Ultimate Road Trip Build: Bare frame to driver in 2 days!
In this episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech
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MotorTranscript
00:00 (rock music)
00:02 In this episode of Hot Rod Garage,
00:08 we slap the LeMonster back together
00:10 and take it out on the streets.
00:11 You're driving?
00:12 Seatbelt.
00:13 Seatbelt?
00:14 Yeah, find it.
00:14 Seatbelt.
00:15 Here we go.
00:16 (rock music)
00:18 There she is.
00:19 (rock music)
00:22 Go.
00:23 (engine revving)
00:25 (rock music)
00:28 (engine revving)
00:31 (rock music)
00:33 (rock music)
00:39 (rock music)
00:46 Welcome back to Hot Rod Garage.
00:52 I'm Tony Angelo.
00:53 This is my man, Lucky Costa.
00:55 We're here with our LeMonster,
00:56 our '65 LeMons ultimate road trip car.
00:59 Last time you saw us, we spent a ton of time
01:00 doing a bunch of sheet metal and rust repair on the body
01:03 and installed a beefy bracing kit on the frame,
01:06 sent that thing off to be sandblasted and painted,
01:08 and now it's time to build this thing.
01:09 So one thing we almost always do with our projects
01:11 is that we upgrade this and upgrade that,
01:13 every aspect of the car,
01:14 and then eventually we get to finally drive it.
01:16 It takes forever, and we love this car.
01:18 We want to get it back on the road.
01:19 We're going to do a couple key upgrades today
01:21 and then hit the streets.
01:22 What are the key upgrades?
01:23 Key upgrades include a full suspension revamp from QA1,
01:26 Holley fuel injection, and a hooker exhaust system
01:29 to make sure this thing has some proper growl.
01:30 - The new Holley fuel injection?
01:32 - The new, new.
01:33 - That's sick. - That's awesome.
01:34 All right, let's go.
01:35 (rock music)
01:37 (dramatic music)
01:41 So QA1 came through with a full suspension setup,
01:49 for the LeMonster, coilovers, upper arms, lower arms,
01:52 sway bars, rear arms for this thing.
01:54 It should handle awesome.
01:56 Lucky is tossing that stuff on.
01:57 We're going to try to get this thing
01:58 into a driver very quickly.
02:00 Anytime you're working with new coilovers,
02:01 you want to do a liberal application
02:03 of anti-seize along the threads.
02:04 It's really easy for this aluminum
02:06 on the collars to gall up in here.
02:08 So if you ever want to take these off
02:09 or actually adjust them in the future,
02:11 it's easy, just a little bit of anti-seize.
02:13 You see this cool upgraded spring washer?
02:15 - Oh, with the roller bearings in the back?
02:17 - Yeah, dude.
02:18 Springs actually rotate when they go up and down,
02:20 when they compress and extend.
02:22 And there's less friction with these
02:23 upgraded cool needle bearings they have for spring seats.
02:26 Thanks QA1.
02:28 So I just snugged all the bolts on the lower control arms
02:39 and we will tighten those down
02:40 when the car has a load on it,
02:41 which should just be in a few hours.
02:43 - Totally.
02:44 (laughing)
02:46 (upbeat music)
02:49 - We got this cool brace to stiffen this thing up even more.
03:03 'Cause as our shop manager says,
03:04 I make everything a race car.
03:07 I don't know if that's a compliment or not.
03:07 - I was gonna say, what's the downside?
03:09 - I don't know.
03:10 It's made by UMI Performance.
03:11 It's a pretty cool bolt-in piece.
03:13 If you don't want to get crazy with bracing the whole frame,
03:16 it won't nearly do as much, but it's a nice little add-on.
03:19 Watch your cranium.
03:23 We've got the old rear end in place.
03:27 All new QA1 stuff is going on with a coilover conversion.
03:30 So we're gonna yank this all off,
03:32 lower it down and start bolting on the good stuff.
03:34 (upbeat music)
03:37 (drill whirring)
03:40 So QA1 sends out this polyurethane upper bushing
03:51 for the rear end, which takes out a lot of the slop.
03:53 We're considering this a temporary rear end,
03:55 so we're not gonna push this in here.
03:56 We're on the lookout for like a 12-volt Chevelle rear end.
03:59 We'll go back and put this thing in,
04:00 but we really want to get this car on the road.
04:02 (upbeat music)
04:05 (drill whirring)
04:08 Right there.
04:10 The lower coilover bracket from QA1
04:14 is this trick little piece.
04:15 It bolts into the original shock hole
04:17 and you just drill an upper hole for a second bolt.
