Progress Thread Slow Boat To China

Certainly is, it's not very easy to package it all in there but it can be done. My buddies car is done that way. We cut about 6" of the spare tire well out towards the front and had to plate it back in to make room for the coil overs, so you can count your spare tire out, lol. but stock tank coil overs and arb = 1.32 60' for a street driven fox....not too bad!
Ok, good. I left the tank mounts, but trimmed out pretty much what you just mentioned. Ill have to find a way to reinforce them now since its a tad flimsy.

Aeromotive sells a 340lph in tank pump which they estimate will support ~700 fwhp on pump gas. That should at least get me started, and at $175 ea, I can always plumb in a second one should I switch to E85 and really put the screws to it. Not looking to set any records, 700 hp should keep me happy for a while....
 
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We have that fuel pump in my buddies convertible and at 630rwhp it performed flawlessly, it truly is a nice fuel pump, excellent choice

We used 18ga steel sheet metal to box the front of the spare tire well back in, fwiw
 
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The trunk pan is (over)trimmed and the rear is mounted. @84Ttop was dead nuts on it when he said it was gonna be a tight fit, but it's going to all work up in there. I got a new bottle of gas today so I can start welding now that everything is stuffed up in there. Progress!!!
 
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Lol thanks!

It's all just set in there now, hope to get some welding done tonight. I need to get it on the ground asap and the engine set in, there is a cheap cowl hood local and I dont know if I need it yet or not
 
So I have no pictorial evidence of what transpired in the garage tonight, so I present to you a tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly.


Oooo eeeee oooooo eeeeee ooooooo........ wah wah waaaaah....


The good:
The suspension is in, as is the ARB.

The bad:
The ARB hits the cross bar for the coil overs

The ugly:
A couple posts up, it was discussed how tight clearance was gonna be around all the moving parts. Well, it was so tight that I had trouble getting the gun of the welder up in there, and even more trouble getting my face/helmet up in there to see what was going on.

So, I won't be posting any pictures of the welds. They're there, they're gonna do what they're supposed to do, and they're uglier than sin.



As for the ARB/cross bar situation, I think I can shorten the links to angle the arms down a little more so they wont hit when I launch. I plan on having it rolling this weekend and the engine in this week.
 
Does anyone know if there is enough real estate under the rear of a fox to accomodate an ARB, coilovers mounted inboard of the frame rails, AND a stock tank? I'd really like to keep the stock tank with a couple of in-tank pumps for a stock-ish look.

That's how my car is set up, and the ARB clears the shock bar. Let me know if you need any specific pics.
 
That's how my car is set up, and the ARB clears the shock bar. Let me know if you need any specific pics.

I'm gonna have to redo what I did the other night - It's been eating at me. I think you posted pics earlier in the thread that Ill have to take another look at. Before on the '87, I was going to use a 5 gal cell and I had all the room I needed.

Also, the ARB is a TRZ unit and it's different from all of the other ones I've seen, and It's making mounting a nightmare. No matter what I come up with, it just looks sloppy and unimaginative. I really would like it to be half way presentable, even though it's under the car and completely out of view. Maybe Im just worried that anyone that IS under there looking will know what they are looking at, and I don't wanna rationalize crappy work.
 
So I have no pictorial evidence of what transpired in the garage tonight, so I present to you a tale of the good, the bad, and the ugly.


Oooo eeeee oooooo eeeeee ooooooo........ wah wah waaaaah....


The good:
The suspension is in, as is the ARB.

The bad:
The ARB hits the cross bar for the coil overs

The ugly:
A couple posts up, it was discussed how tight clearance was gonna be around all the moving parts. Well, it was so tight that I had trouble getting the gun of the welder up in there, and even more trouble getting my face/helmet up in there to see what was going on.

So, I won't be posting any pictures of the welds. They're there, they're gonna do what they're supposed to do, and they're uglier than sin.



As for the ARB/cross bar situation, I think I can shorten the links to angle the arms down a little more so they wont hit when I launch. I plan on having it rolling this weekend and the engine in this week.

And I'll bet you guys think I'm the only one that loses my s hit in the garage.

So,.... uh Collin,....... when you couldn't get the weld gun up there, and your helmet kept crashing into suspension/rear end/floor components in order for you to get a good eye on the weld,... and since you couldn't the weld quality suffered,........ how did that make you feel?

Did any bad words come out of your mouth?

