My dad called not to long ago telling me that the rearend is now installed and the disc brakes now work. Remember, the rearend is out of a 94 cop car and it went in perfectly like nothing changed from a 85 to an 94 caprice classic. There was some hangup with the bolt pattern on the rotors but that can be fixed by replacing the front assembly. The driveshaft was a little to long after the installation so they (Dad and Mark) shorten the drive shaft by a little and weld it up. It is not ready for racing until a new driveshaft is installed but it is ready for the transmission. Slowly but surely they are making progress on the car. I wish I was there to help in all of this work but we have remodeling going on which keeps me home when my family goes up to see family.

During the winter slumber, we are reviewing the tasks that we want to accomplish for the summer to come. We have a new rear end, a heavy duty sway bar for the rear end, and also a new transmission to install before we can take it for a spin. One those have been installed, I will not baby that engine so much. I have been gentle because it is a new engine and also the transmission and rear end are weak for the power. Next summer will be exciting for new videos and more pictures.

My father sent me an e-mail telling me that he found a rear end for $200. Here is his message. "
I just bought a used 1994 squad rear end , posi with disc brakes and frame , control arms etc....200$$$ , I measured everything and it should fit, we will have hook up brake lines and I don`t know how the brakes are going to work....oh well!!! , I just put her to bed last nite also at home, she takes up alot of room!!!...later"

I think this says it all. We were thinking about getting a 9 inch rear end but this one is much cheaper and also ready to go. We will not have to do any additional work besides hooking everything up.

I got a call from my dad the other day. He was telling me that he was getting a new rack for alignment and was getting rid of his old one. His old rack consisted of a drive on hoiste and a seperate computer station. He sent word out to ther shops seeing if they would be interested in a drive on hoist and rack and the only person that responded back was a transmission shop guy. He came to my father's shop to review the hoist and said I will take it for the price that you are asking for, $1000.00. Then dad got into his wheeling and dealing mode and said to the guy, "All I want from you is a 700R4 transmission, 2200 rpm stall converter, 4 gears, and a manual/automatic shifting." The manual/automatic shifting allows the user to either have it in automatic mode or if they plan to race, shift it manual style.

Dad told him that it does not have to be done right away, but he would like it before the next summer. This will grant the guy plenty of time to do a great job on a transmission that will need to be beaten and also just driven.

All now that is left is a Ford rear-end and disc brakes and the drive trane will be complete.

It is hard to keep the tires from spinning and also being able to take off relatively quickly. Since the rear-end is still stock, the one tire will spin at a seconds notice, but I thought dad did a great job keeping it together and not spinning it out.

The idle was adjusted to something a little higher. This way we can avoid fouling out the plugs. We were just about to go into McDonalds for some breakfast when I thought about video taping the car as a 360 view. We are going to slowly see some changes in the future on this car. We are looking at a 9 inch rear end and to add on top of that, going to put on rear disk breaks. You won't find to many caprices in that year with disk breaks on the back.

The caprice was seeming a little rolly around corners and just plan driving. So Dad went and picked up some shocks. These shocks allow for a stiffer stance and also a better feel of the road. For all of you caprice lovers out there, these might be the next best things for your car. Suspension is everything when it comes to a performance car and the caprices are known for there rolly-polly drive...they were built for comfort and it will take a lot to make it performance.

Here is a picture of the shocks that were placed on the car.