This RWD Converted Turbo LS Swap Impala SS is a Super Sleeper! (He Explains How He Did It w/Pics!)

I had an idea and I just went for it. I was driving up and saw this thing on a trailer with these in the back. I thought, " Dude, this is so cool. I need to find this guy and ask him about this." So what should we see here? This is a 2004 Impala SS , the way it should have been made. Yes, open the hood. Let's see what's happening here. This shouldn't be here. She fits well. It's a little tight from front to back. What is the story of this? Well, I have a 2003 Impala that I drove to school every day. I just thought, you know, this would be the perfect sleeping car. I was going to do it with this one eventually, but it was too rusty. So I went and got this one, just to trade it in . He's going to pull it out onto the sidewalk here so we can climb in there and see what the rear suspension looks like, because I'm honestly extremely curious. So, you did all this yourself. What is the rear-wheel drive configuration ? How did you do it? Well, the rear suspension is just a 10-bolt suspension from an '80s Camaro . They just installed a non-original four-link suspension. Let's see if we can see anything under it here. Oh, yes. So, that's what we have here. Hey, you're not kidding, it's really simple. Yes. Wow. Is your fuel cell in the spare tire niche? No, I was originally going to do that. That was my plan. I did the math and it should only hold about 10 gallons. Can it be placed lower, or does it have to be like this? Well, you see, the problem... One of the problems I had was the shock absorbers. I couldn't find a shock absorber with enough travel. Because most of the suspensions I found only had about 3 inches of travel. This will not be good. And I had to ride long enough to have some momentum. So I had to make other brackets to just lower it without going through the floor and making mountains out of it. So, is this a four-link suspension with a Panhard strut up front? Yes. Now I understand it. It's amazing how simple it is. Conventional wisdom would have you think that you would have to do all sorts of overloads and all sorts of things, but that's simply not the case. Right. And the factory exhaust tunnel , exhaust port, whatever you want to call it. You know , he's perfect. The cardan shaft is perfect. I only needed to insert the driveshaft and there is a small section that hangs down. Hammer solved this issue. And it is under the back seat. You will never see him. Yes, actually. Yes. So the driveshaft tunnel, the driveshaft tunnel , was originally an exhaust tunnel, and you just put the driveshaft in there. It's almost like they knew. like, yes. It's almost as if they knew people would do it. I mean, you can't even see it from the inside. No. I mean, I see your bundle of wires there, Holly, but I kind of know it because mine are all tucked in there too . Yes, no, everything looks completely normal here. You can put some standard wheels on the back and fool people. Yes, definitely. Ride. That would be so funny. And I didn't even adjust the suspension or anything like that . I just set it up there and it does 9-second passes. It is actually installed in the factory location where the 3800 used to be. The factory steering rack is in the rear and I had to move it to the front. I had to cut out the transmission tunnel. This is the only part of the entire machine that I had to cut out. So to make it rear-wheel drive, you just removed everything? Was there a subframe in the back ? Did you cut the mount and just gut it a little? For example, how does it work? Independent, you know, the rear suspension that was in it. I just unscrewed it and took it out. Have you done anything like this before? No. So you just grab a welding machine and start doing it ? Yes. I just had an idea and I just went for it. Let this be a lesson to you . You don't need to be skilled to do any of this. You just need to start doing it. A lot of people told me: you know, you're stupid. Why, why did you do that? Until they saw the final product and said: this is actually cool. I think this guy got hurt. What did he do? Did you hear that? Yes. He's like, "And now he's limping." I wonder if he needs help. I don't know. Is he bleeding, or did he just hit his throat or something? What size turbine do you have here ? VS7875. Did you also assemble the entire turbo kit yourself? Yes. There is something that needs to be redone. I was trying to make it to drag racing week this year. All the plans went nowhere, but this will get a second version. Evolution is the most interesting thing. Did you drive like that today? Yes, I drove like that. OK. This is almost identical to one of my early time readings on the Escalade. If you go down 60 feet, it will be in 9 seconds. Oh, yes. I only