04:19 (drill whirring)
04:24 Ta-da!
04:25 Got bolts?
04:28 (upbeat music)
04:30 (drill whirring)
04:33 Super!
04:41 Okay, so we've got the suspension all back together.
04:50 In the interest of getting this thing back out on the road
04:52 and having some fun with it,
04:53 we're just gonna throw the old transmission
04:54 and engine back into it.
04:55 It's a 326 V8 and it's got a three-speed Pontiac TH350.
05:00 We're gonna do some really key upgrades
05:02 to make this thing run way better,
05:04 be more reliable, and more fun.
05:05 As always, we wanted to make a bunch more noise
05:07 because this is a hot rod.
05:09 So we're gonna ditch these manifolds.
05:10 First thing we're gonna do is put some headers on it.
05:12 (metal clanking)
05:14 It's like I might have some interference
05:16 with this oil filter adapter.
05:19 How did I get the hard side?
05:20 - You thought you were leaving me with the hard side.
05:22 - I did, I really did.
05:23 I was like, "Cool." - You tricked yourself, dude.
05:25 (upbeat music)
05:28 (metal clanking)
05:30 - All right, now we have our hooker headers
05:40 bolted onto the engine
05:41 and we're gonna throw it into our sniffy frame,
05:43 start some other upgrades.
05:45 - Keep pushing down, I'm gonna lift the motor
05:47 while you're pushing down.
05:49 'Cause all we gotta do is get just over that frame notch.
05:52 Going down, watch your fingers.
05:54 Right there, perfect.
05:56 (upbeat music)
05:58 - Good?
06:08 - Ooh, what you got there?
06:10 - This Holley dual sync distributor.
06:11 - Oh, look at that right there.
06:15 - Look at that, what's that gonna go to?
06:16 Special secret stuff.
06:18 Computer controlled timing everything.
06:21 - Whoa, there's LEDs in there and it get aligned.
06:23 This is crazy. - I saw that.
06:24 I saw the LEDs.
06:25 - This is nuts.
06:27 Okay, so we installed that dual sync distributor
06:30 because we have something rad going on this car.
06:32 It is Holley's new Terminator Stealth EFI unit.
06:35 And this is perfect for guys who want that old school look
06:38 with modern drivability and tunability.
06:41 Guys like us.
06:42 - Yes.
06:43 (upbeat music)
06:45 - To finish off the exhaust,
06:50 we installed a complete stainless X-pipe system
06:53 from the hooker headers back.
06:54 We started by hanging everything in place,
06:56 adjusted it for fitment, snugged it down,
06:59 a bit more adjusting,
07:00 and then we tighten it all up from front to back.
07:03 One cool little feature of the HVAC Customs kit
07:13 is that they give you these exhaust hangers
07:15 included in with the frame racing kit.
07:17 And there's a couple of different mounting points
07:19 that they have provided.
07:20 Basically any exhaust you want,
07:21 if you get it to fit just right,
07:23 you're just gonna weld it up in here
07:24 and they have these nice little cone hangers.
07:26 So I'm gonna make these work.
07:28 That is a good looking gearbox right there.
07:34 So is that AGR quick ratio box?
07:36 - It is.
07:37 - Love those guys.
07:38 - It's got billet stuff in it.
07:40 - So I'm getting ready to take the pitman arm
07:41 off of the steering gearbox.
07:43 Ideally, there is a cast component, a puller.
07:46 You don't have to build all this.
07:48 We don't have one.
07:49 We have everything else.
07:50 We just don't have that.
07:51 So right now we are either gonna get stitches
07:54 or the gearbox is gonna come apart.
07:57 Lucky for us, we are replacing the gearbox.
08:05 Look at that.
08:10 Tony.
08:11 - What's up?
08:12 - You did it, buddy.
08:14 - That's not the worst.
08:15 (drill whirring)
08:17 - Looks like new.
08:24 Ish.
08:28 Next, Lucky ran fresh NPD brake lines
08:35 and new Earl's feed and return lines
08:37 from the fuel tank along the frame rails
08:40 while I finished up the exhaust by installing the tailpipes.
08:44 (drill whirring)
08:46 Holy cow, it worked.
08:47 Before anybody starts critiquing me
08:59 on zip ties on spark plug wires,
09:01 this is just to make sure I have enough length in the wire
09:03 before I get the actual wire separators made by MSD.
09:07 I love them.
09:08 They're special.
09:09 You like building these wires?
09:12 Is it fun?
09:13 - Well, it's my least favorite thing to do,
09:14 so enjoy yourself.
