1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Fri Jun 13, 2014 12:03 am

I have not forgot about this car ,just too many things going on to get time to work on it. I actually have been buying parts for it for a little bit so when I do jump back on it, I wont have any hold ups.

1.)I had Dillion radiator build me a custom radiator for the car its 26x15.5, 2 row/1 inch wide tubes, no filler neck on tank as I will be offsetting the radiator slightly forward. I am using a remote filler on the intake since this will be the highest point of the cooling system anyways. I want to move the radiator forward only to have clearance for the cog drive system and so I can use a spal fan set up with a shroud that will cover the whole core of the radiator. It will be a sucker set up(inside fan) to get the maximum efficency.

2.) bought a intercooler piping kit from "just intercoolers", they have a nice kit with ribbed ends to prevent the hose from coming off and they are a mandrel bend,polished tubing kit, comes with multiple bends,connector hoses and not pictured ss steel band clamps. I will need some more straight sections just mocking it up real quick but most of what I need is there.

3.) bought a carb hat for the twin inlets from ebay. It was advertised as "a beautiful finish"...lol, well... not in my eyes :shock: . Its pretty rough and looks like it was simply sanded with a DA. At least its aluminum and will not be too difficult to refinish and polish it out :bang: .

4.) got the turbo flange to v-band adaptors and also full rebuild kits to freshen up the turbo's. I know the impellars and such are good shape but I wanted the little piston ring seals and o-rings so the car wont smoke. I will also add the rebuild of the hair dryers to the journal when I get there.

I also bought brand new aluminum BBC cylinder heads,and other various parts like aluminum fab valve covers,aluminum vent can,etc. I plan on putting the car on the car lift and going to town right after we have company in for vacation. The back end of the car is done just need to button up the front and then start it up and check operation of it. Then tear it back down and paint,plating process... then final assembly.( I am gonna drive it first before tearing it back down to make pretty. 8) )

to do list:

1.) finish headers for turbos
2.) plumb intercoolers/piping
3.) fab down pipes and exh. system
4.) install radiator and mod front to accept it with mounts
5.) assemble engine for car
6.) finish rollcage front strut bars and crossbar under dash
7.) finish plumbing hyd clutch, front tie rods shortend/new sleeves, bleed brakes
8.) fuel system,fuel pump,line,regulator for boost,return line.etc.

9.) fire it up and make some noise. :dance:
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby mahoy78spyder » Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:00 am

Good lookin' stuff!... Sorry about the "beautiful finish"... you're right, at least it's aluminum and can be polished out. :bang: If you don't mind me asking, how much did they charge to custom-make you're rad?
Ken Mahoy
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:05 am

mahoy78spyder wrote:Good lookin' stuff!... Sorry about the "beautiful finish"... you're right, at least it's aluminum and can be polished out. :bang: If you don't mind me asking, how much did they charge to custom-make you're rad?



radiator was only $200 shipped to my door. I thought it was a great deal,they were pretty easy to work with. I found them by looking at the v8 s10 site, I had read a few guys say they made them radiators for the v8 s10's. Theres no epoxy on the tanks and the center core has a brace on both the top and bottom, 1 inch wide tubes. Alot of the cheaper guys are using the thin 1/2" tubes and making them 3 row but the more tube to fin contact you have the better the radiator dissapates heat.
1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby mahoy78spyder » Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:34 am

That is a fantastic price! A few years ago, many of us H-body enthusiasts created a synergy via V8Monza.com and got Griffin to make a number of V8 H-body radiators for us as a discount price, but if I recall it wa still in the $350-$375 range. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Bob? :wink:
Ken Mahoy
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby chevyart » Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:03 pm

don this project is a long time coming. looking forward to seeing the finished product with all you great mods.you really helped alot of us guys do our h-bodies with all your great methods and ideas. thanks again. art
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby Monza Harry » Fri Jun 13, 2014 10:13 pm

Hey Don is that a "Tarantula" intake in that picture of the hat? That "Only Belongs on a Spyder", :lol: That finish on the hat is at least even with "Pretty" Welds so that will make it a lot easier to polish up! Can't wait to see the "Pressured Vega"/"Vega Under Pressure" (some potential Names for your Beast) Pic's! Pro-Touring/Resto Mod is my style of choice from before there was a name for it! Harry
I'm not a hoarder I'm a preservationist 78 Monza Spyder (~Soon(ish +/- I guess) To Be 2+2 with Spoilers)
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Sun Jun 15, 2014 5:32 pm

Monza Harry wrote:Hey Don is that a "Tarantula" intake in that picture of the hat? That "Only Belongs on a Spyder", :lol: That finish on the hat is at least even with "Pretty" Welds so that will make it a lot easier to polish up! Can't wait to see the "Pressured Vega"/"Vega Under Pressure" (some potential Names for your Beast) Pic's! Pro-Touring/Resto Mod is my style of choice from before there was a name for it! Harry


lol Harry, no, its just a old edelbrocker torker intake, it does look similar to the tarantula but its a bit shorter. Your gonna needa big block in that spyder to use one of those :th: .

