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skorpioskorpio · 04-24-2014, 12:50 PM

So I'm going through a renewed push on this project after a long stall, so some updates. The frame is at the fabricators on the fabrication table some issues there which I'm not going to get into here, but with a roller in sight I'm getting ready to stage the rest of it all.

Engine/Trans:

The Weber DCOE pattern Jenvey throttle bodies are on their way from England. The Oil pan has been cut and the Fiat 500 sump has been ordered from Italy. My machinist is making up a new bottom plate for the cut pan with a machined in flange for the bolt on Fiat sump. Will still need to modify a pickup but that is a matter of just using an inline 5 cyl pickup and extending it 100mm since it's basically the same engine with a cyl missing, but setup for a rear sump.

Need to check with my transmission guy, about progress on the sliced 4L80E case, if nothing there, at this point I'll just order a pre sliced case from TCI with their pump plate adapter ring and just have it machined to fit my 4L60E bellhousing.

Will be ordering the PCS controller and 6 speed valve body kit, maybe even this week, along with the re-ratioed 1st and 2nd planetaries from PATC. I'm still considering ordering their tail shaft and housing as well that shrinks the 4L80E overall length and spline to the same as a 4L60E so in the future, in a pinch, I could throw in a 4L60/65/70E without changing anything. Seems kind of expensive for what it is though at $600 for a tailshaft and a casting, is the insurance of swapability worth that?

Still need to make a final determination on the AEM ECU, I will be going with a Series 2 intended as a drop in for a Honda V6 as it has the most features and is actually as cheap or cheaper than most of the alternatives. Will do 6 smart coils, 12 injectors, VVT, launch control, ping sensors, and lots and lots of General Purpose I/O. Very programmable.

Will be ordering a Kooks stainless header today intended for the Trailblazer the engine was originally installed in and an X-Force Varex electronically controllable muffler (all 3" from collector back) which I plan on controlling from one of the I/O leads of the ECU along with a switch to an alternate fuel map for the open exhaust mode. May hold off just a bit on the muffler, as it is available as a round or oval pattern, and with all that is going on in the suspension with trailing arms I'm not sure which fits better and where. I'm doing side exit exhaust so muffler needs to happen before the rear axle, tricky.

I've also gotten a design from Ron Davis for the radiator which is backwards from they typical small block radiator with high sides and low sides reversed left and right. They gave me a design for an aluminum radiator with shrouds and shallow electric fans that looks really nice and is a drop in to the 67-72 core support. To go with it I'll be doing an aluminum cross flow evaporator for the AC which I may anodize black to give me depth behind the lights in the grill, the evaporator not the radiator.

Control:

I also decided to just go for it on the paddle shifter and ordered up a Twist Machine Shrifter, what a pretty piece that is, along with a Nardi steering wheel. I'm getting it black anodised. Once I have wheel and shifter in hand and brackets under the seats I can determine what tilt column length to order from Flaming River.

I'll be using a B&M Quick Silver on the floor for P-R-N-D-L(s) for basic auto gear select, more for the solid feel of it, I probably really only need a Lokar to do the job but when I've seen the Lokar it just doesn't have that same feeling to it, kinda weak even with new detents in the trans. The B&M feels more like big machiney.

Been looking for a good hand brake lever, something not so minimalist as the Lokar. Both the shifter and brake will get leather wrapped pieces to continue the feel with the wheel and seats. What I'm leaning to at this point is a lever from a late model Jeep Wrangler which seems generic and adaptable enough and is just simply a lever, mount and indicator switch and not some thing so built into it's surroundings that it makes it difficult to adapt. Surpisingly the nicest of the aftermarket hand levers are hydraulic, never even considered such a thing, obviously a drifters thing I guess.

Body work:

Looking for a panel beater to finish up my body work, I think I found one, I've used him before, he did the wheel well stretch on my '91 Suburban years ago. I've gotten all my dimple dies and punches to prep the rockers, which I'm going to perferate so when they powdercoat the body it gets coated inside the rockers. Will probably do door bottoms, and A and B pillars as well.

