78zlt1

You could Powdercoat it , they have a powder called "Mirror Black" that would be close to what you want.

305240 , Awsome! I'll Gladly pay shipping and for the panel Let me know how much and how you want me to get it to ya , my e-mail is in my profile , I've had a hard time locating stuff , I owe you one I'm clamping it up today , gotta dig thru the boxes to find all the 6x1.0 bolts for the fenders 74_5.0l_Z Looks sweet , are the inner fenders sheet metal? I like the Blue also it looks so deep I bet its even better in in real life , shaved your rain gutters too. I am Humbled by your Skills.

WOW that sweet, I wish I had the Skills to do that. But alas this is my first car project and I wanted to keep it simple, I don't know what the hell happened but simple aint a word I seem to use much anymore.

LOL , looks like one of the Racoon's has a nice rack.

Same here, I built a stand out of wood and built a jig from the Steel tube I have, took a day to get it done and perfectly level and square in all directions, I measured all the points on the shop manual body diagram to confirm them, I know my frame rails are perfectly aligned. I like your idea of bolting everything up first, I think I'll tack and clamp things up and mount the fenders and hood , then make adjustments. I'll post the drawings if you want to fab a front frame up , its not hard just a lot of tedious measureing and cutting. If you are going to scrap the '76 let me know I need a drivers rear quarter or if you know where to get one I need this area by the taillights the most. Finding Parts around here is impossible, and if you do find any they are ususally in worse shape than what I have. Keep posting picks of your progress! Saw your other post , engine compartment looks nice. Here is the frame rail drawings, I threw them together in a pdf, I'll do a much better version when I complete my Sub frame connectores and put them all in one package. FRAME RAIL DRAWINGS Oh the Tube is 2.5" sq .093 and the xmember and swaybar plates are .25 thk steel, I welded nuts to the inside of the holes before assembly.

Thanks Dale , I have a shop manual on CD , some of the dim's are hard to read , like at Point "C" , that took awhile to decifer. Thanks alot 305240 , that will help me out , heres why.... and . . The front was cut just ahead of the strut towers, I checked all the critical locations useing the shop manual body diagram but there was no info one the fender locations, you can see by the gap how far there were off from the last repair, about an inch droop and an inch to the drivers side, the frame rails were also bent 1 inch to the drivers side , they are replaced now and STRAIGHT, plus much stronger. I'll post my frame rail drawings later , I do it all in CAD first , makes for a perfect fit

Need a little help , I'm trying to put the front end back together, but I need some measurements to make sure I'm good before I start welding. If anyone has there front fenders off , I need to get a measurement across the engine bay at each fender bolt hole , inner lip to inner lip, as shown in the picture , bolt hole 1=a 2=b ect. ect. , and I need to get a measurement from the first bolt hole (a) to the third © center to center. (I measured the fenders and got 14" but I just like to know what it really is) ( the picture is from before I hacked the front off I took measurements but I know they were wrong , the previous repairs were terrible) Then I can get on to working on the back and subframes. Thanks all Steve

Damn nice job you did there, what did you use for your powersteering setup?

Take your foot off the Accelerator then it should go back down

Wonder what kids with there huge thumpin woofers in there cars are going to do in 10 years, I cant see how these low freq's can be good for your hearing let alone your internal organs.

I put that on my compressor and it works , but I wish it would stay open longer than it does, when its humid out like now I still have to open the petcock to drain it , If anyone knows how to modify it to stay open longer Id be grateful.

Im going to fill in the markerlights and emblems , remove the rear bumper and use a 240 bumper up front, coilovers lowering 1.5" and I have some 17" rims , no flares and nothing fancy , just a clean stock bodylines. as far as knowing whats under the hood , they'll figgure that out as they watch my tails lights fade in the distance. I'm going to install subframe connectors as Pete Paraska did, I havent got that far yet , after I get the front end back on I'll be working on the subframe. update: fitting fenders back on.

I measured the sheet thickness where I cut mine and its 1/16th inch , my rails are a little bent up so I dont want to give you an inaccurate measurement. I dont want to hijack your thread but... nice work Jeff Thats what I will be doing also , but I have 2x3 tube .093 How did you tie in the T/C brackets? Do you have anymore pictures? thanks

Im putting in a LT1 & T56 out of a 95 Pontiac. I'm keeping the car stock looking, so I'll be welding the front back on, no fancy tilting front end yet. The reason I had to cut the front off is that the car was previously repaired by someone in the past and did a terrible job , nothing was straight, I saw Pete Paraskas' site and thought hell I going to do that so out came the cutting wheel, This is my first time repairing a car so I'm learning as I go and taking it slow, spend hours on this board getting info. I had to model up the rails on cad , and use the frame diagram from the shop manual to get measurements cause the front was so messed up. I'll post the drawings if anyone wants them when I'm confident they are perfect.

Heres some links to Pics of the front frame rails as of today, (warning large pictures) http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimagepopup&pid=1226&fullsize=1 . http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimagepopup&pid=1228&fullsize=1 . http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimagepopup&pid=1230&fullsize=1 . http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimagepopup&pid=1225&fullsize=1 And heres a pic of the rotissery I made using 2 engine stands from harbour frieght and some 2.25" & 2" tube for about $150 http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimagepopup&pid=1231&fullsize=1 Just want to Thank Pete P. for his website , his info helped me alot on the frame rails. After the front end is back on then the drivers rear qtr will be replaced also the rear panel and structure behind it, than back on the rotissery for the addition of the 2x3" connecting frame rails.

Thanks man I have no idea how I missed that post Everyone using the Street and performance brackets happy with them? I cant tell but would the tall kit interfere with a strut bar?

Ive searched the forums and found alot of info ,Alot of talk about the corvette assy bracket. But have yet to find if someone sucsessfully installed the a/c compressor on an LT1 swap. Of coarse I'm nowhere near this stage of the game, but just trying to get as much info while rebuilding the frontend to see if any mods can be made while I'm cutting and welding.

Hey I like it good idea, looks like there is enough room for duel exhaust too. Post more pics when you get the driveshaft and exhaust in.

What do you guys think of this? http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/lsdinsert/index.html I just discovered it while surfing , anyone know about it or have any info?

This is my first Z , the struts are shot the springs arnt much better and it had diiferent sized tires when I bought it so I really dont know if it handled ok or not , after 5 min the fumes would make you cry so I didnt drive it much before I striped it to the shell. As you said its a 30 year old car, and it has been in a collision. I think I'll try an Persuade it a bit while I'm replaceing the front frame rails. I'm sorta suprised its as close to spec as it is.

My Z (78 280 installing a 95 LTI/T56 ) has some dreaded battle damage from the past, I've taken some measurements and found that my drivers side front tower is 1/4 inch lower than the passenger side, yet the distance between center of the strut hole of the towers are 36" and the center of the hole to the center of the car are 17.5" , this matches the diminsions on the body sheet from the shop manuel , I plan on useing coilovers so it will be easy to adjust the height But how much effect will this 1/4 have on the suspensions geometry ? should i even worry about it?

I bought a needle scaler attachment for my air hammer at harbour frieght (best $14 I ever spent) goes thru undercoating like a fat kid eating potato chips. I did the whole bottom of the car and inner fenderwells in about 4 hours, wiped it down with paint thinner to clean up the residue. ( on a rotissery) but dont use it on the inside of the front fenders use the carb cleaner there. I was thinking of going the bedliner route , but waiting to see how others faired with it first.