Any updates, PLEASE, any would be good

 

Only update is that the transmission is STILL not done. Believe me man, I'm just as upset. I'm REALLY hoping that soon I'll have a post with it back in. Until then, I appologize for the lack of updates. Just try to bear with me!

 

I understand , its horrible waiting on other people. Anyway thanks for the quick response. Cant wait to see the finished project.

 

Wow your trans guy is taking forever. Hes had the thing what 3 or 4 weeks now?

 

Maybe buying him some beer would speed the process?

 

Man thats sucks, yeah I know how it is waiting on parts. It takes the wind right out of your sails. I'm going thru something similar, I had to return my intake cause the fuel rails wouldn't bolt up. So I'm at a stand still, but man this has totally took away my motivation

But man keep it up your so close, Looking good good so far.

 

Did you remove the transmission or send the whole car? You could have had that spoiler on by now!

 

Thanks! I'll keep my fingers crossed. Good luck with your situation too.

Haha, just the tranny. And the spoiler is not painted yet either and I can't get a hold of the painter. Been trying to call him for weeks now.

 

Oh man, I hope he's not bailing on you when you have so few parts left to paint. You just need the headlight buckets and the spoiler now, right?

You could start putting the carpet in though...

 

Actually just the spoiler... Tried calling him again today and no answer. I know where he lives, and I am getting REAL close to showing up at his place and confronting him face to face, because this is getting pretty ridiculous.

 

just go to his house, express some concern that you havent been able to reach him and was wondering if he had the time to complete your spoiler because you need it. i wouldnt go in guns blazing because that never ends well and turns into a pissing match, or a broken spoiler

 

I've been holding out for too long on you guys and figured I'd take my camera to work and get some transmission progress pics. From what the guy doing it says, I will POSSIBLY have it next week. Fingers crossed!

First up, my custom shortened dodge viper mainshaft that will be going in place of the stock camaro one. This had to be cut down about 1 3/4" and then we put the 45* cut on the edge of the splines. Viper shaft is on the right, stock one on the left. Viper shaft is MUCH beefier, and is 30 spline over the camaro's 27 spline.





Next is the input shaft. To use the viper one, it has to be shortened about an inch, and then milled down where the pilot bushing is since the viper shaft is thicker than the camaro one. It's halfway done in this pic. Just have to cut it, pollish it and add the 45* cut to the splines. Again, the viper shaft is on the right, stock on the left. Notice how much thicker it is!





And heres the carbon fiber syncro rings soaking in ATF to get them ready for installation.



This transmission with the viper shafts and upgraded parts I bought should have absolutely no problem handling 800+ lbs ft of torque and over 1000 HP.

 

And what good would an update on the transmission be without some carnage pics?

Heres a nice chunk out of 5th gear



Heres 1st gear...the idiot that I bought it from installed the gear up against the syncro without a spacer that is supposed to be here....so it got chewed up, as did the syncro it was up against.



Heres one of the main bearings that was also rubbing on another component, and got superheated and all chewed up.



And heres the pile of mostly junk crap out of that T56. We are throwing away more than we were able to re-use, unfortunately.

 

Well if your gonna break it you gotta break it right. Nice to see some progress on the trans

 

Viper input shaft is now done being machined to spec! Transmission will start reassembly tomorrow! Will hopefully have it sometime next week.

 

well what are you waiting for stick it back in there........er........i mean please reassemble the transmission in a timely fashoin so this thing is on the road before the end of summer

 

LOL...I'm working on it! Looks like it'll most likely be this week.

 

That's what she said
Sorry to good to pass up. But seriously summer is ticking away man lets see this one back in one piece.

 

Good one! Made me LOL

 

FINALLY!!!!! NOW it's a trans am!

 

Nice!

How soon before the trany is ready?

 

looking good man

 

Haven't checked in here in a while, car is looking great as ever. Can't wait to see it complete.

 

this thing looks amazing you can tell how much you care about this car. it inspired me to do something like this with mine, only im not sure what motor to use i wouldnt mind using the same one as you but i didnt want to copy you and im not sure if i could afford one.