09:15 - I already tightened up the spark plugs.
09:17 - What's left?
09:18 You tightened up the old rusty spark plugs
09:20 that over spray all over them?
09:21 - Mm-hmm.
09:22 So I'm getting ready to set up
09:26 this Holley Sniper EFI fuel tank.
09:29 It's an EFI conversion tank that bolts right into our Le Mans
09:32 to make it for a bunch of different cars
09:34 with a fuel pump included, sending unit included.
09:37 Everything is all set up, filler neck, complete package
09:39 so you can easily fuel inject your old muscle car.
09:42 So the idea is to adjust the sending unit
09:44 so that the pivot that the pickup rides on
09:47 is halfway into your tank.
09:49 It's half the distance from the top and the bottom.
09:51 That gives it a nice place for it to have a full stroke
09:54 with the float and get a good reading.
09:56 So I'm gonna remove about half of it
09:58 to get to the three and a half inches of length that I want.
10:01 You're gonna remove this upper bracket
10:03 and you can get this pivot into place.
10:06 (upbeat music)
10:09 So I just trimmed the bottom excess off.
10:20 Now it should fit in the tank.
10:22 Boom.
10:23 You like watching me work?
10:26 - I do, buddy.
10:27 I could watch you work all day.
10:29 As long as I don't have to do it, I'm good.
10:32 - So I'm just preparing our intake fuel pump module
10:35 to go into the tank, which is the same thing.
10:37 You just kind of have to measure exactly
10:39 where everything's supposed to go.
10:40 You measure the depth of your tank.
10:41 You're gonna put this pump sock
10:43 about an eighth of an inch above the floor of the tank
10:45 and this return about an inch above that.
10:48 Once everything's in place,
10:49 you heat this thing up with a heat gun.
10:51 You get this sort of hard plastic tube a little bit softer,
10:55 jam the fuel pump in, hose clamps,
10:57 drop this whole thing in.
10:59 (upbeat music)
11:04 Cool.
11:06 All done.
11:06 (upbeat music)
11:09 (upbeat music)
11:12 (upbeat music)
11:14 (drill whirring)
11:31 (upbeat music)
11:34 (upbeat music)
11:37 Now we've got the frame back painted,
11:46 loaded up with all that new QA1 suspension stuff,
11:49 hooker headers, full exhaust,
11:51 and Holley's new Terminator Stealth EFI system
11:53 is perched on top.
11:55 All we have to do now is put the body on,
11:57 connect about a million things,
11:58 and we can take this thing out on the road.
12:00 (upbeat music)
12:03 (tires screeching)
12:06 Handles great, dude.
12:14 I can tell.
12:14 Whoa.
12:15 (upbeat music)
12:18 Oh, she steers good.
12:22 Man.
12:25 - Dude, I'm excited.
12:26 What about you?
12:27 - Me too.
12:27 If we get to drive this thing, that'll be a crazy week.
12:29 (upbeat music)
12:32 (upbeat music)
12:34 Hold it.
12:39 - What's up?
12:42 You going?
12:42 - I don't know, it's weird.
12:43 It's going right on.
12:44 (drill whirring)
12:47 Yeah, we need to lift the front end a little.
12:50 (laughing)
12:52 - Let's pull these wheels off for good.
12:56 - Yeah.
12:56 So we had a little bit of a clearance problem
12:59 when we were setting the body down.
13:01 We knew that somebody had done a questionable job
13:04 replacing the floor reinforcement.
13:06 However, we didn't ever think it could possibly
13:08 be this questionable.
13:10 However, he did do some structural reinforcement.
13:13 I think these are titanium scraps.
13:16 Luckily, Tony bought a replacement panel.
13:18 Third person to leave a comment gets this as a souvenir.
13:24 (upbeat music)
13:30 - Yeah, just watch those front A-arms and inner fenders.
13:33 - Right.
13:33 (upbeat music)
13:59 - Okay, so even though the HRG LeMonster is a convertible,
14:04 it has the stability of a hardtop.
14:05 And here's Tony with the Lincoln Tech Tip
14:07 to tell you what that's all about.
14:08 (upbeat music)
14:11 - Welcome back to another Lincoln Tech Tip.
14:19 Today, we're gonna talk about frame reinforcements
14:21 and why they're important.
14:22 Modern cars, modern unibody cars,
14:24 can actually be very rigid.
14:26 But these old cars that we're usually working on here
14:28 are body on frame cars,
14:29 and they leave a lot to be desired
14:31 as far as frame stiffness.
14:33 There's two main reasons to why you'd want
14:35 this frame reinforcement in place.
