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  Hot Rod Jim's Chassis Shop

        Hot Rod Jim has sold the design of the TriFive Frames to Nerd Rods. Please check out their site for more information about their chassis offerings. www.NerdRods.com. The Nerd Rods version even comes in a Weld it Yourself Kit.

        Hot Rod Jim’s Stage 2 Rolling Chassis is the builder’s Rolling Chassis.

        The suspension is supplied fully rebuilt and installed so you won’t have to spend your time searching for the components, rebuilding and refinishing them but a few bolt on parts are left out so you can shop around for the best deal for your project. The frame comes in bare metal so you can weld on any custom bracket, everything from roll cages to custom exhaust mounts for a truly clean finished look to match your car. The suspension is supplied with the narrow 60.5” suspension found on the 1984-88.5 Corvettes. You can upgrade to the wider 62” suspension from the 1988.5-96 too. The chassis is supplied with QA1 Ultra Ride single adjustable coilover shocks and powder coated springs but Air Ride Shockwaves are also an available upgrade.

Click to Enlarge

        The Stage 2 Chassis come standard with QA1 Ultra Ride coil over shocks on all 4 corners. These shocks have a fixed compression valve and 12 point adjustable rebound valve. With the proper spring for your car these shocks provide a very comfortable ride and the advanced shock eliminate the need for swaybars on most touring style cars. For drivers wanting a little more bite in the corners check out our Sport Kit at the bottom of the page. The Coils work best in narrow ranges of weight change 2 door with 1-2 passengers most of the time. For 4 doors and wagons check out our air ride chassis for more adjustment with air springs.

The Stage 2 Rolling Chassis With Coil Over Shocks

Frame

Front Suspension

Rear Suspension

  • Hot Rod Jims C4 Frame
  • 11 gauge boxed tubing with gussets and doublers
  • Transmission cross member
  • Motor and transmission mounts
  • No Body modification required
  • 1985-1988.5 Corvette front suspension
  • Aluminum Dual Arms – Refinished in black
  • New Polyurethane  Bushings
  • Power Rack and Pinion rebuilt by AC Delco
  • New tie rod ends
  • QA1 Ultra Ride Coil Over Shocks
  • 1985-1987 Corvette rear suspension
  • All aluminum suspension components– Refinished in silver
  • New half shaft U-Joint
  • HRJ adjustment system – Powder coated black
  • New polyurethane bushings
  • Dana 36 differential with 3.08 Gears (good for automatic transmissions)
  • QA1 Ultra Ride Coil Over Shocks
 

Options & Upgrades

Dana 44 Upgrade

        This will upgrade your rear suspension to the heavy Dana 44 differential.  The Dana 44’s change in price with market demand. Please call for current pricing.

        

Sport Kit

        The sport adds components to improve the handling characteristics of the car. Without drastically increasing the price

  • Front 24mm sway bar
    • Powder coated
  • Urethane bushings
  • Rear 19mm sway bars
    • Powder coated
  • Urethane bushings
  • Chromalloy Teflon coated end links
  • Adjustable 4 bars
  • Sport Springs
       

SS Kit

        Our Super Sport kit is designed to take out the last links of deflection and give you unparallel feedback and ultimate in handling response for your shoe box. The S kit is first installed. Then the QA1 ultra ride shock are removed and replaced with QA1’s Dual adjustable shocks with bearing ends instead of the polyurethane bushing on the ultra ride shocks. The spring rates are increased all around for faster weight transfers making the car respond faster. The front sway bar is further upgraded to aid in faster weight transfer. The SS kit shows its best potential when crossed with minor body modifications.

  • Front 30mm sway bar
    • Powder coated
  • Urethane bushings
  • Rear 19mm sway bars
    • Powder coated
  • Urethane bushings
  • Chromalloy Teflon coated end links
  • Adjustable 4 bars
  • QA1 Dual adjustable shocks
    • Bearing mounts
  • Eibach Super Sport Springs

Basic Rolling Chassis W/Coil Over Shocks FAQ


Wheel and Tire Information

        To allow for more tire clearance you can roll the outer fenders and quarters for bigger tires. Hot Rod Jim recommends a 245mm wide front tire (9.6 inches) and 275mm wide rear tire (10.8 inches) will fit the lease effort and are a common size tire. With the basic chassis you have 3.5-4 inches of back spacing available for wheel clearance on the rear and front of the car.

Differential Power Rating

        The C4 corvettes came with two different differentials, the Dana 36 and the Dana 44. The Dana 36 came behind the automatic Corvettes from 1984 until 1996 and the manual Corvettes in 1984. The Dana 44 came in the manual corvettes from 1985- 1996. The Dana 44 has a bigger case with beefier gears and better yokes, and a heaver bat wing. We are running a Dana 36 with our Black Widow project with 3.73 gears, LS1 and a T56 6 speed. We are actively trying to break it with weekly road racing and the use of the car as a daily driver.

Transmission Notes

        The 4L80 automatic transmission and T56 manual transmission will require minor floorboard modification to keep them up between the frame rails.

QA1 Adjustable Shocks

        The QA1 Ultra Ride shocks are built for comfort and ride quality. The Shocks come with an adjustable coil allowing you to pretension the spring for your desired spring load. These shocks also have a 12 point adjustable rebound settings on a small knob located on the shock body.  These 2 adjustments will allow you to tune the ride to your car without extensive work.

 

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