 

Took me 3 days to read this. Looks like your almost done. Is all the interior complete?

 

Danggg, I just read through this whole thread and I'm already itching to see this thing done! lol, Really curious about how those dyno numbers come out.

I've seen your sig around ls1tech for awhile, but I never knew there was such an epic build thread behind it! I've got a 96 ws6 and you are pretty much building my dream car, a turbo lsx third gen. Car is awesome dude, major props.

 

Didn't know I had comments on here lol. Been a while since I checked it, but thanks a lot guys. It's ALMOST there!

And heres an update too. Got the new ACC carpet installed today. Let it bake in the sun for a few hours to get back into shape and then got it in and cut to shape. Excellent fit as expected, and it REALLY completes the interior! I was getting so sick of seeing dynamat and wires everwhere lol. Heres a few pics.





Got basically all the front trim pieces in place now. Just need to finish up the rear area and the interior should be complete minus the door panels. Should have the transmission back early this week too!

 

Amazing work my friend!

 

Awesome!!!!

 

I just did my ACC carpet also. The fit wasn't bad but I wasn't too thrilled the way it sits by the sills. It has waves in it that I couldn't do anything about. I used a heat gun to flatten them a bit. The sills hold it all down, but I think they could have molded it a bit better on the edges. Yours seems to fit good though.

 

Thanks guys! Getting so excited to see the last piece of the puzzle...the interior, getting completed now. Seeing the new carpet and corbeau seats in there is making me want to drive this thing, BAD!

Mine actually fit perfect without even having to trim the sides where the sills go at all. Only parts I had to trim a bit were the very front of the carpet by the pedals and pass foot area, and where it goes around the radio pod. Did you let yours sit in the sun?? This is the second ACC carpet I've done. First one I basically took out of the box and put it in and it was a pain to get to fit. This one I had all unfolded out in the sun for about 3 hours before installing, and the fit was WAY better. Seems like letting it sit in the sun is the ticket for it fitting good.

 

Yep - it was in the sun for about 3-4 hrs. My car is black so it was also baking in there for awhile. I had a lot of excess to trim on the sides. I also had the mass back added to mine so it is a bit stiffer then the poly back. Once the sill plates were on it isn't noticeable. But I just think it should have laid a bit more flat. Everything else fit the way it was supposed to.

 

Wow great looking car.
Looks like it won't be long now.

I took a few ideas from your thread for my way smaller scale build. (Makes mine look like a grade schoolers build)
I bought the Painless chassis harness, already have a engine harness. Ordered some of the neoprene, to go with my dynomat. I also had to pick up a set of the stainless brake lines as well.
Thanks for all the pictures and inspiration. I wouldn't have thought to do most of those things.
Especially the chassis harness. The car I am working on has been sitting since around '91. I got it fired briefly but was already having electrical issues.

Thanks,

 

Well, got some good news and some bad news. I'll start with the good since that always brightens things up a bit. Transmissions done!!!! Picked it up this morning and spent the day getting it back in. Heres a few pics of this 800+ HP ready beauty.



Viper input shaft modified to F-body specs


My hurst shifter was looking a bit nasty and I couldn't put a dirty greasy shifter onto a new tranny, so I took it all apart, cleaned it in a wash tank, and re-lubed it with some high quality moly lube. Looks and shifts like new now!


There she is next to the car ready to go in. Ordered a Tick remote bleeder line for the clutch slave cylinder since bleeding the stock style setup is a BEAR! (found that out the first time lol)


And I had to add a little personal touch to it...


And now for the bad news...

Got the transmission in and all bolted up. Went to get the trans crossmember in and as I was threading the bolts into the framerail on the drivers side, they felt a little odd. Put a ratchet on them and sure enough they are both stripped. I noticed before that the threads were in rough shape. Guess this last tranny removal did them in for good. So now I have to go get a big tap and re-tap them to a larger size. Not the worst thing that could happen, but a pain regardless.