carb sitting at a angle looks cool to me though 8)
1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:59 pm

So fresh back from the beach vacation and ready to dive back into this car. I had the turbo's and kits sitting on the bench and figured I would dive into replacing parts/rebuild them tonight, get them done and off the bench. I got the turbo all apart and found out the sealing rings let oil into the exhaust(hot) side and also the intake side was leaking some so I need to make a mental note to choke down the oil pressure a little bit to these turbos so I dont have the same problem. I read that alot of guys use a 1/16" orfice in the feed line even though its a journal turbo and not a ball bearing unit. Everything in the rebuild kit was correct except for this plate and the holder for the compressor piston ring, I am unsure of the terminology of the items but they dont match up. I emailed the place where I bought the kits from and sent them pics to see if I can get the correct parts to finish it.

Heres some pics of the messy inside.
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:01 pm

gonna be waitin on the turbo stuff to get cleared up as it looks like I have upgraded center sections with 360 degree thrust bearings so they need to find the right parts...lol, sometimes people have no idea what they are selling when your on the phone and they work at the manufacture of the item you have! :cuss:

Anyways, I was looking for somthin to do quick on the car today while waiting for parts to arrive for work. So I decided I would install the radiator into the car. It needed to be set forward thru the core support so I can use a puller type fan and have a bit of wiggle room for the gilmer belt drive and more room for the turbos. I began by taking some measurements to get the opening roughly centered in the car since everything including the radiator is offset in these cars. Heres some pics of the start, you can see there was no room with this thick radiator and then after I cut the bottom and sides out.
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:11 pm

I was gonna reuse the bottom part of the original core support and just make new mounting brackets to hold up the radiator and then the center grille support/header support bracket would bolt back up but it blocked airflow on the radiator and also it would have hung down too far interfering with the lower valance panel. I decided to use a small peice of square tubing and am using a strip of plastic like delron to let the radiator sit on(somewhere on here someone made amount like this, I am sorry cant remember who did it to give you credit for the great idea-thanx).All I need to do is make 2 small flat brackets to drop down from the side and the tubing will get attached to those.

I got the radiator sitting nicely in the opening and it opended up alot of room as youll see in the pics. I checked all my clearances with putting the grille back in and using a peice of lower valnce to make sure everything cleared. I am making some aluminum mounting tabs that will bolt to the original threaded inserts on the core support, they will be riveted to the top of the radiator with (3) 3/16" rivets. I have a air riveter and it makes them super tight and super strong. You can just remove the 2 top bolts and the radiator will tilt out towards the engine and you lift it right out.

I will add some more pics of the bottom brace/brackets and mounting tabs after I get down welding it all up and making the parts.
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Tue Aug 12, 2014 11:27 pm

if you noticed I had holes drawn on the old core support part to let in some air, was gonna hole saw a bunch across it as it would have blocked off the bottom of the radiator, so I just opted to delete it. You can see how much more open it is now, I may drill some holes into the bottom of the front valnce if it needs some more airflow. I have a chin spoiler so it should direct air up into the holes, will wait and see how the car runs tempwise.

other pic, the stock mounting holes I am referring to for the top mounting tabs.
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby vegon71 » Fri Aug 15, 2014 9:54 am

Its looking very good! nice work, keep it up!
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:38 pm

Got the radiator install done, ended up using some delrin plastic for the pads on the core support cross brace, machined them to "T" blocks to fit into the slotted rail, then drilled and tapped the delrin for a 1/4" bolt to hold them in place thru the bottom. I used flat plate on the sides and welded it into the original core support and frame rail brackets, added a couple gussets for extra strength. I stood on it and it didnt budge :D , so its more then likely stronger then it ever was stock.
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby megavega » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:43 pm

Got alot more room up front for now, as its going to get tight as soon as I get the turbos mounted.I cant think of anything else to get in the way so next I am going to finish the headers and get the flanges on for the turbo's. I played around with the intercooler tubing and sleeves to see which way it will work the best, seems good but we will see once the 3 1/2" down pipes and blow off valves,etc. are mounted :shock: .
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1972 hatchback, 28,000 orig miles, 427BBC/twin T4 turbo's/T56 six speed/big wheels, lowered down pro touring style-work in progress....

1973 vega wagon-under the blue flame knife.
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Re: 1972 Vega Pro Touring Project

Postby gw grizzly » Sun Aug 24, 2014 6:11 pm

Killer vega. I,m working on my first one. Hope it comes out half as nice as some I have seen here. I,m here in ohio too and wondering where you get your chrome done. My front bumpers are done the same way I just need them plated now.
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