Project Update April 19th, 2016: I've been pretty buried with other work but I'm finally doing some catch-up posts on various build threads and will try to cover the work we completed on the tube framed 69 Camaro track car for November through early December 2015 in today's update.
The work shown this time includes finishing the steering shaft in the engine bay to the Woodward rack, mounting power steering and oil coolers, completing the front anti-roll bar "splined arm" and end link fabrication, fitting the front body panels better to finalize body mounts, a lengthy discussion of hood and duct choices (including flat hood vs using the existing aluminum cowl hood), making a new front steering arm that bolts to the C6 spindles, then making new tie rods to finish the steering, planning out the wiper motors, making room for the driveshaft at the rear of the frame, as well as some exploratory work on hood hinges and some more front splitter and valance work.
STEERING SHAFT FABRICATION
The 2-piece steering shaft has been "mocked up" in the chassis for a while - necessary during the exhaust header fabrication. We had a temporary u-joint at the firewall (above) made for a 3/4" DD shaft, which came with a bunch of other parts when the Camaro made it to our shop last year.
We had been waiting on the splined lower steering U-joint, which finally arrived long after the headers were built.
We have been making multi-piece steering shafts for many years for the BMW crowd, for use in our LS1 swap kits as well as for racers looking to remove the slop in the factory "rag joint". The final "real" steering u-joints for the custom 2-piece collapsible shaft were ordered and the shaft was built. This unit uses both 1" DD (hollow) and 3/4" DD (solid) steel shaft material.
Not too glamorous but its in there and the steering rack was steerable in November. It was so buried by the motor and header that you can't really see it once installed.
POWER STEERING & OIL COOLER MOUNTING
To ensure the steering stays cool on track we have a power steering cooler spec'd, purchased, and mounted.
A properly sized Mocal heat exchanger was mounted into the Left Front corner of the lower grill with brackets fabricated from small gauge tubing. One more small tube (not shown yet) will connect this structure to the removable front tubular section.
These tubular structures later had sheet aluminum ducting attaching to the inlets. The coolers receive cooling air from above the splitter and the opening at the left side of the lower grill.
On the other side of the lower grill, another Mocal heat exchanger was sized and purchased for engine oil cooling.
This one is mounted in the Right Front corner of the car, also receiving cooling air from atop the splitter, with a similar custom bracket.
Both oil coolers + the radiator will exhaust out of the hood ducting, which I cover below.
HEADLIGHT MOUNT FABRICATION
I showed some of the detail work involved in mounting the headlight buckets in an earlier teaser post. Lots of little custom bits needed to make the buckets install with the tubular front end.
Ryan installed some temporary halogen bulbs in the Camaro while we awaited the LED headlight assemblies. We just wanted to see the front end together with lights to see if the aiming was in the right ballpark.
continued below