I'm still alive. Just been busy with work, family, etc. Even though I had a "4 day weekend" only today did I have any time to put into my car. Attached are pics of what I did. I wasn't happy with how the panel was coming out. I was getting a negative (concave) dip in the panel in the middle of the car, so I cut it and re welded it. You can see as I placed a ruler along it the "gap" went away.

I also did more welding to it and got it roughed out to where I'm happy with it for now.

I should get more work done this next month, I hope.

Framed
 

OK, these past 2 weekends I've been able to spend one day each on making new frame sections for my car. I will weld these in and it'll give a stronger support for the car.

I started out with single pieces I cut out, but ended up cutting them and rewelding them back together for a much better fit.

I'll have the 17th to the new year off of work and plan to work on my car. I hope to get more progress done during this time. Even my wife is out of town (out of the country, actually) so if I don't get much done I can only blame myself! :)

Nice work its coming out good.

Rear axle locating
 

Thank you, Wayne!

This weekend was very productive! My neighbor Brett helped me locate the rear axle under the car and we have it mocked up in place. Upon measuring, and remesauring we got it pretty square, within 1/16". The welds are tacked in for now, and when the body goes on a rotisserie, then final welds can be done with much more ease.

The upper link brackets needed modification to fit the contour of my frame. I also made a jig to help ensure that the left and right side were square to one another.

The panhard bar isn't on yet, but the mounting bracket for it needed cutting to make it fit.

Engine placement mock up
 

We also started to fit the engine/ trans in the car. My goal is to retain the oem oil pan as well as use the oem brackets if possible. To accomplish this the engine will go back. way back, as well as some trimming to the car. Once again Brett to the rescue with his plasma cutter.

Because part of the firewall will be recessed, I'm thinking it might be cool to make a removable panel inside for access to the back of the engine.

I need to make more cuts to the car, then clean them up. So far it's looking good. clearance for the steering, headers, etc. The trans tunnel will need to be raised a bit to clear the t56 magnum.

The engine mounting still needs to be worked out but should be no problem.

I'll get back out to the garage tomorrow and make more ruckus.

Great updates!
the car is coming along nicely:thumbsup:

framed 3
 

Thank you, Kevin!

This week I've worked on the frame crossmember altercation to make room for the LS engine. There was a little scalping, a little reinforcing, a lot of grinding and trimming, a lot more hammering and pounding and bending and tweaking and adjusting to get it to fit.

My neighbor helped me with this and welded this together for me. My 110 volt welder would not be strong enough to handle this.

After getting this back together it became apparent that the headers won't fit and will need some modification on the driver's side. It's a bummer, too, as they had that coating on them. Oh well. This will give a chance to modify them as needed to clear the engine mounts/ supports.

I also raised the trans tunnel to give more room for the trans. Even with that lift it is still a snug fit up there. I only tacked it in place in case it needs more modification.

Next steps will be to mock up the mounting systems/ brackets, etc and start building them.

Nice work it looks great. The subframe is looking good.

Car looks great

What happened to the early build up pic

Thank you! I've exceeded my allotment of pics I can post onto this website (even though I try to make them low/ web resolution) so in order to post more I have to delete the older ones.

I more or less duplicate this thread over on hotrodders.com. They don't seem to limit the amount of pics I can upload there.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/jour...ournalid=20939