Minitub Project of '67 Camaro
The first thing we had to do was to approximate how much room was
reasonably available. If you constrain yourself to not cutting
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The next step was to remove the back half of the interior and everything from trunk including N2O brackets, battery and fuel cell and lines. |
Next, we computed approximately where the new upper shock mount location
would be based on coil-over shock normal compressed height and adjustibility
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The first item of disassembly was to unbolt the old single leaf springs
and perch mount brackets. Not amazingly, all the original bolts came
loose without a hitch. The floater kit (which is supposed to allow free
rotation of the axle without binding of the leaf spring) was also
This photo also shows the existing shock mount system and displays one of the biggest problems with the existing suspension (and why the car never really hooked up that well)... in particular, look at the mounting technique for the lower shock bolt and how it would actually resist the rotation of the axle. The leaf spring/floater kit setup is challenged enough as it is to generate a hard seperation (thereby planting the tires) without added restriction from things like shock interference. |
The first really destructive job was to cut off and ground clean the old
leaf spring perches from the axle tubes. We originally weren't
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Now the fun begins... we took the plasma cutter and from inside of car,
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With the inner wheelwells gone, we marked inboard on floor 3" of the
old location and cut down from inside of car with the plasma cutter.
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We started construction by focusing on the suspension first. We
measured, computed, thought, remeasured and measured again for
the new upper shock mount bar. The objective here is to keep the
shocks near vertical, but provide a slight angle (so that the
lower part of the shock is slightly forward of the top part of the
shocks) if necessary to prevent any sort of binding or contact between
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We then welded the relocated inner wheelwell shells into
their new 3" inboard locations. Amazingly, very little trimming
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With the bulk of the suspension work done, we then measured,
fabricated and tack welded the new upper shock mount cover panel into
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We measured and cut the new Alston track locator bar to length and
welded the threaded tube ends into the bar. Since I also wanted
to move the front ladder bar location to the higher notch,
we did that (as well as adjust the rear end location front-to-
rear) before cutting and welding the locator. There are
several different camps on whether to use a panhard bar or
a track locator. The panhard bar, which runs parallel to
the axles is generally stronger and more suitable for street
use, BUT is typically more difficult to mount without
causing interference in a low drag racing-oriented car. Tom
Alston swears by the track locator, which runs diagonally
from the lower rear mount point of one ladder bar to the
front mount point of the other ladder bar, due to the fact
that they rarely cause interference and especially because
they generally provide a more consistent track as the rear end
moves through its travel.
We also had to modify the lower shock mount adjustible brackets to accept the Koni shocks with the orientation we needed to run them -> will order new correct brackets from Chassis Engineering. Finally, we assembled the coil-over shocks with the 170 lb/in springs and test mounted to the car and adjusted the lower brackets for proper ride height. Problem arises! When we were adjusting the front rod end to move the axle forward a bit, we quickly found that the rod had become "frozen" in the ladder bar tube and was eating the threads. We rigged up a temporary fix to get the car home, but this will require a new $65 ladder bar on the driver side. |
Still left to do is grind all welds in wheelwells for cleaner appearance,
and prime/paint all metal surfaces. You wouldn't believe how fast
bare steel will rust when you trailer your car in an open trailer
on a snowy day! I will put some "finished" pics here once it's all finally completed! |
$618 | Koni double adj coil-over drag shocks $309/ea (could have saved several hundred $$$ here on cheaper shocks, but wanted "the best" for an 8-second capable chassis) |
$110 | Tom Alston HD bolt-on track locator kit |
$70 | HAL Engineering 170# springs $35/ea |
$55 | Tom Alston lower shock mount kit |
$30 | Welding wire and gas |
$10 | Mild steel for wheelwell fillers and upper shock mount cover (with 90 degree brake by machine shop) |
$7 | Replace 4 rear ladder bar bolts with grade 8 |
$6 | Tom Alston upper shock mount tabs |
$5 | Mild steel for frame rail reconstruction |
$911 | Total mini-tub and coil-over parts cost |
Next in the series... we narrow the 12 bolt housing 3 inches on each side!