southtexasplayn

Update! Not much exciting has been happening due to school at TX2K15. However I did manage to get a few things done over spring break. Worked some more on the engine bay. On the drivers side I just cut the apron out and welded one big patch panel. Talk about nerve racking cutting a huge hole in your apron. One of my dad's body men is going to do all the body work for me. I just don't have the time/patience to do it myself. I'm making the change to a 411 pcm and in order to do this I have to re-pin the harness. First things first, label every wire. Next, unpin every wire. Once again talk about nerve racking. I then started to re-pin each wire, but soon realized it looked like a cluster f*** due to all the different lengths of wire. My OCD will not allow this. A short trip to radio shack to pick up one of these... Best $40 I have ever spent. Highly recommend getting one if you plan on soldering frequently. I lengthened or shortened each wire. I know this probably isnt the "correct" way to do this, but honestly it'll be fine. If not, I'll buid a harness from scratch. One down, one to go. Finished. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Some new "circles" for the grounds. I tested each pin with my ghetto *** "power probe" consisting of a jump box, some testing leads, a pick, and a test light. Worked great, and it was $free.99 Being a broke college kid, you learn to improvise real quick. Final product. Probably doesn't seem like a big deal, but this damn thing took me probably two weeks of afternoons to finish. I think the end result was worth it. I also deleted all the necessary wires. $150 for a harness $40 in braided loom $50 in soldering supplies $20 in heat shrink Having one badass looking harness... priceless I pulled the body harness out in order to relocate the fuse boxes. I went ahead and deleted all the abs and cruise control wiring. I then wrapped it all in braided loom. I forgot to take an after picture. Oh, and guess whats in those boxes..... my second set of RTS fronts. :doh: Cts-v 4 piston brembo caliper with c6z 14" rotors all tucked under a 17" wheel. Stock rotor next to the c6z rotor. Not sure how the c6z rotor got rusty. It sat in the trunk of the car for months inside a garage. Had a buddy of mine powder coat my power steering bracket and water pump pulley. Threw my nitrous plate on there just for ****s and giggles. There is no way it'll work on my car. Probably going to go ahead and sell it. Last but not least, pulled the k-member/ front suspension out to get it ready for paint. You know you've done it a time or two when you have the car on the lift and suspension out in under 20 minutes.

Update 2/22/15! Got the car back to the shop. Ripped the front end and engine bay apart in order to repaint everything. I started smoothing the engine bay. Worst idea ever, but will be worth it in the end (I hate body work). I also got the engine almost ready to go into the car. I'm doing the 411 pcm swap, so I'm basically redoing much of the harness. Most people just re-pin the pcm connectors. I'm going to take the extra time to relocate a few things. Car is filthy from sitting for so long. Front end/ engine bay disassembled. This is a major pain in the ***, but I think it'l pay off in the end. I'm relocating the coolant over flow and battery. Well this leaves a major hole in the apron. I decided to fill it. I started by making a simple cardboard template. Then, I took an old Camry door and cut the pattern out. Welded it up. This is as far as I got, before I decided I had enough of this and called it a day. :fool: Next project was to paint the LS3 intake. I sanded the tops smooth. Next came primer. Then paint. Picture of the motor almost complete. Oh I got my new plates in.

Update from two weeks ago lol! Not much has been happening with the car. School has consumed most of my time. Whoever says engineering is a great idea is wrong lol. However I have been collecting parts here and there. Im going to make a big push to make it to TX2K, although I'm not going to hold my breath. To spill the beans on the motor. Its a fully forged 6.0 with ported/ polished ls3 heads. For now I'm going to run it N/A. I'll add the nitrous stuff after TX2K. My buddy sold me his complete nitrous setup. The plate is a Nitrous Outlet 102mm dual stage with big shot solenoids. I also got his c6 specific stand alone fuel system and a bunch of other Nitrous Outlet goodies. I just bolted the plate up in this picture. I cant run it on this intake. I plan on painting the ls3 intake Sonic blue. I also picked up some Kooks 1 7/8" headers. Picked up a fast 92mm throttle body. Picture of the stand alone. I ended up trading this for a complete CTS-V brake setup. It wouldn't work on my car anyways. These things are HUGE. Uses 14" c6z rotors. My current front wheels will not work with them, so I have to order 5th gen Camaro offset. Which, kinda works out since I have to buy a new wheel anyways. Long story short, CHECK CALIPER BOLTS. Should look pretty sweet. Throwback to when the car was running. How it sits now. Poor thing hasn't moved in several months. Hell, I haven't seem the car in forever. I have about 80% of everything I need to get it running. I am going to shave and repaint the engine bay before the motor goes back in. My goal is to make TXK15, however I'm not going to half-*** things like I did the last time. I have learned a lot more since the original build. There is a million little things I would like to redo, just to satisfy my OCD. In the mean time, I have been satisfying my need for speed by borrowing my dads new toy lol.

