The making of a Monster..The Official Gila Monster V2.0 build thread.

[CarMichael Angelo]

* Editors note:
I have assembled everything that I need to “ rebuild” the build thread of undoubtedly one of the longest build threads this site has ever had. In doing so, you’ll see the car evolve in the course of the few hours that it takes to read it, vs the many years that it took to build it. Gone most notably are the thousands of replies, comments, and questions asked by those that followed along over the years. Just as gone will be my rambling, off topic commentary that most had to suffer through to get to the meat and potatoes ( pictures) that I was putting on the table every night for the 7 odd years that I’ve been building this thing. Now, for those that followed the original from its beginnings.. Not having to read ( or skip) some of my mindless blather to get to the pictures might either be a good or bad thing, depending on its potential entertainment value. Today I discovered something that at least in some small part guarantees that some of the better stuff from the original will show back up here as well. That said, i’ve got a lot of work in front of me..Enjoy it.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

The Good, The bad, and the Ugly..

I bought the car off of some website I only knew that I wanted a Fairmont Futura that was rust free, and hadn’t been in a wreck. The car I found, came from Arizona. It was cheap, it ran, had never been wrecked, and had lived its entire 35 years in the desert southwest.
This is the way it looked the day it arrived:

While there was very little rust, and the body was pretty decent, The Arizona sun and heat had taken a toll on everything. What wasnt faded was cracked, brittle, and broken. Since the plan was a complete gut and custom, the fact that everything was garbage wasn’t really that much of a big deal. I did plan, however to use the tail lights. ( at the time). That changed when I took delivery of the car...The ride between Arizona, and Birmingham had jarred all of the lenses out of the housings, and all along I-10 the lenses had fell off. (Maybe it was kinda like a car version of Hansel & Gretel,...only instead of dropping bread crumbs to find their way out of the woods, the car had done that with its lenses) Then again,...maybe not.

Nonetheless, I had what I wanted,...an ugly, slow moving, low riding project car that shared its kinship with the fox body platform. I decided the car needed a name.
Taking it’s inspiration from the area it came from, and sharing some of its characteristics with a particularly crotchety lizard from the same region, I compared notes:
1. Ugly.
2. Slow.
3. Various shades of brown, black and orange. I got 80%....so
4. poisonous, but not particularly threatening..

Let’s compare shall we..

seems appropriate...Behold the dim bulb, known as a Gila Monster..a little fat phck of a low riding lizard the lives in a certain part of Arizona from where he gets his name. From here on, my car project will be known as the Gila Monster.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

First things First:
I always had a concept in my head for this project. I knew how I wanted it to look both inside, and outside. I roughed up some sketches, and pinned them on the wall in my garage.

With the front and rear fascia and the interior concept sketch as motivation, I started in on making it reality.
As part of my work ethic, I can’t/won’t work on a dirty-greasy car.....And this car needed cleaning...badly.
I put the car as high in the air as I could.

Once pressure washed, I got the car back in the garage, removed the drivetrain, and started on the chassis.
Everything under the car was wire-wheeled clean, and coated in truck bed liner.

I made this set of sf connectors out of 1.50” x .125 wall round tubing, with a 1x1 x .125 wall square tube welded along the pinch weld. the scuffed off sections that you see on the connectors before install are for the weld points. not only is it welded to the rail, but also the floor above. I prefer this treatment to any other version of connector...with the double connecting points, and the 1 foot wide connecting spars, this set up makes for a very rigid foundation.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Doo,doo doo Lookin out my back door.

315x17 tires were in the plan for the rear, and a Fairmont doesn’t have the room to accommodate that. I knew that I’d have to minitub the rear, i’ve done it several times now...it’s getting to be like cake.
The trunk/ hatch has to be removed. not only will it make for easier access to everything, but it removes the stress points from the hinges freeing you up to cut all of that stuff away.

make a bunch of reference cuts with a cut off wheel.

cut away the structure..
Then get out the sawzall, and connect the dots..

There is a bunch of blade bending going on underneath, as the factory upper spring perch does tend to make things a little difficult, but the factory rear springs and 315’s don’t play together anyway...the plan called for getting rid of everything that was factory up to the frame rail...

I drilled out the remaining spot welds, and beat that junk off of there.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Bringing up the Rear:

As with all weenie assed Fox bodies, mine came factory equipped with a 7.5. I wanted an 8.8, so went on the Hunt on a saturday. I was able to find an SN 95 unit, which was what I wanted. I paid 300.00 happily.To make my wheels fit under the quarters, and in their newly widened ( by 1.250”) wheel tubs, I cut the rear 1.5” on each side.

A sawzall, and hose clamp being the required tools.

The hose clamp acts as a guide in an attempt to keep the cut line straight.

Once cut I took the housing to a friend that had the jig so that we could weld it back together,..once done, I ordered the right length axle from Moser, some NRC brackets to hold the calipers in place, burned out the old rubber bushings, and replaced them with some poly units. Then gave the thing a new set of 3.73 gears, and rebuilt the T loc.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Holding everything up..The suspension:

The car is suspended with coil overs.. The rear uses true threaded coil over single adjustable shocks, and the front uses a standard Monroe strut, with a UPR coil over kit.