My Cuda Project Part II...now at Bruning Auto Design
 

Well it finally looks like my car is back on track, so I figured I would start a new update thread.

The car is now up at Bruning Auto Design, so hopefully I can put this bad experience behind me and move on...

For those of you that dont know already....my car was also at Race Rods at the same time Tony's car was there. We both got screwed pretty bad. For those of you that want to get the whole story, here you go....
https://lateral-g.net/forums/show...t=cuda+project
https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=16185
https://lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=16771

I got the car back in July 2008 and to put it lightly it wasnt good.... so I put out feelers for other shops and started to salvage what I could myself.

I started off by finnishing up the XV motorsports SFC's...overall decent pieces but they didnt fit that great...had to "massage" the floorboards to get a tight fit....
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2352.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2353.jpg

Given production line tolerances and nearly 40 years of use & abuse on the car, I'd say the profile of the SFC's to the floor is pretty darn good and would expect to have to do a little bit of massaging.

Sounds like the car is in good hands now!

Next was the XV motorsports front lower rad support brace..... rather than a thin piece of sheetmetal like stock, this is a full bent square tube....much beefier.... I dropped it down just alittle to allow for more radiator space too

Then it was on to the front and rear torque boxes....same thing....needed alot of tweaking to get them to fit nice and tight before welding. These are made by Auto Rust Tech and are not "factory correct" in style but are much thicker than original


http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2288.jpg

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2362.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2476.jpg


Next on my list was cleaning up alot of the crappy work Chris left behind that I thought I could salvage. He did some real crappy lap welds in several areas, so I closed up the gaps and finnished those areas...

Here's a nice example of his work..
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2378.jpg

And another.... look at that big frickin hole.....it was worse on the other side..so I had to make some small patches...nice work..
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2379.jpg

After closing up the gaps and finnishing the lap weld..
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2381.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2470.jpg

Then I had to finnish the trans tunnel...same thing...crappy lap welds with huge gaps...
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2474.jpg

Then I narrowed the rear seat alittle to clear the minitubs.... everything is just tacked together for now, until I'm sure how it will all fit...
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2550.jpg

More examples of stellar work.....
Chris fixed the driver side rocker but left a huge ass gap... nice...
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2188.jpg

Filled the firewall and warped the **** out of it in the process....
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2487.jpg

Inner fenderwells......the design I wanted but really bad execution...warped all to hell...
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2301.jpg

So then I moved on to some other stuff....
Steering column mock up... of course I had to take my $65 billet mount and cut it to fit the dash opening....its always fun to cut up brand new stuff
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2581.jpg

Vintage Air bulkhead mounted in the fenderwell so I can hide everything
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2576.jpg

The mock up 6.1 HEMI sitting in place.... very temporary.....still not sure what I'm doing on the motor... I think the turbo budget went out the window.....maybe procharger ...maybe Kenny Bell twin screw....or NA with a "Hilborn" style stacked injection kit...we'll see...
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2866.jpg

That pretty much sums up the big stuff.....

TJ, Tim and Gloria from Bruning were nice enough to come look at the car on the way to SEMA and then pick it up on the way back. That gave them a chance to look at the car first hand and give me a "status report" and estimate for work and then saved me time and $$ to haul it up to them. Its in good hands now...... I'm sure TJ will drop in and I'll keep the updates coming.

I also wanted to thank Mike from MuscleRodz and Mario (DOOM) for their offers...

Some of the links are acting wierd..
here are the front torque boxes and rad cross brace..
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2288.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...I/IMG_2360.jpg

Looks pretty good Ned, Looks like you did some pretty decent work yourself. :yes:

And you picked a top notch shop in Bruning Auto Design. :thumbsup:

Looking forward to seeing the car Ned, :)

you'll be happy with the quality of work that comes out of Bruning Auto Design.