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Today I notched the frame for the fuel inlet. A piece of 2.5” ID pipe was perfect as a filler.

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Nice clean work on the fuel filler relief.

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The tubing for the tail pipe needed a little extension to make it through the bumper. A piece of angle iron makes a great jig for aligning to two tubes.

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What rear end do you plan to run in this? Gear ratio?

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I'm going to run 3.73s. I did a spreadsheet that analyzed the distance traveled per engine revolution in a Corvette and Camaro with an ls3. I then used my tire size and trans ratio to get close to this in first gear. 3.73s did this.

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Thanks 69cunningham. I knew you would have a good/calculated answer. What wheel/tire size went into this calculation? You may have already mentioned but which T56 magnum are you using (2.97 or 2.66) first gear ratio? Keep up the good work :metal:

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The trans has the 2.97 first gear and the tires I want to use are 285/60R17 that are 30.4". It will go 49MPH at 6000 RPM in first and it will turn 1340RPM to go 65 MPH in 6th. If I used 4.11 gears, it would go 44MPH and turn 1476RPM. I'm torn about the ratio. The lower gears might be a better choice since the truck is heavy. The numbers for a 2010 SS Camaro are 49MPH and 1497 RPM. A 2010 Corvette are 52.5MPH and 1397RPM.

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Hmm both seem like good options I think I'm partial to the 3.73 numbers though. I'd be curious to see how these compare to other LSX T56/TR6060 combos.

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Although after some research, it looks like the Holley shop truck 67 C10 which is running a LS3/tKo600 is also running a 4.11 rear. I can see how you're indecisive.

Holley truck specs and video
http://forums.holley.com/showthread....C10-Shop-Truck
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=...&v=av_Sm1sZwZA

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Looking good!

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The exhaust tubing is finally all cut, fitted and tack welded together. All that I need to finish are the remaining hangers and then it will be out for final welding.

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A few parts arrived over the past few days. I give more details when they are installed.

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nice brakes. just installed a set of those myself. great build btw.

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I’ve made progress on the exhaust. The rear hangers are done. Like the other hangers, they are formed out of 3/8” SS rod. A jig was used two get accurate bends. The rod was heated cherry red with a torch to allow bending. 1/2 inch bolts were used to set the radius. Any tighter resulted in cracks.

The same Pypes rubber mounts used on the other hangers were also used here. A plate to support the mount was made out of 3/16” steel. It mounts under the bumper dress panel. The bolts holding the mount will become welded in studs so they won’t interfere with the dress panel.

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The exhaust tips are made of belled out sections of SS tubing cut at an 18 degree angle to match the bumper. Brass shim stock was used to fill any gap. The inner tubing will be cut to match the outer.

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My part of the exhaust is finished! It’s time for a real welder to make the welds pretty. Then off to ceramic coating.

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Since the exhaust is done everything can be taken apart in preparation for powder coating. There’s a little more finish grinding now that the engine and fuel tank are out. The last picture shows an easy way to remove the front cross member.

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Now that the trailing arms are out, I can remove the old bushings. Since I have Energy Suspensions polyurethane bushings I needed to leave in the bushing shells. A hole saw made quick work of the rubber.

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The frame is off to the powder coater tomorrow.

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Excellent work on the exhaust! Very nice design and well thought out. Chassis is looking good too. I bet you are excited to see her going to powder coat.

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Really nice job on the exhaust

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very nice!

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I got my exhaust back from having it TIG welded this weekend. It looks great. It will need to be fitted one more time to make sure nothing moved before sending it for coating. I’m still looking for the right shop to do it. http://www.capsbhc.com/ was highly recommended to me, but shipping to Fresno would be expensive and might possibly damage them. Any recommendations closer to Santa Rosa, CA would be appreciated.

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I’ve worked on a couple of other parts while waiting for the frame to come back from powder coating. The rear end and the steering box have been disassembled, cleaned and sand blasted. I bought a rebuild kit for the steering box. There have been problems installing it. First, the Teflon seals need to be stretched slightly to fit around the piston and control valve. They stayed too big and made it difficult to install the parts in the case. The other problem was the ball bearings in the recirculating ball rack. I thought I found all of them, there were 11 silver and 11 black. Online I’ve found reference to 24 and 26. It seems I am short a few. I have enough to fill the rack, but none for the cross over tube. I’m not sure what to do. I may end up with a new AGR box. I don’t want to have issues with my steering.

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The parts are back from powder! They look great. I also ended up buying a new AGR power steering box (204317).