Time for an update...finally !!!!

I got my Moser Dana 60 through Frank at Prodigy, and got the final suspension all mocked up.... the final pinion angle isnt set but everything is pretty close. I did have to trim some of the rear crossmember to clear the center section at full drop, but didnt cut into the trunk. Getting the exhaust up and over should be real fun :)
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5218.jpg

Next was the T56 Magnum through Hurst Driveline conversions.... thanks Tony Edler and thank you Greg Weld ( he helped me avoid the sales tax hit :)...)
Since we channeled the front k-frame, I did end up having to cut up the tunnel again to get a decent engine angle.....it was so sad to have to cut up some of the wonderful Race Rodz fab work...I shed a tear...what a shame. It looks like I'll have to do more tunnel work to get the driveshaft in there....oh well

The pistol grip shifter is real cool....but kinda high....I'll probably cut it down once the interior is more complete.
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I like the tall shifter - kinda reminds me of a Rat Fink version!! :rofl:

Now the fun stuff....Once I got the rear end mocked up I was able to actually air the car up and down....oh baby !!!

This is the probable ride height. It will get fully dialed in once the car is all loaded up, but this should be real close. Its based on the Ridetech recommended shock length at ride height. Its also going to depend on if I got the BS on the front wheels nailed or not.... I wanted to be able to turn the car but not have the wheels sucked in real far. I'd love to drop it a tad more in front. At this ride height I have 6 inches at the engine crossmember and 5 at the frame
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5194.jpg
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OH YEAH !!!!

This is fully dropped...it looks wicked !!!! At full drop its got 2 inches ground to frame :)
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5222.jpg
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Look....my son is a giant!!!!

He's 8 years old and 53 inches tall...he looks like a giant next to the car :)
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5210.jpg
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That's bad azz right there Ned!!

Today I worked on making a trans crossmember. Since the trans is raised, I have to make my own. I'm using part of the original crossemember and adding some 1.5x 2.5 0.125 square tube. I spent a couple of hours trying one idea and I wasnt happy with it, so gonna try a diff design tomorrow.

Nothing cooler then a car on Ride Tech Air Ride - it looks awesome !!!!!!:thumbsup:

WOW that thing looks sick! :hail:

UM that thing is Wicked !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awesome stance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BEAUTIFUL!!!!
(don't need to say anything else)

I love it Ned!!
Love seeing it "dropped". Looks sick.:thumbsup:

Man I love Cudas! Great work.

Looks nice Ned, making progress is a good thing. Love the stance.

Nice to see the progress! :thumbsup:

Damn Ned.... that thing looks wicked!:yes:

Coming along great Ned! I haven't red the whole post yet, did you pick a color?

Looking great Ned.

Looks great man. Kyle indeed looks like a giant standing next to it. You should have taken a pic w/YOU standing next to it....Would look like a scale model, LOL!

That looks badass Ned, love the way it looks dumped :thumbsup:

You nailed the stance...nice work. Great to see all the time, effort and $$$$ paying off!

When did you decide to do a manual? I thought you were going to do an automatic with paddle shifter?

Yeah that plan changed :)

I had planned the auto when the Procharger/turbo was on the table...figured it was just a smarter choice....but always really wanted it to be manual. Once the big FI plans were set aside, I went back to what I really wanted to do from the beigining.

Amazing build! I've been following for a while now and I'm really blown away by everything you have done. What's your plan for the engine? I tried looking back through the thread, but still couldn't find any information.... have you figured that out?

I was using photos of your car to try and figure out how low I wanted to get my car. Ended up just going as low as I could with all the stock components. I think it's close to yours at ride height... but nothing compares to your car slammed!

keep it up!
-Dave

Ned..... It just keeps getting better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love it !!!!:wow:

Plans for the engine are using the Gen III 6.1 HEMI and making it into either a 426 ( to go with the HEMI theme) or all the way to a 440. Hoping for around the 600 HP range. Intake will be a Precision Metalcraft intake ( hate the stock one), FAST electronics, TTI headers (maybe shorties instead, not sure yet). As of right now, I'm stuck with all the stock accessories for the most part....there arent any aftermarket bracket set ups (i.e Front runner system etc) ...at least not ones I like. Charlies oil pan, etc etc.

Not 100% sure on who will be the motor builder....Arrington or Power Ported Performance.

Stance looks good Ned.

Arrington has a real good rep on LxForums, not so much for PPP anymore

Time for some updates....nothing staggering but still moving along.....

Got all my RideTech stuff mounted etc, so figured I would mount up the power suppy and get that layout finalized. Mounted the Optima in the trunk and started to mount all my ISIS stuff. My one comment about the ISIS set-up so far... there is a fair amount of "stuff" to find a space for and mount up....
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5781.jpg

Then it was on to mocking up the Hydroboost and clutch pedals etc. Since my car was an auto, I had to swap out the pedals, drill new holes for the clutch master linkage and cut a new hole in the firewall since we smoothed it all out and eliminated all the original factory holes. Tha was alot of measuring 10 times before cutting or drilling :) I aslo made the support bracket on the inside firewall bigger to stop any flex when I mash the clutch down.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5289.jpg

