Project SS!

[D_Eclipse9916]

Hrmm so that looks like it's a semi-metallic. Going in that same vein - summit has a hawk rotor+hps combo for $320 for the front that seems like a decent deal to me. Would you say those pads might be similar?

RockAuto rotors. If these $28 babies can surive over a year on my race car without cracking, they will be fine on your Monte Carlo. Pair it with a set of PFC Z-rated for pads and save $$.

[HAULN-SS]

I thought about the rockauto route, but for some reason a lot of their rotors don't list the actual dimensions. I am looking for the 325mm (12.79") rotor, and a lot of them just say "corvette rotor" and a lot of their brakes that do have dimensions are the larger 13.x" rotors

[HAULN-SS]

saving this here for posterity so I can remember when I get home what I found out about all the dimensions

[HAULN-SS]

DJ if what you're saying is accurate, basically it doesnt make a difference for where a rotor is made? I'm sure a $28 dollar rock auto rotor has to be some off brand china piece or something right? Anyway, came across these: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.atlautosports.com/p-5046-brand-new-front-pair-slotted-only-high-performance-brake-rotors.aspx">http://www.atlautosports.com/p-5046-bra ... otors.aspx</a><!-- m -->

I was thinking about picking them up. I think I can forego drilled, but solid slotted might give a nice look and still give good performance without any worry about cracking that you see some people talk about on drilled rotors. Make any sense?

[D_Eclipse9916]

That has been my experience. I have used from Pfc rotors at 380 a piece (760 an axle) to brembos to rock auto and no noticeable difference in performance or susceptibility to cracking

[HAULN-SS]

good enough for me..ordered..now back to pads

[HAULN-SS]

Brown santa came over the weekend. I AM EXCITE!

[HAULN-SS]

ended up ordering ecb red stuff pads. Was going to go green but the internet says they changed formula and red is the way to go for a streetable pad thats low dust and semi agressive

[HAULN-SS]

My photoshop hue/saturation skills aren't good enough. Can anyone take this photo and show me what it'd look like with a white car?



more pics right around this one in this gallery if you think any of them more suitable

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://s1193.photobucket.com/user/howebad/media/d4365e68.jpg.html?sort=3&o=327">http://s1193.photobucket.com/user/howeb ... rt=3&o=327</a><!-- m -->

[Mike]

sorry, just a five minute job.

[HAULN-SS]

Bro! the 71 is the one being made into a donk!

Hey i cant remember if this was already talked about - but what are peoples thoughts on spacers? I thought I read somewhere that they are a terrible idea and if you ever used them only like 1/4" , etc.

Is that accurate? Is something like this which bolts on <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Hubcentric-Spacers-Chevrolet-Corvette-Pontiac/dp/B00ATVF0EG">http://www.amazon.com/Hubcentric-Spacer ... B00ATVF0EG</a><!-- m -->

Really dangerous?

[D_Eclipse9916]

As long as it is hubcentric, has the proper chamfer and hub diameter, you are good to go up to a certain point.

I don't like those you attached before as it has no "hub" extender for which the wheel to ride on. I would be scared to use those. You want something like this:
IE :http://www.amazon.com/Eibach-90-4-25-025-2-Pro-Spacer-Wheel-Spacer/dp/B000TYR8M0/ref=au_pf_ss_6?ie=UTF8&Make=GMC%7C48&Model=Sierra%202500%20HD%7C551&Year=2007%7C2007&carId=002&n=15684181&s=automotive

FYI: I run 10-18mm spacers on all my M3s in the front including the race car.

[HAULN-SS]

So theoretically if I used at least some spacer all the way around, I could also use it to be an adapter to change the bolt pattern to 5x120 instead of 5x120.65 right? This greatly increases the number of wheel options if so.
Do you end up having to torque your spacers all the time or do they pretty much stay snug once you have them?

[JPolen01]

Yes you can use one of the spacer/adapter combos to change your bolt pattern. I see this used pretty often.

[D_Eclipse9916]

So theoretically if I used at least some spacer all the way around, I could also use it to be an adapter to change the bolt pattern to 5x120 instead of 5x120.65 right? This greatly increases the number of wheel options if so.
Do you end up having to torque your spacers all the time or do they pretty much stay snug once you have them?

Mine are "through-the-spacer" studs. Something like what you are suggesting, I would torque, and after 100 miles torque again, and then never worry about again till a wheel change.

