Project Poncho: Daily Driven Muscle Car

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

oh absolutely. I'm amazed how fast i'm able to make progress with these preformed parts. i actually have some hope that i can get this done!

The eBay seller refunded me my money for the control arms, so i got that $250 back. I can't afford the control arm sets from the big name manufacturers, and i'm not sure it's worth the time to roll the dice on another set from eBay, so i'm thinking i'll just rebuild the stock arms with new ball joints and bushings. 

Once the car is together, I do plan to do some autocross and maybe other driving events, not with any illusion of being competitive, just because I think it'd be fun. Would it be worth reinforcing the stock arms with some gussets or bracing? All the aftermarket a-arms are touted as being "stronger" than the stock ones, but of course that means nothing, and I haven't seen any FEA on the stock stuff so I have no idea how relatively strong they are. Any votes to just leave it all alone?

Get it rolling, then get it driving.  Address non-critical items later as needed, imho. 

budget_bandit said:

The eBay seller refunded me my money for the control arms, so i got that $250 back. I can't afford the control arm sets from the big name manufacturers, and i'm not sure it's worth the time to roll the dice on another set from eBay, so i'm thinking i'll just rebuild the stock arms with new ball joints and bushings. 

Once the car is together, I do plan to do some autocross and maybe other driving events, not with any illusion of being competitive, just because I think it'd be fun. Would it be worth reinforcing the stock arms with some gussets or bracing? All the aftermarket a-arms are touted as being "stronger" than the stock ones, but of course that means nothing, and I haven't seen any FEA on the stock stuff so I have no idea how relatively strong they are. Any votes to just leave it all alone?

Most of the benefit of aftermarket A arms comes from improved geometry and/or stiffer bushings.  I wouldn't bother to change them just for improved strength.  You'll get better returns from stiffening the subframe to body mounting through solid bushings, subframe connectors and firewall bracing.

Also, I'm not sure the you can blame your fitment struggles with your first arms on the arms themselves.  Build quality on those front clips from GM was pretty poor.  When I was building GM from clip stock cars we almost always had to do some massaging to get the A arms in and some subframes were so out of whack that we didn't use them.

In reply to golfduke :

heard. avoid scope creep like I keep saying I want lol

In reply to APEowner :

I certainly agree, and I wasn't trying to imply that the eBay arms were faulty, just that they didn't fit my particular subframe, and I figure all of those eBay arms are coming out of the same factory and will be about identical. Probably what I should do is run the stockers for now, i have daydreams about building a 3-link for the rear someday, so perhaps that would be an opportunity to upgrade the control arms too

In reply to budget_bandit :

As APE said, the stoc car dirt track guys I knew reinforced other areas, more so than control arms. At most, welded some bracing. I think speedway used to sell pre cut plates to weld in? Been a while!

Yesterday morning I had to do a brake job on the wife's DD, so didn't get started on the ventura until lunch-ish.

I started with this. I marked the corner of the quarter panel with the green tape to make sure i cut underneath the corner radius to maintain the right spacing in the channel.

After cutting out the vertical section, I was left with the horizontal part of the channel, still spotwelded to the underneath layer of the interior skin.

Then, I ground off the remaining metal to leave only the interior skin layer. I chose to grind it, because the interior skin flange was pretty easy to bend, and I needed to maintain its original location since the new channel will sit right on top of the flange. I also melted the lead out of the seam.

Then i hit everything with the wire wheel:

And now it's ready to weld in the new channel. Right when I started trimming the new channels to fit, my angle grinder died. It's got a short in the power cord, so i'll be delayed a few days while I get a new cord delivered and installed. 

I'm having daydreams of corvette suspensions, probably can be blamed on Racetruck Ron and the MonZora...some cursory googling says the track width is dang close. And the wheels are the same bolt pattern, so I could keep my retro wheels i snagged...

budget_bandit said:

I'm having daydreams of corvette suspensions...

I'm going to recommend that you get her running and driving, and spend some time enjoying her, before embarking on that journey. 🤘🏻😎

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

budget_bandit said:

I'm having daydreams of corvette suspensions...

I'm going to recommend that you get her running and driving, and spend some time enjoying her, before embarking on that journey. 🤘🏻😎

I'm going to echo Angry here. I'm dumb and did everything the dumb way on my truck. Get it running, sort out the drive train and then ruin the chassis with a sawzall and welder.

i know, i know, you guys are right...stop crushing my dreams! LOL

In reply to budget_bandit :

Keep dreaming just learn from the stupid we struggled through.  Angry started his build in what? 2018? It's still not done.  I bought my truck in 2015, did the suspension in 2018, got it running in 2020 and finally have it mostly dialed in now in 2024.  Drive the car work out the other smaller kinks and then go full dumb.

testing paint colors. I originally wanted orange, but i think that purple looks awesome

Orange and black two tone!!

Purple with orange stripes

Indy - Guy said:

Purple with orange stripes

 

Yep. Definitely purple with orange stripes.

There's no collection of color more horrid than Clemson colors. Purple on its own would be my vote. 

Sorry to dissapoint folks, there will be no purple and orange on the car at the same time. Too Clemson for me (go vols!)

In light of my issue with aftermarket control arm fitment, i decided to rebuild the stock stuff instead. So today, i de-bushinged and de-ball jointed the stock arms, which was a hassle because the UCA ball joints are riveted in, and the UCA has a cross shaft which makes getting the bushings out a PITA. They make a tool for it which I used, but it's hard to keep the parts in line since there is a cutout on one side to fit around tue shaft. Then i wire wheeled the arms and applied paint. 
 

i'm trying out a new paint, rustoleum truck bedliner. Chassis saver that I was using is a pain to apply, and it cures so fast that if you don't use it all in 48 hours it cures in the can and it's ruined. And at $55/qt its expensive. I think i like the bedliner, it has a nice texture and is supposedly durable. $13/can is much nicer on my wallet too!

Got 2 coats of paint on the undersides of the control arms. That will cure up overnight, and tomorrow is reassembly! If all goes well, she will be back on 4 wheels (temporarily)

I like what you're doing. Its going to be cool!

Had family obligations monday night, and had a meeting with a realtor tonight that was both longer than I expected and more discouraging than I expected...oh well. Ce'est la vie. 

So i started working on the car about 9:45, and got the bushings and ball joints installed in the upper control arms. I started work on the lowers and the bushings seem to want to go in crooked when I start them with the press. I think a good whack with the deadblow will seat them but I didn't want to make a racket. Tomorrow...

Looking at the standard colors available from the factory in '72, "Sundance Orange" gets my vote.

I do like the orange, but i worry it would be a little too General Lee for my tastes...

I like Lucerne Blue a lot.