Grill; I will likely be selling off my '67 painted and '70 chrome grill as I've decided the '71-72 grill may fit my needs more. I plan on cutting out the horizonal bars for my crazy lighting and the early grills are difficult to do that with because the vertical bars and horizonal bars are in the same plane and form a center point where they meet in the center. The '71-72 grills have the horizonals recessed from center so I can cut them out and patch where they were. It also has a bit of a Pontiac look to it once done, Here is a Photoshop concept I did of it using a pic of a members truck as a donor image: Attachment 1245976
Also note the sectioned and stretched '67 Camaro bumpers to hide the seam between the chromed grill and the painted roll pan. Roll pan will also be punched and dimpled to direct airflow from the air dam. The grill will be powder coated over the chrome in the recesses.

Will also order pans this week, probably Mar-K, and a smooth cowl panel from Scotts. I have soem '69 Grand Prix door handle cutouts I'll be using in the doors to smooth the handles in the doors, and already have reproduction handles to go with them. The Grand Prix handles are flush and you press on the end to pop them out. Again more Pontiac touches, hey I figure GMCs were sold along side Poniacs on the same lot most of the time.

I will also be frenching in Shelby Cobra aluminum popup gas fillers, and decided I may as well just put one on either side for balance, that way I never have to remember which side my filler is on.

With my side exit exhaust I'm planing on doing a full width tank in the back that extends past the frame rails, I'm figuring I could get somewhere between 32 and 38 gallons back there and still keep good ground clearence. Since the frame is there the top of the tank will be essentiall split into 3 cavities and I will need to run some sort of breather system between them so that filling from either side cavity will fill all 3.

Bed will be lined with aircraft seat grid (also known as L-rail) and leveled out with sheet HDPE (the stuff they make from recylced milk jugs and use as a substitute for wood in park benches and decking), it's available in colors, I'll just be using black. The aircraft seat grid will let me snap in various "stuff" like bed cross bracing, the rear seats, a bulk head, a retractable hard tonneau cover mechanism, chocks for the bikes, tie downs, etc, etc, etc. It'll also give the bed a planked look, but sort of a high tech version in black and black powdercoated track.

Electrical-electronics:

I'm leaning towards an all breaker marine type system for the electrical buried into a dash to bed center console along with all the controllers and electronics housed in there and of course the e-brake and floor shifter.

I'll be doing a custom gauge pod, which is a whole other thing unto itself, with custom faced gauges from Speedhut. I don't really care for any of the aftermarket indicator options I've found or the cheesey LCD odometers in most of the aftermarket electronic speedometers so I'll be using a small Dakota Digital all in one dealy that is intended for motorcycles that provides a vacuum flourecent odometer along with turn signal indicators, high beam, digital speed, graphical tach, caluclated gear position based on RPM vs MPH, trip odometer and some idiot lights. This will be positioned into the cluster along with a bevy of traditional analog gauges, with kind of Ford GT40 inspired faces. There will also be a small color LCD panel in the middle.

To get things going, the Dakota Digital motorcycle panel does enough to function as the work in progress cluster. The rest will come later when I do the finishing in the interior. Like I said it's a whole project unto itself.

The seats have little compressors in them for lumbar bladder inflation, they're 30 years old and one is dead and the other weak, so I'm planning on bypassing them and just running a small frame mounted compressor to do the job for both seats as well as hopefully provide on board air for tire inflation and just not carry a spare, since there is no real place to put one that isn't in the way. Just carry a plug kit instead. There is aftermarket wireless tire pressure sensors, and as much as I hate to break beads on tires that have never even hit the road yet, I'll probably go ahead and get those installed.

Anyway, probably more than enough for now, I'll post parts pics as they come in, and frame and panel progress pics as it gets done.

