if you put the zo6 rotors on the jimmy spindle/hubs there will be 3/8" more space between the rotor and knuckle than with the jimmy rotor. This, to me, means I can make a 3/8" thick relocation bracket for the caliper hanger without having to put shims between the bearing and knuckle....

So that's exactly what I made

just a quick bolt together with what I had kicking around to show exactly what Im on about...

this picture is a little misleading.
#1 the rotor is resting on the very back of the caliper hanger which has a bit of a step in it. really there is only about a 1/4" difference between the hanger and rotor widths.
#2 the rotor is sitting at a bit of a slant (theres that 3/8" more backspacing I was talking about)
and lastly
there are a lot of gaps everywhere because nothing is really clamped down yet

However this quick little mock up told me a lot about this theory, namely the distance between the center of the hub and hanger was right where I expected it to be and it all seems very plosable.

So taking advantage of autozones 20% off online orders over $100 I ordered up a c6 zo6 355mm rotor.

 

[ShadowRuleZ]

If you're interested, I have the Kore3 adapters for C5 calipers on the 2WD spindles if you want measurements or anything.

 

[jameser]

I saw that you use autozone 20% off discount. Here are some better ones from advance auto.

$10 off $30+ Coupon Code: "A124"
$20 off $50+ Coupon Code: "ES123"
$30 off $80+ Coupon Code: "RAF51112"
$40 off $100+ Coupon Code: "TRT41"

 

[The ghoul]

If you're interested, I have the Kore3 adapters for C5 calipers on the 2WD spindles if you want measurements or anything.

Thank you. I might take you up on that. I think we have our design diled in for that. My buddy is out in jersy, I believe he reverse engineered the Kore3 brackets. I just sent off one of the final prototypes to him. To me this swap would be ideal if I could work out the bugs. #1 2wd Jimmy calipers are found in every junk yard for next to nothing. #2 I believe the pistons are larger in the Jimmy calipers vs the c5 Lastly (and im not 100%sure here) but I belive the brake pad serface area is larger on the Jimmy.

I saw that you use autozone 20% off discount. Here are some better ones from advance auto.

$10 off $30+ Coupon Code: "A124"
$20 off $50+ Coupon Code: "ES123"
$30 off $80+ Coupon Code: "RAF51112"
$40 off $100+ Coupon Code: "TRT41"

Hey, thank you!
I genrally dont buy from the big places too often. I usually try to buy as much as I can from king auto. Im just 80% sure this swap wont work out, and 100% sure I wont have time to get out to their shop in the next few weeks.
thank you tho

 

[The ghoul]

Well my friend is a pushy sort...
He insists that he wants to run the 340mm zo6 rear rotors now.
In a few short minutes I was able to devise a kit to make the massive 365mm camaro ss rotors (with a little machening done to the new rotor centers), however you would lose the E-brake so this killed it for him.
I then did some quick research and found the ebrake shoe is the same between the ls1 fbody and the c6 zo6 so it was possible in theory.
basically what I came up with was making a 1/2" spacer between the ls1 backer and the axle flange, cut the ls1 caliper mount tabs off the backer, and make a caliper mount bracket that bolts to the opposite side of the axle flange from the ls1 backer plate.
This actually looks like it would work nicely as it now gives me the ablilty to rotate the calipers a bit more out of the way of the frame rail.
will definetly post up as things progress.

 

[The ghoul]

Just pulled the trigger on my air ride system from AVS, can't wait!!

 

[82hatch]

You're making great progress

 

[The ghoul]

You're making great progress

Thankyou
Hopefully once I finish up with PT for my shoulder it will go a little faster.

 

[The ghoul]

C6 zo6 rotors showed today.
I test fitting my relocation brackets it seems I will have to do some modifications to the caliper hangers to get them to work.
This is just the rough form, sides and outter rotor surface of the hanger clearenced

The use of the zo6 355mm rotor with the blazer/jimmy calipers is possible

But it requires more modification than most DIYers are capable of doing, and more than I'd want to do to put them up for sale.

 

[The ghoul]

I know the feeling,
busy and cold here too!
Im just motivated to get these darn brackets figured out..
to that end, I took one of the PABs to work and did a bit better job of clearencing it with an end mill. I took 0.0625" off each side of the opening and milled it straight across the inner and outter edge

I was able to get the caliper on with pads

it was a bit of a squeeze to get it all in but there is no drag so I think this might work out.
still some fine tuning to do on it

comparison between the zo6 rotor and Jimmy rotor

the rear brackets are looking very promicing

slight miscalculation on the height... 0.70" miscalculation...

however, the alignment is looking good

 

[The ghoul]

So a while back I picked up these strong arm UCAs, the ball joints were shot and the bushings weren't too healthy looking, but I got them at a reasonable price.

I striped them down and discovered the sleeves were fused to the spanner bars on both of them, with luck ride tech designed them to be used with the stock spanner bar. I didn't get as lucky with the bushings.
The energy suspension bushings I wanted to rerun had the proper outter diameter but that only extended half the length of the bushing, than it stepped down to a smaller OD. I suppose this could have worked but I didn't feel good about it. I found some pipe that had the same inner diameter as the bushings small latter diameter. This allowed me to make an adaptor bushing that runs the full length of the bushing. Than I modified the pipes OD to match the UCA ID. Last order of bus ness was to shave downthe energy suspension bushings to the same OD the full length.

Then I shot blasted and por15ed the body's

I then lost interest and let them sit for a month.
Today I got semi motivated and started working on them again.
I drrilled a hole on the underside of the bushing loops and slid the adaptors into them.

Than plug welded the bushings to the loops to keep the adaptor bushings in place

Than reassembled with the modified energy suspension bushings and stock spreader bars, also with the new Moog ball joints

I thentook the oppertunity to take a look at shock relocation. Because I ordered an air ride system I can no longer run the stock location on the shocks and I don't care for the after market kits avalible.... I don't like the looks or possible interference issues with the shocks attached to the leading edge of the LCA and mounted to the frame.
Instead since I am running a tubular UCA I want to run the shock between the UCA and spring pocket. So far it looks possible

 

[The ghoul]

Order from AVS systems arrived yesterday!
I really can't reccomend that company enough. they knew I was a rookie with air, never talked down to me, made great suggestions and reccomended some products I didn't know Ineeded! Awesome all the way around (all the free gear and parts ddidn't hurt either!

I have to admit I've been burnt out and haven't really been too inspired to work on this project much. Seems to me when I think about it I experience dread more than excitement. Then a few days ago I started looking things over and realized I really hate the back half of this frame

My attempts at compacting the rails and make a simple notch have failed miserably.
So I cut out some pieces for new rails and welded one of them together today (had a snow day from work so timing was perfect

Its constructed of 12ga steel with 1/8"wall 1.75" diameter tubing

I left a 1/4" lip running on the inside top edge because it was easier to construct that way and hopefully it will help with ridgidy.
It also gave me the excuse to go taller with the notch

I'm excited, this should look much better and be mutch more functional (I plan on mounting them 3" further inboard than the stock rails to accommodate wider tires.

 

[The ghoul]

Dang, ran out of shield gas and wire working on the second frame rail.

On the plus side the front bracket I have been developing looks like it needs one more small tweak and it will be ready (I'd like to see more air between the hanger and rotor)

And, it looks like my rear big brake conversion is done!