I hope everyone is safe and making the best of the unique situation we find ourselves in now... unfortunately, the stay at home order in Wisconsin has slowed progress on my build, and we’re not as far along as I hoped we would be at this time. Nevertheless, Kurt and team have continued to make progress and we get closer to paint. He’s finished with mock up of drivetrain, radiator, condenser, a/c drier, vintage air unit, catch can, PWM module for fans, routing of oil cooler lines, and test fit of all front end pieces. He’s also got the bumpers finished, having welded the mounting brackets to the back of the bumpers, welded up the bolt holes, smoothed everything and primed them. The drivetrain was removed, front subframe removed and working now on final welding/smoothing of the firewall. The rear suspension will come out early next week and then he’ll put the car on the rotisserie. We need to smooth some welds on the bottom and get it prepped for Upol... should then be ready for paint. Here are some pics of progress. I haven’t been able to drive over and see the car due to the stay at home order, so relying on pictures from Kurt to see progress.
Here are finished shots of the work we did for the cold air intake. We had to cut a pocket out of the driver side inner fender for the air filter to sit into. We then opened up the filler panel in the radiator core support, which will allow cool air through the grill to be funneled directly to the air filter.
Here are some shots of the work done on the bumpers, which will be painted carbon black metallic:
We installed LED driving lights in the front bumper, and Kurt fabbed up some mounting brackets that were welded to the inside of the bumper:
Here are some shots showing mock up of the condenser and drier. The drier was mounted in the passenger side inner fender well. We’re running all a/c lines and heater hoses through the inside of the passenger fender well to keep the engine bay as clean as possible.
My car didn’t come with a rear seat and I’ve been considering a number of alternatives, including the TMI custom molded rear seat that is basically two small buckets seats. That seat is super expensive, which doesn’t make much sense in that the seat will rarely be used. As I was doing research, I noticed that the rear seat from newer 3 series BMWs is a near perfect match in size. I got a great deal on one on eBay. I will have it recovered in the same leather as my front seats, with similar pattern. The two side pieces on the seat back will fit over the wheel tubs nicely, but need to be trimmed a bit, which is why they’re not shown in the photo. It fits really nicely. We’ll need to fab some mounts for it and trim a bit around the driveshaft tunnel, but it should look great when done.
I also got my driveshaft built during mock up - went with a QA1 custom carbon fiber shaft. It’s a work of art and a shame it won’t be seen under the car.
Underside of deck lid and hood primed and ready for paint:
Rear package tray that Kurt fabricated to replace the original one. Speakers will under mount.
Front end all test fit and adjusted. I bought some LED lights with halos. The halos are white as day time running lights, but will blink amber with turn signals.
For the rear spoiler, I decided to use the aluminum spoiler produced by Ring Brothers. This is a picture of it on a Mustang they built:
This is a picture of it sitting on the deck lid. This isn’t the actual mounting position, but gives you a sense of width of the spoiler and size on the deck lid. The spoiler will be painted the same black as other trim on the car.
Be well and stay safe... Brian
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Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
First Hemi 'Cuda Convertible Ever Built
Short clips: Goodguys Pleasanton autocross and pit videos
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