Transcona a dirty old Cougar

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Stick with me it gets better.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael (Forum Supporter) :

Mostly right! The Vo tech boys are just used occasionally when they are bored of the classroom. It is my project.

It finally arrived

I contacted a Corvette dismantler in Welland Ontario just after Christmas. Honest to god, the dealing nearly drove me nuts. It took me 3-1/2 months to get my stuff delivered. That’s right my 97 Cougar is getting a large amount of C-6 ZO6 parts. A lot of people will just say, why didn’t you just start with a Corvette then? Well, I don’t fit in a Corvette. I am a big man, like NFL defensive line big. This was $6600 dollars worth of goodies and this post will show you the wheels. I will list prices as I go but will let you add them up if you so choose. Remember the prices are in Canadian funds.

SOOOOO Stock C6 ZO6 wheels in an 18-19 combo. I made a decision years ago when this idea began to germinate about wheels and tires. My way of thinking was that these are very expensive items that have a good chance of getting destroyed. There are rich boys all over the place that want the latest and greatest wheels and tires. Ferrari fan boys, Porsche people, Corvette kooks, they all have one thing in common. They will sell the stock stuff off fairly inexpensively. Seeing as I was purchasing corvette suspension, may as well have the same wheels. It also allows me to update by buying for a corvette and just bolting them on my car. Luckily I got them all from the same place.

By the way the 6600$ was not just for the wheels. There is a lot more to come in the Cougar Tales/Tails. See what I did there?

I do this build on a few sites.

This one has more pictures on it and is also a very good build site.

https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php?t=58877

Brake stuff

I am just going to let you look at this stuff and enjoy it just like I did when it arrived. I describe these as mechanical sex. I will use that term often over the course of the build.

The items here are also a part of the shipment from the corvette dismantler that drove me nuts. But he finally did come through. I guess if the drivers are flakes the dealers are flakes. Whatcha gonna do?

Suspension stuff

Along with the wheels I also got all the front suspension complete with cross-member and brakes, rear uprights and hubs. I am not sure if I got a good deal or not but I got all my stuff to get designing with.

I have acquired a lot of C6 ZO6 components. There is a reason for this. 

Remember the build actually started about 2-1/2 years ago. Who was the big winner for a long time in Optima? Danny Popp was.

What did he drive, HMMM. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery I copied that end of his car for my own personal glory. 

As we go forward you will see that I am not as enamored with the corvette rear suspension. I actually have a lot of experience building cars for dirt track racing and my favorite rear suspension will be adorning the rear of the car.

Cross-member and various parts.
Just some more parts that came in the crate
So I just told you that all this suspension was C6 ZO6 stuff. Well it mostly is. 
I chose the aluminum crossmember because of the magnesium one being prone to cracking. A heavier car wouldn't make anything better right?

More yard inventory

Various engines and rear ends just lying around. I may design around the 351 in the one ton van. Nephew wants to do a Gt40 replica and needs the 5.0 engine for mock up. I can’t turn around without running into more crap. I often joke that when my parents divorced I had to buy the homestead because I could never move everything. It wasn’t really a joke.

So this is where we start to take a change of direction/ I believe this will draw you in where before it may not have.

I am a journeyman steam-fitter and have built approximately 30 cars for competition on dirt tracks and drag strips around this area. I have prepared cars for the local road racing circuit as well as the ice racers. I have no intention of building a boring car where we just bolt stuff on. Unfortunately my best work was done in the time of film cameras and not much evidence of it exists. I do have a few dirt mods that I built that I can post here but some of my real cool stuff only exists in BS sessions amongst old friends and racing buddies.

We are done with the initial collecting of parts and are actually getting started on construction.

Little bit of a heads up. This is not a mild build! It may never compete at Optima but it is being built in that vein. We are talking a complete frame replacement, full roll cage that is built to the rules of several series including SCCA, NASA, Optima and CASC for the Canadian watchers.

As a racer it’s weird to build with a nod to creature comforts. Air, cruise, tilt, power windows, and door locks. Won’t have a ridiculous stereo cause that doesn’t interest me at all but would look to have a navigation system with a big screen.

Ultimately I would love to do Drag Week, Bonneville, Optima and cruise nights with the same car. I would also like to make the car available to any sponsors that would like to do displays with it.

While I am farther along than the stuff posted today I want your input and to dialogue with as many people as possible.

