Project WidowMaker - The Build Thread

[The WidowMaker]

i got the passenger side shell lined up. i had previously fit the old door to the new fender and had made a bunch of relief cuts to make it work. i ended up having to do it all over again, but the results are well worth it. i still have about 6" to go on the bottom of the door and then i'll throw the hood back on and keep working it.

also, i contribute pics but very little tech. so.... heres some for you. if you are going with a magnum for your car and you buy the bare trans, the chevy t56 wiring pigtails wont work with the chevy magnum. the reverse solenoid is the same, but the reverse lights are different and the vss is from a ford. i ended up getting the reverse solenoid and light harnesses from Bill Harloe ([email protected]). $24 shipped to my door and the tremec vendors wanted $60 plus shipping. i have sourced the vss for $8 and will be ordering it in a couple days.

heres a pic of the door to fender.

[Swain]

Looking good I should have came by and watched you do your gaps you seem to have it down pretty well. I still gotta come by and drop that wheel off.

[The WidowMaker]

Looking good I should have came by and watched you do your gaps you seem to have it down pretty well. I still gotta come by and drop that wheel off.

its actually very easy, just insanely time consuming. ive literally taken each fender off about 100 times. let me know when you want to drop by.


i finished up the passenger side fender and remounted the hood today. if its not raining tomorrow i will get the hood gaps complete. if it is raining i plan on remaking the seat brackets to drop the seat another 1 3/4". im also going to get the harness bar bent while i still have the bender. i need to take it back on sunday so ive got to be done.

here is a pic of the harnesses from the source posted above. these are for the reverse solenoid and the reverse lights. the vss will be coming soon.

[The WidowMaker]

i finished up the hood today and will blow it apart later this week to gap the doors and the fenders. so far i have just got the contours on the door and fenders to match. i now need to go back and weld up the relief cuts and then spend a lot of time evening out the gaps.

i also got the harness bar bent up and the seats lowered. the seats ended up dropping 1 3/4 in the rear and about 3/4 up front. i wanted the base rocked back a little and the new mounts do that really well. my head is now much further from the roof and i think the seats look a lot better in the car as well. i dont like seats that are too tall, and these seem to fit good. as far as the harness bar, the plan is to make it removable and use the permanent stubs to mount my 3 point belts. i would really like to make it so that i dont have to remove the 3pts to mount the bar, but im not thinking its going to work out that way. im VERY concerned with the stubs sticking out past the door panel and becoming an object that a rear seat passenger could strike their head on. i have a few ideas to keep them recessed with very little (<1") exposed. more to come.

i know a lot of guys dont like screwing with safety systems that the oem put in their cars (for very good reasons), but i have every bit of confidence that the plan is extremely over engineered. the amount of weld surface holding the stubs and the strength of the material that its being welded to only reinforce my confidence. one only has to look under the car near the rear seat to find a 1/8" plate on the underside of the sheetmetal that the seatbelts bolt to. this plate spreads the load on the stock sheemetal floor and was suffiicent enough that 4 bolts held 3 bodies. since im already having to do the same thing on my trans tunnel to get the inside bolts for the front seats, im not worried about having to do it for the harness bar.

some may question the belt angle needed to achieve my goals. after a lot of research, ive found that the best angle is 0*. either up or down starts to comprimise the belts ability to do its job, and too far down can compress the spine as well. i have read and been told by a couple different seat belt manufactures and a seat company that anything less than 20* is perfectly acceptable. with my 6'3" frame, im the worst case scenario in my car. my shoulder height with the new seat brackets is 24" from a reference point. the center of the tubing is at about 21.5" and im thinking that i can get the belt at somewhere north of 20". the belt will also mount 16" behind my shoulder. the math shows ~14* for the 4" drop and allows a 5.82" drop before i hit 20*. i think im well within the spec. i had considered the belt slipping off my shoulder due to its lower height, but mockup shows that with the distance behind the shoulder this doesnt even come close to happening.

photobucket is down right now, so i'll post up some pics when i can.

[NvrDun71]

I might have missed it in the thread, but where did you end up picking up the Magnum from?

[The WidowMaker]

I might have missed it in the thread, but where did you end up picking up the Magnum from?

$2634 shipped to my door. i got one of the summit 10% off coupons. they are now only handing them out at shows and the code is a one time use.

[Ron in SoCal]

Best deal going Tim!

[The WidowMaker]

Best deal going Tim!

seriously. i spent a ton of time looking for one of those coupons though.

i didnt get much done today. i started welding up all the relief cuts in the drivers side fender, but some of the welds decided to move a little. i spent the day making it all work again.

here are the pics of the harness bar. i will get better pics once the installation gets a little further.

[Ron in SoCal]

.0000005 lookin good, as usual Bro!

[scottysimp7]

I dig the harness bar. Is that custom? cant wait to see more!