Dirt Muscle Car

Hickey

Burn-barrel enthusiast
Supporting Member
Look at some of the late model full size truck tires in metric sizes for an 18" wheel. My last truck's tires were a little narrower than those 35's and measured 34.6" tall. That would help with turning and not hitting the frame.
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
I think you and I have a different understanding of what much work is.


Looks like it is going to be a riot!
I still vote for a cummins engine.

I've just been tinkering... ;)

I have an LS in the shop already... and Cummings engines are expensive, heavy and noisy. And I love LS engines!
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
I had to check out some things running thru my head with this car... for one, without the engine & transmission, the front end sits up quite high, probably around 3" taller? I noticed that the upper A-arms are pretty much sitting on the frame at this point, limiting the lift height and potentially limiting down-travel when bouncing around offroad.

This is full down travel.... the shocks have been removed, as well as the anti-sway bar. -

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Not that this is a long travel desert car, but several inches of suspension travel would be nice. I considered building my own uppers, but that seems like more work than I'd like to do? Then on a whim, I found these... upper A-arms for a DONK!!! :rofl: They're $440/pair, more than I'd like to spend for this car, but a simple way to get more down travel! These are good for up to 12" of lift, so I'd have down travel. I don't know for sure that I'll go this route, but it's an option.


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Next up, I have been wondering about fitting up 'lift' springs or adding spacers, hoping to get 2-3" of lift for this thing to help fit the 35's. I'd rather not run spacers, so longer springs are the best bet. I didn't know how long the stock springs were or what shape they were, etc. I decided to pull the rear springs out and measure them. Looks like they are right at 15 1/4" long top to bottom unsprung and shaped very similar to a rear TJ spring. X-D From what I can find, stock TJ springs are 13" .... so a 4" lift spring should be 17" and offer 2" of lift on the Bonneville. Spring rate.... no idea what stock is, so if TJ coils are lighter, they'd compress more. I'd rather have a heavier spring rate, for bouncing around offroad.

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On the front, I'll have to tear apart the suspension to figure out the coil spring length... but I'm not ready for that yet. Wonder if stock Gladiator springs would work? ;)
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Alright, back on track... with the talk of the rear springs looking similar to TJ rear springs, I decided to order up a pair of Teraflex rear TJ/XJ/ZJ coil spring spacers, see if they did actually fit and toss them in to see what it looked like with 2" lift. I had the rear springs out still, so it was an easy job to get them in. I did need a prybar to help get the spring back in place, looks like the short upper control arms are limiting droop as it was binding a bit.

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And with the spacer in place, the rear tire no longer rubs on the remaining bit of inner wheel well! It needs to get cut out anyway, but at least I can roll the car around freely on the 35's. I think that height looks about perfect, the 35's look like they belong on the car from the factory! X-D:cool:

I think it needs a new name... the Pontiac Bomberville!

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Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Shoot, I have a pair of 2” coil spacers sitting in the garage I need to get rid of. I should have had them listed! This project is awesome 😎

Funny, I figured someone would have a pair kicking around. They were cheap. I just posted a wanted thread for some 4-5" TJ rear springs. At some point, I'll have to figure out shocks.
 

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
I had a little time after work today and have been thinking about tube work on the Pontiac, decided to mock up some pieces and try get an idea with how it'll come together. I'm not quite ready to start throwing tube at the car, especially with the prices these days. :grimacing:

I want to build some pre-runner style bumpers, a roof rack and light bar mount on the rack. The front bumper will be 1 5/8", but with the peak on the nose and the front fender, it's hard to get a good line. I'll add a shorter, upper piece of tube and tie it all into the frame/crossmember down below. To top it off, I'll build a beefy skidplate with some fancy dimple's. ;)

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I bend some scrap 1 1/4" into a 180* and mocked it up for a rear bumper. The factory rear is pretty tall and I think the 180* fits nicely. Also like the height for a light bar mount on the roof!

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