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FINAL WELDING AND ASSEMBLY STEPS
There comes a point in any build when you need to stop, pull some things apart, tackle some final welding, and bond some panels on, before you get too far ahead and cover things up. We had reached that spot here - it was time to finish a few aspects before the car could be put together for the last time, at least before the dyno tune and track test...
Many removable panels were removed, the headers and exhaust were dropped down, the drivetrain came out, and access was gained to finish off parts of the firewall.
There were some tubes that needed to be primed and painted before some permanent panels were bonded and riveted in place, like these at the firewall and around the dry sump tank.
This upper portion of the firewall could be bonded and final installed now that the tubes were primed and ready.
Lots of tack welds were turned into final TIG welds on the chassis (above left) and on the custom exhaust headers (above right).
The exhaust was now fully completed front to back, so it could be final welded as well. This was done in stages, to prevent warping or movement.
With the drivetrain out, the trans was removed, as was the bellhousing. We didn't spec any of these parts and with what we had seen elsewhere we wanted to double check everything. The clutch was taken apart, engagement of the hydraulic TOB was verified and shimmed, the starter was checked - everything.
The drivetrain was reinstalled and some final welding at the custom firewall was looked at. If you remember this car came to us with some
unusual and unfinished firewall work that had to all be cut away. This work allowed us to move the drivetrain back relative to the stock firewall, yet still fit headers and other things around it - which the previous builder neglected to look at.
With the short pieces of formed sheet metal firewall Ryan had added between the tubular structure and the stock cowl piece, it was time to weld them together then blend the seam. Lots of welding and grinding here.
The tack welded portions from before were all now final welded and primed. Some time was spent making this visible section smooth and ready for paint. The pockets here were added for the hood hinges, shown in this build thread previously. These were seam welded and smoothed also.
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