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You will find that many, many things won’t work. The ECU and BCM are tied together in a ton of ways. You are switching from a CAN Buss to a Serial Buss so your guages won’t work. Your ignition switch won’t get th correct signal so that won’t work. The Park-Neutral Safety switch is tied thru the BCM so that won’t work. It goes on and on. This is NOT an easy or cheap swap.
I knew my gauges wouldnt work, not that big of an issue. Gives me an excuse to make a sweet gauge pod. I know its not gonna be easy, but ive got a pretty good idea of what im getting myself into. Its all just nuts and bolts right Thanks for the heads up. Once I get this puppy rolling we'll have to meet up along the coast before I head back across country.
Went and picked up my subframe today. Came out of a 78 Camaro. Pretty good score. Upper and lower control arms and spindles have already been powder coated, were still wrapped up in paper and foam. Got the steering box, sway bar, coil springs, and even came with all new ball joints and bushings for everything. Hard to beat $250. Took a couple quick measurements before it got dark. Looks like the frame rails are pretty damn close center to center. I'll know more tomorrow when I get a closer look tomorrow. My old phone went interstate surfing a couple weeks ago. It survived, but of course the camera glass shattered. Sorry for the low quality pictures. Finally upgraded to a new phone so pictures should be clear now.
Always forward!! Got the frame rails cut off today. Got the camaro subframe positioned today on a table under the HHR. Outside to outside of the HHR frame and the Camaro frame is almost identical. Looks like my most practical and strongest option is to weld a 2x4 tube to this subframe all the way back to my rear frame section. It's gonna lift the car quite a bit, but I live in the middle of the woods off chirt roads, so ground clearance is a good thing. I'm trying to avoid cutting the firewall for the tranny, so I'm gonna gain about 28" in my wheelbase, so barely noticeable
I'll box off the firewall where the stamped upper rails came out, and run a tube from there to the front of the frame. I'm gonna weld in tabs on the inside of the subframe to utilize the original subframe mounts as well. I'm also gonna box off where I cut the frame rails and run some kind of support to the subframe. I've found some dimensions for a 5.3 vortec and 4l60e. I might be able to slide everything back an inch or two. I need to find a motor and tranny so I know for sure. I'll start cutting plates and welding up my openings tomorrow. Got a lot of research and measurements ahead.
You and me both!! I got the areas I cut out boxed in today with 1.5" tubing and 1/8" plate. I used the tubing up top because i had 2 good flat mounting surfaces to weld to. Finished closing in the top sections with plate, and made the bottoms out of plate only. All 4 points will have tubes connected to the subframe, as well as tabs welded to the side of the Camaro subframe to utilize the factory subframe mounting holes and bolts.
Got the subframe squared up and a few supports welded In place. Took an all day ass whooping trying to square up this subframe yesterday. Decided to square a piece of tube up across where the suspension mounts and squared it off of that.
09-29-2017, 04:22 PM
Thanks for the heads up. Once I get this puppy rolling we'll have to meet up along the coast before I head back across country.