14:37 Number one is handling.
14:38 So you've stiffened up your springs and your sway bars
14:40 and all that stuff.
14:41 But if the main body of the car isn't stiff enough,
14:45 you'll never get that direct feeling that you want,
14:47 instant feedback, and overall grip.
14:50 And the reason is because if you imagine bolting
14:52 all that suspension to like, say, a piece of wood,
14:54 you're gonna get a lot of flex there.
14:56 Once you've got the frame stiffened,
14:58 then it is a nice box
14:59 and you can work your suspension from outward.
15:01 The second main advantage of stiffening up
15:03 one of these old cars is actually comfort.
15:05 These old loosey-goosey frames on the highway
15:07 will bounce and resonate
15:09 and create all these weird harmonics,
15:10 and the car is basically bending
15:12 and twisting all over the place.
15:14 Now, that can all be fixed
15:15 once the frame is properly reinforced and stiff.
15:18 And your shocks and springs can work as they were designed.
15:21 Okay, now that you know, let's get back to the shop.
15:24 Lincoln Tech can teach you
15:25 how to have a career working with cars.
15:27 See LincolnTech.edu.
15:29 - Okay, so we dropped the body onto the frame.
15:34 Fits awesome.
15:35 Now we've just gotta hook up fuel lines,
15:37 wiring, cooling, right?
15:39 Shifter, speedometer. - Lots of stuff.
15:40 - Yeah, lots of stuff.
15:41 Now we're gonna try to get this car back out on the street
15:43 so we can have some fun.
15:45 (upbeat rock music)
15:48 (drilling)
15:56 (drilling)
15:58 Since we weren't sure the condition
16:11 of the original cooling system,
16:13 National Parts Depot sent us out a direct fit,
16:16 much larger aluminum radiator
16:18 that bolts right in like stock,
16:20 fits great, and will keep this thing cool
16:23 under any circumstances.
16:24 (upbeat rock music)
16:27 Here's Lucky's tech tip for the day.
16:33 Electrical in old cars is really old.
16:36 This car's been worked on by a few people,
16:38 so it's got part of a factory air conditioning harness in it.
16:42 - If I find any more anti-seize on this car,
16:44 I'm gonna burn it to the ground.
16:46 - No, you're not.
16:47 60 foot time, buddy.
16:48 This all helps with 60 foot time.
16:50 That's a drag racing reference.
16:52 You're not familiar with it.
16:54 - But the lighter the vehicle, the better the 60 foot time.
16:56 - Got it.
16:57 60 feet seems like a short drag race.
16:59 - Yeah, it's not much of a drag race.
17:01 It's over really quick.
17:02 - All right, so we are working diligently
17:04 to get this car started up and out onto the road.
17:08 Fuel lines are done, the body's back on the frame,
17:10 steering is connected, brakes are connected.
17:11 Lucky is working on the wiring.
17:13 About halfway figured out the cooling system.
17:16 I am muddling together some sort of shifter setup
17:18 so we can get going, and then hopefully we'll hit it.
17:21 (upbeat rock music)
17:22 Oh yeah, it handles like a dream, dude.
17:25 Handles like a porch.
17:26 We have to both input all the configurations
17:43 for that distributor, then mechanically set it up,
17:48 put the LEDs inside of it.
17:51 - That's gonna be so much fun for you.
17:53 - It's gonna be super fun.
17:54 It's gonna input a signal off that dual sync,
17:57 and there's a flow chart, so it's basically
17:59 distributor to EFI, and it's gonna go out to the MSD box,
18:03 then to the coil, and then to the spark plug.
18:05 - So white wire to white wire.
18:08 Is that the story you're going with?
18:09 - White to white, yeah, for sure.
18:10 We could have gotten the coil driver
18:12 and the Holley dual sync, and then we wouldn't have
18:14 needed the MSD box, but we could have gotten
18:16 the MSD ready to run distributor.
18:18 That's a little bit more simple than this setup,
18:19 but this should give us a ton of time and control,
18:22 and a good finished product.
18:24 - Hey, which one of these wires lets the smoke out?
18:26 - I don't know, man, just start pushing them.
18:28 - We don't wanna find that one?
18:29 - Just start pushing them.
18:30 - All right, so we have to fully custom configuring
18:36 in this dual sync to work with the Terminator Stealth EFI,
18:40 which is kind of intense.
18:42 I think we're ready to go, you ready to go?
18:43 - You got your bachelor's degree in distributor tuning?
18:45 - Yeah, I got serious.
18:47 Anyway, let's do it, ready?
