'61 Impala - Red Sled Frame Work

Today on muscle car. Red sled gets some backbone and a new stance. Plus right along for a test and tune day at the track.

Hey, welcome to the muscle car shop. Our 67 Lemons is out of here. We're back on task with our 61 impala project. Red sled.

This thing was in pretty bad shape.

Ok. Really bad shape when it rolled in here. But we dove right in to see what we were really going to have to deal with.

We saved almost everything we took off except the 47 years worth of dirt.

A lot of these parts like the seats, these things will be hard if not impossible to find

some of this stuff may not be reused, but it could be helpful when figuring out exactly what we need to order later,

he lifted the body off the frame and sent it out to be blasted, then pulled the motor and tranny.

We're ready to knock the front end apart on the sucker. But without all the weight to hold it down, the spring could keep flying out.

I'd like to keep all my body parts. So I got a plan

after moving the shocks, I'm placing a jack underneath, then a chain is threaded through the springs and arms this way, it's safe to go ahead and release the tension.

Ok. Here's something not a lot of people know about, but it's good information to have. There's usually a flat spot right on the side of these spindles. That's not just for decoration, that's a smack with a hammer to get this thing knocked loose.

The friends got an appointment with the sand blaster. So everything has to come off.

Now, you might want to stand back from your TV, because parts are gonna be flying.

Yes.

Oh,

once the frame is stripped down, we'll measure the front center and rear sections diagonally and cross our fingers that we won't be doing any frame pulling 10 7.5, about 10 7.5. So that's good.

67 inches

of money.

We're also checking to make sure it's level,

choose a point near the center shim it to level then check several other points along the frame.

Much to our amazement. This rusted hunk of metal is square and level so we can send it off to get sand blasted with no modifications.

Now, from 1958 to 1964 Chevrolet used an X frame which was designed to flex. Now, this may be great for right quality. But if you're putting in the angry 409 in your car, like we're putting in a red sled, this could pose a pretty serious problem and that means that we're going to be doing some pretty big reinforcements to our frame. Now, I don't know exactly how much torque that old chunk of iron is gonna be putting out. That's a little piece of information that I need to have. So I'm going to come down here and talk to the man with the plan.

Hey, what's up, buddy? How you doing, Rick? Good, good man. I guess you got the word on red Sled. What you got cooking for us here? Well, we found you a nice 409 core engine, but it's on a slow boat from somewhere, but it'll be here shortly.

What did come in? Is this nice Stroker kit from Eagle specialty products? And what's cool about it is it takes it from a 409 cubic inch to a 481 cubic inch. Nice. Well, I'll tell you, I don't know a whole lot about the 348 and the 40 nines, but I do know that they use design. That's unlike anything else, right? What's unique about this block is the combustion chamber is actually built into the block rather than to hit.

I'll be darned. Well, you know, we also have all those Edro

parts, it's going to get bolted the top end of this thing. So what do you think we're going to be looking at for horsepower numbers? Here. Well, hopefully we'll be above 500 horsepower and 500 ft pounds of torque. But we'll know that once we get it on the di

Yeah,

nice. Well, let me know when it shows up. Ok, we'll do it. Cool. Thanks. See you later.

Well, here it is. We got our frame back from the sand blaster and she's back down. We birthday suit. Now, we could actually seal this up and paint it the way it is. But that ain't how we roll here on muscle car. We're gonna smooth this thing out because red sled isn't just gonna be another pretty face. She's gonna be detailed from the bottom to the top. That means we got a lot more work to do on this big old chunk of steel.

Now, this factory welds here. Well, they're not going to cut it. They're staggered and we want a continuous feed for strength.

But once we've added a couple of spools of wire, we're going to grind the world. Smooth

buddy gave us a pretty good idea how much power this chassis is going to have to handle and the stock X frame is not going to cut it. Now, even Chevy realized that there were some weak points in this design because they added reinforcements in the convertible models right over the top of the rear frame rails. Now we're gonna follow their lead, but we're gonna take it a step further. We're gonna use the eight inch plate to reinforce in key areas. Now, the first thing we gotta do is extend this factory bracing further up this frame rail that's gonna give us a lot more strength and rigidity up here in the front portion of this X. Now, down the sides, we're gonna add another big brace. It's gonna run down both sides that's gonna stiffen up the whole center section.