have 3 pounds of boost left? I didn't install it or leave it on the two-speed box for very long. Is there more room in the turbine and everything related to power? At 17 pounds. Oh, yes. You're just getting started. Yes. And this with very, very little time. Factories. I just want to show people what this thing looks like when it moves, because it's so cool. Like the front hubs. I just took the CV shaft, cut it off, and screwed it back on because sometimes the front wheel bearings go out. Actually, they should have a pin. It's like it's clamped in, so it's just a CV joint with a pin and everything else. On the other side there is no connection. Yes. Yes, it's just cut off. Did you have a plan when you started, or did you just start taking it apart and putting it back together? No, I knew I was going to trade it in for an LS. I knew I would probably choose the rear Turbo 400. I had no idea . I just put it in its place. On my other car...before I bought this one, I opened the hood, took a tape measure, measured it, and said, " Okay, it'll fit." And I started looking for other cars. Did you enjoy researching people who converted Monte Carlos to rear-wheel drive, etc., to see firsthand how they did it? No, I tried searching, but I couldn't find anything. I put it under the car and thought, "Well, it looks like a second- generation Camaro with frame rails, so I'll just do it that way." There are subframe connectors on each side. It's a piece of C- channel running front to back, 8 inches, welded to the entire machine, trying to prevent twisting. I have two steps on the brake pedal itself. You simply drill a hole in it and insert the button onto the brake pedal. Yes. This way, you don't need to have three hands. You know, you can just press the brake and you have, you know, gas, brake, and you don't have to let go of the brake, and, uh, it's a two-step button at the same time, just like you let go of the brake. Hmm. This makes the work much easier. I used to connect mine to the tail light signal. But that wasn't the case...This is probably a faster way to do it, for example, in terms of reaction. I was worried about the reaction of a two-stage brake pedal without a spring or something like that, to such a click. Yeah, it's still so ridiculous to hear when I think, "Dude, she just looks so right. Where can I find you?""Push the Limits Racing" on Facebook. I post a few things about it here and there . I'll post more here soon. "Push the Limits" on Instagram. I haven't launched YouTube yet. Maybe you should. Doing things like this at home, in the garage, is what people want to see. Yes, that's him. This is my girlfriend posting this on Instagram. I don't even know how to get there . Look, dude. It was incredibly cool to check this thing out. I hope people can get inspired and just dive into things. That's the whole point. Well, guys, I hope you found this interesting, because I definitely think that Impala was super cool. As soon as we pulled up, I saw that thing and said, "I need to find this guy and talk to him." And indeed, I learned a lot too . And I hope you learned a lot, not just about the technical aspect of what he did, but also about the fact that he decided to do it in the first place , and did it in his garage without knowing what he was doing. He just dug in and started to figure it out. That's an important lesson to learn from a lot of these things for some of you young guys who want to work on your own stuff, have ideas, and want to do something: it doesn't matter what people tell you: "it's been done," "it's been done," "you can't do this," " you don't know how to do that," it doesn't matter. You just have to start doing it, and if you really want to understand it, you can and you will, because that's just how it works. A lot of people start designing cars and never finish them because they feel like they're not qualified to do it, or, I don't know , they just can't keep that fire going for a couple of minutes , a couple of days, and then they're just gone. They don't have the determination to finish it. Well, this guy did. He did it. I did it with an Escalade. Many other people have done this with many other crazy things and many other things that are n't even related to cars. It's all the same principle, the same principles, but, you know, working on a car project, working on a car applies to many other aspects of life in general and building anything. Yes, we all do this, but be sure to hit the subscribe button and let me know if you want to see more videos like this about cars like this. I personally like it because I like to draw lessons from this issue, like reflect on them and present them in a way that you can say, " Okay, this is something I can apply to my situation." So , that's the whole point. See you tomorrow.