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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 Basic Rolling Chassis is a stable comfortable ride on a solid controllable driving platform. This chassis is ideal for touring cars, because it allows a low stance and modern suspension with no body modification required. The Basic rolling chassis utilizes the 1985-1988 corvette suspension. This suspension offers a narrower track width for less backspacing on wheels and achieves more lip. The smaller calipers and rotors will also allow the owner to run 15” wheels for a more traditional look

Click to Enlarge

 

               The basic chassis is stopped by 4 single piston, aluminum, sliding calipers with 4 11.5” rotors. These newer design disk brakes will create more even clamping force than the GM A-Body calipers found in most disk brake conversions kits. You also get the added stability of proper upper A arm anti dive angle. This means when you get on the brakes hard you don’t have to worry about the front end diving into the ground. Our chassis come standard with QA1 Ultra Ride coil over shocks on all 4 corners. These shocks are set on the compression side and adjustable on the rebound side of the shock. 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 check out our air ride chassis for more adjustment with air springs.

 

The Basic Rolling Chassis With Coil Over Shocks

Frame

 

Front Suspension

 

Rear Suspension

  • Hot Rod Jims C4 Frame
  • Black Powder coating
  • 11 gauge gusseted boxed tubing  
  • Transmission cross member
  • Motor and transmission mounts
  • No Body modification required
 
  • 1985-1988.5 Corvette front suspension
  • Aluminum Dual Arms – Refinished in silver
  • New Polyurethane  Bushings
  • Power Rack and Pinion rebuilt by AC Delco
  • New tie rod ends
  • Black Powder coated suspension cradle
  • QA1 Ultra Ride Coil Over Shocks
  • Front Brakes
    •  Rebuilt Corvette aluminum calipers
    • Availible in red or black
    • New 11.5” rotors
 
  • 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
  •  Rear Brakes
    • Rebuilt Corvette Aluminum Calipers
    • Availible in red or black
    • New 11.5” rotors
All of this for Only $14,620

Options & Upgrades

Brake Lines

               Full brake system, braided stainless steel flex lines and steel hard lines.

+$650.00                

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.

+1000.00 - 2000.00 (Call For Price)               

Sport Kit

               The sport kit adds components to improve the handling and tune-ability characteristics of your car’s chassis without drastically increasing the price. Adjustable 4 bars to allow caster adjustment of the rear end's "bite" under launch. This way you can make that one wheel that spins normally get the grip you need to get out of the hole without the car sliding to one side. Front and rear sway bars for added rate to your motion ratio and help plant the car harder in a corner.

  • 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

+$1,100.00               

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

+$1,980.00               

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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