18:48 - Wait, wait, go.
18:49 - Okay.
18:50 (engine revving)
18:53 There we go.
18:54 - Right?
18:55 - The flywheel sounds a little sketchy.
18:57 - Is that it?
19:00 Ah, come on.
19:01 - What'd you do, Tony?
19:02 - I don't know, to be honest, I have no idea.
19:04 (engine revving)
19:08 - Is self learn activated?
19:14 - Yeah, I did, I went to closed loop learn.
19:15 - Let it get to 160 degrees, it'll start tuning itself.
19:19 - Leaking anything?
19:20 It sounds great.
19:25 - Hey, step on the brake.
19:28 - I'm trying to step on the gas, dude.
19:32 - Turn on the headlights.
19:34 We got nothing, let's go for a drive.
19:37 - All right.
19:38 (engine revving)
19:47 - Okay, going straight, it works.
19:48 - Yeah.
19:49 - Woo!
19:50 - Hell yeah.
19:55 - Hope they get those sound effects.
19:59 - There we go.
20:06 - All right, okay, we're cruising.
20:08 - He's running.
20:09 - God, this was a pretty insane crash.
20:12 - Two days, two days.
20:13 - Oh my God, dude.
20:15 - I mean, really, we got the frame back like two days ago.
20:18 - It all totally revamped.
20:20 - And now we're cruising in it.
20:22 - We are cruising.
20:23 - This is great.
20:24 - I'm waiting for the trunk to empty into our heads.
20:27 - Man, it feels really solid.
20:31 - The suspension is right on.
20:32 - Yo, this thing kills.
20:39 - Don't hit the headers.
20:44 - Go wide.
20:45 - Go wide.
20:47 - So we got no tail lights, no brake lights, no blinkers.
20:49 - No hood.
20:50 - Two headlights, no hood.
20:51 No registration.
20:53 - Yep, no insurance.
20:55 - Apparently we're a little low.
20:58 - We're jumping off right here.
21:05 - Yeah, we're gonna have to raise this up just,
21:08 we're dragging frame a couple places.
21:13 - Probably not, it has never got to 160,
21:15 so it's not even tuning itself yet.
21:18 - It runs so cool with that giant radiator.
21:21 - Yeah, do you remember how bad it ran before?
21:23 - Oh yeah, it was sketchy.
21:24 - Doesn't know it now, it's awesome.
21:27 - Bring it in?
21:31 - Take her in.
21:32 - All right.
21:33 - This frame and suspension feel so solid.
21:36 - This thing is gonna be so good.
21:38 - 145 degrees, idling at 831.
21:42 (engine revving)
21:44 - Yeah, so I can go in with a laptop
21:45 and change the tuning to 100 degrees.
21:48 - But all in all, this is a body and a frame,
21:51 Wednesday afternoon and it's Friday.
21:53 - Well, yesterday morning, it was a frame on a lift.
21:56 - Yeah, we're pretty good at this, right?
22:00 - Yeah, I think so.
22:01 - Coming in hot.
22:06 - Oh, it did rub right there.
22:10 - Yeah, that's when it needs some room.
22:12 - All right, what's next, buddy?
22:14 - Obviously, there's some stuff to fine tune,
22:17 but as quick as we put it together, it's really fun.
22:20 - I say we just rust spot the back of the car
22:23 and leave it just looking like that.
22:23 - Try to match the rust, match that patina.
22:26 This is an awesome car.
22:27 We did the frame upgrades and beyond that,
22:30 just a couple of things, the full suspension
22:32 and the fuel injection,
22:33 and this thing absolutely has been transformed.
22:35 Once we get it really dialed in,
22:37 this thing's gonna be a peach.
22:38 - I agree.
22:38 - Yeah, I'm really stoked on it.
22:40 Anyway, don't forget to check us out
22:41 between episodes on social media.
22:43 I'm Tangelo96 on Instagram.
22:45 - Mobile Tech Lucky.
22:46 - And the show is Hot Rod Garage Show
22:47 on Facebook and Instagram.
22:49 - That's it?
22:51 - That's it, man, let's go.
22:52 - I wanna keep driving it.
22:53 - Contact.
22:54 - Aren't you supposed to be on a plane?
22:55 - Yeah.
22:56 (engine revving)
22:59 (laughing)
23:04 - And cut.
23:05 - And scene.
23:09 Since I'm going on a date later in this convertible,
23:11 I'm gonna put the cardboard down so I don't get all dirty.
23:14 And since it's gonna be a date with a girl,
23:18 I'm gonna put down two pieces of cardboard.
23:20 (engine revving)