Project Muscle Truck (again!)

[Frans]

Hope I didn't come across as a poo-poo head knowitall...

No, you didn't (at least in my mind)
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I have screwed up more mechanical stuff than I care to remember.

Last time was replacing valve stem seals in an old mercedes. I got the parts and thought to myself "hey these things are tiny, must be an easy job". Yea right. The book says a 14 hour job for a professional shop. I got it done in about 8... twice 16 total, plus buying the parts double

 

[GASoline71]

As per Paully's request to hear the "lumpy-dumpy" cam... I have another vid for you'se guys.

Nice wicked idle. Also check out the throttle response. Oh man, I can't wait to get this thing on the street.

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Gary

 

[MasterBlaster]

Sweet!

 

[SkwerI]

YEE-HAW! Coming together nicely, Gary.

 

[GASoline71]

Here is a before and after pic of the engine bay...

Holy cats what a difference!

Gary

 

[Paul B]

awesome. EXACTLY what I was hoping to hear. what a beast!

very well done big G. Kudos.



I shall listen to that before I go to sleep, what a lullaby!

 

[woodworkingboy]

I haven't heard a sound like that in many moons, like the last time I was at the drags. Nice work, Gary!

 

[sotc]

wow, she smooths right out quickly! nice gary

 

[GASoline71]

Been awhile since I posted pics... Got the BFG Radial T/A tires delivered yesterday... had them mounted today.

P275/60R15's out back, and P245/60R15's in the front.

Mocking up the exhaust now. What you see is all that is gonna be there as far as exhaust goes... my neighbors are gonna really dig me!

Gonna bleed the brakes, mount the hood, and it should be on the road Saturday!!! Keep yer fingers crossed...

Gary

 

[Tree Reb]

Just a single pipe? She's gonna be LOUD.

 

[GASoline71]

LMAO... I only got to one side tonight... HAHAHA!

Gary

 

[MasterBlaster]

Why the different tire sizes, Gary?

 

[GASoline71]

It gives it a cooler stance Butch. Kinda brings the front end down a bit.

Main drawback is ya can't rotate the tires. But when you don't put many miles on a hot rod... it's usually not that big of a deal...

Hot Rodders call 'em "Bigs an' Littles"...

Gary

 

[fishhuntcutwood]

Awesome! TOTALLY FRIGGIN AWESOME!

 

[Paul B]

Ha! on my first car, a '75 firebird, it had big radial T/A's on the back and skinny tires on the front, I forget the sizes but if I had to guess I think they were 325/60 on the back and 185 60 on the front, mounted on goofy looking (by todays standards) chrome rims..
One of these days I gotta go find my photo albums...

Gary, maybe a brakestand with the fronts mounted to the rear to scuff them up a bit?

 

[MasterBlaster]

It gives it a cooler stance Butch. Kinda brings the front end down a bit.

No shit, people do that? I've always thought that would be a cool thing to do, but I didn't know people actually did it. How much is the diff in inches? I'm not sure if I'm reading those numbers right.

Do people ever put lift kits on the rear to achieve the same effect?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Digging the old skool slotmags Gary. This is going to be one cool truck.

 

[GASoline71]

No shit, people do that? I've always thought that would be a cool thing to do, but I didn't know people actually did it. How much is the diff in inches? I'm not sure if I'm reading those numbers right.

Do people ever put lift kits on the rear to achieve the same effect?

It is probably close to 1 1/2 to 2 inches in height difference...

People do block the back to raise the ass end up... but that is kinda ghetto.

When I was in high school, I knew guys that would put blocks of wood between the axle and the springs to raise the vehicle... now that is ghetto!

Digging the old skool slotmags Gary. This is going to be one cool truck.

Thanks Ed... looking forward to this thing being done...

Gary

 

[SkwerI]

No shit, people do that? I've always thought that would be a cool thing to do, but I didn't know people actually did it. How much is the diff in inches? I'm not sure if I'm reading those numbers right.

Do people ever put lift kits on the rear to achieve the same effect?

Butch, there are three numbers in a typical tire size designation. The first number is the tire width, the second is the tire profile (expressed as a percentage of the width) and the third number is the inside diameter (wheel diameter).

P275/60R15's out back, and P245/60R15's in the front.

Gary's rear tires are 275 (something metric) wide, the profile height is 60% of the width and the rim diameter is 15". The front tires are about 11-12% skinnier and about 7% lower profile.

As far as your other questions about whether or not people have ever done this stuff, I assume you were not aware of any muscle cars during the 70s, 80s or 90s. That's ok, some people never look at cars or notice different styling effects.

 

[MasterBlaster]

People do block the back to raise the ass end up... but that is kinda ghetto.

Getto? It seems the same to me, what's the visual difference? And what if you did BOTH?

I assume you were not aware of any muscle cars during the 70s, 80s or 90s.

Sure, but they usually had obviously larger rear wheels and obviously smaller front tires. I wasn't aware that people did the same thing, but much less obvious. I'm gonna do that next time, just for the cool factor.

 

[sawinredneck]

The 275 is the tire profile, edge of rim to edge of rim, in mm's.

Never seen the wood blocks, I've seen alum. blocks, shackles on the rear eye of the leaf spring, and who can forget air shocks! Jack it up on Friday, lower it back down Monday morning.

 

[GASoline71]

What I meant by ghetto... is that it is a way to jack the ass end up in the air and it looks terrible.

The effect I'm getting by runnin' bigs and littles, is that I can still tuck the tires in the fenderwells. When you jack up the suspension, you raise the fenderwell away from the tire. Not the desired effect.

So when I drop the suspension another 2 inches I will still have a slightly lower front end than the rear.

Gary

 

[MasterBlaster]

Thanks for a'splaining!

 

[GASoline71]

You bet mang... just remember if you do run bigs and littles in radial tires... you can't rotate them. So that can be a PITA for a daily driven vehicle that sees normal tire wear.

Gary

 

[brendonv]

Or a 4X4!