Sorry for the late response, but yeah I've seen your car on IG too. I was trying to sell it for awhile, I had my eye on a c5z, however after really thinking about all the time and money I have invested, its stupid to get rid of it.

Soooo, things are changing. Dont mind me.

I live in the Katy area and go to school at UH main.

Thanks for the compliments!

Well as some of you know this car (Pitbull) has been a long build process. Its finally to a point where its worthy enough for a professional photo shoot. Car has yet to be fully cut and buffed after repaint. Life has just been to hectic for me to spend the time to do the whole process. However, its sporting a coat of Brilliant Glaze and Americana, SVRT on all plastics and tires, and the metal polish twins on the wheels. Big thanks to Jay Chapman Photography here in Houston for the awesome pictures.

Haven't updated this thread in forever. There has been numerous changes to the car. First off car is "fully" put back together as of today. I swapped the automatic 4l60e for a 6 speed t56. Went ahead and did a mcleod twin disk clutch, rated for 800whp. Sold my collection of wheels and bought a brand new set of Weld RTS wheels. Went ahead and did a ton of suspension upgrades. Made my first ever pass down the track in it, ran a best of 12.8, with alot more still in it. Currently just trying to work all the bugs out of it. I feel like a bad owner due to the fact the poor car has yet to receive it's first paint correction.

Haven't posted in awhile, progress has been super slow. However, many of things have happened since my last post. At this point the main body parts are painted. The car had many spots where body work was needed. The passenger quarter panel needed a large amount due to a previous wreck. Then came time for primer. He shot 6 heavy coats on, which was mostly all sanded down. After it was primed we let it sit for 10 days to let it cure. In the meantime I found a problem with the rear end. When the old car was wrecked, it took a nasty blow to to right rear wheel. Upon inspection, I saw gear oil leaking out of the backing plate. I figured the axle seal was toast. I pulled the axle out, and ball bearings fell out of the axle housing. Took the axle to the differential shop, and its bent. Went ahead and ordered a new one. I still need to take the axle housing to have it checked and reassembled. This was the bearing. Its not supposed to look like this. In this picture you can see the dimples the bearings made in the axle housing. Also not the gaping hole in the backing plate. Then came time to block sand the whole car again. The black streaks are guide coat. Its sprayed on in order to see high/low spots and sand scratches. While this was happening, I was getting impatient, so I painted the bottom of the hood myself. It didnt come out perfect, but at least I can say I painted it myself. After we blocked the whole car, I wet sanded the entire thing with 800 grit and disassembled it completely. In this picture, it was ready for paint. http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv164/xbozox/D31D7347-CE72- 4A16-A076-3EB6D44660D4.jpg All masked off. I didn't get very many pictures of the painting process, but here are the few I got. Final product The paint came out excellent. Unfortunately I havent been able to take many pictures, or even roll it outside to see what it looks like in the sun (due to no rear end). throughout the week it will get a good cut and buff to really slick it out. I'm planning on reassembling some of it this weekend.

Little update. Started the bodywork, which I absolutely hate (reason why progress has been slow.) Drove it for the first time across the shop. Had no brakes, so that was interesting. I have been fighting several small issues, ABS module, harmonic balancer, and some other stuff. Progress should pick up substantially because the fall semester is over. I will actually have time to work on it. On to the pictures. Balancer issue. Had to mock up the rear HRE

Not much progress has been happening. I did get the driveshaft in, and drove it across the shop. I haven't bled the brakes yet, so the ride was kinda sketchy lol. Oh and I picked up some new wheels. Wasn't really looking, but got a killer deal on these hre 574s. They need some adams love bad!

After fighting with a broken fuel line, it finally decided to start up. I still have a lot of buttoning up to do before paint, bt this gave me a lot of motivation to speed up the project. http://s680.photobucket.com/user/xbozox/media/FD1995AA-72B3-445B-B031-E418F61FEC36-5695-000002EA3C2A8DD9_zpsbb5de5b0.mp4.html

Another update. Got the motor in this weekend. Went to start it and had fuel pump was junk. Spent several hours trying to swap it out. I promised myself I will never do that again. I think it was easier to stab the motor than swap fuel pumps. After I got the new pump in, went to start it. It started for about 10 seconds then spewed gas all over the floor. At this point I just gave up, and pushed the car back into the corner. Going in.

Little update. Pulled k-member out of the car and set the motor on it. Bolted some ofthe assesories back on the motor. Now I just have to retourque the intake, intstall headers for good, attach tranny to motor, install wiring harness, and button up a few other ods and ends. Then stab it into the car.

Thanks! The shop is great, but being as big as it is can be a pain sometimes. When you forget something on the other side of the shop, it' gets tiring walking back and forth 100 times a day. Plus it is a body shop so everything gets dusty and overspray is bad. Unfortunately the whole engine bay has a bad case of overspray. Thanks Dylan!

