I decided, after watching some in-car video and seeing a bunch of flex between the a-pillar and a-pillar downtube, that it was time to put a cage in the car that was "proper" and would be something I wouldn't rip out again. This being the 3rd rebuild of it, I had some serious learning points from the first two times and wanted to implement ALOT of changes. With that being said, my goals were:
1. Enhance safety
2. Enhance torsional and longitudinal stiffness
3. Build the car in a way which would fit rule sets to keep my idea of a "play toy"
4. Attempt to build a tube frame within the factory sheet metal without doing a full conversion.

With that in mind, I'd always liked the idea of creating a truss structure since it seemed to offer the solutions to #'s 1 & 2, and seemed to more closely mimick a full tube framed car. I figured if I could get the design and stiffness out of the tube structure, I could get rid of alot of the factory sheet metal and get the cars weight down. I had played around with many different designs (modeled on FEA software) and found one which I really liked but ran into problems with packaging.

The solution came from some pictures I found of some of Alans work. He built a cage in a Black camaro which was just what I was looking for. Many thanks to Alan, his great work, and willingness to post pictures and help everyone out as he was a huge help in this build.

On to the pics (some of these were taken with a phone, apologies)

And finally at the track a week ago at buttonwillow (what a crappy weekend rain and cold!)



Initial impressions: Car is rock steady and much easier to drive. With that said, now the work begins to get the car balanced again. The wilwood brake setup took some learning to get used to. My left foot has now found a home on the brake pedal "pumping it up" after a series of turns as the knockback is rediculous in the rear. It really takes some leg to get the thing to stop also and I havent decided on whether I'll drop master cylinder sizes yet or not. The first few times around got pretty eventful in the braking zones and forced a steep learning curve as I got a first hand lesson on getting the rear pistons back out where they will work again!

Nice!

Thanks! It was a fun one to build.

Nice job!

Seeing the whole build in 1 post made me think that you built the car in a weekend but I know thats not true. There's a lot of work that you have there, and you're right, that is a lot like Alan's Black Camaro. Some people might be interested in seeing what you did for your pedal set-up, do you have more pics? What size MC's are you using and what calipers do you have? I have 7/8" MC's with C5 brakes front & rear and the pedal is very stiff. So stiff that I can't lock them up on the street with Carbotech XP8's up front and stock in the rear. I just swapped to XP10's and I'm hoping that heat generated on track will make this a non issue.

Thanks Austin! Again, a huge thanks to Alan for the pictures he put on his website and the quick service on the steering. It was actually a month long thrash to get it done with about a year's worth of prep. I don't have more pics of the pedal setup at this time, but I'll be unloading the car this weekend and will post some. For a quick word picture I used the stock brake booster opening/bolt holes and formed a frame out of square tube extending back and welded to the "dash bar" to mount the pedals. More to follow...........

As far as the master cylinders, I went with a 7/8 front and 1" rear with stoptech 4 piston front calipers (42/38mm) and stock rear calipers for a 97. I'm using hawk DTC 60's in the front with hawk black in the rear. I need a good weekend at the track to sort out the brakes. It was cold and damp with only 2 sessions with a dry track and it wasn't until the last few laps that I felt I was getting close on the bias and amount of pedal pressure needed. I'm really excited to get it back out and really dig in to them as I was a big fan of the feel (minus the knockback).

It's the Fowler AI #92 reincarnate! Good to know that it passes FEA muster along with looking right. Great job!

Interesting solution for the shift lever - I spent a lot of time making a flat face on a round rod to drive the linkage, never occurred to me to use square tube. Ya know, I could make you a delrin knob on a stub that would weld to the square tube and be more comfortable than tape.

Alan, lets do it. It's 1" .060 wall. The tape actually worked really well, but I doubt it'll hold up to the CA summers and a proper solution would be great.

The shifter was made from some spare stuff I had laying around. The linkage is 1/2" square into 1/4" flat AL stock. Everything is fastened with 1/4" (i think) black oxide button head bolts with nyloc SS nuts and med strength loctite'ed together. The linkage is bushed with brass washers between the shifter and intermediate bar, and AL- intermediate bar with nylon washers on the nut side. Worked like a champ and could only feel flex when going into reverse. If this setup doesn't last, I'll switch to AN bolts to get a proper grip length and sleeve the holes through the bars.

Nice job! I am partial to a white interior.... I am running a Tilton set-up in my car with the bias knob located on the dash. I need to recheck what size masters I am using for the front and back, but it seems to work well around my block. First track day is not until the weekend of the 18th so I will know a lot more after that. I am running Raybestos race pads front and back with C5 Zo6 set-up for calipers.

Thanks! The interior was grey before and me no likey. The white should be cooler in summer and I really like the look of it.

As far as the brake mounting. I went with simple, although I really couldn't figure out a better way to do it. I guess someone could mount a similar setup to the underside of the dash/ firewall thing, but I think there'd be alot of flex without significant reinforcement of the top. I made a frame out of .120 wall 1" square tube in order to put up with the bending stresses a bit better (rather than going lighter with a .095 or .060 tube) and simply angled the "drop" section (from the dash bar) back for knee clearance and secured the opposite end to the factory brake booster holes. Thinking here was, the most rigidity I could get from the thin metal was to put it in shear so I went with it. 4 5/16 button head bolts with washers and nyloc nuts with loc tite hold it to the firewall through a 1/8" plate, then welded to the dash bar on the other side. A small 1/8 tab was welded to the pass side of the mount to clear the steering and mount the pass side of the pedal assembly. The throttle cable is a 48" lokar piece secured in another tab, and the pedal is the factory one mounted to 1" x .120 wall tube. Now the part I didnt think of was compensating for the factory brake pedal offset. The whole assembly is approx 1.5- 2" left of where it is standard. I didn't notice it once driving, but felt weird until then.........







