Getting ready for Bonneville(rebuild)

[bvillercr]

Those rears don't look like 200's any more

Uhhhh, yeah.  They are 450's and the rear is still plenty soft.

[jl222]

John and Troy,
When you have to compress the springs just to get them on you are preloading them and then any additional adjustment to get the car level or the corner weights correct adds additional preload. When preload gets to large it makes the suspension very stiff until the preload is over come by the load which normally would very small on a Bonneville car assuming a smooth course. This can make the car feel like the springs are to stiff and if the preload is large enough you will get no suspension travel. I would think that the springs you have are to long, my preference has always been that when you jack up the car the spring will become loose on the shock and not preloaded.

Just a thought.

Rex

  Rex...We had to compress the spring to clear the lip on the spring retainer and get below the lock nut on shaft for top mount.
Retainer slot is only wide enough to clear shaft but is machined to clear nut and center on top mount. Once spring retainer is in place there is no pressure on spring and bottom spring pad can be turned by hand.
  Alston must be on the edge of overall length for these rear shocks for them to work for there chassis [ there book specifies a certain length] to come out at the correct ride height.
  The fronts were a longer shock and we had no problem with 12'' spring on them and like you say are loose when jacked up
and gives us room to lower or raise the front end.

               JL222

[jl222]

  Just ordered new Harwood fiberglass front end-hood and scoop, supposed to ship in 2 weeks [hopefully]

            JL222  Happy New Year

[bvillercr]

Before the front new front end arrives and resenates it's fiberglass smell throughout the shop, we need to draw up and take pictures of all the critical measurements to ensure we get the front end in the same stance and position.  Wish us luck.

[Captthundarr]

Good Luck. Ben followig this build/rebuild for a while. We have put together a '91 camaro to run ECTA events with a target of 200+ for my wifes personal goal and to set the bar as high as we can in C/GALT the old record is 203.XX. love your build, good luck.

[jl222]

Good Luck. Ben followig this build/rebuild for a while. We have put together a '91 camaro to run ECTA events with a target of 200+ for my wifes personal goal and to set the bar as high as we can in C/GALT the old record is 203.XX. love your build, good luck.

   Thanks Capt,and good luck to you as well

[bvillercr]

We try to show everything in our build.  Have you ever seen someone share their tune with anyone who may or may not want to see it?  We have nothing to be arrogant about on this build, we havent officially gone over 300, our records are unbelievably low for our class, we haven't had a full pass strong pass through the five in many years.  We try to build tomething that will work, but that doesn't always work out(side windows), but we try to adapt.  Now we have a large task in front of us and we will try to get that completed as well.  We do appreciate all the advice and kind words or not so kind(sometimes  ), we will continue do the best we can to power through the five mile!!  I will always keep this build diary updated when we can.

[jl222]

 
  With these new shocks we hope to get more pitch rotation for the chassis and increase the loading on the tires
with the result of more traction and more throttle.
  We think [ a good course will help] a 300 + mph 21/4 time is possible, as 2 years ago on a return record run we
were 35 mph faster in 2nd gear [then spun] after the same 13 sec after applying throttle than our 280 mph  21/4 mile time.

  Speed in 2nd gear 13 sec after applying throttle 2 years ago, 168 mph  tps 48%
                                                                   2011           133 mph  tps 41% 

  Its great to be able to look and record these runs with the FAST EFI data logger.

               JL222
 

                 

[bvillercr]

It's that time in this build diary to include some of our past videos.

dyno pull.

http://youtu.be/iJApvHuDpL0

http://youtu.be/mHUEA-pScY8

inside view of the run above.

http://youtu.be/Udo7XM472Qk

http://youtu.be/NJZbf4_IUeo

http://youtu.be/55XA0vrNNj0

http://youtu.be/kLG0JFzazrs

http://youtu.be/yUlH51jxzM8

[jl222]

  Just ordered new Harwood fiberglass front end-hood and scoop, supposed to ship in 2 weeks [hopefully]

            JL222  Happy New Year

  Harwood called...shipped today 

[jl222]

  Just ordered new Harwood fiberglass front end-hood and scoop, supposed to ship in 2 weeks [hopefully]

            JL222  Happy New Year

  Harwood called...shipped today 

  Delivered today, met truck down the road and off loaded unto my small Ford Ranger, box was bigger than I thought it would be and tie downs barely made it.

            JL222

[bvillercr]

This is what we get to work with over the next few months.





Lots of measurements, cuts, bondo, and fiberglass in the future.

[Peter Jack]

Looks like a really nice starting point Troy.

Pete

[Captthundarr]

ooooooshinny, shinny. Not for long though. I don't envey you fitting the 'glass. i'm look at next year to put glass on our camaro sas the sheet metal is fair. Waiting and watching.

[jl222]

ooooooshinny, shinny. Not for long though. I don't envey you fitting the 'glass. i'm look at next year to put glass on our camaro sas the sheet metal is fair. Waiting and watching.

  Were lucky that the frame work  for the front end is already built, but we have to seperate it from the old front end.

   Hopefully it will fit the new.

           JL222