[bird72]

What color car to be? I like your function without going whacko approach.

[LeighP]

Car is to be painted Carousel Red....I've always wanted that colour on a car. Also looking at using the factory side stripe for 71 Firebirds....Phoenix Graphix does them repro in gold...which I think will look good against the dark orange.

Painted those fasteners on the cooler this morning...it does look better like that.

[LeighP]

Been sorting out the front brake calipers.....a couple of small issues to resolve. If you're using new GM B body spindles to convert to 1LE 12" rotors, the caliper bolt holes are drilled metric, not 7/16" UNF like the original spindles.
I couldn't locate a suitable metric caliper bolt, so I had the mounting threads helicoiled to UNF to suit the bolts.

The Wilwood calipers are drilled and tapped in NPT, so a conventional banjo style fitting won't work (also the area around the hole is not machined over the whole circle for a crush washer to seal). I had new lines made up about 1" longer than the factory lines and an adapter which is NPT to screw into the caliper, but has a brake line flared seat in it for the line to screw into.




Caliper paint is drying at the moment, but I should have it all together tomorrow.

[LeighP]

Heres the finished install on the calipers...I painted them just to help with cleaning issues, you can't really see them through the wheels I'm using much.




The flex lines clear everything on full lock in both directions, so hopefully everything will work OK. :lol:

[LeighP]

So I bring out one of the AR500 wheels for a trial fit.....looks good and clears everything nicely.



Then I try the 15x7 Rally II......seems Wilwood GMIII calipers will not clear 15" rims when used with the 1LE mod B body stubs....they just scrape on a few points, noticeably the edges of a couple of the allen bolts that hold the calipers together.....I'm going to file them off so they are flush then see how that goes.

[Father&Son73T/A]

Leigh,this thing looks gorgeous,and will run and turn like a bat out of hell!.....nice job brother!

[LeighP]

Thank you.

[RicksGTO]

great job Leigh, can't wait to see that one finished!

[eaglesan13]

Do the bolts from the ball joints rub on the rim? I see you have the bolt sticking up rather than down, and I didn't know if this would be a clearance problem. Looking good though.

[LeighP]

No, the ball joint bolts dont come near the rims...so they aren't an issue. Can't say off hand why I put them that way up, unless they were like that on the old ball joints I took off (one wasn't original and one was)....seems its easier to keep an eye on the nuts like that too, I suppose.
Well, I'm a bit annoyed about the wheels.....
I wanted the option of running the set of 15" Honeycomb rims I have here...for the odd occasion when I want it to look stock.
I just found it can't be done.
The spacers I picked up will let me run the Rally IIs OK, but it appears the Honeycomb rims are like the early second gen Rally IIs...they use 14" centres with a step down 15" rim....theres no way they'll fit.
I guess I'll refinish them (got some correct Honeycomb paint on the way) and add the new centre caps I bought and get my money back on Ebay...hopefully.
Looks like I'll be getting the Rally IIs refurbished and using them instead.

[LeighP]

Next little project is to get the radiator and fans set up.
Last time (on my 77 T/A) I cut up a factory shroud and mounted the fans into the back of that....worked OK, but I thought it could have been nicer to look at.
This time, I wanted a more compact radiator/fans mount....so I'm building it from scratch.
Some folded alloy sheet top and bottom, with the sections for the rubber radiator mounts set up using some bar stock welded on...all measurements taken off the original shroud.
I've set it up to put the radiator at the same angle in the support as the factory shroud does.....air flowing through a radiator set at an angle slows down, thereby exchanging more heat.
I'll be making up the side sections next, where the fans will bolt on using the factory mounts molded on the fan shroud....should be a 2 minute job to pull the fan pack anytime I need to.

Bottom mount


From the front


Top mount - note the factory angle of the radiator


From the rear


And with the fans in place

[Father&Son73T/A]

WOW!............I'll bet you have no problems with heat in that badboy!

[LeighP]

lol...thats what I'm hoping.

[Father&Son73T/A]

Hey Leigh,if I can ever afford to come to Australia,will you take me for a ride in that monster?

[CaptCrunch]

Looking great!

[LeighP]

Originally Posted by Father&Son73T/A

Hey Leigh,if I can ever afford to come to Australia,will you take me for a ride in that monster?

No problem at all.....just make sure your trip is 2012 or later...lol. Going to take me the rest of the year to get it back together, poor things been apart for 21 years so far.

[LeighP]

The heads arrived...finally out of customs.
SD Performance 6X heads....CNC ported, alloy filled crossovers, 93-94cc chambers with Crane 99893 springs.
I worked out this should run me a shade over 9.5:1 compression, which is where I wanted it.
Flow chart shows with my cam's lift converted to running 1.65:1 ratio rockers, there should be 251CFM on the Intake and about 208CFM on the Exhaust side.

[Formula8]

Looks sweet.

[RicksGTO]

like a work of art Leigh, some close up pics inside those CNC'ed ports would be suitable for framing!

[Baba O'Riley]

This is one of the best of these kind of threads I've seen, given the challenges you have getting parts and the amazing ways you improvise.

What transmission are you going to run in that?