What's really scary is most my wheel changes, the torque is almost spot on after even a couple heat cycles. With my forgelines they always loosen up or the wheel is distorting in some way. :| I dont use them for track wheels for more than just that reason.

[SlimKlim]

My photoshop hue/saturation skills aren't good enough. Can anyone take this photo and show me what it'd look like with a white car?

It's a pain in the ass to go from blue or black to white. If it was red or yellow to start with I could do it in 5 minutes. Only way to do it coming from that color (as far as I know) is to painstakingly mask out the body of the car, then dial up the lightness and tweak the hue, then go back and manually touch up/shade everything to make it look right. I could probably do it but it'd take about 4 hours and it still might look like crap. Can you find any photos of those wheels on a different color?

[HAULN-SS]

Ah thanks - I went ahead and ordered rims and tires today! I actually decided against the ones in that picture after finding out what they are (XXR 521) and seeing them up close. I think I have almost everything ready to go once these get in! I am debating right now on ordering just new ball joints or going ahead and getting tubular A-arms (that usually come with ball joints). That's about the last thing I gotta get before I am ready to go. Oh, and probably some spacers, but I got the wheels first so I can get an accurate measurement for the spacers

[HAULN-SS]

Well, an update, but still no pics since I haven't actually done any work. I had a nice long phone chat with Marcus from scandc.com. He's the guy that wrote the book "How to make your muscle car handle" and is pretty much the suspension expert in the muscle car world. Here's his book:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Muscle-Handle-Performance/dp/1934709077/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401802828&sr=8-1&keywords=make+your+muscle+car+handle">http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Muscle- ... car+handle</a><!-- m -->

Anyway, I had seen him posting on some of the G-body forums, and gave him a call. Turns out he's a G-body guy and has a 1986 Monte Carlo as well. Long story short, I ended up ordering this kit he designed:

I am no suspension expert, but it basically sounded like the reason this is the best bang for the buck is because the stock suspension geometry doesn't allow for a negative camber alignment. Here's a little that Marcus had to say on the subject.

Raising the spindle raises the upper ball joint to a better location for better camber gain and helps raise the super lower roll center (which promotes lots of body roll). It also helps stabilize excessive lateral roll center migration (which in turn makes the car much more predictable). It raises the steering arms as well, in relation to the center link. This alters the bump steer. The trick is to use the right height to aid the suspension geometry while getting the steering geometry just right for correcting the factory bump steer (it works on this car because the outer tie rod ends need to go up relative to the center link. It doesn`t work on all cars). If we use too tall of a lower ball joint then we`d need to add a bump steer kit to move the outer tie rod end pickup points back down again. That`s okay but it`s more cost and complication. If we nail the right height (also the caster setting because caster alters steering arm height as well) then we don`t have to do any additional steering mods, it`s plug and play. This limits the height of the lower ball joint we can use though. This extra height is a help but it merely makes a very bad front end less bad. The next step is to use a taller upper ball joint as well. The upper has virtually no effect on bump steer (we compensate for what little is has) and it doesn`t effect the ride height of the car so we can go big. We designed the Xtall SevereDuty upper ball joints to do just that. The resulting geometry is now actually quite good even when compared to the best comparable brand new performance cars. You can see it, you can feel it. At this point we`ve reengineered the front suspension and steering to work correctly and the difference is fantastic. Once you have this solid foundation in place you can choose to either leave the rest of the car alone, tweak it just a little bit or go all out. The choice is yours but the results will be stacked in your favor.

Anyhow - he's a real nice guy, has loads of information, and I ordered his product which people seem to rave about. He sends alignment specs for 3 styles of driving with the kit. He also talked me out of going the coil over route for these cars as well saying that you can get just as good of a result with coil springs without having to worry about bottoming out because of the lack of travel (apparently G-body springs are about the shortest GM ever made).

Sooo - once I get the LCA off the car does anyone here have a press we can use to press out the old and in the new ball joints? The tops are bolt in so I'm not worried about those.

[JustinG]

Pretty sure Kaan has a press, and DJ did at some point too.

[HAULN-SS]

wheels came today. I am still waiting on that UCA and bushings, but I decided I wanted to mock up what I could anyway. I got the old spindle off and the new spindle on to see how the wheels fit with the stock suspension pieces in there. Rims rub on the UCA at ful lock, no surprise there. I had plenty of fender clearance though so I think I am going to up the width a bit on my spacer adapters.

Also..bought a pickle fork because $10, and it made removing the spindle from tbe LCA a breeze...here's some progress and sneak peak picture