Tell me about this swampland. Water is a valuable commodity here

Oops, wrong country. Check out Hough Lovell. He is mate of mine from Georgia. He is doing some way out stuff with ag. I think he's in
Queensland now. I swear he can make it rain. (But you have to dance naked around a stump at midnight on a full moon)

quote Originally posted by rodneybooth: (But you have to dance naked around a stump at midnight on a full moon)

Hmm hasn't been working for me for the last 10 years. Maybe I need to go around the stump anti-clockwise

Good looking car, nice compartment detailing and neat trans installation. Love the chop top look but my head already sits 1" from the headliner. When it comes to body mods though Archie really has some great looking stuff.

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87GT - 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
87GT - 3.4L Turbocharged engine, modified TH125H
" I'M ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

quote Originally posted by rodneybooth: Curly, If you check in, I kind of like the HRE 546's in black. I keep coming back to this style. Will somebody loue me in on what a "PM" is???

If your going with the HRE 546's then it's a lot cheaper plus you know HRE now has smoke black chrome (an alternative to black). As for prices Leroy's friend who own a shop in AZ had a better price than Custom Auto in CA, but upon asking the main guy at HRE he gave me a bigger distributor in CA and the price a was way cheaper. Give me a pm and we can compare prices.

rodneybooth, you have a new PM!

Gues what I did today...

I have been walking past the back of the car and getting peeks of chrome flashing at me. It's ike walking past a beautiful woman that is sitting and looking down (accidentally of course) and getting a ni**le shot. Now I live in Western North Carolina where "it just ain't right" for that kind of thing to happen. Especially when it's my beautiful woman getting oogled. So I had to take action.



Do you see any chrome? Why not?

Let's get a closer look. See any now?



I took metal screen painted it and faced the back of the vents.




Now the "Lady" and I use that term loosely (only in this case) looks more respectable. AND I don't spill my popcorn before I get into the movie!

This is why we needed the cut

quote Originally posted by rodneybooth:

Nice ride.

Could you tell us the source for that hood vent?

And how did you finish it off underneath? Did you have to cut up the front compartment that houses the spare, or not?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by rodneybooth:


Love that front on a choptop.
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Regards SHARKMAN
Europe # 1 choptop

[This message has been edited by Sharkman (edited 11-02-2008).]

quote Originally posted by project34: Nice ride. Could you tell us the source for that hood vent? And how did you finish it off underneath? Did you have to cut up the front compartment that houses the spare, or not?

The vent is none other the the renowned "Warber Hood Vent" highly respected around the industry as the optimum way of releasing air pressure buildup from under the car at high speeds and substantially improving handling. V8 Archie is the curator and patent owner of this device. The way he installs it is perfectly algined between the trunk(?) and the radiator. AND, its sexy! I get a lot of people asking about it. A must have.


The treatment I used to dress up the front and back deck lids is an automotive insulation that is 1/4" rubber with an adhesive back. Let me tell you that cutting everthing to fit was labor intensive. But it looks good.

The brackets welded in


And the filler plate welded in along with the gusset

Nice job!
I can't wait till I get mine done!

quote Originally posted by whodeanie: Nice job! I can't wait till I get mine done!

Me too! i've been working on this car forever. I still have stuff I'm most unhappy with. I wish I could get to the point of really enjoying whats been done. My focus seems to always be on the imperfection rather than the perfection. Anybody know a good therapist?

Nice work.... I like it...
Chuck

The axles installed on one side


Shifter cable bracket installed



And the axles installed on the other side. I like this shot the best. This axle setup is undescribably beautiful. The perfect geometry and the sheer genius of this design can only be experienced to be appreciated. Thank you Archie.

We had to cut some clearance in the engine bay frame for the transmission to fit right

New axle bearing installed



After all of the modifications, I found out the only thing the original computer feed was the air conditioner. So this is the old computer being removed along with some of the wiring and relocating the rest.

Looking good

New modified shifter and cable installed

Removed this wire ball...not much left of the original wiring harness.