Floater Parts

Remember that floater that I showed you before? Yeah, I am not using that anymore. Remember that I said I would describe many things as sex? This box of machined parts was described without prompting by the ego-nephew as a box of sex. Great minds think alike. These were about 450$US dollars shipped to Pembina ND. Arrived in 2 days, so I guess some people know how to run their business better than Corvette suppliers. http://www.9inchfloater.com/

Tires and wheels together for the first time

Going to the tire place to get everything together wouldn’t make for much of a story. Don’t worry, I can spice it up a little.

I have retired from pipeline construction and industrial pipe-fitting after almost 40 years. Now for me not doing anything won’t happen so I have started teaching high school vocational education in Plumbing and pipe trades.

The job has many advantages, such as summers off and a lot of free time when the students are on their work experience. One afternoon when I had some free time I ran up to the tire shop and got the job completed. While driving home the radio reported that there was a traffic hold up due to an accident. I knew the area but it wouldn’t be an issue because I wouldn’t have to go there. Not more than 2 minutes later I got a phone call from one of my work contacts to tell me there was some bad news. One of my students had gotten into an accident with the company truck. OOH that’s bad! Oh and he had gone over the sidewalk. OOH that’s bad! Oh and he hit a pedestrian. OOH that’s bad! Oh and he lied to us and he doesn’t have a driver license. AH CRAP, THAT’S REALLY BAD!

That devoured several days of my time and landed the student back at the school for 2 weeks when he should have been at his work experience.

Rear end salvage

Remember that I said I wasn’t using the old floater rear end? Well I needed the center housing so out came the grinder and I salvaged the housing.

Looking forward to seeing how this comes together 

RON EFFIN SUTTON, there I said it.

While the man is a taboo subject on a lot of forums I used several ideas from him that were actually useful. While designing the rear suspension certain things like the width of the rear frame rails were taken directly from his drawings. Turns out 34 inches is perfect width for the speedway engineering rear sway bars. It also allows for a lot of rear tire clearance.

These are my drawings, because any project even though they mostly happen in our heads needs direction. You will see that later on some of the parts are not the same as the drawings. A piece in your hand quite often looks significantly different than the drawing.

I am far from perfect and you will see what looks like the same drawing but it will be a revision. After acquiring 3 red seal trades and attending several drafting courses I love to do drawings Anyways.

While most of the pics are self explanatory the tape measure ones may seem weird. I am the guy who hides his own Easter eggs. The 26 was the height of the rear tires and the 69-1/2 is the stock measurement of the rear tires outside of sidewall to outside of sidewall.
All questions are allowed and what you see isn't necessarily what you will eventually get. The revisions continue and her are some more suspension pics.

I am no longer a spring chicken. I don’t like bending over to cut tubing and my gut doesn’t allow me to breathe very well if I do. I had a plan in my head for years to make a stand for the chop saw so that wouldn’t be an issue.

With the turn of a set screw we can angle the saw or change the support for the tubing. Loosen a few more set screws and we can take it down to where it doesn’t take up any space. While I have a decent sized (Albeit very shoddy) garage, I run out of space just like the rest of you. Later on I will show you how bad the garage really is. I just never think about it because the garage doesn’t regulate the project. Mind you it was -46 with the wind-chill last week so I am obviously not working out there when that happens.

By the way no matter what the temps I like the noisy and dirty chop saw outside. With the stand all I have to bring in is the saw itself.

Managed to drag over a variety of tubing and you can see that I have a large selection of cuts laid on the scissor lift. These will become the basis for the rear suspension and rear frame section.

I told you this was not a “bolt a few parts on” type of build. BOYS this is about to get serious!!

This level of engineering is way above my brain power, but I love it.

slowbird said:

This level of engineering is way above my brain power, but I love it.

I appreciate the compliment. I have a lot of work done here and it is always nice to have someone along for the adventure. The engineering is barely started.

Been following along. I like your chop saw stand. Ron dropped in here fishing for potential customers shortly before things hit the fan with Greg's car and just started threads on a couple builds. So he isn't as well known on this forum as the pro-touring forums.

NOT A TA said:

Been following along. I like your chop saw stand. Ron dropped in here fishing for potential customers shortly before things hit the fan with Greg's car and just started threads on a couple builds. So he isn't as well known on this forum as the pro-touring forums.

