Overdue Progress and Update

Overdue Progress and Update

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update and that’s mostly because we’ve been busy with a few other things and I haven’t had the time to work on the car. ;-( Sad I know. Nevertheless, I got a good solid day in yesterday and made some good progress in multiple areas.

First I need to say thanks to my lovely wife and daughter for nailing it with my birthday gifts.

BDay Gifts-0001

And here they are hung in the garage, perfect choice to fill that blank space on the walls. Adds a nice touch to the garage.

BDay Gifts-0002

 

Ok, Destinee and I started working on the gas tank while we waited for the rear suspension parts. We got the sensor for the gas gauge and the pump installed.

Gas Tank-0002 Gas Tank-0004

When we went to install the pump we immediately ran into a problem. Just a small one as in it wouldn’t fit. So after staring at it for a bit I realized that the folds on the pinch seams were interfering with the mounting brackets. You can see it in the pic below on the left.

Gas Tank-0006Gas Tank-0007

Refer to the manual and there’s no mention of anything, go to the forum and everyone says “Oh yea you have to bend the folds back down flat and the manual doesn’t mention anything about this”, so there you go. Finally got those bent down and hammered out as you can see on the pic on the right. That solved that problem and the gas tank went in with just a slight short bolt problem. A new longer problem easily solved that one.

On Friday a bunch of parts showed up and I had lot to work with yesterday. First off the front brakes. I decided I didn’t want to go with the standard brakes and opted for the higher performance Wilwood brakes and here they are.

These are the front 6-piston calipers. These should stop the car.

Front Brakes-0001

12″ Front rotors and rotor hats.

Front Brakes-0002

Assembled rotor and hat.  Rear side.

Front Brakes-0003

Assembled rotor and hat. Front side

Front Brakes-0004

Whole assembly installed on car. Driver side

Front Brakes-0005

With wheel installed checking to make sure there aren’t any clearance issues.

Front Brakes-0006

Opps almost forgot to mention how much help Precious was in putting these together.

Front Brakes-0007

So after getting the front brakes taken care of I moved to the rear suspension as some of the right parts finally showed up on Friday also. First I had to assemble the coil over shocks. Here are all of the components.

Rear Shocks-0001

And here are the assembled coil overs.

Rear Shocks-0002

Onto installing the spindles and the upper and lower control arms. Below are the spindles, nice and clean from the machine shop with new bearings and hubs installed.

Rear Spindles-0001

The proper control arms, finally. The 2 larger arms are the lower control arms and the 2 on the left are the upper control arms.

Rear Suspension-0001

Here you can seem it all installed in the car. Nothing is set at this point because I’m still lacking the axles and I haven’t rebuilt the diff yet and right now the spindles are held on with the original spindle bolts. Expecting the axles next month and looking to have the diff rebuilt in the next few weeks.

Rear Suspension-0003

Same hub just from the forward view.

Rear Suspension-0002

 And finally yesterday I started some of the aluminum panel work, specifically on the the driver side foot box. This work is in preparation for running some of the lines and getting ready to set the engine in place. In case you’re wondering what the little copper pins sticking out of the panels everywhere are, they’re called Cleco’s. Essentially they are temporary rivets that hold the panels in place while you work the panel and get everything lined up. Far easier then actually using a real rivet that would need to be drilled out and holds better than a clamp. Plus, I won’t be riveting the panels in permanently until I have them powder coated.

Drive Foot Box Panels-0001

Drive Foot Box Panels-0002

Drive Foot Box Panels-0004

Ok that’s it for the Saturday update. Not sure if I’ll get anything done on Sunday but if I do I’ll let you know.

8 Comments

  1. Tom Atencio
    Aug 25, 2013

    Coming along nicely Randy. Good work!

    • Bob Bencsko
      Aug 25, 2013

      Some really nice stuff dude. Get it done and I’ll be back out for a ride.

  2. Jon Dill
    Aug 26, 2013

    Did you have to refer to the “dog collar blog” to install that on Precious? Just a joke. Thanks for entertaining and educating us. Takin’ shape!!

  3. Jack
    Aug 26, 2013

    Looks great! Love those calipers!

  4. Joe Demmons
    Aug 27, 2013

    Nice update Randy, those are some beastly calipers… what’s the estimated weight of the car (completed)?

    • admin
      Aug 27, 2013

      The car should be just a few pounds over 2000 when done. With over 400 hp I didn’t want to leave anything to chance with the brakes.

  5. Terry
    Aug 28, 2013

    In the build school they said a Sharpie and Clecos would be our friends. I’m sure you’ve found this to be as true as I have. I ordered 80 clecos to start and I ordered 80 more. I love those things. Keep up the good work. It looks great. Did you happen to order a battery box from ffmetal.com?

    • admin
      Aug 31, 2013

      I haven’t picked up the battery box yet. I’ve been looking at it but I’ve also been looking at some mods to the trunk to add a little space and I was considering possibly just making my own box.

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