Oh, and the AL tape is going away and replaced with proper AL patches.

Here's how I centered a 16mm peg in a 7/8" square hole - the 16mm bolt, sans head, is a press fit into a piece of 1" OD 3/16" wall DOM tubing with flats ground to fit the ID of the square tubing. The bolt was an interference fit but I drilled and pinned it anyway, with a couple of 1/8" rollpins. press the flatted tube into the end of the shift handle, give it a plug weld on each side, and screw the knob on.

I did mine similar to yours but mine is bolt in:







I used the stock throttle cable and lever, with the additional lever and linkage as you see. Isn't a pain how they didn't extend the boses on the pass side of the bracket? I noticed you had to weld that plate to the 1x1 tube to mount the pass side.

Alan- Thanks, that's perfect. I'm looking foward to getting it in.

Stan- Yeah I wish they had extended those bosses, might have made things abit easier to sort out. That being said, looking back possibly a reverse mount pedal setup MAY have worked better because of the pedals shifting left...........for next time.
The only issues I have had is with the reserviors; mainly the clutch. I don't know that I'd recommend that MC, the damn cap is a PITA to put on straight and leaks when cornering.....resolution in the works. The other reservoirs seem to have a very small leak as well (between the mounting bracket and the reservior) , but I think switching from the sketchy clamps they give you to a quality SS worm style hose clamp may fix the issue.

Is your setup adjustable as well, or are those "lightening holes" (speed holes) and how did that throttle pedal setup work out? Looks great!

You mean forward MC pedals? I tried fitting a set and there wasn't enough room to the firewall/bulkhead. Yours are further back so it might work.


Yes, adjustable front/back 6" and side-to-side about 2". side-side has helped with getting clear of the steering column.

Yeah, I meant reverse of what I have, I can be a space cadet at times. From the measurements I took prior to getting the set pictured they were to close for comfort.

Have you had a problem with leaks?

Only leaks with the AN flare fittings on the brake lines. No leaks with the MC's or reservoirs.

Finally got the shift knob on. I was a bonehead and told Alan the shifter is 1" square, it's not, it's 3/4, so all the work Alan did to grid those flats in (what a PITA to get them square) I had to undo. I ended up just pulling the threaded post back out and it fit perfectly in the 3/4 square. 2 plug welds and I called it good. Much more comfortable and looks good too. Now I just have to learn how to haul my ass out of the car with the HN restraint on.........harder things have been done, like putting a man on the moon........

Good job..

3rd motor I've been through, time for something new. I cut the filter open and this is what I found. LT is coming out and a 42,000 mile LM4, all aluminum 5.3 is going in. I havent quite figured out what I'm gonna do to the motor yet aside from new pistons and rod bolts.

So after getting the motor apart this is what was found. Had I not been looking to drop weight off the nose I would have rebuilt this pig and been on track again already.......Damn, next time I'll pull the motor apart BEFORE buying a new one.

This is what the thrust bearing looked like, no issues there right.....



And a shot of the crank. This is the thrust bearing surface which has approx 1/16 of material removed courtesy of the bearing lathe and where the metal chips came from. A pedal stop will be fabbed with the new motor.

So I'm finally in a position to start working this again....some significant life challenges delayed the progress a few months. Finally picked my new motor up, the lm4. The build included a rediculous set of custom JE pistons on stock rods, ARP rod bolts, stock heads pocket ported with larger ls1 intake valves, one piece pushrods with stock style rockers, camaro pan with improved racing's baffle and ARP head bolts, and COMP cam. All in all I'm not sure this was the most cost effective way to go, mainly because of the silly pistons. Even with 42k on the motor some of the pistons were flattened and getting 5.3 pistons proved just about non existent; mainly options to get the compression up to a decent level (LT was 12.6, this one is a full point below). Still have to source a ls1 intake, injectors and fuel rails, computer and either modify the existing or get a new harness. So far ill be using a vette front drive and ARH headers. Thanks to Alan for the contact at tpis which offered many recommendations. Pics and more to follow......

Ready to put this one in the car! LS1 intake, fuel rails, injectors and throttle body. I used the truck (04 buick ranier) harness and spent a minute or two elongating or shortening damn near every wire in the harness. Since the LM4 was originally a drive by wire motor, I added the IAC and TPS sensors to the harness. The computer will be coming from Carolina Auto Masters and we're using and 04 GTO PCM and MAF. I certainly isn't the prettiest harness ever made but it should get the job done.



I used Mcleod's modular bellhousing with the lt1 t56. No major issues with it but I had to cut a "window" out of the motor plate for clearance around the oil pan rail at the rear (You can just make out the cut to the lower left of the clutch; plate painted black where the coating was ground off), and clearance the starter area for the headers.



I went with the corvette front drive and found an issue trying to mate the HP hose to the PS adapter due to the proximity of the pulley. The solution came from a box of parts my dad had from his car (a Doug Rippie ex WC camaro) that used the factory stub out from the pump with a -6 nipple welded on. The alternator will be mounted on the lower passenger side of the motor using the AC belt grooves on the damper.


Still have to figure out what I'm gonna do for a cooler. I'm thinking the snazzy new low profile adapter Improved Racing is releasing is the way to go.......

What was the issue with your stock pistons?

The 5.3 should make nice #'s for AI.

Good numbers is what I'm looking for with this, the ls architecture is great and I'm excited to finally have one. The stock pistons, 4 of them, were out of round. It seems running these motors hard before everything is heated up causes some piston rock issues. That said, I didn't NEED new pistons, but I wanted the compression up and I didn't want to have to replace anything in the shortblock except bearings.