Kimjon

A small amount of progress: Exhausts are just sitting there, but will look something like this(ish) when done..

I've got this one, but truth be told I rarely use it. It does a mean job, just a bit of a hassle to get going if you're in a hurry to cook something.

About a year ago I was having a beer with some mates in Ohakune, and on the deck of the bar was this awesome outdoor fireplace...I was fascinated by it. I later googled it and it was this one: I'd never seen one like it, and thought it was pretty cool. That idea has been popping up in my head every so often, until this week when I decided to do something about it. I pinterest the shit out of outdoor fireplaces and there's an amazing array of ideas. However one just stood out for me. So I've made a version of that one. Here it is: So much steel... Making holes. Starting to take shape. boom!!! Took 5 hours from start to finish (10.00am to 3.00pm), beer time!

Terrible photo, but you get the idea. The bump stop is 1" (25.4mm) wide, so some heavy walled SHS at 25mm x 25mm was doubled up and stitch welded together to give me a very strong 25mm x 50mm spacer block to fit under it. I've drilled corresponding holes right through to match the bump stops and it should just bolt right in. I may upgrade the bolts to the next size up...ummm just because.

I think I've got it right after looking at this morning after a good nights sleep. I was super tired = brain stopped working... The impala has 2" drop spindles, hence the reason it's having issues. Plus wider tyres aren't helping either. I'm not sure on the amount of squish I should allow on the stop itself? This is what they look like. About 50mm high by 25mm wide (I'm guessing those numbers, but will be very close). How much do you think these are likely to deform by? Mathematically I need 35mm packers under the stops to make contact before the wheel hits the guard. But that doesn't allow for squishing of the stop. Heavy walled SHS comes in 25mmx25mm, so I'm thinking of stitch welding two bits of this together, one on top of the other. This would make a very strong spacer at 25mm x 50mm with a double gusset in the middle to strengthen it up. At 50mm, it would allow up to 15mm of squish which sounds about right to me? Thoughts????

Yes. It takes a big hit to make it happen, but it can.

What I'm trying to explain in above, is 45mm of movement at the bump stop, equals 80mm of wheel travel at the outer edge. So if I have an 80mm gap at the bump stop point, before bump stop contacts, then 80-45mm=35mm packer required. May as well make it 50mm to allow for squish of rubber?

I'm hoping for it to be this easy? Is it just a simple lever arm ratio?

Balls...3hrs of my life I'll never get back.

My certifier said yes; so I had to make some up, as they weren't available in the sizes I needed. My friend has an HK Monaro and his rear axle has nowhere to put locating rings on the hubs (hilux diff conversion), so his certifier said he didn't need them.

For some weird reason the lower two bolts holding the steering box had crush tubes, but the top bolt didn't? This was pinching the chassis rail inwards...not cool!!! So I turned up a crush tube on the lathe, gave it a nice 45° chamfered edge to take a weld and solved that problem. So, my to do list from the certifier is getting smaller by the day. A couple loose ends to tidy up here and there...but pretty much done.

The steering stops had previously been cut a lot shorter by someone else to allow for a better turning radius (weirdly impalas aren't renowned for their nimbleness...go figure?). However, my wheels were hitting the inner guards long before the stops where anywhere near touching - in fact the steering arms were about 15mm short of the stops! So a bit of creative thinking to turn this situation around and turn it into a positive... by using a bolt inserted into the stop, I now have adjustable steering stops...yay!!! If only every problem could be solved for 50 cents like this one... I'll chuck some more weld in there later to tidy it up (more a vanity thing) to create a captive nut that wont turn, its mechanically locked as is... so it's not going anywhere. The other nut is free to turn and will be locked up (basically a double nut) when I find my maximum turning arc without rubbing the tyres.

Yeah, camera is distorting things in that photo.

Seat belt mounts made. Got them all fitting well, with under seal scraped off and repainted as per instructions.

Brake lines moved away from exhaust

All I can say is thanks Mike! Huge day on the car...legend!

Yeah, normally my go to. But for small orders postage gets out of hand.

A bit of an optical illusion, the knurl is slightly larger on the new item. I read online that they manufacture them this way on purpose. I didn't have to drill out my holes, as I managed to buy the correct 7/16x20 studs, with the correct knurl size. So it was a straight forward like for like swap. Mag goes straight on, no pcd issues.

Fyi, for anyone in similar situation: Finding extended 7/16x20 with a GM sized knurl for the front is a struggle in nz. Ordering from USA works out about $60...but looooong delivery times. Or extortionate postage if you want them fast. Nice, or ARP etc from most places are about $17 each stud for a set. So $340! Conversion to metric was an option, just need to drill out the hubs a fraction, but would be easy to do. $90 for 20 studs, plus new metric nuts to suit another $40, was seriously considering doing this. However I found Earl's body shop has them for about $6 each...winner!

I like this photo, it's the end result of machining these out of solid blanks of billet. A full rubbish bin of swarf!!!! Ones on the car, here's the other three.

All done (x4). Phew!!! That was actually a lot of work to achieve...

Getting there. Just looked at the time and its after 11pm...time to stop working, will make a costly mistake soon if I carry on into the night. There's always tomorrow to get it done...

Making spigots for the wheels to help centre them.

How have I not seen this? Beautiful work on that alternator fan...aluminum awesomeness!

Not actually my impala...But I like this photo (for many reasons). I'll call this an aspirational photo...