The Hydroboost mounted up pretty well. I had to send it back once to get the firewall bracket swapped out since my car had power brakes originally but I accidently got the hydroboost bracket for manual brakes....had no idea the firewall mount would be different. I also mounted up a Ring Bros clutch master resevoir
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5474.jpg

Finnished up with my transmission crossmember. I messed with a couple of ideas but finally decided to just start off with the stock one and modify that. I hollowed out the center section and then made a new piece that slides inside the original "housing". It worked out pretty well. I got the tail of the tran up at a decent angle and left the crossmember tacked togther in case I want to mess with it some more.
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Then it was time for the headers. I went back and forth on just doing shorties, but decided to just try the LT and see what happens. Since we raised the motor 1.5 inches, I was concerned about them hitting the floor.....and guess what.... they did. Unfortunately TTI wont allow me to return them since they are uncoated, so I just decided to keep them and modify whatever I need. I cut the mount flanges off and they fit but are pretty close to the floor. My plan is to just modify the floor to get some more space. They tuck up real nice and dont sit below the frame rails which is cool.
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Nothing alittle cut off wheel and some new floor wont fix :)

Then I got the steering linkage figured out. The angle on the middle joint is a little tighter than I wanted but I dont feel any bindng etc. I still have some room to fine tune it and still get decent clearence to the headers
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5769.jpg
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I got my Charlies oil pan too. Nice piece....he makes then to any spec you want and its fully baffled etc.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5585.jpg
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Seats.... I went back and forth on seats for quite a while. Aftermarket vs junkyard. I love the Sparco, Corbeau, Recaro etc, but they are kinda pricey and I would end up recovering them anyway, so I decided to do the junkyard route. Looked at a ton of cars and finally found some seats I liked. They came out of a 98 Dodge Stealth. The are pretty comfortable and have alot of adjustment too. The were kinda of a PITA to mount....... the slider to the tunnel side was 1.5 inches higher than the outide one and my floor is just the opposite. I managed to figure out a way to mount them, but it aint the prettiest piece when you take a close look. I plan to do some stuff to hide the tunnel side mounts.
They do sit a tad high for a guy like me, but all the aftermarkets measured about the same. Once the headliner is in, when I wear a helmet etc, its gonna rub. For the average height it should be perfect.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5771.jpg
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My plan is to get them recovered and probably run without the headrest. We'll see...

Now the coolest part of what I've been working on...

About 2 years ago I contacted Jeff Davis at Precision Metalcraft about doing a custom intake for the modern HEMI. Through a friend, we sent a stock 6.1 HEMI intake to him so he could take all the measurments he needed etc and figure out some designs. So he came up with a design and made a prototype intake. Since my whole k-frame is raised, hood clearence is a concern. I know the stock intake will fit but the one Jeff designed is a tad higher. Jeff is such a nice guy, so I asked if he would be willing to loan me the protype to test fit and he said "no problem". It wicked cool and its a hell of a nice piece.....

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_5552.jpg
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You have the AAR Cuda hood so there is more clearance. So did it fit?

Also where did you send your valve covers? Looks like there missing.

So as anticipated the hood wont clear without some modifications. The bulk of the intake fits perfect, but the TB is a bit too high and forward to clear the scoop inlet on the AAR hood. Thankfully, we have some room to drop the TB back and down, so now we have some idea of what we need to move around. I will still likely need to modify the hood some, but hopefully we can move some stuff around to lessen the extent of the hood mods. We'll see....
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My hope is to modify the intake in a way that gets me the clearence I need but not sacrafice the design so much that it screws with the performance of the intake.

Got my door poppers working.....did the recess in the rear tubs to get the quarter window glass to go all the way down....and a bunch of smaller stuff. But thats the big updates for now.

Next on the agenda is to start the exhaust. I'm still playing around with which muffler i want. There are so many different choices and everyone has a different opinion. Some love the Spintechs and other hate them....same with the Flowmasters etc etc.... and they all sound different on different cars. Its a tough choice..... PLus exahust in SS vs doing steel and getting it coated....

My hope is to get it back to Tim Bruning late this year/early next year to have some more stuff done....cage, finalize the rear suspension, front bumper and some other stuff

Valve covers went to Precision Metalcraft....Jeff is tossing around some ideas on making some billet ones......so he has mine as a reference.

I also gave him the old 5.7 HEMI I had so he has stuff to do mock up with.

Things are looking good Ned. What about plumbing :question:

Car is looking great.

I can offer a little advise on the seats which you may or may not realize. When your looking at seats look at the floor pan in the car. Is it a raised floor pan, flat or suken. It looks like the seat you grabbed are from a sucken floor pan due to the kick up in the front.

There are seats out there that lay flat vs the seats you have that elevates your knees and then sinks you back & down. So if your looking for head clearence and not having numb legs due to the fact that your knee's are elevated (possible hitting the steering wheel) then take a look at the seats in s10 pick ups & blazers. The lay perfectly flat and will drop you down significantly. They also will make it more comfortable to push in the clutch pedal repeatedly.

The other concern would be is there enough room for you to actually push in the clutch pedal without hitting the steering wheel when you disengage the clutch.

I would have the Cage done locally near you. The cage has to be fit around you. You'd have to be there so Tim could place main hoop and cross bar. So there is enough clearance for your helmet and driving seat location.
Its best if your close by to test fit stuff a coule times before final welding it all together.