I have been working diligently on the updates, boy, some of this stuff takes alot longer than it should!
I got the the old heater out, and the new A/C unit mounted under the dash. I used a factory style heater delete plate on the firewall instead of welding in a smooth panel. I think it looks clean, like it could've came that way from the factory, so I'm really happy with it. I used the formed hard lines that came with the Vintage Air kit, and the block off panel that came with the kit that goes on the inside of the firewall to help with noise and heat control. I covered that with dynamat on the inside. That piece was thick enough that I drilled and tapped it for some small black allen head bolts to fasten the heater delete plate from the firewall for a clean look.
I mounted my relays and circuit breaker behind the glovebox and above the evaporator. That way I can easily access my electronics by simply removing the glove box. I also mounted a two post distribution block there from Jeg's. I have the small post wired to 12v switched, and the larger one to 12v constant from the battery so I can easily add anything to the system in the future in a central location....like my ipod adapter/charger for the Alpine that is coming in the mail. I powered my DSE selecta speed wipers off that dist block also, using a relay. I have the original harness/fuse block in the car so I wanted to have a separate fused power supply for all my new accessories and stereo, etc.
I mounted my Covan's Thunder road dash with American Muscle series Autometer gauges, my Alpine CDA 9813 and two round vents that mimic the factory Astro Vents. I used '68 style vent balls because I like the two horizontal lines better than the crosshair style on the '69 bird. The hvac controls are the black anodized 3 knob billet ones from VA. Can't really see them in the pic. I had John Covan send me extra plastic so I cut that out to fit the new, smaller controls and glued it in from the back side to fill the rectangle factory hvac control hole. The dash already had a nice beveled finish on that edge so it blended real nicely, can hardly make out the seam in the shadows of the interior.
My Alpine has a built in tilt function, so that allowed me to bolt the stereo in flush with the dash so it's neat and tucked up without anything unsightly around it. I can then tilt it up to my preference once it's powered up. It's really slick. The old center speaker mount had a clip and bolt in it after I removed that speaker and it lined up perfectly with the stereo so I ran a strap of metal from the bolt in the back of the head unit up to that speaker mount...may slow down a thief, but surely secured the deck from moving around.
Everything is currently powered up and appears to work. I have to run the RCA's and speaker wire through the car then I can re-install the interior. I also picked up a set of Screamin' Performance kick panels that are molded to run 6.5" components. I'll be using a set of Alpine tweeters and Coustic drivers, and an old school Rockford Pro 12" Sub I had laying around.
The motor is at the engine builders getting the KRE heads installed and new cam, etc. He'll break it back in on his test stand and I hope to have a running car within a couple of more weeks.
Here's some crappy cell phone pics of the new dash and firewall. I have better ones on my digital camera, but haven't found time to download them yet.
