Only had a few hours to mess with it but started hacking to get a radiator in there. If you are not familiar with it, they usually mount behind this upper radiator panel, not below it. Going to keep working on the upper rad panel to get it cleaned up and rid it of some of the factory leftovers.

I am no sheetmetal guy, but learning. I am also teaching myself how to TIG weld with zero instructions, so pardon a few of my ****ty looking TIG joints. They are getting better.

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Silicon Bronzed this stuff together and a little bit of metal work. I think it came out alright.

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Looks good dude! You’ve got to roll it through town a few times before cutting and fitting the big ol tars, super sleeper!
:cheers: and :happy23:

That's like totally incongruous, Sean. Who knew you were such a freak for details?

Nice work Sean!! I love that you incorporated a support for the brake booster into the strut tower brace.

Are you going to tape off and keep the OEM labels on the radiator support when you repaint it? #Please

Wow beautiful job! The engine bay looks a brand new car.

The problem is the Brakes wont clear the wheels and I dont want to get it together just to take it back apart. I do have to say that you make me thing twice about that =) Would be so fun to take to cars and coffee running and driving looking like this on the outside but engine swap completed.

I know right? This is a new thing for me, the details.......the sad part is it just keeps getting worse and worse.

Thanks man, its amazing the difference it makes in pedal firmness and brake feel. Its the little things that most people will never notice that I enjoy spending obscene amounts of time on.

Unfortunately I just couldnt keep them, one of them got burned up in metal work and I am too OCD to keep the big ass tag, but I do have a plan for it somewhere else on the car, so it will be back.

Thanks man, most new cars I see are all plastic though :lol:

Managed to get all of the bodywork done on that front panel and shoot it with some high build, then sand, sand sand....and more sanding. Stuff is awesome though. Super Build 4:1.

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Looking a little like Dexter in the shop =)

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Then this happened..

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All caused by a flat tire on the air compressor. Had no idea that it would kill the old girl to be honest. Note to self, they are very sensitive to being level. Took out Crank and Rod. Got a good 10+ years out of my $500.00 compressor and this little guy has cranked out some work.

Pat had the idea of trying some colors out on the strut bar. I shot half of it in rattle can Almond which is shockingly close to the engine bay paint and the other half Rustoleom Oil Rubbed Bronze. I love the color and finish of it, but it just seems like an afterthought with all of the Black and Silver going on in there already. I am going to shoot it Black afterall.

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I had a little time on Sunday to tinker and got the battery in the final place, built a plate for the battery mount to attach it to the car, got the starter in and built all of the positive, negative and alternator leads for the car, just need to sort out the actual battery terminals, the ones I wanted are no longer available.

Intake parts finally showed up last night so I got busy fitting all of that together. Came together really well in my opinion.

I still have to install and weld up the bung, will be running LS7 card style MAF.

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I am very new to the TIG game, but pretty happy with how this turned out, it will be powdercoated so not polished or anything. Something to be said about learning a new skill, I love learning new things.

Should have upper rad panel back from Painter today or tomorrow, fans and shroud should be here tomorrow, gotta pick up upper and lower radiator stuff to get that on the old turd too.

Progress is horribly slow with how much I am working and traveling. I need to take a week off and bust out some big stuff.

Sean

Finally had a break in the work schedule to get something done on the car. Ran around a little bit on friday and picked up some parts, you would be amazed the difference in parts places between "Big City" Portland and Eugene. Nothing here is open on the weekends for parts like nuts and bolts, fittings or anything like that. There is one good parts place in town M-F and they are hot rod stuff only. I am realizing how huge having Baxters within 10 minutes of my old place was in completing these projects in such a quick manner. 90% of the parts I have to mail order and wait.

So rounded up some parts, picked up the painted upper radiator panel from Metalworks and got to work early afternoon on Friday.

Managed to get the fans mounted up to the radiator, rubber isolators installed and the radiator trimmed to fit. Its nice and snug in there. Also installed the weather pack connector and got the upper and lower radiator hoses figured out. They were pretty easy but I did end up doing a 30 degree swivel style for the water pump to get things lined up better.

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Figured out the intercooler setup and built a nice little bracket to hold the reservoir behind the strut, out of harms way and up high.

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With that mounted up I got to work on more plumbing. I had to figure out how to mount the heat exchanger, keep the factory hood latch and the upper radiator panel support piece, it was a tight fit.

This is the factory Volvo piece, before it got chopped up.

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Starting to get the hang with the TIG torch...

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So I built a tray for the bottom of the heat exchanger to sit in, its got rubber on the bottom, sides and back so its not metal on metal anywhere, this holds it in position and should keep the bottom of it well protected.

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I had to section out the front support and add a couple of tabs to it to attach so it can all be removed and installed from the car, this was more challenging that it sounds as the angles up front are a bitch to work around. Hood latch has plenty of room to function but its a bitch to get in and out as you can tell by the fins on the heat exchanger.......I was not very happy a few times on Saturday messing with this.

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I got the intercooler pump mounted up to the inside of the framerail where it will have good feed from the tank and out to the heat exchanger and got to work figuring out the hoses and such for the system. I ditched all screw style hose clamps and opted for the factory style hose clamps. its a much cleaner installation.

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Still working on a clamp/heat shield setup that I like for the heater/intercooler hoses.

Spent waaaay too much time on this over the weekend and its functional but I dont like it at all. I need to come up with a better solution but that isnt going to stop the build.

I got the MAF bung welded in, re ran that wiring onto the engine and shortened it up, got the intercooler pump wiring all terminated and buttoned up. The only thing remaining on the aftermarket side is the fans, I need to get some loom and get that wiring out to them and terminate for the weather pack connector. I also built a small support stand for the air filter to keep it from moving all over the place.

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Then tore it all apart and loaded all the parts up for Powder Coat this week.

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Battery terminals should be here this week sometime, powdercoat should be done by the end of the week. Coilovers should be here this week so I will be able to install and measure for wheel clearances.

I am going to call in some help for next weekend and see if we can make a big dent.

Sean

Very nice progress, I like the stock exterior look.

I only started TIG welding a few years ago and I find myself using that process much more often than I do MIG if the parts will be seen. MIG works really well for mock up or quick stuff though.

What did you use for the heat exchanger reservoir? Do you have a part number for it? That just might fit my LSA swapped Impala.

I’m not available next weekend....😉

It’s looking really good, as usual. I’m pretty interested to see the brake upgrade so if you could pick up the pace a bit, that’d be great.

:flag2::thumbsup:

They both have their places. Big chassis work I would never consider Tig, it would take far too long. Detailed stuff like this though its nice and its clean. I have found myself using it more and more on this project.

I ordered the entire LSA from Lance Draeger from one of the facebook pages. He has been amazing when it comes to the swap and a wealth of information. It is an edelbrock tank, but Ill be damned if I can find one online. If you need info on it hit him up. Awesome guy.

Bummer, you are always welcome at my place, we have lots of room to house you when you are freed up.

Sorry, you know the 12 to 15 hour work days don't leave much time for shop time anymore. Brakes are super easy, you just bolt the **** on and hook up some hoses. I am probably going to go with the 8.8 in the rear so Ill have the rear brackets and rotors available shortly.

Dropped all the crap off at the powdercoaters yesterday, should have it back at the end of the week. Most 20% gloss black, the intake tube and upper strut bracket are light textured black. Hope it looks good.

Sean