1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomod

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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Monza Harry » Tue Sep 27, 2016 8:16 pm

Were you afraid that "Hot Glue" wouldn't pass Tech? Is that not an approved technique? :lol: :haha: :roll: lmao Well at least you caught it before something silly happened! That could have been disastrous if more had been like that and hidden beneath some glued on carpet or ??? You did a "Bang Up Job" with your remedy! :th: Harry
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:52 am

sportriderok wrote:It's hard to understand the PO putting the time and engineering effort into this car and doing such substandard work. You are going to have one unique Vega when you are done, and your cleanup work looks outstanding. I'm hooked, keep it up!


Thanks Looks like its going to be a long haul.

Monza Harry wrote:Were you afraid that "Hot Glue" wouldn't pass Tech? Is that not an approved technique? :lol: :haha: :roll: lmao Well at least you caught it before something silly happened! That could have been disastrous if more had been like that and hidden beneath some glued on carpet or ??? You did a "Bang Up Job" with your remedy! :th: Harry


thanks yea after I found the hot glue thing I actually got really worried and went to inspect all mounts.... scary stuff was found. :( :( :shock: :shock:
The hot glue part was the icing to the cake :bang: :bang:
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby EVL VEGA » Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:57 am

Monza Harry wrote:Were you afraid that "Hot Glue" wouldn't pass Tech? Is that not an approved technique? :lol: :haha: :roll: lmao


I know what a hack! The previous owner should have at least used black or silver silicone so at first glance you might think it's welded. :mrgreen:
EVL VEGA
'73 Vega Hatchback (former Super Gas car)
406 SBC, AFR 210 Eliminator Heads, 9:1 comp, pump gas, 328RWHP/412RWTQ (old heads, no N2O 1/17/04), 6.86 @ 100.8 in 1/8th (No N20 9/4/16), Mike's Trans TH400 (reverse manual), 5000 stall, 12 bolt, 35 spline strange axles, 4.33 gears, spool, hipster transbrake, linelock, backhalved, Alston 3 link, 100 shot NX Hitman+ kit, LC1 Wideband sensor, 31x18.5 MT Sportsman Pros, "Plum Ugly"™ Purple paint.
"Pound to fit..paint to match"
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Fri Sep 30, 2016 12:01 pm

EVL VEGA wrote:
Monza Harry wrote:Were you afraid that "Hot Glue" wouldn't pass Tech? Is that not an approved technique? :lol: :haha: :roll: lmao


I know what a hack! The previous owner should have at least used black or silver silicone so at first glance you might think it's welded. :mrgreen:


:lol: funny you said that because one side of the bottom mount was hotglued and painted black. at first glance i thought it was welded until I started welding around it and it was melting away :shock:
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Fri Sep 30, 2016 12:26 pm

Battery didnt hold a charge. New battery is in place. Went to autozone and found The most compact battery available that has the power and size that will fit my needs now and future. Got rid of the tiny 51R battery and added a 24F DLG this will be good to crank future v8 engine-750cca 8) and more reserve capacity.(even though i dont think ill need it but you never know.) Just had to trim a bit and redo the mount. Tight fit but got it in. :lol:

this will be relocated to the rear when I go v8 so nothing permanent.


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also found an interesting ducting routing. Could be the reason why im getting overheating issue at idle. The intercooler ducting is covering half of the fan area which seems to create quite a bit of turbulence in the back. i can actually feel the air getting pushed to the front of the radiator at stand still.
At this point the car almost left me stranded when i got stuck in traffic. Im considering spending the money to replace a bunch of stuff to keep it rotary or just park the car now and start the v8 Turbo build.
Going to do some cost analysis and see if I can afford to start the v8 build and finish in a timely matter(in acouple of months) or keep rotary while i save/collect v8 parts.


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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Thu Oct 13, 2016 11:37 am

tool update :th: I had considered this when i was making the pipes for the turbo conversion on my ws6. I figured since more welding is in my future now is the best time.