04-24-2014, 12:50 PM	#116
skorpioskorpio Registered User Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 1,018	Re: Project Madera: A Jimmy GT So I'm going through a renewed push on this project after a long stall, so some updates. The frame is at the fabricators on the fabrication table some issues there which I'm not going to get into here, but with a roller in sight I'm getting ready to stage the rest of it all. Engine/Trans: The Weber DCOE pattern Jenvey throttle bodies are on their way from England. The Oil pan has been cut and the Fiat 500 sump has been ordered from Italy. My machinist is making up a new bottom plate for the cut pan with a machined in flange for the bolt on Fiat sump. Will still need to modify a pickup but that is a matter of just using an inline 5 cyl pickup and extending it 100mm since it's basically the same engine with a cyl missing, but setup for a rear sump. Need to check with my transmission guy, about progress on the sliced 4L80E case, if nothing there, at this point I'll just order a pre sliced case from TCI with their pump plate adapter ring and just have it machined to fit my 4L60E bellhousing. Will be ordering the PCS controller and 6 speed valve body kit, maybe even this week, along with the re-ratioed 1st and 2nd planetaries from PATC. I'm still considering ordering their tail shaft and housing as well that shrinks the 4L80E overall length and spline to the same as a 4L60E so in the future, in a pinch, I could throw in a 4L60/65/70E without changing anything. Seems kind of expensive for what it is though at $600 for a tailshaft and a casting, is the insurance of swapability worth that? Still need to make a final determination on the AEM ECU, I will be going with a Series 2 intended as a drop in for a Honda V6 as it has the most features and is actually as cheap or cheaper than most of the alternatives. Will do 6 smart coils, 12 injectors, VVT, launch control, ping sensors, and lots and lots of General Purpose I/O. Very programmable. Will be ordering a Kooks stainless header today intended for the Trailblazer the engine was originally installed in and an X-Force Varex electronically controllable muffler (all 3" from collector back) which I plan on controlling from one of the I/O leads of the ECU along with a switch to an alternate fuel map for the open exhaust mode. May hold off just a bit on the muffler, as it is available as a round or oval pattern, and with all that is going on in the suspension with trailing arms I'm not sure which fits better and where. I'm doing side exit exhaust so muffler needs to happen before the rear axle, tricky. I've also gotten a design from Ron Davis for the radiator which is backwards from they typical small block radiator with high sides and low sides reversed left and right. They gave me a design for an aluminum radiator with shrouds and shallow electric fans that looks really nice and is a drop in to the 67-72 core support. To go with it I'll be doing an aluminum cross flow evaporator for the AC which I may anodize black to give me depth behind the lights in the grill, the evaporator not the radiator. Control: I also decided to just go for it on the paddle shifter and ordered up a Twist Machine Shrifter, what a pretty piece that is, along with a Nardi steering wheel. I'm getting it black anodised. Once I have wheel and shifter in hand and brackets under the seats I can determine what tilt column length to order from Flaming River. I'll be using a B&M Quick Silver on the floor for P-R-N-D-L(s) for basic auto gear select, more for the solid feel of it, I probably really only need a Lokar to do the job but when I've seen the Lokar it just doesn't have that same feeling to it, kinda weak even with new detents in the trans. The B&M feels more like big machiney. Been looking for a good hand brake lever, something not so minimalist as the Lokar. Both the shifter and brake will get leather wrapped pieces to continue the feel with the wheel and seats. What I'm leaning to at this point is a lever from a late model Jeep Wrangler which seems generic and adaptable enough and is just simply a lever, mount and indicator switch and not some thing so built into it's surroundings that it makes it difficult to adapt. Surpisingly the nicest of the aftermarket hand levers are hydraulic, never even considered such a thing, obviously a drifters thing I guess. Body work: Looking for a panel beater to finish up my body work, I think I found one, I've used him before, he did the wheel well stretch on my '91 Suburban years ago. I've gotten all my dimple dies and punches to prep the rockers, which I'm going