Hello all. Been lurking for a little while, thought I'd join and see what kind of pointers and direction I can get from anyone willing to lend a word.
I've been working on the side as a shade tree mechanic/ GM computer tuner for almost 2 decades. I know my way around just about anything on a car, at least fundamentally. I have limited welding skills, consisting mostly of being able to stick farm equipment metal back together. My son, however, has been welding for some time now and is praised for his abilities.
I have acquired a 2006 Impala SS in it's entirety, with a GM LS4/4T65E transverse mounted (AKA FWD). 303 hp/323 tq but a pretty heavy package. The car was a slide-off total, having experience a telephone pole after of the passenger side front wheel near the A-pillar. However, it still runs/drives perfectly fine, and all the damage appears to be confined to unibody and door/front fender. A nice custom chassis should make it much more enjoyable to drive, and I'm thinking we'll be able to save a bit on the 3700lb waistline.
Initially I was going to transfer the running gear into a good Impala body and sell. However, after seeing a home-built A-tom wannabe (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_aVLRuOg_o ), I was inspired to make something similar. Since then I've been poring over pages looking for aesthetics and design ideas.
I'm NOT looking to build a show car, or the fastest thing on the road, or the best handling SCCA car, or anything of that nature. I want to build a "fun" car that my boy(s) and I can say we built most of. That being said, as with anything of this nature, cost is a component, so I'd like to keep that down where possible.
I'm not against a pre-prepped plan, particular for sub-assembly aspects like the front suspension/steering arrangement. I would like to keep most of the running gear (uprights, brakes, etc) in easy-to-obtain parts. Of everything I've seen so far, something similar to the Palatov D2 front end styling on the chassis would be ideal. If I could get plans in hand for the D2 from rear-line/back wall of cab forward, and then fabricate my own rear engine mount, etc that would be ideal.
So - things I'm most interested in hearing about:
Shareware/low cost modeling software. I have Sketchup (and have limited experience with CAD from 15 years ago). Guides for suspension design, space considerations, minimizing structural tubing requirements.
Good discussions on suspension/steering geometry and the various tradeoffs. That said, a basic, pre-determined, easy to fabricate, durable front end that won't make a driver white-knuckle it everywhere would be sufficient. I would just love to learn more about it on the way.
Square tubing vs. round tubing. Keeping in mind costs and not making an all-out performance/competitive machine, square tubing seems the way to go for cost and ease of prep. I'm open to arguments against this. Also, I have no experience with relative strengths, treatments, etc - so choosing a size to adequately protect my occupants seems somewhat daunting.
Road-legalizing. I want to design with this as an end-goal, which I'm sure means there will be some compromises compared to some of the designs I've seen out there. I live in Kansas, which has very little published information for what makes a vehicle "roadworthy", but uses the term frequently. Any real-world experience would be nice. It doesn't seem to be too stringent, as the road-legal buggy crowd has plenty of dubious entries. I'd prefer not to present the same.
Any of what I'm sure can be a very long list of considerations that I haven't thought of. I have plenty of space in the form of a 64x80 shop and a two-post lift for those hard to reach places. I'm also fairly intimately familiar with GM LS engines and drivetrains, although this is my first transverse/LS4.
Sorry for the book as a starter!
Jon