Sorry I had to separate this into multiple posts, the text was about 3 times too large for one post and you are limited to 20 pictures per post.
Don't forget to vote up my rep for this post if you like what you see.
If you have any questions or suggestions of things I missed, please PM or email me so I can add it in line with my other posts so it is smooth flowing and easy to read. Thanks!
This is a thread to help give ideas about setting up the suspension of your car, as well as giving you 360 degree views of the car with the body off, and show you some of my progress. Prices that I list are for parts bought new and if I listed labor, it is in terms of what someone who is doing none of the work themselves would pay. A lot of the labor I had my buddies who own customizing shops down here do for a significantly reduced price, but it still added up. So here we go. These are the two el camino's I bought as a package deal.
I pretty much took every good part from the one, and put it on the other, junking the second El Camino (The frame was bent and was rusting.) The end result was fun to play with for a few months.
To start the frame up build, we cut the frame for mini tubs. This process can be completed with the vehicle on the car, though it does make the project MUCH more difficult, and costly if you are paying for the labor. To begin my project, we pulled the body off the car, along with the motor, tranny, and all of the other components. Aside from the dual exhaust the car came with, and the 8.5" rear end I got from a guy with a GN who was going 9", everything is completely stock back there.
With everything now off, the line in the first picture was just to give a rough idea of where I was going and how much can be potentially gained, I went past the seam, almost to the line, though I have seen where people go all the way to the inside skin and add extra re-enforcement on the inside.
NOTE: If you are not a pro, I would not recommend trying this. Cutting the frame will weaken it, and if you weld it back together and it doesn't have the exact same geometry, the body bolts will not line up.
The next step was to take the bare frame to the shop so he can cut and weld my frame. Before this project was started, the frame was cross measured about 4 times, it was then cut, re-measured, welded, and again re-measured to make sure every part of the frame was in its proper place so that the body will easily go back on.
Don't forget to vote up my rep for this post if you like what you see.
If you have any questions or suggestions of things I missed, please PM or email me so I can add it in line with my other posts so it is smooth flowing and easy to read. Thanks!
This is a thread to help give ideas about setting up the suspension of your car, as well as giving you 360 degree views of the car with the body off, and show you some of my progress. Prices that I list are for parts bought new and if I listed labor, it is in terms of what someone who is doing none of the work themselves would pay. A lot of the labor I had my buddies who own customizing shops down here do for a significantly reduced price, but it still added up. So here we go. These are the two el camino's I bought as a package deal.
I pretty much took every good part from the one, and put it on the other, junking the second El Camino (The frame was bent and was rusting.) The end result was fun to play with for a few months.
To start the frame up build, we cut the frame for mini tubs. This process can be completed with the vehicle on the car, though it does make the project MUCH more difficult, and costly if you are paying for the labor. To begin my project, we pulled the body off the car, along with the motor, tranny, and all of the other components. Aside from the dual exhaust the car came with, and the 8.5" rear end I got from a guy with a GN who was going 9", everything is completely stock back there.
With everything now off, the line in the first picture was just to give a rough idea of where I was going and how much can be potentially gained, I went past the seam, almost to the line, though I have seen where people go all the way to the inside skin and add extra re-enforcement on the inside.
NOTE: If you are not a pro, I would not recommend trying this. Cutting the frame will weaken it, and if you weld it back together and it doesn't have the exact same geometry, the body bolts will not line up.
The next step was to take the bare frame to the shop so he can cut and weld my frame. Before this project was started, the frame was cross measured about 4 times, it was then cut, re-measured, welded, and again re-measured to make sure every part of the frame was in its proper place so that the body will easily go back on.