Wednesday, July 25, 2012

'69 Camaro with LS swap, Custom aluminum intake and stainless exhaust




1969 Camaro, as delivered to the shop. A tidy Ls swap had already been performed. The car had headers on it and the turbos were mounted, but that was as far as it got. Our mission: custom aluminum tube intake plumbing to route the air through the turbos, down into the inner cooler, back up through the intake manifold, and into the combustion chamber, and a stainless exhaust system to expel the high octane dinosaur corpse's from the potent mill in fine style. Lets see what happened........


The engine compartment, as delivered. some nice parts, and a few things that need attention. Typical "project" car, but definitely an above average start. We 


With a car this pretty, you can never be too cautious. 


Not too many "in progress" photos for this one, so lets cut to the chase. The driver side exhaust had a few obstacles. The master cylinder, steering shaft, rear header, and firewall clearance was tight. 


Once we got around that stuff, we were smoking! 


Moving down the line, this is what the rear pipes looked like. Simple and effective, no mufflers needed. 


Symmetrical. One side buffed and the other not for contrast. Both were ultimately buffed. Stainless looks tough and lasts a lifetime!


Tucked up tight to the floor for ample ground clearance.


The intake was packed in so tight it was hard to get a picture. Here you can see the 2 into 1 merge and the tight turn into the inner cooler, all done in aluminum. 


Out of the inner cooler and heading topside. Had to merge from 3'' to 4'' for the throttle body.  


Here's the whole system done and ready to deliver. 


Think this car is going to be fast? haha.




And headed home! Another satisfied customer.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Chopper Frame Mod.




An old aftermarket chopper frame from the 70's or 80's. This frame had been choppered and butchered over the years and needed some love and restyling. I like the 2+ stretch, just wanted to derake and dejunk it a bit.

 This giant ugly gusset has to go. 

The rear was Just too wide, and with all the plating all over it, it seems easier just to cut the top of the frame off and start over. 


Here it is clamped in the frame fixture, ready to be cut apart


 Uh oh! 



I decided to salvage the neck off the frame, and just remachine it, rather than machine a new one from scratch. Its probably easier to make a new one, but i like the old parts


Ugh! Ugly.


Much better. Cleaned up pretty nice, huh?


Started fitting some tubes. 


A tight fit is imperative to a quality weld joint!


Rear chain stays. Wanted to streamline the rear of the bike a little bit. 


Again, good fitment is 90% of the job.


Skinny bike. Nice shape.


With all the parts made, the welding can begin!!!


Not so bad! 



This is showing the front down tubes. First I cut a large chamfer and then rosette welded them. Here they are half finished and half not to show the contrast. 



Gone. Good repair, metal finished. Disappear.