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.

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!

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.

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!

May 29th Update

Today we got the engine re-installed for what we think is the last time. I got the fuel tank painted, all of the front suspension painted, the old bushings and ball joints out of the arms and the new poly bushings installed.
This week also brought a couple of big boxes from the fine folks at Randy's Ring and Pinion. They set me up with a nodular drop out for the 9 inch, a solid spacer, new axles with the right bolt pattern, a Yukon Grizzly limited slip unit, a set of 3.25 gears and a rebuild kit. The housing is off to Maier Racing to be shortened 1 1/4" per side and then its reinstallation time.
If the motor looks short in the car, that's because I ripped the head off and sent it up to Wright's Machine Shop in Yuba City, CA for a deck and refresh. I am installing heavy duty springs to allow me to get a 4k rev limit. ARP studs will go in Tuesday night after I get the head back.
We installed the engine without the transmission to make sure that the trans is separately serviceable. I want to be sure we can get it in and out without disassembling the whole front of the car.
We mocked up the intercooler mounting this week too; we'll get it installed later this week as the front of the car comes together.

May 23rd Update

This week we got the subframe connectors welded in and got the rear of the underbelly cleaned up and undercoated. One of my customers also gave me a Ford 9", disc-brake rear, so we cut all the brackets off of it and test fit it with the wheels to see how it fit. We need to shorten it 1.5" on each side, so we'll get that done this week if we have time.
Danny got the Lower Control Arms reinforced and did a little repair on the hood hinge mounts to strengthen them.
I had another minor victory with the convertible top. After some cleaning and cycling of the pump and some serious bleeding, I got it to work. It now goes up and down smoothly.
At the house, I got the dash trim painted up and got the main dash assembly primed. Still need to make the template for the Autometer Gauges, but that shouldn't take long.
I also managed to work out a barter with Brian to handle the painting, and he may have me convinced to shoot it a real color instead of hot rod black. Time to get out the colored pencils again and see what I can come up with.

Fab work is complete, Disassembly in Process

We finished the fabrication this week (except for the subframe connectors. We got the trans mount done and got all of the other welding completed. I tore apart the dash at the house so I could paint the pieces and dye the dash pad. I also got the engine on the super-trick rotating engine stand and re-gasketed the whole thing. Got the rear-main replaced as well. This week I will get the high rate valve springs installed, adjust the valves and paint/install the valve covers. Check out the pics, there is a cool shot of the turbo being test fit. Not only did it fit, but the HX-40 downpipe from the donor truck actually fits too!