Yeah, it was a great deal. A friend of mine works for Jordon Zimmerman, the owner of the Florida Panthers, (they were high school friends) and this is his cousin's car. His cousin had to get rid of it because he just bought a brand new Z06 and he needed the garage space because he has too many toys apparently. His loss, my gain.
I'm not sure. I'm buying it sight unseen, but I trust my friend Mike who I've known for more that 25 years and he swears the car is mint...well, mint for a restomod.
I cancelled the lowering springs and panhard bar the next day when I sobered up. As cool as the car would look dropped, I just don't think I could deal with the ride every day. Now I guess I need to figure out a wheel/tire combo that will look good at stock height and I'm kind of drawing a blank.
Toytoy, you would have hated driving a lowered F-Body on the street every day. These cars are low enough as it is. My recommendation on wheels/ tires is DON'T GO TOO BIG, AND DON'T PICK A WEIRD SIZE. I work in a shop that sells tires. I see what we have in stock, what sells regularly, and what the prices are. I suggest 17" wheels; there are a SHIT TON of choices for high performance street tires in 17", for a good price. If that's too small for you, then my next suggestion would be 20", and that's as high as I'd go; 20s are magically more expensive, even though you get less rubber. However, there is a pretty good selection of 20" tires. DO NOT get 18" or 19". There is very limited selection on those sizes, and most shops don't have what you need in stock. This makes a big difference if you NEED a tire right then and there. Seriously, half of our tire room is 17". With that said, a high performance summer-only tire is what you need. Look for treadwear ratings in the low 300s, from a good brand. Ask if you have any questions. EDIT: Also, try to fit the fattest/ widest tires you can without clearance issues. More rubber on the road = better performance and safety.
This. The beak on the Camaro sticks out so far past the front wheels that entering or leaving any angled/steep driveway is gonna suck.
Yep. Sober me realized my front air deflector already scraped enough as it is, that and remembering the bone rattling ride of my lowered 300ZX was enough to make me change my mind about lowering it while it's an everyday driver. Right now I'm kind of going back and forth between stock chrome 16's or 17" ZR1 type wheels. If I do go with the 17's I'm just going to run the stock tire size that came on the SS optioned cars.
There is a wheel that looks similar to the SS wheels but has the perimeter bolts giving it a three piece look but of course I can't find them now.
2004 Chevy Silverado, 4WD Installing new shocks this weekend. I know I don't need to jack the truck up to change the front shocks, but I keep seeing different info on the interwebs for the rear. Do I have to put the frame on jack stands, then slightly jack up under the rear axle to relieve the pressure to change the rear shocks? Or, can I leave the truck on the ground and just use a jack one side at a time to adjust as needed?
Thanks, all. Yeah, the only time I work under my truck is if all four tires are on the ground, or it's on ramps. I was planning on rigid Jack stands, if needed, not a hydraulic or scissor Jack.
I used to have a scissor jack that was insanely stable that I used to work on my race car. It had manual locks, etc, and was perfect for what I needed (dropping/replacing engines) without the hassle of a 2-post lift.
I'm still waffling on exactly which route I want to go with wheels. Honestly, I was never a fan of the SS wheels....they seemed very 80's to me. One thought that I had a while back (And is apparently something I could do)....Does anyone remember American Racing wheels? I can't remember the old name for the wheel style, but they were basically Crager S/S wheels, just not chrome but painted black. I had a set on my '68 Chevelle SS396 back in '80 or so. Anyways, apparently they're still available and available in a 17x9.5 size. I thought these would give the car kind of an old school muscle look. All I can picture with the ZR1 style wheels I like is a lowered car, and they'd probably look silly on a stock height car. I think these would look good with a stock height. Any thoughts?
I got my sexy new brakes on today. Sort of. My new rotors turned out to be black, which I'm not exactly thrilled about, but even worse the front ones were drilled wrong for the lugs so they didn't fit. At least I now have pretty red calipers on all 4 corners, new pads, and a new master cylinder. And 4 black rotors still sitting in their boxes. Now I haven't to hunt down where ever the hell I bought them from and exchange the fronts.
Thanks again everybody. Easy peasy. No jack needed. I was slightly overdue. Rides better, but brake dive is definitely reduced.
Oh good. Guess what I get to replace now? Emergency brake cables. All of them. I can't prove that the shop fucked up changing my brakes, but I know they did. My emergency brake worked fine, I had them replace the pads and calipers with AC/Delco parts. Suddenly my emergency brake doesn't work and some mechanic comes out to "Explain" to me how the emergency brake works. Son of a bitch I know how the fucking system works...I pay my money for y'all to deal with this shit because I'm old, lazy, and have nowhere to work on my car. It worked perfectly fucking fine before y'all touched it and everything that went back on the car was a factory part. They routed the cables wrong and now the e-brake won't engage because the cables got stretched out. I know it. I just can't prove it. Another $500. Fuck that place. Funny little side note...last time I was in there I asked about the labor cost for changing end links and bushings for my front and rear sway bars. I know from personal experience changing that shit out (Using a jack, not a hydraulic lift) it's about 2 hours labor if you're drinking beer, pissing every 15 minutes, tending a bon fire, greeting all your buddies that are coming by, and generally not being really engage in what you're doing. It's a nothing job. They quoted me $500. Go. Fuck. Yourselves.
Toytoy, I can say with about, oh, 97% certainty that your emergency brake cables are just fine, and that they either didn't hook them up to the new calipers, or they did it wrong. Believe me, emergency brake cables are plenty stout, and it's going to take a lot more than being routed wrong to fuck them up. Take it to a different shop. It sucks that you're having to go through all this; if you lived in Texas, I'd do the work for you, and we could drink beer and talk about other board members.
So yesterday an LS swapped Mustang came into the shop for an alignment. It was a totally stock 5.3 out of a truck, and was fast enough to break the tires loose at 30 mph. Spoiler Spoiler But it begged the question: Why is it that EVERY LS swapped vehicle I see in the Valley is a total hack job? Seriously, every one of them I see has at least three of the following: missing VITAL sensors, shitty air cleaner that doesn't work, wires twisted together with electric tape, an exhaust system that looks like it was stuck together with boogers, a battery that will not hold a charge AND is not secured in any way, frighteningly large cuts on the frame that have not been reinforced, oil leaks that could have been fixed easily before putting the engine in the car, no PCV system, big-ass cam with no tune, so the car runs like shit and won't idle... I could keep going.