V1 Frank's Florida Street Goblin Build (#227) - 06 SS, 2.4L donor

[CaptFrank2001]

Did you just ditch the two tabs for the floor brace when you welded in your floors?

No, I cut a notch in the Diamond-plate and left them in place. I didn't want to weld to the outside frame tubes so I welded to the tabs. I also used the provided cross brace even though it was just overkill.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Thanks Frank

 

[CaptFrank2001]

Still working on the fenders. Had to widen the rear fenders 1-1/2" for the 275 tires. Here is a before, during and after picture of the process. Also had to make adapters for the front fenders to raise them one inch and move them outboard by one inch to fit the 245 tires. It's getting there.

 

[Ark :D]

I wanted to do the same thing, since I also went with 245's and 275's, but I didn't have the courage to try it. Looks good!

 

[CaptFrank2001]

Thank you. Actually it was easier than I thought. If you lay the fender on a flat surface you will notice that the front & back actually lie perfectly flat. So once you split the fender in two, both 1/2's will also lay flat. This make it easy to spread the 2 half's, in my case 1-1/2" apart and they line right up. I then epoxied the two 1/2's to a piece of OSB. Then I went to work. I'm far from a fiberglass expert so I think if you can build a car you can do some fiberglass work.

 

[CaptFrank2001]

Applying for a Florida Title at DMV. Wish me luck.

 

[CaptFrank2001]

Forgot about weighing the car. Had to make a quick trip to the Land Fill (dump) to use their scale. Surprised it came in at 1500 Lbs even (hood was off). Back to DMV for round #2.

 

[r3drckt]

Don't forget the pictures! front, back and side. They may want the pictures with the body panels on. Seems to be hit or miss.

 

[CaptFrank2001]

If they don’t ask I won’t tell.

 

[Lonny]

Around here if you try to register it without body panels they call it a dune buggy and will not register it. After that it is real hard to get them to stop calling it a dune buggy.

 

[CaptFrank2001]

Well after 2 not very productive visits to the DMV they referred me to Tallahassee. Apparently once the car is drivable (which it is) they will issue me a 10 day temporary Tag to drive to my appointment in Tallahassee. So at this point I think I will wait, get the car painted (actually wrapped) and then go to the inspection.

I did put 15 miles on the car today driving to and from the weight scales. 40 MPH great. 50 MPH fair. 60+ it gets a bit squirrelly. I'm sure it's all just an alignment issue. Going to bite the bullet & get a professional alignment done.

 

[Zoom Zoom]

Still working on the fenders. Had to widen the rear fenders 1-1/2" for the 275 tires. Here is a before, during and after picture of the process. Also had to make adapters for the front fenders to raise them one inch and move them outboard by one inch to fit the 245 tires. It's getting there.

I like the sticker and the fenders, nice job

 

[Zoom Zoom]

Forgot about weighing the car. Had to make a quick trip to the Land Fill (dump) to use their scale. Surprised it came in at 1500 Lbs even (hood was off). Back to DMV for round #2.

You didn’t read my list of things to do to get registered. Or you would have weighed it. LOL

 

[Zoom Zoom]

Well after 2 not very productive visits to the DMV they referred me to Tallahassee. Apparently once the car is drivable (which it is) they will issue me a 10 day temporary Tag to drive to my appointment in Tallahassee. So at this point I think I will wait, get the car painted (actually wrapped) and then go to the inspection.

I did put 15 miles on the car today driving to and from the weight scales. 40 MPH great. 50 MPH fair. 60+ it gets a bit squirrelly. I'm sure it's all just an alignment issue. Going to bite the bullet & get a professional alignment done.

Did you get your insurance already

 

[Brett]

Man, take it easy until you get the alignment straightened out. Also, make sure to check bolt tightness and keep an eye on things. I wish I did. ;-)

 

[CaptFrank2001]

Man, take it easy until you get the alignment straightened out. Also, make sure to check bolt tightness and keep an eye on things. I wish I did. ;-)

I did take it slow, thanks. Also have checked and double checked everything on the drive train. It only takes an hour or so to recheck all the torque values. Cheap insurance.

 

[ctuinstra]

One thing to keep in mind is these cars will never feel like a 7000 pound diesel truck and will always react quickly to the slightest steering input. With that being said, absolutely get it aligned and in my case, re-aligned, checked, aligned myself, re-checked, re-aligned myself until I'm very happy with it now.

 

[Goblin Graber]

One thing to keep in mind is these cars will never feel like a 7000 pound diesel truck and will always react quickly to the slightest steering input. With that being said, absolutely get it aligned and in my case, re-aligned, checked, aligned myself, re-checked, re-aligned myself until I'm very happy with it now.

Sounds like you’ve changed your alignment quite a bit. What are the settings you settled on?

 

[ctuinstra]

Sounds like you’ve changed your alignment quite a bit. What are the settings you settled on?

Not so much that I've changed my mind on the settings. The first shop really screwed it up. Bolts that come loose later changed it. Replacing the lower ball joints required another alignment. And then just fine tuning and verifying the settings settled it. The most important was the toe-in. We settled on less than 1/4" toe in.

 

[CaptFrank2001]

One thing to keep in mind is these cars will never feel like a 7000 pound diesel truck and will always react quickly to the slightest steering input. With that being said, absolutely get it aligned and in my case, re-aligned, checked, aligned myself, re-checked, re-aligned myself until I'm very happy with it now.

Funny thing is my main vehicle is a 7500 pound Chevy Silverado 2500HD. I've have owned a lot of high performance cars over the last 50+ years I've been driving. It's just going to take a little getting used to.