My Cuda Project Part II...now at Bruning Auto Design

[DRJDVM's '69]

Then I got the steering linkage figured out. The angle on the middle joint is a little tighter than I wanted but I dont feel any bindng etc. I still have some room to fine tune it and still get decent clearence to the headers



I got my Charlies oil pan too. Nice piece....he makes then to any spec you want and its fully baffled etc.

[DRJDVM's '69]

Seats.... I went back and forth on seats for quite a while. Aftermarket vs junkyard. I love the Sparco, Corbeau, Recaro etc, but they are kinda pricey and I would end up recovering them anyway, so I decided to do the junkyard route. Looked at a ton of cars and finally found some seats I liked. They came out of a 98 Dodge Stealth. The are pretty comfortable and have alot of adjustment too. The were kinda of a PITA to mount....... the slider to the tunnel side was 1.5 inches higher than the outide one and my floor is just the opposite. I managed to figure out a way to mount them, but it aint the prettiest piece when you take a close look. I plan to do some stuff to hide the tunnel side mounts.
They do sit a tad high for a guy like me, but all the aftermarkets measured about the same. Once the headliner is in, when I wear a helmet etc, its gonna rub. For the average height it should be perfect.




My plan is to get them recovered and probably run without the headrest. We'll see...

[DRJDVM's '69]

Now the coolest part of what I've been working on...

About 2 years ago I contacted Jeff Davis at Precision Metalcraft about doing a custom intake for the modern HEMI. Through a friend, we sent a stock 6.1 HEMI intake to him so he could take all the measurments he needed etc and figure out some designs. So he came up with a design and made a prototype intake. Since my whole k-frame is raised, hood clearence is a concern. I know the stock intake will fit but the one Jeff designed is a tad higher. Jeff is such a nice guy, so I asked if he would be willing to loan me the protype to test fit and he said "no problem". It wicked cool and its a hell of a nice piece.....

[96z28ss]

You have the AAR Cuda hood so there is more clearance. So did it fit?

Also where did you send your valve covers? Looks like there missing.

[DRJDVM's '69]

So as anticipated the hood wont clear without some modifications. The bulk of the intake fits perfect, but the TB is a bit too high and forward to clear the scoop inlet on the AAR hood. Thankfully, we have some room to drop the TB back and down, so now we have some idea of what we need to move around. I will still likely need to modify the hood some, but hopefully we can move some stuff around to lessen the extent of the hood mods. We'll see....




My hope is to modify the intake in a way that gets me the clearence I need but not sacrafice the design so much that it screws with the performance of the intake.

[DRJDVM's '69]

Got my door poppers working.....did the recess in the rear tubs to get the quarter window glass to go all the way down....and a bunch of smaller stuff. But thats the big updates for now.

Next on the agenda is to start the exhaust. I'm still playing around with which muffler i want. There are so many different choices and everyone has a different opinion. Some love the Spintechs and other hate them....same with the Flowmasters etc etc.... and they all sound different on different cars. Its a tough choice..... PLus exahust in SS vs doing steel and getting it coated....

My hope is to get it back to Tim Bruning late this year/early next year to have some more stuff done....cage, finalize the rear suspension, front bumper and some other stuff

[DRJDVM's '69]

Valve covers went to Precision Metalcraft....Jeff is tossing around some ideas on making some billet ones......so he has mine as a reference.

I also gave him the old 5.7 HEMI I had so he has stuff to do mock up with.

[bentfab]

Things are looking good Ned. What about plumbing

[syborg tt]

Car is looking great.

I can offer a little advise on the seats which you may or may not realize. When your looking at seats look at the floor pan in the car. Is it a raised floor pan, flat or suken. It looks like the seat you grabbed are from a sucken floor pan due to the kick up in the front.

There are seats out there that lay flat vs the seats you have that elevates your knees and then sinks you back & down. So if your looking for head clearence and not having numb legs due to the fact that your knee's are elevated (possible hitting the steering wheel) then take a look at the seats in s10 pick ups & blazers. The lay perfectly flat and will drop you down significantly. They also will make it more comfortable to push in the clutch pedal repeatedly.

The other concern would be is there enough room for you to actually push in the clutch pedal without hitting the steering wheel when you disengage the clutch.

[96z28ss]

Originally Posted by DRJDVM's '69

My hope is to get it back to Tim Bruning late this year/early next year to have some more stuff done....cage, finalize the rear suspension, front bumper and some other stuff

I would have the Cage done locally near you. The cage has to be fit around you. You'd have to be there so Tim could place main hoop and cross bar. So there is enough clearance for your helmet and driving seat location.
Its best if your close by to test fit stuff a coule times before final welding it all together.