some photos of the header fabrication and I made a thin ferrari style shift lever between welds cooling off. I need to add the bends and v band flanges and build the rest of the exhaust but the hard part is done! The intake manifold I ended up chopping up and I'm re-doing most of the plenum.
I have completed the intake manifold now. The welds are much better (well at least on the plenum, not where it connects to the runners!) It slides easily onto the studs in the heads which is the most important thing. It will be powder coated after I can leak test it when the engine is ready to start.
Some small jobs getting done off the big check list.
Front main seal + trigger wheel and sensor setup
alternator mounting
LSD diff installed
brake lines routed, rear brakes completely redone, axle seals and bearings.
fuel cell mounted
Building the headers back a little further so that they are now fully finished. Flex sections will be added in the rest of the exhaust and the plan is to run 4 separate pipes all the way back.
I also made up some fuel rails to run some 34# newer bosch injectors. I modified the fuel bulkhead the cell came with to be able to use an some AN hose and to hang a fuel pump too. The plan is to eventually have a false carpeted floor or fake vintage suitcase lid for cell access.
I have been plugging away at wiring the chassis, ecu, etc. but importantly I reached out to Wray Schelin (you may be familiar with his youtube chanel- pro shaper workshop) and I'm making a trip up to his shop very soon. In preparation for that I've been getting the wireform really nailed down starting with the rear deck lid and tops of the rear quarters. I had to do this by studying a lot of reference photos and just applying a lot of guesswork.
I will be wiring in the trunk shut lines in the coming days.
Up front the nose of the car had some hollow areas and a peak in the center, and it was a little low on the reverse just inside the headlight area. it just wasn't right. I decided to cut it out and make that portion a wireform too as well as adding the shut lines.
I can't describe how tedious this process is to get the wire for the shut line edges perfect! the "hood" is now easily removable which is great. I also eliminated the hood bulge from the wireform as I think it will be easier to fabricate the hood in one skin and then modify/add it after.
I have some neat gauges I had made by speedhut that I will share shortly too.
An update with a bunch of photos from my time spent in Mass. I feel like I really learned a whole lot, made some great looking panels, and came home with a lot of tool Envy as well. Wray was great and I really enjoyed spending time at proshaper learning his method.