Replaced the wire ball with a few connectors

quote Originally posted by rodneybooth: Correction...will somebody please CLUE me in on what a "PM" is and how it works???

PM = Personal Message, or Private Message.

You can send a private message to another member of the forum through a link on the first page of the Forum.
The link is at the bottom of the first page.

~Bob

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"Its nice to be important.
Its more important to be nice."

New coating on the manifolds

Engine in


The look of a clean firewall!
before



After

Looks very impressive! A + for you.

quote Originally posted by HC: Looks very impressive! A + for you.

Thanks!

quote Originally posted by HC: Looks very impressive! A + for you.

My thought exactly.....I hope to see you at a ChopTop Homecoming sometime

Good stuff man.. That is a cool chop and install. I hope to hear it someday as I imagine that thing rips the asphalt up.

Man rodney your car is looking sweet!!

quote Originally posted by troyboy: Man rodney your car is looking sweet!!

From you, thats a compliment. Thanks

I have been concerned for sometime that the breather is directly beneath the engine vents and could be exposed to water. That is...if I ever drove this machine in the rain! So I decided to fix that worry. I had a cover fabricated that will protect the breather from possible water intake without restricting air flow.

nice job! it did not look like it took you that long to get it done. have you taken it for a drive yet?
post it here after you do I would love to hear how it did.

The darn thing is scary quick. I like the ZZ4 for its low end torque because all of my "races" are stop light to stop light. I've had it up to 110 MPH but that's ticketville around here. The local cops like to smile at you with their one "tooph" and then ask me if I know how fast I was a going. The Quaffe LSD is a dream. I feel like the back end is solid to the road and very smooth. I think the one thing that is somewhat hard to get accustomed to is the power. It just wants to leap and with the vehicle weight more to the rear (about 55/45 because I weighted the front) there is no traction loss. I don't think you can call this setup tame. Archie's kit came with a high performance clutch so shifting can be very quick. I watched Archie go through each of the gears from first to third in maybe two seconds. I'm still trying to duplicate that move. The suspension lays flat in the curves. I have not been able to get the rear end to break loose in a turn unless i overpower. The car is definately move responsive than my reflexes are fast. It is a wonderful way to disappear from the world. The car demands your full concentration and makes it a great mental escape mechanism and I really need that. Driving has always had a calming effect on me. If you can call the car calming! On the rare occasion that I drive it under the speed limit, it feels like I am being held and my butt feels like it is close to dragging the ground. Funny though, I rearly use fifth and sixth. That actually makes sense though because I live in the Western NC mountains and I built the car for very curvymountain roads. I can go from where I live all the way to Asheville through some of the most remote mountain areas. You gotta love it.

it's storys like that that make me want to finnish mine.
I guess when I finish mine I will have to take a drive to Ashville and meet up with you guys around there.
again nice job!

I forgot to weigh in on the G6 tranny. The original engine in my car was the "Iron Duke" with a 5 speed. The Duke was in cardiac arrest after driving straight though to Archie's for the original work. He told me how shocked he was that the car actually made it there without the life support of a tow truck. I drove the ZZ4 with a rebuilt Getrag 5 speed for several years but the geometry of the gear ratios just wasn't right. Ergo, the G6. I have to tell you that the G6 is the go to tranny. It is the leap in technology between a 25 year old tranny and a modern design. The shifter could possibly be a little smoother, but it is a ten fold improvement. I felt like I could pull stumps in first gear with the Getrag 5 the gearing was so low. I like the G6 a lot and it is a major improvement but first gear is a little short. Bottom line...I would do the tranny swap again. A little story...My wife gave me the donor Fiero because I really wanted a Porsche. She said that she could not live with me driving a "Big Ego Car" and said "Here, if you really need a sports car take mine". I must say I was a little disappointed but I would put this car up against a european car any day and feel comfortable about coming out on top. This body design cleaned up is phenomenal and with a drive train redesign it rides smooth and just begs to run.