Thread: Old School new Ride

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Ronnie, that is an absolutely ---FINE--- little Chevy. Is that dual Appleton spots that I see on the cowl ???? TOO COOL MAN. ......Absolutely Righteous........ Seriously, I would be proud to call her mine.

I see this as a front clip/rear clip project, retaining the stock middle part of the frame and welding the Trans Am clips to it.

First thing I would do is to get the Trans Am onto a flat and level surface, with all the tires aired up to factory specs, and take readings off the front and rear control arms with an angle finder. You'll then want to remove the springs front and rear and use Allthread in place of the springs to bring the control arms to the same angle finder readings that you had when the springs were in place. This will insure that you get the same front and rear geometry that you had with the springs in place, insuring a "factory correct" ride and transient response to the old Chevy.

Some fellows will just weld the clips onto the old Chevy frame stubs and then have to jump through hoops with cut front coils and dropped spindles and such garbage to get the ride height where they want it. We will try to use a little more intelligence and foresight in this project, with your approval. We will put the old Chevy body at the ride height and attitude that you want before we ever strike an arc. Then, we will weld the front and rear clips into the old Chevy with the threaded rod in place, holding the control arms at the right place like they were stock, and when the clip is welded in place, voila, the whole mess will be sittin' correctly. All that will be necessary at that point will be to install the correct rate springs and you'll be done. There is a supplier of springs, Eaton Detroit Spring, that can help supply the correct springs when we get to that point, by supplying them with the front and rear weight and distance between spring seats, upper and lower.

If this procedure sounds to you like what you had in mind, let us proceed. You will need a flat and level workplace, so get to work on that part of the project. Warning: a garage floor is neither level nor flat. You may want to set up a steel platform (frame jig) to work from, that's up to you.

P.S. You should vehemently resist any temptation to narrow the Trans Am clips. That will render them into junk by destroying all the geometry that the factory built into the suspension and steering. If you need the clips to be a little narrower, do it with wheel offsets. An altered scrub radius is not nearly so gnarly to deal with as a narrowed clip.
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