Love that body style. 
Love that body style.
I put her in the place where all the building will start.
Here is the brake upgrade waiting to be cleaned.
removed rear end still lots of rust.
on a side note I ordered the upper front control arms.
stan_d wrote: removed rear end still lots of rust.on a side note I ordered the upper front control arms.
The fact that your frame doesn't END in the middle of that picture convinces me you are either in the south or somehow otherwise don't know what northern rust looks like. Back in 1997 I had a nicely optioned 78 Cutlass as a DD. One day the rope on my garage door broke in two. In order to reach the remaining strands I stood on the rear bumper-and fell on my ass. The frame rail had rotted out right over the rear end and then the body mounts rotted out too. I only weighed 150 at the time but it was enough to drop the bumper to the floor. I kept the good parts as spares for my 78 442 and junked it soon after.
It has been in Indiana all but 2 years of its life. I stored it in a dirt floor barn for the last 10 years.
stan_d wrote: It has been in Indiana all but 2 years of its life. I stored it in a dirt floor barn for the last 10 years.
Amazingly rust free! While the rear is out be sure to check the inside wall of the rear frame rails for weak spots/holes. Better to patch it now than with the rear back in. There was a welding shop with a nice little cottage industry making and installing frame braces in G-bodies back in Connecticut 20 years ago.
Ahhh the horror of the gbody rot, had to replace the last foot of the rear rails on both sides of my old 78 regal. that one looks to be in really solid shape!
Keep posting pictures. I love to see the progress.
Not much done today started pulling the dash. Found another mouse nest.
Is that a 240SX coupe at the Malibu's right rear corner (left side of the pic)?
Yes , just the back half. for a rhd conversion the front is in the barn. That is my next build only been gathering parts since 08. It will be a r32 clone. By the time it is done the will be legal to import.
started the rear disk brake conversion.
To This
With a little drilling and trimming, The caliper mounting bracket is on.
Dash is out found 2 more nests.
I need a name for the project, open to suggestions.
We named ours boo or Bu. (both pronounced the same way).
I guess Barbie could work. Like "Malibu Barbie".
put a little paint on the diff and test fit the caliper.
Not much of an update installed the axles and sealed up the diff cover.
received some goodies:
started the cross drilling:
Are those the ub machine arms?
Yes they are 65 ea.
Cross drilling is not good. You will create a bunch of cracks for no benefit.
Rob R.
With all the rotors I have drilled I never have had a crack. I have used the cheap Chinese and Brembo blanks before. Have you ever stepped on the brake after going thru water or light mist, and have had an O S### moment? Drilling lets the pads grip right away. On my C900 I had brake fade before the end of an autocross run, after drilling no fade. This is just my experience though. I do not understand this, that a hole will lead to a crack thing. While in airframe school I was taught that if you found a crack in metal you drill a hole at each end of it to stop it from progressing.
914Driver wrote: Love that body style.....
Me too. There is a poop brown one in the southeast that streetraces. Fast car that always takes the money.
Obligatory hotlink:
In reply to stan_d:
Yep, if you HAVE a crack, you can drill a hole to relieve stress risers. However, I can gaurantee you that the holes you drilled where not PERFECTLY round. This will CAUSE a stress riser where there wasn't one before.
Also, the heat cycling of the metal expanding and contracting will cause any sort of defect to help the crack propogate from hole to hole.
If you are not doing trackdays or anything, I think you are fine. However, if you get those good and hot, I think cracks and potentially failures are in your future.
The reason for the holes was to let the pads outgas and create a path for the gas to leave the rotor face. Most race pads and newer OEM pads do not have this issue. Therefore, the drilling of rotors has become a show only thing.
I hope this explanation helps.
Rob R.
On the whole rotor drilling thing; sure it will shorten the life of the rotors. But its not like we are building cars to extend the life of the braking system. There are obviously benefits and not so shockingly, race inspired parts just don't last as long.
For example, helped a buddy swap out some rotors on his Porsche Cup Car a long time back. They were all cracked, no big deal. Like the Porsche parts guy said, if you can't afford to replace your rotors, you probably couldn't afford to be out here in the first place. Rotor life was measured in hours (like everything on a cup car) FYI those rotors we NOT cheap.
I don't turn rotors any way so I change pads and rotor, if this car sees track time I will upgrade to c5 front breaks. Remember this is a challenge car build. Drive train is stock. It is not fast enough to need a cage.
You'll need to log in to post.