I have the handheld face shield that came with my welder that I keep just for situations like that,....I have seen guys tape a dark lens to a piece of cardboard for the same reasons,.... only way to get your head up under there sometimes
 
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And I'll bet you guys think I'm the only one that loses my s hit in the garage.

So,.... uh Collin,....... when you couldn't get the weld gun up there, and your helmet kept crashing into suspension/rear end/floor components in order for you to get a good eye on the weld,... and since you couldn't the weld quality suffered,........ how did that make you feel?

Did any bad words come out of your mouth?

I have the handheld face shield that came with my welder that I keep just for situations like that,....I have seen guys tape a dark lens to a piece of cardboard for the same reasons,.... only way to get your head up under there sometimes

Well it was like this - Those front two mounts for the tank are RIGHT next to where I had to weld the shock bar. So it's either cut the mounts out, weld in the bar, then ARB, then weld both of the mounts back in, or just try and stick it up in there with the crap in the way.

Well, we know now what I chose and I kinda regret not taking the longer, more tedious road that would have yielded much more satisfactory results. Hi, my name is Collin, and nit-picky details and I don't really get along.

I'm trying to become a better person when it comes to this kind of stuff. I've always been a slap it together and go - I need to learn to take my time now that I have a car that deserves to showcase what I can do. I am completely capable of doing anything, I just need to take my time and force it to be nice.

Maybe I should rely on the internet to rate my work and belittle me until I get it right?
 
Well it was like this - Those front two mounts for the tank are RIGHT next to where I had to weld the shock bar. So it's either cut the mounts out, weld in the bar, then ARB, then weld both of the mounts back in, or just try and stick it up in there with the crap in the way.

Well, we know now what I chose and I kinda regret not taking the longer, more tedious road that would have yielded much more satisfactory results. Hi, my name is Collin, and nit-picky details and I don't really get along.

I'm trying to become a better person when it comes to this kind of stuff. I've always been a slap it together and go - I need to learn to take my time now that I have a car that deserves to showcase what I can do. I am completely capable of doing anything, I just need to take my time and force it to be nice.

Maybe I should rely on the internet to rate my work and belittle me until I get it right?

No problemo,

You suck.
 
Alright, I'll go fix it.

We all go through it, if you try your hand at fabricating. I had fits w/ trying to weld the top of the funny car cage in that orange & black 86 with the meth fueled 363.

I should've welded that part w/ either the whole bar dropped through the floor,.. or the roof off,.. but I was doing neither. I ended up not welding it at all, and it cost me my 7.50 cert. I ended up having a friend tig it,.. but for the life of me,..idk how he did it.

I've done my share of aww fugg it welding too,... in the end,.. it was unsightly, and probably structurally unsound,.. so in the end, I too ground the stuff down and rewelded it.
 
I just wish I knew how to weld. :shrug:

Ok, carry on.
You can find 110v welders for cheap that are good to learn with. Welding can be compared to painting - it's all in the prep work. If you have good clean metal and a good ground, the rest falls into place, just takes practice. You adjust the voltage and wire speed until you get the pretty beads that everyone likes to show off.


As for tonight:

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I painstakingly removed the shock cross bar (at a cost of 2 sawzall blades and some cutoff discs) and moved it back about 2" after cutting more of the trunk pan out for more room to work with. The welds still aren't great, but they're better thantime and Im not too embarrassed, considering that it was still a PITA to get the welder in there.

Got a couple more beads to run on the ARB and then it'll be on the ground as a roller again. Who says turbo cars live on jackstands?

To anyone considering building a race car, I'd suggest making friends with a chassis shop and hanging out to just learn. This learning as I go business is expensive...
 
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Did you mock up the rear shocks when you moved the cross member back? The shocks need to be plumb when sitting at ride height. If the shocks lean for or aft at all you may have trouble with the suspension binding. When they compress on launch they need to travel straight up and down. Looks good, keep up the good work.

Fwiw, in years past. Have installed, cut, ground, removed, reinstalled, cut, welded, rewelded, ground, scrapped, bought new, changed my mind, welded, ground, removed, quit and succeeded. This stuff takes years or practice and more importantly patience! If I can do it, any one can!
 
Did you mock up the rear shocks when you moved the cross member back?

I got it as close to plumb as I could. All I did was flip the cross bar 180°, so the mounting location for the shocks didn't change. My garage foundation is settling and cracked, so I really don't have a good gauge for level/plumb. When I get it on the ground this week, I'll roll it out and check on the driveway.