Now, this part right here, obviously, we're gonna have to cut a hole so we can access the bolts for a carrier bearing

plate. It's gonna run all the way to the back here where this rear mount is for the rear suspension. Now, this is gonna take a heck of a beating from that stroke or 409. So we're gonna box this in and reinforce it.

Now, keep in mind also, this frame is actually sitting on here upside down. So you're looking at the bottom side of it.

This is where we're gonna add the bracing like the convertible has

this cross member here. It's not so much beat up as it is just ugly. So we're gonna chop it out and put a nice piece of round stock in just for aesthetics.

This rear piece here. This thing took a pretty good hit somewhere along the line and it's bent up, we could repair it, but it's gonna be easier and faster chop it out and just build a new one for it.

But where we got to start is go and build some templates.

We're tracing all the pieces we're going to need on the cardboard and cutting them out all at once after the tray

out of the sheet metal, it's time for the plasma cutters.

The edges need to be ground smooth, making sure the outlines fit.

We'll clamp them down,

feed them and heat them until the contours are just right.

The brace behind the rear end is getting cut out and replaced with a piece of round stock. It will be stronger than the old one and look better too.

One more area that needs attention is this rear brakes

there?

I'm using a shear and brick to form a new one out of 14 gauge sheet metal and then weld it in

it back.

Hey, check it out, man.

Made that for the bottom side of it. I figure we're gonna be spending so much time underneath this thing. Give us something cool to look at besides, you can use your mad tig welding skills to attach it.

No problem, man. But

I do a little grinding.

Oh

man.

All right, I'll trade you.

Hey, well, stick around. We still got a lot more work to do on this frame beside the body is coming back from the blaster. We'll get to see what's left

up next. Rick heats things up and the impala gets some cool air.

Hey, Brent,

what's up, man? Hey, this is the killer. I appreciate it, man. Yeah, good job here. We're gonna get this finished up and then we can get our side plates on and flip it over and get the rest of our bracing done.

These plans are high and if our plan works out, they'll look like they've been in Boston in the metal after it's powder coated,

the side pieces are next to go on.

The clamps, help bring them in to the contour of the frame so we can get them tacked into place.

We've welded on almost every inch of this thing so far. But we're not done yet and we still have the other side to finish.

Well, Brent gets the side panels finished up. I'm gonna be working on the center braids. It's gonna extend from the top and down the sides here and finish boxing in the center section.

I'm gonna try to do this out of one piece for no other reason but to keep it as strong as I possibly can.

Now, this is a pretty complex piece and it's going to require a detailed template to get the curves just right,

but it's nothing. Some cardboard and a marker can't handle.

Now,

just like the plates for the other side,

I'm cutting it out with a plasma cutter,

grinding the edges off

and tacking it into place.

Now, here's where it gets interesting.

This piece, what's got to be bent to shape

and the best way to do that,

a lot of heat and a BFH

and of course, more welding a

few passes with a grinder and it's good to go.

It's looking pretty good. And believe me, it's a lot heavier than when we started.

Now, we're gonna be putting some pretty good size wheels and tires on this thing and that means we're gonna have to modify the body for clearance.

There's a really good chance we're gonna end up having to modify this frame also.

So we're gonna hold off, finishing out the rear bracing till we get all the suspension mocked up.

We gave our good friends over to air ride technologies a call. They sent us an entire system. Now, there's a lot of boxes to go through here. So we're gonna get everything unpacked, get it laid out and see what we got.

This kit comes with everything we're gonna need, but we're mocking it up just to make sure we don't need to drill any holes or make any modifications before we get a powder coated.

These a arms are specifically designed for use with the shock wave air bags so they bolt right in

and here's something I would have screwed up on if I hadn't read the instructions. This actually isn't sealant. This is an anti

galling compound and that means you do still need to use your Teflon tape.

A fitting goes on each of the bags and they'll connect to the airlines from the compressor.

Now, in some applications, you may need to clear the spring pockets. But in this case, well, we lucked out and they dropped right in

and next comes the steering stops and then the spindles

so far, the only modification we've had to make was adding a couple of holes for the front sway bar.

After the steering box is in, we can put on the idler arm and centrelink

drop in the tie rod ends,

connect them to the spindles and the front is done.

Now, it's easier to attach all the bars to the RR housing before it's mounted to the frame. So we'll go ahead and get this out of the way.

Uh, chassis is looking great. We're getting pretty close to putting some air to it. So hang tight because we got more bars and bags coming up later in the show,

one's all new. 67 Mustang hits the track after the break.

