Flip kit and shock extenders fabricated for the Crusty Chevy
Category: My Projects
The Crusty Chevy
That’ll buff out.
We have a new project coming along. I’ve only recently decided to include it here.
Short-boxing a long box square-body Chevy.
Lower Control Arms
Finished today for a current project. It only took about four incarnations for it to work correctly.
Hideous Quirks
In an effort to “fix” the many electrical problems akin to my mid-90’s Nissan experience, I added a new section to the Hideous Hardbody – Hideous Quirks.
The first quirk I dealt with was an erratic idle, low-speed stumble, driveability issue which involved re-soldering a questionable crimp in the engine wiring harness.
Much better!
Control Arms
The Final Word on The Frankenleaf Hardbody
- 2WD main leaf, de-arced 3″
- 4WD second leaf, de-arced to match
- 2WD second leaf, bobbed and de-arced to match
- 2WD main overload, flattened (Canadian trucks have two overloads)
- 4WD second overload, flipped
- 3″ blocks, machined to 2″ with 6° taper
- Relocated rear shackle mount
- Re-drilled front eye mount
- Nissan Quest shocks
That should be it. SO not worth it.
Lethal Locost Tuning
I figured I should add an update on the current tune. I have been running pure Alpha-N for a couple years now, and this is the current state of the tune.
There is still a wee bit of unhappiness light-throttle around 2000rpm, and cold start is still about 10% unhappy. But very driveable, and nary a problem.
I did have a strange quirk wherein the car would act like it just dropped two cylinders, usually only once in a while, and only within the first 20 minutes of operation. Only a full on/off/on would make it go away. Someone on www.locostusa.com found the fix: reset “next pulse tolerance” normal running up to 70%. Problem solved.
Quieter (aka: “I’m Old”)
The Flowmaster is gone. I think it would have worked great on a V8, but the exhaust pulses from a 4 just aren’t enough to cancel each other properly. So – axed.
The latest muffler is on now, and there’s no going back.
It’s a Walker QuietFlow3 for a 1990 Chevy C1500 350V8. 2-1/2″ in, dual 2″ out.
And by gum, it’s pretty quiet. I can ~just~ hear exhaust note on the highway. Any drone is virtually non-existent.
Am I really that old?
Rearward Ho!
Attacking the rearward tubes on the Lotus Seven
De-Chroming with Muriatic Acid
I needed some flat steel to transition from the 1″ wheel archs on the Lotus 7 chassis to the 3/4″ tubes behind the seat back bulkhead. I thought “washers would work great” only, you really shouldn’t weld chrome.
An hour immersed in Muriatic Acid, and now they are de-chromed.
I wonder if the acid might be a bad thing when welding….