That's purdy!!!!! Makes me miss mine

Thanks for the compliments. My father and I are doing 100% of the work ourselves, except for painting it. He does the body work and I do all the mechanical. I remember when I first looked at the project I didn't know how I was going to pull it off. There is how to's all over the internet. When I can't figure something out, Google is my friend. Do you mean the extreme green snap on work bench? Just kidding, it's actually one of my dad's employee's tool box. Thanks! I'm very fortunate that I have access to the shop. Without it, I don't think I would have take on the project. Yes, the wheels came on the roller. They were in really rough shape, so I ended up selling them. The guy I bought the car from bought the replica c6z wheels that are 17,18s. I'm going to upgrade to a set that are 18,19x12, and run a 305 or 315 in the rear.

Thanks for all the compliments! I have a ton of work into this truck, so hearing some good compliments makes me happy!! It isn't a lightning, but sometimes I wish it was. The ol' 302 is worn out!

I started off with two cars. The first one was a running and driving 1998 trans am. It had several go fast goodies, such as, ls6 intake, huge cam (don't know the specs), built 4l60, 9 inch w/4.11s, and suspension goodies. The previous owner wrecked the car beyond repair. The floor is wrinkled and the left frame rail is kinked. The second car is a complete shell minus some misc interior pieces and suspension. The goal is to build the roller using everything from the wrecked car. In the process of this, we are reprinting every little piece or bolt to make it look brand new. The old car. Exhaust Video We started off by painting the engine bay of the roller. We decided on sonic blue as the color. Next we swapped everything on the core support over to the roller. The nest weekend we swapped rear ends. This is usually an easy task, but like I said I wanted to clean everything up. Had to add a little flair... So we painted the springs and sway bar. Springs are already replaced with lowering springs. This was the reason of the death of the wrecked car. Apparently he went through a culvert, and I'm assuming the torque arm mount caught something and bent the floor and bracket. Projects After we swapped rear ends, the motor had to come out of the wrecked car. This was the first time my father and I pulled a ls1. We had it out in about 3-4 hours. Once the motor was out, we found out the "little" fire that had happened after the accident was much worse than what we had thought. Fast forward a couple weekends, we swapped the interiors over. Before we laid the carpet down I had to make a patch panel for the 6 speed hole. I also drilled the a4 shifter bracket out of the wrecked car and transferred it to the roller. I put seam sealer between the patch panel and the floor. I made it removable just in case I want to do a t56 swap later down the road. Before Sealed Me laying down base Then came the dash swap.... I don't think I will ever do a dash again! A sign of relief was seeing the dash lit up. 95% complete. On the dashi wanted to something different, but not ricey lol. I decided to paint the ac vent surround body color. The interior isn't in perfect shape, but I rather spend money on the engine/suspension first. My dad and I then painted the intake. When the car caught fire, the intake melted some. Since I'm trying to put the car back together as cheaply as possible (remember I'm on a college budget) my dad took a grinder to the melted part of the intake. After he did this, I Thoroughly inspected the last two runners for any cracks, holes, distortion, etc. The runners were perfectly smooth on the inside. Next my dad smoothed the whole intake out. Add some sealer, base, and clear, a voila a chiny intake. [url=http://s680.photobucket.com/user/xbozox/media/4b881d9d568f176793c21fd4fc4c1852.jpg.html] Then I did something I never wanted to do, I sold my Tbss. Fast forward a couple of weekends, I pulled the k-member and broke it down. Cleaned everything up and painted it with Por-15. Cleaned both sets of calipers up. One set I mounted on the car, the other set I broke down for powder coating. I also pulled the motor and trans off of the old k-member and started to clean all the gunk off of it and got it pretty much ready for paint. Threw the bumper on just to see what it's going to look like. Up she goes. Old nasty front suspension. Cleaned and painted. Don't mind the sway bar, that will get painted. Looking all purdy. I don't have an engine hoist, so I had to improvise. I ordered all new gaskets, knock sensors, knock sensor harness, plugs, plug wires, balancer, balancer bolt, ARP intake bolts, cam position sensor, injectors, harness, and a few other misc items. I'm also getting the headers coated at polydyn located here in Houston. It's crazy how fast all the little stuff adds up. Then last weekend. I painted the motor, and reassembled some of it. Put new knock sensors and harness, oil pressure sensor, cam position sensor, map sensor, plugs, wires, gaskets, and injectors. Pushing to have the motor installed by next weekend. That's were it sits today. Once the motor is installed, then comes the fun part, PAINT!

I have posted this here before, but here are some updated pictures. Thanks!

Sweet truck. Love the drop!

I'm gonna try to take the tbss out to the next Cars in Coffee. We sometimes hit the Thursday night borders meet.

Welcome. My father is a member of WSM. He goes by the same name as me(southtexasplayn). Car looks sweet. Love the color!

Welcome! Truck looks really good. Moving to Katy in June.