My 71 Maverick Grabber Build.....

Could you please tell me the brand of wheel you have and are they chrome or polished ? Thanks Rick

 

I like it, they are actually a little close to the outside right now but won't be with the new rear.....

Thanks.....

They are Billet Specialties Street Lites and they are polished aluminum.....

 

those are some sweet looking wheels. is that the ride hight that your going to keep. (i know it will go a litlle lower once the car is all done) or are you going to lower it some more?

 

I plan on it being a little lower then it is now..... I'll just have too see how it works out.....

 

Haven't been getting alot done lately because I have been working 2 jobs for just over a month now..... It sucks cause I don't have much time to work on the car, but it gives me extra money to buy stuff for it.....

I have ordered some stuff that will be here the beginning of the week..... In the mean time I put a steering column and brake pedal in it so I will be able to fit and mount the new front seats in the correct position..... After the seat position is established I will be able to install the roll bar.....




I also did get the paint stripped off the 9" rear end housing, just need to get the old perches off it..... Then when the new ends get here I'll cut it down a little more so it's the right width for my rear tire/wheel combo..... I got a couple more goodies from Calvert Racing the other day too, there bad ass spring perches, new rolled thread u-bolts and some steel lowering blocks incase I need them.....




Here's how much better Calvert Racing spring perches fit much better then the standard ones everyone uses do..... These go all the up to the middle of the housing and are braced on the ends.....

 

I decided to go ahead and cut the old spring perches off the 9" housing and clean the area up since it was already up on the bench.....





After that I blocked up and leveled the car in preperation to mount the front seats, and figured I would go ahead and fab the 6"x 6" for the roll bar mounting and weld them in..... I got the 2 for the main hoop made and welded in.....

Here's what the pass side plate looked liked after making it follow the floor.....




Same one tacked in place, I put four .5" holes in it so I could plug weld it to the 1'x 2' box that goes between the connector and rocker.....




and welded in.....




This is the driver side after welding it in.....

 

Some new goodies were delivered today..... The new seats are here and there pretty nice, except for the tards the sewed the headrests..... They are Scat Procar Pro90 1300 series.....




Also got the new steering wheel/adaptor, Cheetah Shifter/cover, new housing ends for the 9" and some 2" wheel studs for the axles.....

 

I fitted the front roll bar plates and welded them in friday morning.....

Here they are tacked in.....





and welded.....

 

Nice! You do very good work

 

Also got the new steering wheel/adaptor, Cheetah Shifter/cover, new housing ends for the 9" and some 2" wheel studs for the axles.....

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Nice stuff...like an early Christmas. Is that a Grant steering wheel from Summit? Could you post a part #?

 

Thanks, I try.....

Thanks..... I get most of my stuff from Jeg's but I'm sure Summit has it too..... It's one of the Grant Formula GT wheels, the part number is 1760.....


Today didn't go very well, I came to the conclusion that the new won't work for my purposes..... I quess it's just as well that it didn't cause the seats are a little on the small side and I wasn't happy with the ****ty sewing work on the headrests..... So I boxed them back up and returned them.....

Now I am kinda on hold with the roll bar and inside until I find some seats I'm happy with.....

So I got out the 9" housing and pulled the 8" back out from under the car..... Put them on the bench side by side and double checked all the length measurment and then marked up the 9" for where to cut the ends off..... After that I had to go get a couple wheels for the chop saw so I'll be able to cut the 9" tomorrow..... No update pic's cause there's no reason too.....

 

I cut the ends off the rearend housing this morning, cleanded them up and made sure the cuts were good and square..... Next I made a makeshift jig to help with welding the pearches on the housing..... I always like to put the pearches on before the housing ends because the welding heat can sometimes pull the tube slightly..... So it's always a good idea to put the ends on last to make sure the rear comes out as straight as possible.....

Here's a pic of the temp jig to put the pearches on, I test fit the old 8" housing first to make sure it was correct.....




Here are a couple shot of the pearches welded in place.....





A long time ago I could not justify paying what a rearend alignment jig cost just to build a couple rears, but after seeing one I could take the time to make one that functions just fine.....

Here's a pic of what I made set up in the center section, just a couple alum bushings and a 1" ground Stainless rod.....




These 2 pic's will show how far off from straight the tubes can be..... The first one is the pass side, it is good from front to rear but the pic shows how much above center the tube is compared to the alignment bushing..... The second show how far off from front to rear the driver side is.....





Here's a close up with the end welded on the housing and one of the finished housing.....

 

Man, I could look at your welds all day LOL!

What degree of pinion angle did you build into the rear when welding in the perches?

 

Thanks.....

The pinion angle is really a quessing game unless the car is complete with all weight in it..... What I did is check what the stock 8" rear had in the car at different heights, then put it up on the benchand found it right at 2.5 deg up(this is with the rear sitting on the pearches on a level surface)..... So I set mine up with 1.5 deg up for now which should be pretty close to neutral in the car at the ride height I want, but I also have some 1/2" steel lowereing blocks that I will angle mill to get it exactly where I want it once everthing is together and ready to go.....

 

Thats all TIG welding ,right ? Do you still have to worry about warppage the same with TIG as you do MIG ?