The 99 Hugger Z
 

You all know the car. Heres the project timeline

Purchase Condition: 2nd Gear Blown Up, Lots of Whining Coming From Trans. Exhaust Falling Off, Rear Brake Rotor Cracked, LCA Bushings Shot, AIR Hoses Leaking, Desperate Need Of A Tune-Up, Bald Tires, Hacked Speaker Wiring, AC Belt Squealing, Frozen E-Brake Cable, Rear Seats Not Bolted Down, And More!

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Day 1 (March 2011): Demod Party, Removed 5" Tach From Dash, Fuel PSI & AF Gauge From Pillar. Tons of Wiring, Stupid Pedal Covers, Hockey Sticks, Tint, Cat-Back.

Over the next couple weeks: removed rest of exhaust and put on stock 02 manifolds, cats, y pipe & used flowmaster cat-back. sold wheels/tires and bought new set of black chrome zr1 replicas. replaced rear rotors with low mileage stockers, cut front rotors. fixed fender gap. deleted EGR & AIR system, replaced plugs & wires, new o2 sensors. Replaced trans with "rebuilt" lt1 converted t56. Replaced LCAs & PHB with restored stockers/energy poly bushings. Replaced Torque arm & Trans mount with poly bushings as well. fixed diff fluid leak. Fixed previous owners install of SLP Ram-air Kit

New look for the car:

Looks good so far.

Just curious how much how you pay for it? Didnt know much work this needed. And i actually liked the hockey stripe

i forgot it had the stripes on there..i like em too

The stripes were pealing and crooked so i removed them. Hockey sticks are cool but not my style. Im going to keep updating the thread with past pictures etc up to where its at now

Started racing the car in spring of 2011, had major clutch pedal issues. Installed a new GM slave which kinda fixed the issue then ended up installing a Mcleod master which helped out a bunch. Clutch still sucked. Also took off the flowmaster in favor of an SLP loudmouh. In July it went 12.93 @ 107.33 on 255/50/16 MT drag radials with basically a lid and catback. It was game over at that point I knew id never sell it and my love for drag racing took over. Car needed a right rear axle and bearing since day 1 and I knew racing it Id blow the 10 bolt apart so since I had a fresh 9" sitting at my shop I installed that at the end of July that year. 4.10 gears, detroit locker, 31 spline axles. That kind of turned into a nightmare, the locker was a circle track locker and was obnoxious to drive on but I sucked it up for a while until I found a practically new truetrac. Car drove really nice after that but gears were noisy as hell. Best ET with the 4.10s/9" was 12.71 @ 107.89. Blew the stock 9" carrier apart and it sat about a month. went with a new strange pro iron case, motive 4.30s, billet strange daytona pinion support and billet aluminum yoke. reused the truetrac. By then it was mid septemer so the air was getting better

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After I got it back together with the 4.30s it was alot cooler out, first pass out it went a 12.6x. Ended up running at 12.45 @ 110 the following week, the same night I miss shifted from 2nd into 1st and broke the motor, it had a pretty bad tick to it. Parked it at that point and drove it a few times until I pulled the motor in January. Ended up buying a really nice Ram VDS sintered iron clutch setup and another trans that was built but had a broken input shaft & counter shaft for cheap. Also picked up a set of mint original SLP SS wheels with brand new tires & BMR SFCs for another deal I couldnt pass up. The original plan was to just replace the lifters, camshaft & heads after I found a top end off a low mileage early 2000 LS1. That ended up changing.

January of 2012: Pulled the heads off the motor, after talking with my dad we decided to just pull the motor and send it out to have it redone. I started buying parts at that point to make it stronger as well; LS7 lifters, PAC 1218 springs, & chromoly pushrods. Ended up buying a new LS6 Cam, ditched the idea to keep it "stock" . Factory cam was junk, cam bearings were junk, rod bearings were pretty worn as well. also had a defective cam retainer plate.

Got everything back from the machine shop at the end of January, at the same time i was doing headgaskets on my truck, what could be better than one broken vehicle?

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Me being me I had to do something about the engine bay and ended up getting a little carried away with it but in the end it was worth it. At first I just wanted to fix some rust from a battery leak and paint that was eaten off from a brake fluid leak, then I said hey why not just paint the whole thing quickly with single stage (bad idea). I sand blasted the rust and missing paint areas and hand sanded the entire bay. I kept having an issue with the primer fish eyeing on me, I ended up figuring out that if I prepped it with fast dry enamel reducer it wouldnt fish eye, I also figured out that fast dry enamel reducer did a very good job of stripping off the factory base coat. Boy did I wish I tried that in the first place, much quicker than sanding! I did half the bay with single stage and cleared it, and was going to do the other half when i had more time. Well after letting the car sit outside for almost two weeks and realizing the paint wouldnt cure I ended up stripping it down AGAIN. this time i was taking no short cuts and decided to use base clear, chromabase and a real nice clear we had. To add insult to injury I also managed to break the windsheild in the process of removing the wiper arms, go me! I love nothing more than a few hundred dollar mistake. But hey whats a few hundred more bucks after blowing your engine up right?

It was getting close to summer nationals so I had to get my ass in gear and get the car back together, first and foremost assembling the engine. Oh and I changed my mind again, big surprise and decided to go with 799 heads to complete the "LS6" top end.

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Still had to fix the "new" trans

Random Pictures From 2011:

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Nice! I like the idea of showing the start to now instead of just one project at a time!

Winter 2014 - Ebony Interior Swap

Spring 2014 - LS6 Short Block & Restroed Front Suspension

Summer 2014 - New Front Bumper Cover & Matching Hood

Summer 2014 - New Rear Suspension, MWC Fab 9 Narrowed 6", New Wheels

Looks awesome man

Seeing this makes me jealous. The 9in is 100% badass

Hell fkin yea!!! Looks killer man!

needs LT1 rear brakes

I need to make a nice thread like this. But first I need to build a nice car.

Lame

Rearend is in. Specs are MWC Fab 9 Narrowed 6", Back Braced, Fill Plug, Tow Loops,Transverse Shock Mounts, Chromoly Anti Roll Bar, Chromoly Tunnel Mount Torque Arm, Viking Shocks, 35 Spline Strange Axles, Chromoly Drag Spool, Strange Pro HD Aluminum Case, 4.30s, Billet Aluminum Yoke, 3.5" PST Aluminum Driveshaft, Strange Pro Series Rear Drag Brakes. Rearend weighs just about the same as what a stock 10 bolt weighs

Dat lip doe..

http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/up...me-240x180.jpg

Looks awesome man, how much did the stock 10 bolt weight? I know you said about the same just wonder exact weight if you had it handy.

And the shocks look fucking awesome, I think thats what I might go with when I get some, let me know how you like em.

I have the same shocks I love them but I have clunk nation going on right now.

Thanks Bud. kevins 2.73 rearend with stock diff cover 146
the others i weighed had aftermarket aluminum girdles, one was 156 the other 158. I can get mine a little lighter by sending out the ring and pinion to innovators west to have them lightened.

Righteous

Thats awesome, so much for the argument a 9" weighs more haha, did it eat any power up or not dynoed it yet?

Well a 9" does weigh more. Its the Fab 9 housing that is lighter. But yeah I'd def have one of these if I had a T56 in my car.

its had a 9" in it for 3 years so im not sure about the power loss but i doubt its much.

we should go to one of those dyno days some time and see what they put down bolt on only before we mod them haha