My favorite Chevy II/Nova of all time is H.A.M.B.er landseaandair's little car. Sleepy as all get out, but will rumble buildings with a single exhaust note. Now, notice what is dirrectly behind in this shot and what I chose to photograph.... Sometimes too much is to much.
I love them all! Re: straight axle yes/no? You know what opinions are like don't you? Build what YOU like.
George, your sounding like a middle child that needs a hug. What will you be bringing to the Steel In Motion. I need to know so I'll know if I need to bring my small block axel car with bolt on "posers" or dog dish caps on steel. Or will I need my BIG block, 80's 57, 150 ProStreet? Ether way, I'll look forward to lining up next to you guy!
Besides, that look is so yesterdays news. I seem to have both the axel and poverty fads covered with one car!
Nope, just free of any fear of "inadequacy". As for all you "attention whores" well, if the shoe fits...
Judging by your avatar, I see you have succumbed to the inevitable peer pressure, and changed to the obligitory "faux spindle mounts" But you still need a non-functional moon tank in the middle of the grill. Hopefully you can rectify this major faux paus before "Steel in motion" (whatever that is) so the other "gasser" guys will let you park with them.
Ok, this bantering is fun, but seriously. While the changes necessary to correct the issues with the stock Chevy II front end are not complicated, you cant get them in a bubble-pak from Speedway, so they are well beyond the scope of the majority of the guys posting on this thread. Locking out the eccentrics, and getting rid of the rubber doughnuts on the strut rods clears up about 90% of it. The last 10% can be corrected by building a "Van Paephegam" centerlink. In stock form (you straight axle guys can tune out here, this isnt available as a bolt-on, and requires a rudimentary understanding of front end geometry) the inner end of the tie-rod ends is well inboard of the pivot point for the lower control arm, so as the front end moves up and down, the tie-rod end and control arm travel in different arcs, which changes the toe. The solution, which was developed by well-known NW SS racer Ralph Van Paephegam in the '70s, and later copied by Jack Davis, is to cut the ends off the stock centerlink, and cut the ends off a late sixties Buick Skylark centerlink, and weld the Chevy II ends on to the Buick centerlink. Not only does this move the inner end of the tie-rod ends out to where they line up with the lower control arm pivots, but the Buick centerlink is also kicked forward in the center, which allows the use of a conventional, un-notched rear sump pan. Now the "straight axle" guys wont like this part, but I do. Whats REALLY cool about this mod, is only about 1 in 1000 guys will grasp what you have done. To the un-washed masses it appears stock. You REALLY have to know your stuff to even spot that it has been done. Most guys will look at it, and be COMPLETELY MYSTIFIED by the fact that you have a conventional rear-sump pan in your apparently stock front end Chevy II. And yes Atwater, this will handle considerably better than a stock chevy II, or one with a chinese straight axle for that matter. But no-one will notice, unless they drive the car that is...
damn fg i usually just skip your post cause you multi post most of the time and your avatar pisses me off but -----the best driving ,fastest, nova i ever owned had a set up like that---spent a lot of time trying to figure it out--- it also sat low and had disc brakes----good info thanks
Ummm. uh thanks....I think... Yes, mine has Chevelle front discs as well. A lot of guys dont know that you can also use the stock drum-brake spindles with a little trimming for disc conversions. Or you can buy a nice, expensive, aftermarket bolt-on conversion wrapped in nice fresh bubble pak Oops! Theres that word again...
Ooops! I got those damn "bubble wrapped" Wilwoods. But hey, I've got to mount them on my stock spindles. Does that count?
Brought back a memory..When I first started my car a friend was waiting to go in the Air Force..In talking he said he couldn't wait to get in uniform and have all the girls attracted to him..I said was that the right reason for joining?..He retorted with your just building a car to pick up chicks, whats the difference? Pick up chicks I hadn't even thought of that Duh..He never went in the service and got married about fifteen years before I did...Build it, enjoy it..Somebody is going to think you wrecked a perfectly good car; oh well..
Build it the way you want to build it if the front and the set up right it will go down the road fine people who think they don't drive good don't know how to build them. I drive my all over the place with no problem. Every big tractor-trailer on the road is set at the same way do you see them wandering all over the road. Build it and have fun with it and people thank you for bringing them back to the 60s Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
treeserv, I think that what happens a lot of the time aside from proper suspension geometry is that they get the nose up too much and the car catches air at speed.
No straight axle. ### Kustom Falcon Build Thread: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=734282
You answered your own question right there, don't be another poser gasser pretender that does not put the car down the track ! There's plenty of them already......
And judging by your avatar.... Well the shoe also fits.... I like how this thread has become a pissing match. "Common kids post up your opinions and rides and watch them get shredded and shot down!!!" Oh I'll just add a few and that makes it ok to post what I want.
I've always thought the main issue was the short upper control arms that also start off at a steep downhill angle. As the front rises, they get sucked in faster than the longer more level lower arms and tie rods and pull the spindle inward. A Mustang/Falcon shelby type mod would help but there's no meat in the tower to drill for it. Bill Thomas did something along those lines with the Bad Bascomb car and used a taller full size car spindle. The height of the steering arms also play into bumpsteer. Keep saying I'm gonna play around with a handling on a budget package but never get around to it. I did check my toe movement from ride height to full up once and it was over an inch!
Local road racer Laurie Craig raced a black '66 HT at Westwood with this mod against the shelbys in the mid sixties, with considerable success. I can probably find a photo. I think the "Bad Bascomb" mod is probably more about tweaking the camber curve as the front end moves up and down, but I havent done it myself. By the way, I DIG your chevy II.
WHAT??!! No hater??!! man, I am SO disappointed. Oh, by the way, Moon rocket actually sent me a PM saying he got a kick out of the banter, and was having fun. He gets it. Guess he must not suffer from feelings of "inadequacy".
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