That post is a winner right there. :trophy-1302:

This does appear to be on the way to an aesthetically cleaner design. That said, I dug the FU vibe of the old look too.

...and Preston, I did get a chuckle when reading those posts thinking, "oh, he's gonna catch some grief if he reposts this on the island." :thumbsup:

Trust me on this Preston, no one but the Brits on this site speak the Queen's English. Just the way it is.

And your posts/progress are both awesome :cheers:

I understood two words in this post and that doesn't include erudite, voluminous, and troglodyte. :lol:

You keep posting work like that and you could type in pig Latin for all I care. The car looks amazing and is headed in an awesome direction.

haaaaaayyyyy who you callin a QUEEN?!?!?!

Great work, Preston. Keep it up!

I like the new direction with the wide body. Great job as always buddy.

Kevin

A little bit of a weak update but great things are on the way. Other than a couple of low key car shows I didn't work on the car all summer because mountain biking (and children) but I got back on things this Autumn.

The first thing I finished was the custom tail caps. I built them out of steel because its just a little easier and they're small enough the weight difference was negligible. And being about the worst thread builder photographer there is, I seem to have absolutely no raw metal or half finished photos of them even though they sat around the shop for 6 months before I finished them. I also got the fiberglass bumpers completed. The rear one remember was widened 4". The stock style bumpers were so oversized that with just a little trimming I was able to mount the front one with no other work, and in fact it now looks like an ultra custom tight fitted bumper ! I don't have a picture of that yet though (again, good things are coming). Another shout out to Fenders & Fins in Woodinville WA, he has been great about taking my pieces in and doing the bodywork and primer.

As usual my photos suck and the car is dirty, but look how nicely these end caps came out, how closely all of the angles and curves match and how tight the gaps fit. Remember these were built entirely from scratch, I'm a bit proud of them actually as it was tricky to make them look right from - behind, front, side, top , and bottom !
http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...rearcorner.jpg

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...earcorner2.jpg

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...d/siderear.jpg

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...d/turnklid.jpg

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...od/rearend.jpg

I also finished widening the cowl 2" on either side to match the fenders.

Now something that has really been engaging me - building my own '68 Shelby'esque hood from scratch - out of aluminum !

First I put some .063 angle in the shrinker and curved it to match the fender. One thing that helped enormously is that the fender edge is perfectly straight front to rear which surprised me (once you work on car bodies you start to realize that almost nothing on a car is really straight, they all have small curves in them).I then formed out some understructure pieces. I wish I had a 50" long brake but I don't so I had to do it the hard way and use a tipping die on the bead roller and then hammer the flange into the piece. Then back to the shrinker/stretcher to curve it, and then the previous angle and the "girder" get cleco'ed together. The hood skin will wrap around the flange. Although I'm getting really proud of my aluminum TIG welding skills, the substructure will all be panel adhesived together because there would just be too much warpage otherwise.

Note how I use the little tabs spaced up one thickness up so that the flange is .063" below the fender surface. And the 1/4" thick plate to space it out from the fender.

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...Hood/hood1.jpg

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...Hood/hood2.jpg

Finally here is a crappy photo of the outer border complete. The idea is that now that the outer border matches up with the fender and nose and the curves match and the gaps are good, I can build the center section using the Shelby nostrils to form the start of the "cowl rise" section to get the height I need, and the beauty of it is this can be a bit free form as it sits "on top" of the surface. It would look better without the white piece of cardboard but I was mocking up the inlet scoop of the '68 Shelby nostrils.

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...Hood/hood3.jpg

Speaking of the nostrils, this was a bit of a struggle for me because I hate "faux" stuff, and the nostrils are totally for looks as the air will go straight to the duct hole in the center of the hood, so their only purpose will be to add drag ! But, I need a raised cowl section anyway, and since I'm really trying to capture that vintage flavor, I feel like the closer I hew to the '68 look the better. And, they do add a very aggressive look, especially combined with the outlet duct and louvers in the hood.One reason I love to fabricate this stuff is because I want to see what it will look like myself ! I don't really ever make drawings or computer renderings, so its all a mystery to me until it gets created. Its almost magical in a way.

Anyway, one design element I am struggling with is I want them to be very subtle, barely 1" high inlets. If you go back up and look at the green '68 Shelby above, you will note that the nostrils are actually quite large. I am going to tone them down so they come out more like this:

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...supersnake.jpg

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...d/muscle67.jpg

the struggle being trying to keep something subtle and sexy vs trying to emulate the '68 Shelby as closely as possible. But I just can't see putting thsoe giant parachutes on the front so we'll see. Sometime I think I just want to make a normal low key cowl rise hood without nostrils, but like I said before they do add a very aggressive look and its nice to keep teh design continuity. Your thoughts welcome, but either way there will still be a giant duct in the front center of the hood although I will make it look more finished this time.

also excited because i ordered a new wilson manifold.

http://www.carter-engineering.com/pr...onmanifold.jpg

All said and done it wasn't that far off from buying a complete sheet metal manifold, but that would require sending them my heads and this should fit my needs. For such a big engine, I haven't been quite happy with the low rpm performance by which I mean lugging around town below 2000rpms. Most people would be fine with it, but the combination of low CR, small cam, tall gears, and big heads and big intake just made it a little balky so I'm hoping these long runners and good distribution help.
Anyway I can't finish the hood until I get this in and see what clearance I need. so I'll be shifting gears to that, should be here this week. Should be interesting adapting everything including the cruise control cable ! I'm really excited to see if it makes a big, small , or not even noticeable difference int he driving experience. The Wilson guy raved about it though, said it was Robby Gordon's favorite of all the intakes they tried on his race truck bla bla bla but of course the salesman would say that !

Subtle, hmmm, no. Sexy? Yes, waaay yes. Man, if it comes out anything close to that rendering that will be one of the baddest fastbacks out there imo. I like the looks of that one better than "Eleanor", and i wouldn't kick here outa bed for eatin crackers lol....

That's not my rendering, that was some project I saw on 6speedonline, I was just using it to demonstrate hood designs. That is supposed to be a somewhat widened body too, and at one point he did post a twin turbo NRE 427 showing up, but I haven't seen any updates on it in at least a year.