Gettin' Stoopid 66G

I got the RA under the van for safe keeping right now. Had a set of little fat skins put on my old keystones to make a roller out of it. Still have alot of fab work to do and Im pretty sure im going to go with air bags instead of the coil overs. This break in our weather has redirected my focus to the gravel pit and getting some things checked out on my Orange van for the season. Gotta get the cash flow kicked back in gear!! LOL

This is a little lower than the static ride height will be but not much. I'll be working on the small fab stuff for it as I can.

Looks cool under there!!!!

There ya go !

boy that look great should ride real nice nice job.

Looking Good Joe, I figured you have it rooling before summer, you been doing some Major work. Makes it a lot easyer to work on(or move )

I have had a few chances to work on some support bracket stuff. First one here is the front , that some more braces will be fastened to.

The skid plate will tie the LCAs together when finished.

The back plate I have left ugly for now, I have a chance to do something cool/neat or different here and just haven't figured out what yet.

Tom, I think I will try mounting the engine and a real tranny in it next to see how it will sit. right now the front end is way to high and looks like its popping a wheelie. I think the leaf springs in this were replaced already because they are in super nice condition.

I'm seeing a Bowtie there, Digz!

Bowtie with an LED backlight

I had a couple hours to do something , so I stuck the engine and trans in to see what it did as far as wieght on the front axle and to get my pinion angles dialed in.

The angles match , so thats a good thing, have to tie the front of the pig into the X member to hold it in place until I get it on the bench again.

The driveshaft will be 12"long from outside of the caps.
Doesn't look like anything much different than what I have already doen, but it took nearly 3 hrs to do it! I gotta teach my help to fetch wrenches.

Al that wieght didnt set it down on the front springs much at all, still several hundred lbs to go with body parts and rad stuff, have to wait and see on that outcome.

looks good in there Joe, good looking pup too....

Looks like the shop just got an additional alarm system with teeth, cool looking pup.

Looking good Digz!!
That is going to be one smooth ride when you are finished for sure!!!

How far back did you move the motor? Did you lower the engine height any?

Roman, I moved it back about 14". I never really measured the drop at the engine but it must be in the 1 1/2 - 2 " range as the tail shaft of the trans to the floor is nearly identical to my Orange van set up. I was aiming for a decent pinion to RA angle when I set the hieghts. If I can keep the stance/body angle as is the carb sits level.
The pup is actually my 3 year old Pom with a haircut( supposed to be the wifes dog , but he likes me better)LOL

Digz you have to watch out for those poms there tricky (I know) Bill

As some of you may have noticed some plans will be changing with this thread. Gettin' Stoopid has become more of a White Lab Rat. Serving it purpose as a full scale mock up of anything that can, could be or shouldn't be done to a early van. I have done nothing to the body on this except clean up some already butchered in holes and removed a few pieces,,lol. The transistion to GMans, "Project G" will be slow as I do not want to inadvertently mess up any of the hard and costly work Chris already has into this skin. Will there be changes? YES. But alot of what Gman has done is falling in to the same line I was heading as Dan mentions in another post. Cosmetically Project G is very close to paint ready, anything I change there I'm seeing as very minor. Drive train, well that's another story. But the 4 bag air system is exactly where I was going also. The 2 plans should blend together well I believe.

Great Diggs- nice to see you get that -Im just sad for G-man's situation- Im sure you will have a very nice van like all of us would lovfe . Keep up the good work on all.Happy Vannin!!

Hats off to you Joe ! Having one project well underway,taking on another,wow. Glad ya got the big shop.I'm sure you'll do great work on Chris's as well.

Joe I know you will make Chris proud ! Bill

Digz, why did you move your engine back? I'm assuming to balance out the weight distribution??

A couple reasons why I wanted to move it back."1". I wanted a more standard setup for a vacumn booster that didnt have a buttload of linkage in it.
2. Seats!! I hate the way the rad and engine crowd you into the doors. The only way I can see to overcome that is to lower the engine and rad, I am limited on how far you can lower the rad so the engine moves back to put a slant on the rad. The BB I figured would also need more Radiator room. Keeping things low and in the air is what I would aim for anymore on a V8 set up.
3. Yeah weight, but after putting mine on the scales last fall I see that wasnt that big of a deal. Kind of hand in hand with the RA on that tho, the IRS "allowed" me to move it back without fear of wicked changing pinion angles and keep a decent ride. I wouldnt be suprised if it brought it into the 55/45% range on weight.
So what it boils down to is I wanted sissy power brakes and a comfy place to park my ass.

I have been agonizing, measuring and seeking advice for the last week. I have changed my mind at least 3 times per day on where to go with these.

I'm seeing 2 different animals here. There is so much work in the Air system on Project G that I really really don't want to cut it out to make the (experimental)IRS fit.

The existing rear is a 3:36 10 bolt one wheeler. This with the bag system would be totally overpowered by the BB, IMO. Right now I'm thinking a stock SB with a 700r and a big amped Alt. Then let the body mods be the frosting. And there are ALOT of body mods! I'm thinking without doing the big switch I may be able to have it roadworthy by next summer. maybe...
Thoughts and opinions are welcome !!

Screw it!! Im putting the BB and jag in ! Nobody around to change my mind this time. Got the BB and trans pulled back out of the 66 today.

Bolted the mounts in no problem.

Next will be dopping the Jag RA, that will be easy,, Putting the original RA back in will be a PITA as its in parts scattered around. Have to keep everything rollers till the 66 is out of the shop.

From here on out it's all about fun !