Mike Ryan uses some clever tricks to ensure complete and safe welds as we weld the roll cage tubing to the frame of the Project Grandma Malibu.
We last left off with Mike bending the necessary bars for the funny car cage portion of our build. Since then he has finished the funny car cage required for the 25.5 SFI spec, and has moved on to the door “X” bars.
In order to fit the new tubes and supports in place for welding in our new cross-member on Project Grandma, the drive train needed to be mocked up, and we’ve just been dying to get the Edelbrock/Musi big block crate motor into the engine bay along with the TCI Pro-X Glide. Plus, we figured we’d show off a little bit of our new Lemon’s race headers.
We’ve been working with Currie Enterprises on a few different projects, and it just so happened that Project Grandma’s need for a new rear end intersected perfectly with a top-secret project at Currie.
We are on the home stretch with Project Grandma. This last week Mike Ryan has been working on some of the smaller details of the build, before taking on the major tasks like mounting the Currie F9 rear end and putting the fenders back on. Check out how far we’ve come this week below!
Day 15: Currie F9 Mounting, QA1 Coil Overs, Billet Specialties Wheels, Radiator Mount
by Tom Bobolts
on March 12, 2010
Project Grandma gets fitted with a new suspension, utilizing a Currie F9 rear end and QA1 coil over shocks. Also, we mount up a set of Billet Specialties wheels and a Fluidyne radiator
Last week we finished welding in the necessary mounts for our QA1 shocks, what we missed telling you about, was the TRZ Suspension we are using in the rear of the car.
Project Grandma started out as a plain-Jane, refrigerator white, underpowered, smog-strangled ’78 Malibu that was in desperate need of attention. After we got our hands on her, she was fitted out with a 25.5 roll cage and an asphalt-tattooing Edelbrock/Musi 555 cubic inch engine.
We are nearing the end of Project Grandma, a project we so dearly love. In preparation for the arrival from Bob Lapp from Spagetti Menders, we spent some time getting all of the electronics mounted in the car – goodies like the Auto Meter tach and gauges, plus a FAST Dual Wide Band Air/Fuel Sensor. Here’s a quick update.
Last week, Mike Ryan added some support to the soft underbelly of our 1978 Chevy Malibu we love to call – GRANDMA – with our frame rails required for the 25.5 cage. It’s time to move on the roll cage structure, so we laid out our Chassis Engineering 10-point roll cage and started to get busy
Most racing sanctioning bodies require that you run some type of exhaust on your car, and it was no different for Project Grandma. We showed you in an earlier update the beautiful set of hand made Lemons Header’s that we had made for the car, but that only makes up half of the exhaust system needed. Flowmaster Mufflers got the call for old Granny, and then we got everything coated using a Techline coating by Olympic Coatings. See how everything turned out by reading more.
After more than a year of construction, Project Grandma was finally ready for her shakedown runs! We’ve been dying to share the whole story with you and now here is the scoop. With the car strapped down on the trailer, we made the trip up to Fontana, CA for the 2009 LA Invasion Car Show and Drag Racing. The quarter mile track at the California Speedway would be the place to put down a few gentle shakedown runs.
With the mini tubs all in, our fabricator Mike Ryan got ready to start on the Chassis Engineering roll cage. However, first we would need to build the frame rails to comply with the 25.5 spec that would make the car legal to 7.50 e.t.’s.
Our old grandma was a little weak in the in the hip so to speak. With thirty-year-old body bushings holding the old Malibu up it was an understatement to say she needed some hip replacement. It was decided to replace the body bushings, but with what was the question. We had seen first hand the stock bushings couldn’t stand up to the elements on the road so they would be destroyed in a month at the track. No we needed something better. Something that would stand up to the abuse that this car is going to be receiving. Something like Energy Suspension’s Hyperflex Bushings.
This symphony of mechanical synchronization is the result of headers built to perform in the upper echelons of the racing world. But the use of large racing headers can produce problems all of their own, especially on stock chassis and engine vehicles. Potential problems range from fitment to ground clearance issues, and they may even make the simplest tasks such as changing spark plugs a major problem. Check out how these Lemon’s Headers help make all of these none existent for Project Grandma.
This haul-ass crate engine is going into our Project Grandma build car. On the first two parts of the Edelbrock 555ci crate engine build, we featured the build up of the short block and the long block. For our third and final installment, the big block hits the engine dyno, equipped with some Edelbrock laughing gas. Come look inside to see how much our 555 made on and off the nitrous.
Our project car that we lovingly call “Grandma” had a suspension that walked like a duck, and made noises that sounded like a duck. Not wanting to be “fowl” on the strip, we gave Grandma some help with a performance racing suspension from TRZ Motorsports and kicked in a premium shock package from QA1. To cap off our upgrade, we treated Grandma to a new set of brakes from Aerospace Brakes that wouldn’t lead to a quack-up when we tried to stop. Now that we’ve started our project build with components worthy of a 1,050 hp nitrous-breathing beast, Grandma is certainly not a sitting duck, but read the story and let us know what you think.
In part one of this three article series, we assembled the short block of our Edelbrock/Musi 555 big block crate engine that is destined for our project car that we lovingly call “Grandma”. In this part two of three, we will look at completing the long block as we get it ready for the final part, throwing it on the dyno with a little nitrous. Check out the long block build.
What’s bigger than a breadbox and has more power than steaming locomotive? Answer: The not so mild mannered Edelbrock/Pat Musi five-fifty-five (555 cubic inch) crate engine. This is part one of three of our 555 engine build. The base of the project is a Dart block with a JE/Scat rotating assembly. By part three we will be on the engine dyno with a healthy shot of nitrous. Come check out and see how it all goes together.
When it comes to trying to run low 8′s, you can have all the horsepower in the world, but your rear end and transmission need to be bulletproof. So when it came time to select a transmission for Project Grandma – our infamous ’78 Malibu – we made a call to the transmission experts over at TCI. They recommended one of their Pro-X Powerglide transmissions, and you’re about to learn more than you ever dreamed about what it takes to make a serious ‘Glide.
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