Been making some good progress there Will. Those rails look real good.
Are you setting up the front susp. mounts from a design?
My ford v10 has an actual sump(like an old v8) I've done some work with those viper v 10s and as others have said, be careful with your oiling.

Thanks Gary. The sump is wicked on the Viper V10, oil gets sucked through a screen in the bottom of the pan, then routed through a cavity cast into the pan to the front of the block. I've never seen anything like it. Hoping to start in on my back brace tomorrow.

Some of the work that was finished yesterday.

Started on the bumper mounts. Hope to have those finished before I head back Sunday so I can plan for the core support.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-131.jpg

Continued work on the rear suspension. Bending tube, notching tube by hand (way tough).
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-135.jpg
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-133.jpg
need to finish the other side of this x-brace behind the LCA mounts. Should have that done along with the rest of the mounts. Hopefully will get to the shockwave mounts as well.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-134.jpg

Having a stainless fuel tank built and will be running Vaporworx in it. More to come on that. Playing with the mock-up template.
http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-127.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-125.jpg

Two more days of work before a two month break. Hoping to get a lot done the next two days, but I'm moving pretty slow...

Slow progress today with having to hand notch some tubes, fab brackets/tabs, etc. The rear is almost finished. I couldn't mount the shocks because the amount of anti-squat in the LCA causes the shock to hit the UCA, so I'll need to fab some rear LCA's. No problem though, I planned to anyway. Just have to do it sooner than expected. One more day to go...

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-144.jpg

http://i876.photobucket.com/albums/a...7/file-143.jpg

looking realy good :thumbsup:

Thanks Cencal.

Sadly, my time for this trip has come to a close and there won't be any more pics until the end of February. Yesterday was mostly spent cleaning and organizing the garage. Although, I did pull the engine out, move the steering rack down, and build new brackets for it. I began locating the rear diff but ran out of time with having to clean, pack, see the fam one last time, etc. That doesn't mean that progress won't be had over the next couple months though. I'm having a custom stainless fuel tank built by Eric Mueller and Mike Toupin of Mopar Engineering, I'll be incorporating Vaporworx into the tank as well. They will also be building my radiator once I get that sized up in February. Development of my MiMod system will also continue in hopes that it is finished once I return as well. So far it's looking real good and I can't wait to see everything when it's finished. Then, there is always my hood, which who knows when that will show up...

So, all is done for now. Took about 10 steps backward and almost 10 forward, but I am real happy with how everything is coming out. Still a lot of things to figure out and build, but all doable and I'm looking forward to my next visit in February. That will be when I can really put some hours in on the car. I can't wait!

Until next time, happy new year!

Hey, great build Will. I noticed something and have to ask a question. On your front, upper control arms, shouldn't they be tilted back instead of forwards for breaking when you stop so the front end of the car doesn't take such a big nose dive. That's what I've always been told and I've always seen the front, uppers tilted backwards for that purpose rather it's aftermarket frames or stock. I'm just asking, but hey, what do I know?

The anti-dive is picked up in the lower control arms. I had some interference with the LCA & steering rack so had to reconfigure some things and didn't get the front put back together. My front lowers are angled up toward the driver. I'm using Viper spindles so the geometry is based off Viper geometry which has the geometry laid out this way for packaging. Good eye!

I was going to mention a dry sump for you when I was there. I saw that weird pan setup you were talking about. A dry sump really is not that hard tho. You can run one using your stock oil pump and 1 extra 2 or 3 stage pump. There are obviously a few problems to solve tho....

The extra pump is usually spun with a gilmer (toothed) belt that is spun from the crank at about half engine speed. It would require a custom machined adapter to fit on the front of your crank pulley. Either that or you would need a serp pulley to be larger than the diameter of the crank pulley. Then of course it has to be mounted low on the engine so that oil will drain to it.

The tank itself is easy. You can pick those up from lots of places, just pick how much oil you want it to hold. The stock oil pump will feed from the fitting at the bottom of the tank, the external pump will send oil back to the tank at the top and is usually built so that oil spins against the side of the tank then down thru a couple screens to get the air bubbles out of it.

Another thing to figure out is how to get a fitting to connect to the oil pickup of the stock oil pump. Since you have a TIG, (can you TIG cast aluminum?) you may be able to modify that one. Just somehow get an AN fitting onto the pick up and build the bottom with 2-3 more fittings (depending on how many stages your external pump has) to feed the other pump. They should sit lowest in the pan on the drivers side with the bottom of the pan slanted to the drivers side. Put a screen above the drain fitting to stop any pieces of metal and maybe a magnet before each one too to try to save the pump in case of catastrophic engine failure

Thanks for the info on the wet sump Steve. I looked into a kit but at $5500 it was out of the question. However, building my own is far more reasonable and a better option. The biggest issue here is how to mount the external pump. The cast pan can be Tigged so putting an AN fitting on the pickup is no problem. I'll have to look at some external pumps to see what kind of options I have to mount it. The other problem is where to put the tank. I want to make sure I can get AC in the car, may already be difficult with the engine setback, so I may have to get creative but this seems like a viable alternative I need to research more. Great idea! Thanks.