Also found out that apparently my driveshaft is too long now. I installed the dodge viper yoke onto it with a new u-joint but the viper yoke is a bit larger/longer than the stock one. I went to put it in, and I couldn't get the rear u-joint into the axle yoke, even with the front yoke slid all the way into the tranny. Luckily theres a local driveshaft place that can shorten it, but it's yet one more thing to hold Project PITA from hitting the streets. My luck just never changes...

 

what are those seats!!!!!!! and how did i miss them this far?

 

Don't know how you missed them lol...I've probably had at least 25 pictures with them over this whole build thread. They are corbeau LG1 seats. Little on the expensive side but they are NICE seats and really set off the interior of the car.

 

Are you gonna put a racing harness in or leave the stock seatbelts in?

 

thats what i was thinking how expensive exactly?

 

Stock seatbelts. I put the seats in because of how nicely they hug you when cornering, and they are VERY comfy too. I've never been big on cages and harnesses on a street car.

I want to say they are $400 a piece and then the seat bracket kit for an 82-92 F-body is another $80. My seats have the center hole in the seat bottom for a 5 point harness setup which I think adds another $40 per seat. I bought these used though so they just happened to have that option on them.

 

400 a peice is quite pricey for seats i honestly just like them because of how they look, i'd honestly love some 85-90 vette seats for my car but there hard to come by in my area, regardless you have a very nice car sir

 

I had the same problem on my car. It was really no big deal though. I just went up to the next size bolt by drilling out the holes and retapping them.

The driveshaft on the other hand is not quite as easy of a fix Good luck with it.

 

Well got the car a few steps closer to driving today. Drilled out and tapped the two holes for the trans crossmember and got that back on. NOW I can say the tranny is back in completely lol! Still going to have to have my drivesahft shortened about 1 1/2" but I'll drop it off tomorrow and it should only take a day. Also re-wired my fans since they melted the crappy fuses that they came with. Now I have two 30 amp circuit breakers in place so if something still happens, then I need to go up in wire size. Pretty sure this should fix it though since a lot of guys online say the stock fuses they come with are garbage and always melt. Heres a few pics.

Crossmember back in with the two HUGE 9/16 bolts. Ignore my crappy looking framerail and floorboard. Haven't rhino lined those yet.


New and improved fan wiring with the circuit breakers in place of the junky fuses.

 

i like the circuit breaker idea....my son's nissan 240 melted it's fuse and i've been trying to figure out how i can make sure it doesnt do it again! thanks for the idea!

 

Hey, no problem! A few of my friends have used circuit breakers over a fuse, and we set my brothers bird up like this and the fan has been working great. It's just way more heavy duty than the crap plastic fuses.

 

Boy o boy, if I could just pick your brain every once in awile I would be happy. Been watching your thread and you tube vids for awile. I also have a frame up going although its not quite as good as yours. You really know your stuff.

 

Ya I have gotten a few idea from this thread my self... I am doing a frame up mini restore my self great to read through this thread hope I can pick ur brain soon on the painless kit

 

Thanks guys! The knowledge I have came with MANY screwups, trust me. It's honestly the only way you learn though. Between me trying new things and all my local car buddies that have built some pretty crazy cars, we kind of learn from each other. When someone finds something that works, we all get the heads up. If either of you have any questions, ask away. Just shoot me a PM and I'll get back to ya asap.

 

I will take you up on that. One thing I wish I would have done is use the herculiner instead of rattle can undercoating. To bad I had it done already before I first read this thread.

 

Got a few things done today. Had my driveshaft shortened 1 1/2" since it was too tight with the larger viper yoke. Fits great now! Also modified my stock transmission exhaust hanger to work with the T56 and then welded a bracket to the exhaust to attach to it. My borla XR-1 race muffler should be here tomorrow and I'm going to try to finish the exhaust. Then time to fire it up and here the difference! Heres a pic of the hanger I made up.

 

Yeah don't you hate it when your shaft is too long? *sigh*