After following some builds on here, making it to a Thursday night meet and Mike giving the sloppy bois a home, I figured it was time to join. My name is Nick and Iām your local LS fanboy.
Iāve got a ā62 Impala SS with a LQ4/ar5 combo. I dragged the car out of a barn in late summer of 2017 and have had it on the road since 2018. I was still in college when I first picked the car up and only had summers to work on it.
Summer of 2018 I did the bare minimum to get it going down the road. Slapped the 200,000 mile LQ4 under the hood with a 4L80e and a unloomed stock harness and computer. It was ugly, the wiring inside the car was botched and sketchy, it had no grill, trim, or interior and steering and suspension left lots to be desired. But none the less, in under 3 months it was running and driving for the first time in at least 10 years!
Summer of 2019 I started throwing the trim and interior back in the car while taking it to local cruise nights and driving it back and forth to work. After a month or so, I decided the auto had to go. On a college budget, I was trying to do things as cheap as possible. I stumbled across Fabbot Fab and the ar5 to LS adapter kit which fit the bill. Ran to LKQ in Rockford and snagged a trans for $100 and we were off. And in 2 weeks I was cruising the car again, finally rowing my own gears.
Summer of 2020 was eventful. Finally graduated college, got me a big boy job and decided to pile a little more on my plate by setting a goal to make the road trip to LS Fest and do some drag racing. But wait... the car isnāt worthy of a 800+ mile round trip. Welp, time to break out the wallet and kiss free time goodbye. This summer, things were getting done correctly. Yanked the motor and trans, cleaned everything up, threw a cam and valve springs in the motor. Decided the overspray in the engine bay had to go, which led to filling all the holes in the firewall and repainting. Drum brakes all the way around and a single pot master cylinder was ditched in favor of 4 wheel discs and a dual pot master cylinder it of a 70ās era Vet. The front and rear suspension were rebuilt with tubular upper and lower control arms adjustable shocks new coil springs and the front end was completely rebuilt. After all that, I figured the stock 8.2ā rear end just wasnāt going to cut it, so Quick Performance provided a stout 9ā that will take the abuse. Finally the car was rewired front to back and the stock engine management was ditched in favor of a Holley Terminator X. It was a long 3 months, but finally, the car was ready. I hit a few cruise ins and drove it back and forth to work and dubbed it ready for the trip. It made the drive down flawlessly, but after two passes down the track I found the limits of the ar5. Third gear decided to leave the building and my weekend of racing was over. But it was worth every ounce of blood, sweat, tears and money to get to that point and I couldnāt be mad. Loaded the car on the trailer and spent the rest of the weekend enjoying my dads ā63 Nova SS. After getting home, I sourced another ar5 to finish the year out. Putting as many miles on it as I could and hitting as many cruise nights and meets as I could.
Now I canāt stop thinking about putting a lower gear in the rear end, stepping up to a g-force TR-3650 and getting a blower thrown on it over the winter/spring. But we will have to wait and see how things go.
Anyway, sorry for the rambletron but thanks for the add, happy to be apart of the forum and look forward to meeting new people and hopefully going to more meets next season!
Iāve got a ā62 Impala SS with a LQ4/ar5 combo. I dragged the car out of a barn in late summer of 2017 and have had it on the road since 2018. I was still in college when I first picked the car up and only had summers to work on it.
Summer of 2018 I did the bare minimum to get it going down the road. Slapped the 200,000 mile LQ4 under the hood with a 4L80e and a unloomed stock harness and computer. It was ugly, the wiring inside the car was botched and sketchy, it had no grill, trim, or interior and steering and suspension left lots to be desired. But none the less, in under 3 months it was running and driving for the first time in at least 10 years!
Summer of 2019 I started throwing the trim and interior back in the car while taking it to local cruise nights and driving it back and forth to work. After a month or so, I decided the auto had to go. On a college budget, I was trying to do things as cheap as possible. I stumbled across Fabbot Fab and the ar5 to LS adapter kit which fit the bill. Ran to LKQ in Rockford and snagged a trans for $100 and we were off. And in 2 weeks I was cruising the car again, finally rowing my own gears.
Summer of 2020 was eventful. Finally graduated college, got me a big boy job and decided to pile a little more on my plate by setting a goal to make the road trip to LS Fest and do some drag racing. But wait... the car isnāt worthy of a 800+ mile round trip. Welp, time to break out the wallet and kiss free time goodbye. This summer, things were getting done correctly. Yanked the motor and trans, cleaned everything up, threw a cam and valve springs in the motor. Decided the overspray in the engine bay had to go, which led to filling all the holes in the firewall and repainting. Drum brakes all the way around and a single pot master cylinder was ditched in favor of 4 wheel discs and a dual pot master cylinder it of a 70ās era Vet. The front and rear suspension were rebuilt with tubular upper and lower control arms adjustable shocks new coil springs and the front end was completely rebuilt. After all that, I figured the stock 8.2ā rear end just wasnāt going to cut it, so Quick Performance provided a stout 9ā that will take the abuse. Finally the car was rewired front to back and the stock engine management was ditched in favor of a Holley Terminator X. It was a long 3 months, but finally, the car was ready. I hit a few cruise ins and drove it back and forth to work and dubbed it ready for the trip. It made the drive down flawlessly, but after two passes down the track I found the limits of the ar5. Third gear decided to leave the building and my weekend of racing was over. But it was worth every ounce of blood, sweat, tears and money to get to that point and I couldnāt be mad. Loaded the car on the trailer and spent the rest of the weekend enjoying my dads ā63 Nova SS. After getting home, I sourced another ar5 to finish the year out. Putting as many miles on it as I could and hitting as many cruise nights and meets as I could.
Now I canāt stop thinking about putting a lower gear in the rear end, stepping up to a g-force TR-3650 and getting a blower thrown on it over the winter/spring. But we will have to wait and see how things go.
Anyway, sorry for the rambletron but thanks for the add, happy to be apart of the forum and look forward to meeting new people and hopefully going to more meets next season!