I am not sure whether Sutton just oversold himself or he was something other than he represented. He actually posted some really good material on those other forums that I took advantage of. I have nearly 40 years of dirt track racing in my back pocket and was able to filter through a lot.

egoman said:

NOT A TA said:

Been following along. I like your chop saw stand. Ron dropped in here fishing for potential customers shortly before things hit the fan with Greg's car and just started threads on a couple builds. So he isn't as well known on this forum as the pro-touring forums.

I am not sure whether Sutton just oversold himself or he was something other than he represented. He actually posted some really good material on those other forums that I took advantage of. I have nearly 40 years of dirt track racing in my back pocket and was able to filter through a lot.

I think probably a bit of both. When he first popped into the pro-touring scene claiming he was all that and a bag of chips too,  something seemed a bit fishy. He claimed he'd run all these successful stock car driver programs and what not. I wondered,  if they were so great why'd he close them all down and start in the PT arena? Unbeknownst to everyone he was already in deep in the legal system for things he'd done in the past with the supposed NASCAR driver programs. While he seemed to be knowledgeable in certain areas his little team wasn't up to the tasks required to competently build what he was selling. Then he picked one of the worst marks he could have found, a wealthy dying man. Greg was a nice guy who was well liked and very well known. If anyone else was taken for the kind of money Greg was they would have either hid in shame or ended Ron's career along with his life. Greg on the other hand had class and put it all out for everyone to see making sure that Ron wouldn't get another chance in the car world. He didn't want others who couldn't afford to be taken to lose the kind of money he did. I have a lot of respect for Greg for taking the time when he had very little of his own left, to publicly admit he'd been swindled by someone he thought was a friend and spread the word.

I was apprehensive from the beginning when Ron showed up but eventually placed a few small orders with his company which went fine. Helped him with some measurements for spindle geometry stuff he was working on using 90's B body spindles. Had him run the brake system calculations for one of my cars to determine pedal ratio, piston diameters in the twin masters, etc. I never had any problems with Ron but some others lost pretty big. Unfortunately, when he was banned on the PT forums the admins wiped out all the threads he'd started. Some of them like the aero thread and suspension threads had a lot of good info from many members but everything was lost when the threads were wiped out.

NOT A TA said:

egoman said:

NOT A TA said:

Been following along. I like your chop saw stand. Ron dropped in here fishing for potential customers shortly before things hit the fan with Greg's car and just started threads on a couple builds. So he isn't as well known on this forum as the pro-touring forums.

I am not sure whether Sutton just oversold himself or he was something other than he represented. He actually posted some really good material on those other forums that I took advantage of. I have nearly 40 years of dirt track racing in my back pocket and was able to filter through a lot.

I think probably a bit of both. When he first popped into the pro-touring scene claiming he was all that and a bag of chips too,  something seemed a bit fishy. He claimed he'd run all these successful stock car driver programs and what not. I wondered,  if they were so great why'd he close them all down and start in the PT arena? Unbeknownst to everyone he was already in deep in the legal system for things he'd done in the past with the supposed NASCAR driver programs. While he seemed to be knowledgeable in certain areas his little team wasn't up to the tasks required to competently build what he was selling. Then he picked one of the worst marks he could have found, a wealthy dying man. Greg was a nice guy who was well liked and very well known. If anyone else was taken for the kind of money Greg was they would have either hid in shame or ended Ron's career along with his life. Greg on the other hand had class and put it all out for everyone to see making sure that Ron wouldn't get another chance in the car world. He didn't want others who couldn't afford to be taken to lose the kind of money he did. I have a lot of respect for Greg for taking the time when he had very little of his own left, to publicly admit he'd been swindled by someone he thought was a friend and spread the word.

I was apprehensive from the beginning when Ron showed up but eventually placed a few small orders with his company which went fine. Helped him with some measurements for spindle geometry stuff he was working on using 90's B body spindles. Had him run the brake system calculations for one of my cars to determine pedal ratio, piston diameters in the twin masters, etc. I never had any problems with Ron but some others lost pretty big. Unfortunately, when he was banned on the PT forums the admins wiped out all the threads he'd started. Some of them like the aero thread and suspension threads had a lot of good info from many members but everything was lost when the threads were wiped out.

The front and rear suspension stickies that were there had a lot of good info. Maybe he just put it all together or maybe he actually had some real knowledge of his own. I do miss having that stuff to look at. I know that the Pink Panther who is also from Manitoba liked the info he received. If he was a scammer he really couldn't have chose a worse guy to screw over though. Greg was there to protect us all. RIP