Anybody with FatMan fab strut front ends?

curious how you like the fatman strut front ends, especially drag racing.

I didn't...look on my web site and you can see the FatMan install. It installs easy but compared to the Chassisworks stuff, it's in a totally different league. You can't get the car to sit anywhere close to low, turning radius is hideous, still have to hack up the shock towers for a big block, must run a very small damper. I took it off and sold it along with the rest of the front sheet metal...probably the best thing I ever did on my Nova. For strictly drag racing it might be Ok if you can be happy with the rest of the things I mentioned.

my buddy has one in his 63 ragtop.at the time(about 8 years ago) it was the 'latest and greatest' available,but if he could do it over again he wouldn't do it.it doesn't have the turning radius my CPP has,it's kind of clunky(doesn't flow smoothly through the full range of motion)and you still have the bushing and radius rods to deal with.
from what i've seen,there's much better available today.
leftcoast carl.

For drag racing, apparently there is not enough front end travel. This was from a guy at Super Chevy this past summer and that was his complaint. He watched my car leave and go down the track................he came over and purchase one of my rack conversions. I personally don't have any experiance with the kit, buy just from this particular person. For street driving maybe it would be o.k. However like others have mentioned the turning radiius is challenged.

yea I did know a guy, an old GSN nova member Jeff Piazza, that had that problem with the right spring for the front. Affected his 60fts. I figured now that the 4th Gen camaros are so popular that a good shock/spring is available. My only reason for asking is I like the simplicity of kit. Not alot of parts to install, and gives you alot of room when you cut the shock towers back and now you have front steering which solves the oil pan problem.

Although I do like the mini sub frame kit from CPP, and I like your kit church. My bottom line is to remove as much of the shock tower as I can, use either my stock suspension with a coil over(which I have now) and have a rack and front steer so I can put on a full length drag pan and get my car as low as possible. I also thought of a Heidt's front end too. Its something to think about in the future.

yea I did know a guy, an old GSN nova member Jeff Piazza, that had that problem with the right spring for the front. Affected his 60fts. I figured now that the 4th Gen camaros are so popular that a good shock/spring is available. My only reason for asking is I like the simplicity of kit. Not alot of parts to install, and gives you alot of room when you cut the shock towers back and now you have front steering which solves the oil pan problem.

Although I do like the mini sub frame kit from CPP, and I like your kit church. My bottom line is to remove as much of the shock tower as I can, use either my stock suspension with a coil over(which I have now) and have a rack and front steer so I can put on a full length drag pan and get my car as low as possible. I also thought of a Heidt's front end too. Its something to think about in the future.

I have the churchboys kit on my car and it sets low. And drives great but I do have the stock tower still on the car.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v326/Highmark/Dads%20Car/DSC_0004.jpg

3DTim, I thought with the Church Boys setup you could use a normal rear sump pan?

It looks in your pic like you still have one of those notched rear sumps designed for the factory suspension that scrape on the street and cause all kinds of problems when you lower the car or is it just a kicked-out deep sump?

When I built my car, nobody offered any type of strut front kit, or any other front kit for that matter. Mine is designed just like a regular full-chassis drag car. I have seen the Chassisworks strut front kit and that one looks really nice. If I was building a first gen again, I would go that route.

3DTim, I thought with the Church Boys setup you could use a normal rear sump pan?

It looks in your pic like you still have one of those notched rear sumps designed for the factory suspension that scrape on the street and cause all kinds of problems when you lower the car or is it just a kicked-out deep sump?


You can use any oil pan, Tim was so busy putting over 4,000 miles on his car this summer he never had a chance to change the oil pan. The last I thaught changing it out was on the list of things to do for the Nova.

New pan setting on the bench. Working on other peoples stuff and mine is just setting for now. Got a pan like VooDooII did looks great on the bench.