Weekend update...
I spent yesterday working inside the car scraping the original asphalt goop off the rear floor and trunk firewall areas. That stuff is a freaking mess! Took me a couple of hours to get it pretty clean. This week Eric is going to prime the front half of the floor area where various metalwork has been done, and hopefully next weekend I'll get to start the Dynamat process.
My front tires showed up on Friday, so we spent a little time trial fitting them in the wheel well. The pictures below are the 275/35, which is just about 1/2" shorter than the 315/30 will be, so it gives me a good idea of the fitment in terms of diameter:
Here's what I'm looking at for the outer edge:
Unfortunately on the JRS setup, as with most setups which use the front spring pocket for a trailing link, the link itself is the limiting factor on the inside:
I couldn't get a good picture, but that shot shows a little over 2" from the tire to the link. Starting with a 275, that would let me get to a 325 with almost no clearance. And I'm not completely sold on my outside position, so that's pushing it.
You might also notice that we replaced the rear bushing with a heim join to see if we could gain a little room. We get about 1/2" on the rear, so maybe 1/4" where I took the measurement. Without cutting the frame rail, there just isn't much else you can do there... When I get the 315 on Tuesday, I'll do some more detailed measuring. I have a wheel fitment tool that I'll be using to be more confident also.
Eric is also making mounts for the Sparco seats. I knew these were going to be a tough fit (just about any aftermarket seat is) due to the height, and the fact that I'm 6'2. He's got it almost as low as it can sit without cutting the floor, and we have resolved that the floor is going to have to be cut at least some. I like his seat protection method here (garbage bags
)
I'm going to need a much shorter shifter rod than the one I have, it's way to long/tall. Add that to my shopping list.
We did a few other small things yesterday. Hopefully we've decided on a mounting spot for the II Much fuel and axle vents. We removed the factory canister that was behind the seat, and there's a flat spot there which we are going to try and use. Eric will make a platform that we can remove, but the opening is in just the right spot to snake the lines around the axle, exhaust, and Watt's link there.
We also looking into all of the plumbing we need to do. The rear brake lines are going to be tricky, again due mostly to the exhaust. I have 4 pages of notes of the AN and brake fittings we are going to need to plumb the fuel lines, oil lines, PS lines, vent lines, and LS steam vents. Can't wait to place that order...
And finally we stared at the shaker setup for a while. If the measurements are correct, the top of my 4b throttle body is about 1 3/8" higher than the Quadrajet which came off the car. I have a 1" spacer on there which we can remove, but that still leaves me 3/8" or so too high, as it was also sitting a tough higher than I wanted. So I will probably purchase one of the aftermarket filter bases which are made for shakers, but then we'll probably have to cut it up to make it fit. We can't lower it much though due to the fuel rails. Tight fit in this area, so we have some work to do here...