Geez, where the heck does the time go sometimes! Progress has been a bit slow, overwhelmed with work (which now occupies a majority of my garage). Here I thought, "Hey, with the shop being up here, I'll have at least a bit more time to work on the car.." Wrong. Less time than ever. However, there is progress, however little or slow, and that is what matters. Got the chassis sitting on all fours, temporarily, to see where everything ended up. I'm glad I started over after the "Tools" debacle. The chassis is dead straight and square. The first week in August, the Wife had gotten a hotel down in Louisvillle for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals for our 30th. Been trying to get to there for ten years. If you are a car guy, this is absolute heaven. If you are an impulse buyer, leave your wallet at home.....I still have whiplash from all of the gorgeous cars. Most of them privately built, but there was everything from the typical Rat Rods up to multi-hundred thousand dollar pro builds. I think this years attendance was north of 10,000 cars. It gave me a renewed vigor for keeping after the LoCost. So much so, that I bought one of those injection molded plastic blocks for the SBC. Got my pulley set from March. Water pump, alternator, and (if I need it) power steering pump. Wilwood put on an exceptional presentation on brake systems. I missed the one that Detroit Speed did on suspensions. We were so overwhelmed with the place, I lost track of time, and missed out. The place was immaculate too. What a venue. Anyway, got back, the plastic block and pulleys arrived a week later. Put them to good use, and started setting the engine and trans again. I can't tell you how nice it was to be able to just move it around at will. Bolted the rear batwing into position, and put the hangar bolts in for the rear transverse leaf spring. The tail sits at 6" ride height, right where I want it, but obviously once weight is added, she will drop. The hangars are adjustable, so that is not a problem. The only Issue I see with using that spring now, is that if the car does not sit down a fair amount, so I HAVE to adjust the hangars, the ends of the springs may be lower than the scrub line. No bueno! If that turns out to be the case, I had a nice conversation with the folks at Ride Tech about coilovers while at the NSRA event. I'm going to add an upper mount to the chassis for them just in case. There are kits to reinforce the lower shock mount for the C4 Corvettes and utilize the original lower shock mount. Up front, I clamped the two crossmembers together. It sits at about 10" right now, since there is no weight on the front transverse leaf. Over the next couple of weeks I'll get the engine and trans mounts in, then I can drop the 'ol L-98 lump in place, and see if that makes her sit close to the proper ride height. If the front sits too high without the weight of the body and stuff from the C4, or too low, I'll have to go with coilovers. No adjustability there, unfortunately. Now, somehow I ended up with a 98" wheelbase. I had figured it at 96", which is what the original C4's were. I know I picked up an inch when I located the rear. I moved it back an inch to get a bit more room in the cockpit, and also clear the rear crossmember. The other inch, however....That extra inch up front actually works out ok too, as with the Haynes nosecone dimensions, it should sit on there like it was made for it, so I'm not going to worry about the longer wheelbase. I'll have to get a nosecone ordered from Jack shortly to be sure. I also set the scuttle hoops in place, and took a line down to where the top of the nosecone will be. Looks like I'll have about 3/8" clearance to the hood. May get that sucker under the bonnet after all! If not, she'll be a "Shaker", like the old Mopars and Mustangs had.
_________________ Dismantalus, Fabricatus, Assemblus..... Certified Welder, Certified Welding Inspector, Full Time Car Freak...In New Jersey no less!
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