Some cheapo TIG welder. Suppose to be decent and does the job for a hobbyist like myself. Based on the specs it should do great.
The biggest reason for this upgrade is being able to finally weld aluminum :D :th: (well once i learn how to - ive never used tig before lol)
with new auto darkening helmet and 22lbs of 4 different welding rods(I might have over bought - but i dont like running out :lol: ) plus the welder and argon refilled this set up set me back $500. This better work :dance:

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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Thu Oct 13, 2016 12:00 pm

Now car update.
The 13b engine needed a rebuild looks like blown coolant seal and also on the low side of compression. 90psi=needing a full rebuild soon anyways.

After tons of reading and careful consideration of the parts I would need it(and possibly want) looks like the rotary guys are very “specialty” type of guys. Apparently its not uncommon for somebody to rebuild one in their garage and have it blow in less than 5k miles. WTF I don’t know how true this is or if the rotary is just that sensitive that you truly need a rotary specialist. But it sure steered me away. Its not like I wanted a rotary anyways so I didn’t want to risk losing money on something I didn’t want to begin with. If I truly want a rotary though its definitely worth the risk IMO.
For those wondering it looks like to rebuild one the cost starts at around 1200-1500 (roughly) in parts alone. Add porting to that and I can see this being a 1.5-2k+ rebuild.


For 2k I bought my welder and this donor truck instead :lol: :lol:

2000 2500 silverado. Early style lq4(6.0) and 4l80e(should handle the 700-800whp goal of mine after a shift kit? Which im not sure if I should hold out on because this transmission was actually supposed to have been rebuilt 3 months prior the crash. And looks clean like it has been rebuilt.
This will be my first ever automatic build, mainly due to t56 being so expensive I figured now would be good time to try an auto build. Unfortunately, if I want to change later to a t56 the engine has to be change also. :?

Side note believe or not but apparently the driver walked away from this unharmed. The speed is roughly 35mph before rolling on the “cliff”


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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Monza Harry » Thu Oct 13, 2016 5:30 pm

Boosted you can weld Aluminum with a "DC TIG" but that will require "High Purity Helium" (medical Grade, I have no idea what they use helium for in medicine but that is what it says on the bottle) with Argon with or without Helium you will require AC with high frequency not currently available with the low cost TIG welders. [yours only has High Frequency Start I did look and have watched that HF welder for awhile] This is a picture of one like mine, not for the faint of heart:
My Welder.jpg
P.S. if you want to learn to weld aluminum find a teacher to help and start there, it seems easier to learn it first and then pick up all the bad steel welding habits later, I have been welding steel for about 42 years, [Aluminum about 25 but not very frequently so I suck at it] and if I can I job out the aluminum jobs as those are usually my fussier ones! Oh that really sucks about you rotary engine, I have no experience at all on that! Sorry Harry Some light reading to start you out. Don't be discouraged when it works out it can be very rewarding and it will work out. :D http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ and https://ca.search.yahoo.com/search?p=We ... =yfp-t-620
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Fri Oct 14, 2016 3:35 am

Thanks for the input. Yea ive run into that before but im really hoping i can get it to work. this guy seems to know his stuff and seems like it would.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHkx8cca-SQ


I wanted to try it with argon first since ill be welding mildsteel most of the time. infact the only time i plan on aluminum is for intercooler piping and maybe some random little things that come up.

I have considered helium and if that first method doesnt work it may be the next purchase. And incase this was the case all the aluminum rod I purchase are 4043 which ive heard are best with dc/helium combo.

at the bare minimum i hope i can atleast tack parts that way all i have to do is have my local welders weld it for me.
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Monza Harry » Fri Oct 14, 2016 7:21 pm

I have never tried DC/Argon as the shop I worked at that "Enlightened Me" to DC/Helium had the Helium, it hasn't occurred to me to try it with the Argon I may get a chance to try this but a so/so tack would be pushing my optimism. I also forgot to mention that for AC TIG you will need "pure tungsten". I had a link to a site that listed which electrodes were compatible with which mat'l/processes. Those little TIG's are certainly cheap enough for learning and "Tacking" for welding by a better welder (machine) will save countless hours of frustration for sure. Will probably break even on truck fuel and cut off wheels if nothing else, but that will be a nice capability to add to your shop either way! :th: Harry
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Sun Oct 16, 2016 2:33 am

