Front Shock Mount Installation and the Best Darn Front Tubing Plan I Have Ever Done on a Race Car

[@WindRider1]

Front end geometry and a square car beats a lot of horsepower every day. Are you mostly self taught by trial and error and a little horse sense? Or did you have a mentor/ old timer teach you? I'm loving the build/ tutorial.

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

1st generation racer here and did not have a clue and have learned literally everything through trial and error and research. I had an older gentleman that taught me a lot in the shop about heavy equipment repair who raced in the 1950's and pointed me at an $800 76 monte to buy. I took that 4000lb tank to the track with 30 lbs of air in all 4 of the +10 year old cracked up tires and seat belts just as old. yep, green didn't start to descibe me LOL

[@WindRider1]

@@DIRTRACELIFE you have Horse Sense. You understand the geometry of springs and shocks. Great job. I'm retired from driving but I am enjoying watching you.

[@brianswiger9390]

I will be home in 5 days.... with two weeks of leave! We will be racing your Chevy and my Ford to finish first :) I am so excited. Changing my Friday flight from 2 pm to 8 am so I can work in my shop all day Friday! It has been a QUICK month thankfully!

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Sounds good Brian, Get busy!

[@CoopDawg11]

Mr Jay is a bad man, I got shocks from him and I’m super excited. I got a LR before our show at WhyNot last year and I was like man he put the drive in this sucker. Another banger of a video brother. Hope to see you at a few of em this season.

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Looking forward to seeing you win some factory stock races this summer when we are both there.

[@georgespencejr1657]

Love how chassis is coming along. Doing wonderful work and giving explanations, for the naive. Looking forward to watching you run and seeing how it works.

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

I'm not saying it will be perfect on day one but I bet its faster than the Crush on day one! 😉

[@ScottWilson-uk1yv]

Looks awesome Jason! Those plates are nice. If I ever build another car I’m definitely gonna look into them. I knows there’s still tons of work but before you know it your gonna look up and have a sweet piece!

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Yes Sir, It's sure starting to feel like it's coming together.

[@Gregorybridgewater]

Wow J! Its coming out so awesome! Helluva job sir!

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Thank you Sir, Can see the car getting some character now that I have the front tubes in.

[@danamcintyre3565]

Back in the 90s I purchased shocks from a company for my four cylinder that when bottom out you could turn the shaft of the shock to change compression and rebound some not a lot but they worked and they looked like a stock shock, nobody new but me what I had ! Back then you could only run stock shocks and I kicked there hind ends a lot ! Call me cheater if you want but I was never caught !

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Yep, them was probably illegal LOL

[@elainealston1401]

Wow.Awesome video. Pop and I loved it!

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Thanks

[@dadofthree1999]

Loving this build

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Yep, thats me too!

[@derksracing5672]

I've never seen bay bars welded together in two pieces. I'm curious to know what the logic behind having them in teo different pieces is. Looking forward to seeing the finished car!

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Derk, I had originally planned to make a bend at that center joint but when I started looking at how the "W" joins up I realized joining into a bend is significantly weaker than having a joint there with all straight tubes. I do think it would have looked great as one tube but performance overruled that.

[@derksracing5672]

@@DIRTRACELIFE Makes sense to me! Thanks for responding.

[@patricklangley7516]

As always love the video. You sure make it look easy!! What color will the Camaro be?? Yellow?

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Rachel said its going to be black base with orange, grey, and white.

[@patrickmazzone9066]

Verry good build

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Thank you Patrick, appreciate you watching sir

[@patrickmazzone9066]

Excellent

[@AudioWonderland]

I hope you get plenty of seat time in this car with all the upgrades and design changes. I have wondered if you thought you got enough laps on the last car to sort it out or if it was just obvious it had shortfalls.

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

I absolutely did not get enough seat time and then it became clear late in the season that I could build a better car. Last year getting Rachel going really hit me hard on seat time. She bought a 3/4 ton diesel this winter and will be towing the camaro to the track and is getting to the point where I dont have to worry about her as much. that should let me take both cars and get the seat time.

[@bobperry1070]

Beautiful work .......

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Thank you sir, Was really happy with how this part came together.

[@richardward2352]

looking real good

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Thank you sir

[@callofdutysnipers0910]

I can’t wait for your 5th or 6th race this year in that car

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Hmm, that will probably be the Street stock Nationals? I hope to get 10 in before then we'll see.