to perferate so when they powdercoat the body it gets coated inside the rockers. Will probably do door bottoms, and A and B pillars as well. Grill; I will likely be selling off my '67 painted and '70 chrome grill as I've decided the '71-72 grill may fit my needs more. I plan on cutting out the horizonal bars for my crazy lighting and the early grills are difficult to do that with because the vertical bars and horizonal bars are in the same plane and form a center point where they meet in the center. The '71-72 grills have the horizonals recessed from center so I can cut them out and patch where they were. It also has a bit of a Pontiac look to it once done, Here is a Photoshop concept I did of it using a pic of a members truck as a donor image: Attachment 1245976 Also note the sectioned and stretched '67 Camaro bumpers to hide the seam between the chromed grill and the painted roll pan. Roll pan will also be punched and dimpled to direct airflow from the air dam. The grill will be powder coated over the chrome in the recesses. Will also order pans this week, probably Mar-K, and a smooth cowl panel from Scotts. I have soem '69 Grand Prix door handle cutouts I'll be using in the doors to smooth the handles in the doors, and already have reproduction handles to go with them. The Grand Prix handles are flush and you press on the end to pop them out. Again more Pontiac touches, hey I figure GMCs were sold along side Poniacs on the same lot most of the time. I will also be frenching in Shelby Cobra aluminum popup gas fillers, and decided I may as well just put one on either side for balance, that way I never have to remember which side my filler is on. With my side exit exhaust I'm planing on doing a full width tank in the back that extends past the frame rails, I'm figuring I could get somewhere between 32 and 38 gallons back there and still keep good ground clearence. Since the frame is there the top of the tank will be essentiall split into 3 cavities and I will need to run some sort of breather system between them so that filling from either side cavity will fill all 3. Bed will be lined with aircraft seat grid (also known as L-rail) and leveled out with sheet HDPE (the stuff they make from recylced milk jugs and use as a substitute for wood in park benches and decking), it's available in colors, I'll just be using black. The aircraft seat grid will let me snap in various "stuff" like bed cross bracing, the rear seats, a bulk head, a retractable hard tonneau cover mechanism, chocks for the bikes, tie downs, etc, etc, etc. It'll also give the bed a planked look, but sort of a high tech version in black and black powdercoated track. Electrical-electronics: I'm leaning towards an all breaker marine type system for the electrical buried into a dash to bed center console along with all the controllers and electronics housed in there and of course the e-brake and floor shifter. I'll be doing a custom gauge pod, which is a whole other thing unto itself, with custom faced gauges from Speedhut. I don't really care for any of the aftermarket indicator options I've found or the cheesey LCD odometers in most of the aftermarket electronic speedometers so I'll be using a small Dakota Digital all in one dealy that is intended for motorcycles that provides a vacuum flourecent odometer along with turn signal indicators, high beam, digital speed, graphical tach, caluclated gear position based on RPM vs MPH, trip odometer and some idiot lights. This will be positioned into the cluster along with a bevy of traditional analog gauges, with kind of Ford GT40 inspired faces. There will also be a small color LCD panel in the middle. To get things going, the Dakota Digital motorcycle panel does enough to function as the work in progress cluster. The rest will come later when I do the finishing in the interior. Like I said it's a whole project unto itself. The seats have little compressors in them for lumbar bladder inflation, they're 30 years old and one is dead and the other weak, so I'm planning on bypassing them and just running a small frame mounted compressor to do the job for both seats as well as hopefully provide on board air for tire inflation and just not carry a spare, since there is no real place to put one that isn't in the way. Just carry a plug kit instead. There is aftermarket wireless tire pressure sensors, and as much as I hate to break beads on tires that have never even hit the road yet, I'll probably go ahead and get those installed. Anyway, probably more than enough for now, I'll post parts pics as they come in, and frame and panel progress pics as it gets done.