It's testing tune day for year one. We met up with Kevin King and the year one crew in Munford, Alabama. We got a sneak peek at what goes on in the year one track day. You know, we're out here to have a good time today. It is definitely a fun day, but it's work.

Now, Kevin and the guys brought down several cars, but the test subject was this their new 67 Mustang track car.

This car is brand new. It's not been run on the track yet at all.

It's been set up for the track with grig suspension, bear brakes, auto meter gauges, racing seats and classic Ford wheels.

The motor in this car is about a 480 horsepower Ford racing freight motor and I suspect it will push this car just fine for all we ever want to do.

You know, we've been talking about it for so long now and we took this car out to sea and I'm just ready to go racing. So let's shut it up and go.

If this is what year one calls work, I'm going to swing by and grab an application.

Now, this car was dialed in pretty good at the year one shop, but there's always a few wrinkles that need to be ironed out when you're putting together a race car.

I went into the turn over there and, uh,

just barely did touch the brake and rear lock completely up since these cars are built for the track, everything has easy access and most repairs and adjustments can be made with simple hand tools. A few turns of the wrench in year 1, 67 is ready for more testing

with everything tight and running properly. All that's left are some minor suspension adjustments.

What it does

is when you

turn the rear end wants to slide with you a little bit

and this will tighten it up to the rear,

come

around with you.

Year one didn't cut any corners on handling on this baby. A Griggs racing front, rear suspension set up comes complete with adjustable tubular control arms along with coil over shocks on all four corners.

Up front stabilizer bar keeps everything in place while out back a three L

suspension coupled with an adjustable watts link keeps the Moser 31 sply nine inch rear rack still under control at all times.

After several pit stops, some minor adjustments and a little off roading, somebody needs to vacuum this.

Your turn is good. Now, let me tell you,

except when you're in the grass,

it was time to get the King's approval. You don't see many big 290 pound NASCAR guys do you?

Nothing rolls out of year one without Kevin King giving it the two thumbs up and the track Mustang is no exception

after a few test laps. The moment of truth,

that was cool,

but the response of is all get out.

It was really nice to drive, easy to drive too

easy in and out of the

four

launch power.

Want to get behind the wheel of your own or wipe the drill off the screen and give your one call. But wait till after the show because we got a lot more work to do after the break

coming up the ups and downs of air ride.

Hey guys, welcome back. We got our rear end housing bolted in. We're about ready to install the rest of our air ride set up. Now we're doing a complete mock up on this chassis. And that means that we need to get our axles in.

That's rear end housing from Curry is based on the Ford nine inch and that means that we don't have to install our center section in order to get our axles in

these retainer plates, hold the axles and bearings in and also act as mounts for the rear brakes.

The pan hard bar keeps the rear end centered on those hard turns

and the sharks. Oh, they keep the rebound under control.

We ran into a little clearance issue here with this rear end. This aftermarket housing is using a bigger brace which is great for strength, but now we've got an issue with clearance on our shock. So that means a little Truman is gonna be in order

we'll touch up the bare metal with some paint later on to keep it from rusting.

After pre assembling the rear bags of the cups,

they slide right into the spring pocket.

These brakes from stainless steel are great and right now that's about all they're doing is looking good. They're just mocked up for now. We're not gonna bleed them out or anything. So let's get the wheels on it and get the sucker down on the ground.

Sent us these 20 inch wheels for the front and a pair of 22 s for the back.

They look great in chrome, but we want a more sinister look. So we're going to black out the centers later on it will build.

Now, the compressor system won't be installed until the car is almost done, but we can still run

lines and use the shot compressor and a bottle valve to test everything out. Now is the fun part time to drop her down and see what happens since our wheel and tire package, it's slightly larger than our stock 14

S we're going to be watching for any binding or interference.

Everything looks good,

no binding in the suspension and plenty of clearance all the way around.

Now, the last thing we need to check before we finish our bracing is drive shaft clearance

and we're looking good there too

and we can attach the last of our plates here. And now that our chassis had a little altitude adjustment, we've made sure that our drive shaft is gonna clear all of our bracing in here. But before we install them, there's a little something we've been dying to try out.

Dimple dyes using the press, the dyes bevel the edges of the holes we cut.

This type of thing is usually used to keep weight down, but we're not really concerned about that.

Yeah, we just think it looks cool,

but we're gonna knock this chassis apart, finish welding in the rest of the bracing and send this bugger off for powder coating

and that means that the body is up next man. We got a lot of work to do on that thing. So keep tuning in.