First Rendering

First Rendering
Brian Jennings First Crack At A Design

Sunday, June 27, 2010

May 27th. Gauges and Cooling complete

Another productive week comes to an end.We managed to get the radiator inlet and outlet modified and get hoses on both.  We got the radiator permanently mounted and got the cooling fan and heat exchanger for the intercooler mounted also.
This week I fought with the new diff.  Turns out I have an oddball 9" with big bearings.  That would be OK, but EVERYTHING I got from Randy's is for a small bearing rear. After some research with Ray at SP and Tate at Randy's we came up with a bearing and seal that would work and we pressed them on.  After pulling them apart a second time to install the wheel studs (DOH!) I got them installed for the last time.  Brake pads for the 76-78 Ford LTD Country Squire Wagon that the rear came out of are basically obsolete...yeah, super...I found two sets and bought both, just in case.
Danny got the fuel tank sump finished and re-installed.  Just need some fitting to complete the fuel system.
Jamie came by on Sunday and we got the dash (that sucker weighs about 80lbs!) installed into the car.  I then mounted up the steering column so I could figure out the next challenge of getting the shaft to mate up with the new rack.  It doesn't look as pretty as I thought it did a month ago, so we'll be doing some exploring of options there.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Massive Progress!

This week (mostly today) we got a ton accomplished. Laurie and I picked a color. For real. Mopar Deep Water Pearl Blue Metallic. As seen on the new SRT-8 cars. Should be pretty slick. I am closing my eyes to all other colors now.
Southern Diesel Xtreme signed on as a sponsor and hooked me up with some 5x.14 injectors for the car. These equate to a 140hp injector. More than I need, but then... what else is new?
I worked with Source Tube and Hose to get the power steering lines custom made, so they are installed and ready to go. The Vacuum pump was rebuilt by Brett and Jeremy got the master/booster installed. He also made a trick mount for the proportioning valve.
Danny and I got the radiator mounts made and he cut one of the tanks off of the intercooler and flipped it so that we can make it all fit.
Jamie came by and helped wire wheel the inside of the fenders and the rear springs and then we primed and undercoated the insides and painted the springs.
I got all the front sheetmetal re-hung so that we can fit everything up.
We dropped the tank back out and we are adding a sump to it so that I can have a bigger pickup and some baffling.
I also got the trans cooler location marked out and now I need to make some mounts.
Bob was by earlier in the week and cut out the rust on the driver
s side and he has already made inner and outer patch panels for both sides. They just need their radius and we'll be good to go.
Decided to shave the handles, add poppers and shave the antenna also, just to smooth the car out.
YeeeHaah..Back to it!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Quicky. No pics.

This past weekend I got the front, inner sheetmetal all cleaned up and painted. I also got the rest of the accessories on the front of the motor and got the vacuum pump ready to rebuild. The front brakes are on the car and George has the downpipe tweaked enough to make it work for now.
A big box of random parts showed up today. I got new seatbelts, some trick LED-ringed lights for the Overdrive and Converter Lock buttons, a pair of battery boxes and remote mount kits for the batteries and the Wilwood prop/combo valve.
The dash is together, including the gauges and stereo, I just need to re-install the factory wiring and then wrap it up and get it out of the living room.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

June 6th Update


Its been a couple of weeks since I took the time to update. The turbo is back on the engine, as is the head with 12 new valves. I got the turbo manifold blanket and installed it. It isn't pretty, but it should keep the paint on the hood.
Laurie and I went to Good Guys on Saturday and looked at colors and interiors. I can't believe it, but I think the car is going to end up a dark, metallic blue. Stay tuned for that decision.
I made some serious headway on the custom dash. Gauges are installed and I am in the process of wiring them up. I need to get it done so we can install it to hang the steering column in its final resting place.
Front suspension is basically done, except for the torsion bars and we'll knock those out later this week.
Trans will be done Monday night and installed Monday night or Tuesday.
Diff will be back from Maier's on Monday night, so we'll get into that as well.
Things are rockin!