69 Z/28 Day II Project (Air Force Brat)

[Lynn]

The repro floors have these seat belt anchors angled wrong. They now interfere with the brake line bracket

Well that sucks. Seems like they can't make ANYTHING repop that is 100 percent correct.

I would just cut the end off the seat belt bolt. It adds no holding power anyway.

[NorCam]

For those of you with the ET or Cal Custom diff covers...what are you guys using to hold the rubber brake hose fitting atop the diff cover. I connected the hard lines and installed the soft line, but there is no way the typical bracket that bolts to the housing cover will align with the brass end of the soft line?

Here is some of the stuff we did today including cleaning of the sun visors, kick panels, upper pinch weld moldings, cowl ducting, and more. Also installed the rear fuel tank, started on the wiring and installed the rear brakes on the diff c/w hard lines.


Visors and headliner moldings turned out awesome!


The new fuel tank got some original insulators and then went into the car.


Next up we installed the hard lines on the rear axles


They fit great but the soft lines brass fitting will not reach the bracket from the diff cover.


Right side hard lines fit great too.


The issue is with the bracket that bolts to the upper left cover bolt. It won't align with the brass splitter block.


Finally, I got around to the brakes and e-brake cables on the diff.

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

Originally Posted by Lynn

"...all I can say is that Russell Rosales (Mr.4Speed) is just an amazing dude! A genuine person and a real hobbyist who has gone to great lengths to help out a fellow car guy."

Well done gents. I have been on both ends of similar transactions. Coincidentally, I was on the receiving end on the twin to this hood. Mine is identical, although a bit more rough than this one. Found a smoking hot deal on it in the Chicago area. A fellow named Rob who goes by satz28 over on camaros.net picked it up for me, and kept it in his garage for a couple of months. I retrieved it from him after attending the 2017 MCACN. I didn't even have to pay for shipping that way. Come to think of it, that is when I delivered a box of parts from Texas to Ryan for his Cutlass S W31 project, and got to meet him and his son.

Is this a great site for a great hobby or what?

You said it Lynn!!

Ryan W31

[big gear head]

I know that you have had a lot of these cars, and you probably ran them hard at times. It's common for the Camaro and Nova rear ends to rip the spring perches off of the housing. Many people use 2 U bolts on each side instead of the T bolts to help support the spring perches. I've had to repair several Camaro housings where the axle tubes were ripped or the perches were torn. I don't know how hard you intend to drive this, but you might consider this. I know that the brake lines have to be modified to get the other U bolts in place, but brake lines are easier to replace than to fix a damaged axle tube. I can see marks on the axle tubes where this rear end has had the extra U bolts installed in the past.

[NorCam]

Thanks, Freddie.

What you are seeing here for mounting hardware is only temporary. The perches have additional welds on them now and the U-bolts and I-bolts will all be replaced when the car is loaded up with some weight and the Lakewood J-Bolts go onto the traction bars. Maybe when I route the hard lines over the new hardware, I can stretch them out far enough to get that brass block where it needs to be with the holding bracket. That may happen sooner than later. :-)

[NorCam]

OK, the J-bolts hardware is now installed and the rear brake lines have been massaged into a spot where I could get the brackets onto the cover. Not quite factory looking but works fine for the day 2 end of things. Some of you may remember me picking up some Air Lift traction bags back in the summer when they popped up in the classifieds. Well, I broke them out last night and after a little concern about how to get them mounted up, I pulled out the pieces and got it figured out. Let's just say the instructions were more than a little vague, but then again this was 50+ years ago when these were the ticket.

Here are a couple of pics as I got the first side figured out and installed the bag using the offset brackets. Once the bags are inflated, these things grow right into place and it's easy to see how they apply the right amount of preload to the rear springs. I'll follow up with a video in the coming days, but these are freakin cool now that I can see how they work.

[rszmjt]

Graeme, It looks like you Lakewood bars have the extra set of holes at the rear that are outside of the spring perch. If you want extra spring perch clamping it is possible to use 2 U bolts each side and put the J bolt in the outer hole ( if memory serves me correctly )

[NorCam]

I tried that again today Mike. Those outer holes are aligned right on the edge of the spring perch and put the J-Bolt out of vertical alignment. When I did try them again today, I put the legs into the outer holes and the fronts into the stirrups but as you tighten the nuts the upper hoop becomes cocked at a slight angle over the diff and the angle of the fronts becomes more pronounced where it goes through the stirrup. It puts the nuts at the front into a slight bind although it's tough to see if the pictures below.

I tried this on the Nova a couple of years ago and had the same issue, so I relented to installing just the J-bolts as so many other people have done over the years. See the pictures of the driver's side below as I attempted it earlier today. Became another no-go and I figured those J-bolts had to be plenty strong enough for what this car will be putting out? Would they not?


Here's the little day 2 Nova before I changed out the u-bolts due to poor angles.


The holes are so close to the inside hoop that they align at an angle as they route up over the housing?


You can see the angle more with this shot. Messes with my OCD (LOL)


Here you can see the angle of the nut. The more you tighten it the worse it gets. Even with a washer it goes to bind on one edge?

If I recall correctly, I tightened the Nova down to proper torque on the J-bolts and those front bolts started to bend beyond the stirrups. Anyone else had any level of success trying to run u-bolts and j-bolts on trac bars. I always end up seeing people use just the j-bolts?

[rszmjt]

Maybe you could re bend or over break the front stirrup at the bend area so it helps with the J bolt nut alignment? , and maybe elongate/tweak the outer hole too to keep the j bolt vertical?
Problem with using just the J bolts on the diff housing is the clamping force is not as great as U bolts because the front stirrup is a pivotable/movable part. I think the idea of the J bolts is to be able to preload 1 spring more if the car goes crooked on launch.

[NorCam]

That makes a lot of sense Mike. I have to go see Mel next week as he's cutting the rear shackles for me on his water table. He'd be able to overbend the tops of the stirrups and correct the angle to match the J-bolts, and that might help the alignment over the diff as well. I looked at the holes earlier today and there's a bit of room for the holes to move outwards a smidge.

Those ideas would help the J-bolts fit better

Thanks for the suggestions, Mike.