Some parts of a build are bigger milestones then others. For some reason we really feel like we hit a big one with our ’78 Malibu sporting a ‘555 cubic inch Musi/Edelbrock Crate engine and whiff of Vic’s nitrous:
Grandma is rolling.
Last week we finished welding in the necessary mounts for our QA1 shocks, what we missed telling you about, was the TRZ Suspension we are using in the rear of the car.
TRZ sent us their Stage 1 G-Body Rear Suspension package for use on Project Grandma. It includes:
- TRZ double adjustable upper control arms
- TRZ single adjustable lower control arms
- TRZ anti-roll bar
- TRZ spherical bearings for use on the uppers.
Check out some of the features of this kit:
Starting off with the housing bearings, Currie was nice enough to install the TRZ units when they built the rearend. These replace the stock sloppy rubber bushings and help provide a solid pinion movement with no bind.
According to TRZ, these are not recommended for normal street driving. This won’t be a problem for us, as the only time Grandma is going to see the street, is from the trailer on the way to the track.
The TRZ control arms included in the kit are 100% TIG welded for strength. The uppers are double gusseted for additional strength against deflection, and the rod-ends have a Teflon Liner.
The lowers also include Teflon Liners on the rod-ends and come with Delrin Bushings with steel sleeves on the other end.
Because we ordered our F9 rear end from Currie with the standard G-Body lower suspension, and had them install two tabs for the upper control arms, all of our stock-style G-Body TRZ suspension bolted right in with no problem at all.
Mike Ryan, our master fabricator assisting us in our build, decided it was time to put little junk in Grandma’s truck. We mocked up our Chiseled Performance fuel cell, that also has a partition for the water tank as well which also houses an “in-tank” water pump. Why a water tank? Because we will eventually end up putting forced induction on the Malibu and we’ll need it for the intercooler.
The question was – how to see how we would go about mounting it in the trunk. After much debate, we decided to mount it to a row of 2×2 tubing welded to the floor using the tabs on the fuel cell and bolting it in.
Here are the tabs on the fuel cell – this was really simple to design and install.
This is the row of square tubing that will serve as the mounting place for the fuel cell. We went with the square tubing because it moves the tank up off the floor enough for the water inlet and outlets to clear without having to cut the floor out and give the tank a flat surface to sit on.
Next up Mike decided to take care of that huge hole that was our stock floor. And we had a problem. Because of how we mounted the TRZ Anti-roll bar, the end links were hitting the floor.
So we had to move the floor up about 2 inches.
The easiest way we found to do this was by welding in two strips of metal on each side of the floor so it would clear the roll bar with no problem.
Here is the view from the passenger compartment looking back. You can see the bars that are gusseting the upper control arm cradle.
Now to the part that excited us, we finally got the Billet Specialties Street Lite 15 x 10 and 15 x 3 wheels, and the Mickey Thompson Drag Radial and ET Front tires on the car – which means it was time for some floor shots of Grandma. Check out a couple photos of the car on the ground!
We haven’t set the ride height just yet, we are waiting till we are farther along before we commit to a finial height, but you get the idea.
We were really happy with the finial out come of how the Aerospace Brakes looked behind our Billet Specialties Wheels – or maybe it’s the Mickey Thompson Tires?
That’s all from Project Grandma for now. Next week, we will be installing a rear firewall and package tray build by Mike Ryan, get the Flowmaster Exhaust welded on, and then our Chassis Engineering wheelie bars.
We’re close, and Granny has a wicked smile on her face.