Rebuilding the coupe!

[mustangmike6996]

This thing is bad ass

 

[camaromann]

I found another 2.63 lbs by swapping out the 3" long rear wheel drive studs for 2", along with the 5/16" wheel spacers it took so the old lug nut spacers would tighten down on the thin wheel center.

[/url]20180809_105215 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]20180809_105233 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

When swapping the studs did you change over to aluminum lugs also? Still using your lug spacers/big washers?

 

[JoeP.]

When swapping the studs did you change over to aluminum lugs also? Still using your lug spacers/big washers?

Right now it has the steel flange nuts and short aluminum spacers shown in the picture. I thought about the aluminum lugs, but more importantly the beadlock bolts. I keep looking for a deal on titanium bolts. There are 96 5/16"X1.25" grade 8 bolts around the outside of the rims!

 

[camaromann]

Right now it has the steel flange nuts and short aluminum spacers shown in the picture. I thought about the aluminum lugs, but more importantly the beadlock bolts. I keep looking for a deal on titanium bolts. There are 96 5/16"X1.25" grade 8 bolts around the outside of the rims!

I'm about to change studs and was going to eliminate the spacer/washer all together. I need to find a aluminum lug I like first. We were going to use titanium bolts in our beadlock until countless others told us that you will break at least 1 or 2 bolts each time you change tires. I guess the titanium gulls up real bad no matter how much anti seeze you use.

 

[JoeP.]

Good info on titanium, thanks.
I wanted to keep the small aluminum lug spacers for 2 reasons. To prevent galling the wheel center, plus there is a small amount of the unthreaded stud shank protruding through the wheel so the lug won't fully tighten against the wheel without it.

 

[my89notchback]

Awesome work again Joe!! Beautiful car.

 

[JoeP.]

Thanks Chris!
I spent Sunday afternoon swapping out the 275 Pro's for a set of M/T 28X10.5W's. The car will fit a 29.5X10.5W, but my converter and gearing work well on 28's so I'll try these out. I knew the radials were heavy and expected to save a bit with the slicks. The slicks are 3 lbs lighter each, but the tubes weigh 6 lbs so it gained 3 lbs per wheel... I really loved the radials on a good track, and it had a best 60' of 1.10 at the old weight, but I want to be able to get down a marginal track more often and I'll probably try my luck at Milan's Outlaw 632 class at small block weight.
I also opted out on the titanium beadlock bolts for $370 and hit up Mcmaster Carr for a shiney new set of grade 8 bolts for $20 lol.

[/url]20180812_123014 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]20180812_145727 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[mustangmike6996]

$370 for bolts is a whole lot of ouch. What would the weight savings be between titanium and steel?

 

[camaromann]

$370 for bolts is a whole lot of ouch. What would the weight savings be between titanium and steel?

Not enough unless you are spending someone elses money lol. You will need to buy at least 2 sets so you can have spares to replace all the ones you will ruin putting the ring on and taking it off. So start with $700 in titanium ring bolts.

 

[JoeP.]

$370 for bolts is a whole lot of ouch. What would the weight savings be between titanium and steel?

The bag of 96 grade 8 bolts weighs 3.08 lbs. From what I could find, grade 5 titanium is about 45% lighter than grade 8 steel, so the same 96 bolts would be 1.68 lbs.

Thanks to camaromann for talking me out of it lol.

 

[Superstocker]

I took Friday off work to go watch my buddy Kevin run his yellow Gremlin at Milan in Outlaw 632. I'm curious about the class, and will probably try it once I get things sorted out a bit. The fireworks weren't bad, but we left about 12:30am midway through first round elim's. Yeah, things were moving super slow...

[/url]20180706_222044 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

But I did get a little inspiration, and dropped in the engine/trans to start the new plumbing and wiring required with the updates. Alot of the braided lines are 10 years old, so time to replace some hoses. The wiring will be mostly the same as before, other than a few minor changes such as the front mounted fuel pump and generally cleaning things up to look better. The radiator sits roughly 5" lower than before, so I need to find an inline filler cap housing so the cooling system works correctly.

[/url]20180709_134725 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url]20180709_134528 by Joe Pinsoneault, on Flickr[/IMG]

What did you paint the bars with? and what was your prep process?

 

[JoeP.]

All the round tube is painted with Rustoleum "hammered" finish silver spray paint. Just scuff with a Scotchbrite pad then wiped down with wax and grease remover. Great adhesion and coverage, and easy touch up if there's any chips.