[@callofdutysnipers0910]

@@DIRTRACELIFE I might be back in America by then.

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

be safe bud

[@JamesDedmon]

Looks awesome

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Thank you Mr James

[@rickjones6798]

It's looking awesome buddy. When you get to do the rear shocks do they allow the jack bolt for adjustment on your rear my buddy got a bullet chassis and they use them on the rear shocks as well as for the rear spring just kind of wondering if you can do that. But it's coming together buddy looking great can't wait for the next video you take care

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Yes, I can do those adjustable mounts. I am planning to wait to mount the rears after I set the ride heights on the car though.

[@AudioWonderland]

I would take those headers off before proceeding and make sure you are good. Those verticals and w bars are awful tight. I love the design but having that end up being an issue woukd suck

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

It's hard to keep these videos short and show every detail like all the measuring I did and figuring out how much angle to put in those S bends to insure the header path in and out was ideal.

[@AudioWonderland]

@@DIRTRACELIFE I'm sure that's true. Didn't mean to be critical. 2 dimensional video doesn't always tell the whole story

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

I didn't take it like that at all. I am kinda like smacking my head because I shot film showing exactly this issue and me making sure I didn't trap them in there but I have to cut a ton of stuff when I edit to keep it moving fast and under 30 minutes. I have learned that these videos have to move fast and stay shorter or they don't do well on KZbin. But in this case I think I cut something I shouldn't have :(

[@AudioWonderland]

@DIRTRACELIFE I have edited a thing or 2 as well so I get it completely. You are doing great with both the build and your digital presence. I watch them all several times

[@RichFife]

Are you able to check your scrub radius while it sits on the jig?

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

yes, I should be able to since I plan to assemble the front and do bump while its on the jig. Thats a video that is coming in a couple weeks

[@RichFife]

@DIRTRACELIFE good deal!

[@davidfrancis3400]

Can the engine still be removed with the headers fitted? Whats your take on the bay bars not being a singular piece, But terminated with a cap, and breaks off to the "w" bar? Seems to me, that would act as a tortion termination point, and you want that RF chassis horn to flex the bay bars back into the cage? Would work better as a singular bent outer tube?? My 2 cents on using chassis tortion as a setup tool, Is Its an un controlled variable, and as years go on and the steel loses the ductillity, That variable changes. Always good content.👍

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

I looked hard at doing that bend out to the cage instead of a termination point but the triangle effect turned into garbage because there is no clear line for the inner w to tie to when you do that. From an engineering standpoint this is stronger. I went Way too stiff in the first car, trying to find the right balance with this one. I have realized that a perfect setup is faster on a stiff car but dirt changes constantly and the car even needs setup differences end to end on the track. For those reasons I am putting some torsional flex back in this one.

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Yes, The headers have to come off to pull the engine. They come out easy but yep, gotta pull them to get er out.

[@JDog20-20]

What is measurement to top of seat bar from top of stock frame ? Looks really high but could be video making it appear this way. Just concerned with deck height being to high. I know from building over 100 of these crusa cars that even at 25” it doesn’t leave much room for drop decks so we ended up around 23” once that fad came in

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

We are 23.5" from the top frame to the the top of the tube. I think its probably an optical illusion because my jig is 30 inches off the floor and then the frame is several inches up off the jig so you are always looking up at the deck height in the videos.

[@JDog20-20]

@@DIRTRACELIFE that’s what I kind of thought. Sounds like you got it figured out just fine

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

I hope so, on the Crush I screwed that part all up so on this one I dropped it 4 inches from where the Crush was. I hope that's enough. What I am hoping is I can mount the deck about 2 inches above tubes.

[@AudioWonderland]

Are you going to paint or powder coat before electrical, brakes etc?

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

Likely just paint. I don't have a local source for powder coat and considering the time it will take to do the full build with all body mounts and then tear it all back down, I just don't think it fits the timeline.

[@jasontownsend3092]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXiQhmqlfbGoqMksi=v0hJqFY5P4cvCKKP Looking great! This was my first & last build. Less than halfway through I already wanted to change most of what I had done. Just tough to visualize everything together until it’s together. Great experience though. Keep up the great work!

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

That joker looks fantastic Jason! Thanks for sharing

[@kurtthorpe7659]

Can you get the headers out?

[@DIRTRACELIFE]

💯, Thats the reason you see those S bends in the side tubes.