Slight front suspension progress

Been waiting for pieces to come in the last few weeks so I can get started on the front suspension, although today I got a few pieces cut and started working on putting them together. I got the upper ball joint and 3/4" clevis joints mounted to the upper control arm plate, not shown is some special washers for the cross arm and the flanges for the rod ends for the other half of the upper control arm, those will need some welding which I should be able to start tomorrow.

Rear strut test fit part 2

I got the rear strut back from the aluminum welder today, finally got to mount it to the hubs and get the suspension all test fit together. Ran into a small problem with the strut ears being really tight on the hub, so I am going to have to adjust it a bit, also need to clean up the holes for the hub - knuckle bolts since I'm having a small problem getting the bolts to line up. Other than a couple small problems that I should be able to clean up this week I must say its coming together nicely.

Also I got the final polyurethane bushings in today from the front suspension, the impala upper ball joints came in and I got the ball joint plate lasered last week, so I should be able to get a lot of work going on that very shortly.

Rear rotor modification and mounting.

I haven't gotten too much done this week, I am waiting for a couple things to come in, but I was able to get a jig made, drilled out my C4 corvette rear rotors and mounted them today. I did get a lot done on CCFiero's rear knuckles, he should get them in a week or so.

CCFiero's Knuckles

Quick update - exhaust mod,start of the front suspension

Just a quick update, I reworked the exhaust, had a problem where the pipes were hitting the cross brace, so I had to add an inch or so to make it clear. As for the front suspension it was just started today, I dis-assembled the stock front suspension that I had laying around, decided to use the ION front knuckle but modify it to remove the upper strut mount and make it a ball joint connection. Also spread out all pieces so I could get a couple pics and a lay of the land with this part of the project.

Rear suspension mock up part 2

Today was more of what I did yesterday, with one exception, I got the struts mounted to the knuckles. The new strut ears aren't tack welded on very well since my TIG welder can't handle 1/4" alum, I will send them out to be welded sometime in the following week. I might adjust the height of the strut a bit more to get them sitting a little lower and closer to the drive shaft, there is still about a inch until I get interference at full extension of the strut.

88 Custom engine cradle fabrication part 4 and rear suspension mock up

So it was a very big day today, I got the engine and upper transmission mounts welded up and installed, there was a re-design of both mounts. The engine mount is an LSJ Ion/Cobalt mount now although the upper transmission mount is still a L-series Saturn mount I redesigned the mount on the transmission so that it sits lower on the transmission and gives me much better clearance for the shifter cables.

I also removed the engine cradle from the jig today, installed the tube for the front mount location and trailing arm bolt location, since the jig was removed I was able to start mocking up the rear suspension with the fully adjustable control arms and trailing arms with polyurethane bushings.

Lastly I started welding up the rear knuckles, I only did some tack welding since my welder at work is only a light duty TIG welder, I will send the pieces off to the other plant where my intake manifold was welded.

Keep in mind that most of the pieces don't have final welds done to them yet, I have only did tack welding everywhere in case there is a problem and I need to modify pieces.