Monza Harry wrote:I have never tried DC/Argon as the shop I worked at that "Enlightened Me" to DC/Helium had the Helium, it hasn't occurred to me to try it with the Argon I may get a chance to try this but a so/so tack would be pushing my optimism. I also forgot to mention that for AC TIG you will need "pure tungsten". I had a link to a site that listed which electrodes were compatible with which mat'l/processes. Those little TIG's are certainly cheap enough for learning and "Tacking" for welding by a better welder (machine) will save countless hours of frustration for sure. Will probably break even on truck fuel and cut off wheels if nothing else, but that will be a nice capability to add to your shop either way! :th: Harry


maybe its because ive always welded with a crappy welder, but i was pretty happy with my HF mig. it did everything i needed for cheap.
So im pretty optimistic with this welder. But i guess we will see.
thanks for the input and the link
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Sun Oct 16, 2016 2:53 am

Update: I posted a for sale add for the engine and transmission… it sold quicker than expected. I actually ended up having to work on it the whole night. But a success.

Pretty much a point of no return.
Harness has been pulled. Engine and transmission out.
Hopefully someone picks up the standalone and transmission soon so I can buy more stuff
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NOW the GOOD and THE BAD.
The GOOD.
The radiator is surprisingly big that I may just end up using this, looks like it would be capable of cooling a turbo v8.
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The GOOD AND The BAD
Just as I thought the front sub frame is also welded to the body like the rear. No chance of me bolting it off and buying a fd lsx subframe.
Which means fabricating an engine mount on a stationary sub frame. I don’t really like this but I will have to make this work- Unless I redo everything and make it bolt in. At that point id be better off starting fresh with a clean slate vega so im not going to do that.
The inside part actually looks good. Looks like a professional welder actually welded these.
Outside not so much.

Plans are in the work for how the engine will be mounted. But not set in stone yet since I’m actually considering pushing the firewall back 6”(just where engine would be.) So I can put more of the engine weight towards the rear.

Its definitely moving though.

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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Thu Oct 27, 2016 3:14 pm

finally got around to hooking up the new tig welder. since i wanted to use my old "extension cord" i had to run it in the side of the welder instead of in the bottom. Tight fit around that "pillar"but it works.

welder impression.
So far I had a chance to play with it for about 20 minutes. This might take a while :lol:

Comparing to mig this thing is EXTREMELY bright. I might need to invest on a better helmet i felt like i have a bit of a flash burn :| could have been from the fist couple of arc with the new helmet not being charged/it didnt darken. so ill see once i leave it charged-if it persist then non auto it is.


as far as welding goes im really happy about this tig. Super clean weld and it feels a lot more controllable. feels like oxyacetylene welding. (which i was very fond of because how much control you have) so this is great.
Downside: It feels like going backwards since now i have to feed it manually instead of just pressing and go. not to mention the rod keeps running out so i have to stop to adjust the lenght :bored:
Ive read of people saying it being a slower process but i didnt think it would be this slow :shock:

Its soo much slower that im actually considering keeping my HF mig around and just buying another bottle. might be usufull for those times that i just need to weld custom exhaust.


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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Sat Nov 05, 2016 1:47 am

well Photobucket has been down for like 24 hours now. Trying imageshack so lets see how it is.

No real progress as usual but started collecting parts.
Finally ordered the B&M hammer shifter. The pictures online doesnt do this shifter justice. This looks well built and overall great quality. Since this will be my first ever build with an automatic i figured ratchet style is a good start. Plus this comes with a lot of street bells and whistle/great to have on street use.
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I also picked up an fbody pan and this broken ls6 intake for $50 :th: Im going to be attempting to fix this and see if i can use it. If not I have an ls1 intake on the way
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At this point look like its going to start moving at a good phase. I have a few more goodies im waiting on and plans for build are being finalize. Really excited about it but ill let the picture do the talking :dance: :dance:
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Re: 1971 Chevy Vega-RX7 suspension. Turbo V8 to come-Restomo

Postby Boostedvega » Thu Nov 10, 2016 11:55 am

My diff mount is here. This will allow me to use the stock rx7 diff and just need a driveshaft.
not quite sure how long this will be on or if i will upgrade to the 8.8 when this project is running. but the price was great so i picked it up.

this is the samberg fd diff mount
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