Updating the Super Street Mopar

[ckessel]

Thank you both. Skicker, the reasons I'm working over the floor so much are the SFC's I put in, 2x4x.120, the floors had tears due to no reinforcements under the floor for the bucket seats, correct seats but it was a bench car originally and I'm using a 70 k-frame which moved engine/trans back making the tunnel tight plus an added Gear Vendors unit. I initially thumped the tunnel area to clear but it looked like crap so I figured what the heck, do more metal work. Plus in that mix I made up a new t-bar x-member hoop to give the trans more clearance. I at least am not dealing with rot like many of you guys out there. My car is blessed with just minor surface rust, so I'm extremely lucky there. Back in 13 I took some classes up in Pleasonton Ca with Lazze Jansen, Lazze Metal Shaping. He's on YouTube also. I've always wanted to be able to do more than just the usual car/hot rod stuff. The classes were 3 days for the intro and 5 for the more in depth. On the intro you learn the basics about operating an English Wheel, Bead Roller and Shrinker/Stretcher. We made up some basic pieces to learn operations but some of the pieces you make get used at the 5 day session. At the 5 day session you get more in depth making pieces and each of us was doing parts for a 33 3 window coupe. By Wednesday Lazz starts tacking the pieces together and on Friday we ended up with most of a body shell minus firewall, roof skin, trunk lid and the inner structures. During that session you have the opportunity to by the machines from him. The roller and the wheel are fully his from scratch as he's found many others lacking in ability and quality. The Shrinker/Stretcher units come from outside but he does a total redo/tune up to make them better. I bought the machines as I wanted to do that for work at shops. That didn't happen as I ended up just doing mechanical work instead. I did do some initial work for people but it didn't last so I only did my own stuff. I haven't done any of this type of work for 8+ years so the floor is a great exercise on re learning operations which will help me when I do my air intake/air cleaner housing, going NASCAR cowl induction.
Icetech, my plans are to run the car at local track events, Willow Springs/Buttonwillow and some others, Autocross events, maybe a couple of trips to Famosa[ drags] and lots of fun driving on twisty roads.

 

[icetech]

Thank you both. Skicker, the reasons I'm working over the floor so much are the SFC's I put in, 2x4x.120, the floors had tears due to no reinforcements under the floor for the bucket seats, correct seats but it was a bench car originally and I'm using a 70 k-frame which moved engine/trans back making the tunnel tight plus an added Gear Vendors unit. I initially thumped the tunnel area to clear but it looked like crap so I figured what the heck, do more metal work. Plus in that mix I made up a new t-bar x-member hoop to give the trans more clearance. I at least am not dealing with rot like many of you guys out there. My car is blessed with just minor surface rust, so I'm extremely lucky there. Back in 13 I took some classes up in Pleasonton Ca with Lazze Jansen, Lazze Metal Shaping. He's on YouTube also. I've always wanted to be able to do more than just the usual car/hot rod stuff. The classes were 3 days for the intro and 5 for the more in depth. On the intro you learn the basics about operating an English Wheel, Bead Roller and Shrinker/Stretcher. We made up some basic pieces to learn operations but some of the pieces you make get used at the 5 day session. At the 5 day session you get more in depth making pieces and each of us was doing parts for a 33 3 window coupe. By Wednesday Lazz starts tacking the pieces together and on Friday we ended up with most of a body shell minus firewall, roof skin, trunk lid and the inner structures. During that session you have the opportunity to by the machines from him. The roller and the wheel are fully his from scratch as he's found many others lacking in ability and quality. The Shrinker/Stretcher units come from outside but he does a total redo/tune up to make them better. I bought the machines as I wanted to do that for work at shops. That didn't happen as I ended up just doing mechanical work instead. I did do some initial work for people but it didn't last so I only did my own stuff. I haven't done any of this type of work for 8+ years so the floor is a great exercise on re learning operations which will help me when I do my air intake/air cleaner housing, going NASCAR cowl induction.
Icetech, my plans are to run the car at local track events, Willow Springs/Buttonwillow and some others, Autocross events, maybe a couple of trips to Famosa[ drags] and lots of fun driving on twisty roads.

Ahhh very cool! I never expect a twisty car when i see a build

 

[ckessel]

I've found, for me at least, the twisty stuff is more fun.
I was able to get the first two pieces welded in today. After they got secured I measured out for the three pieces that go around the the outer portion of the seat frame. My next session will be to mark, cut out, bend and fit them into that area. Get them secured then weld them in. I will follow that up with cutting out a portion of the old floor that covers the t-bar x-member, inside of the SFC and make up the pieces in those areas.

 

[ckessel]

I got the three pieces cut, cleaned, scuffed, trimmed and bent today to go around the seat frame. Two of them I had to redo, layed them out wrong then cut wrong. DOH! Redid those two correctly then proceeded to mark one wrong on the trim making it useless. DOUBLE DOH! Made another one, got it ready minus trimming. Will trim tomorrow. Along with that, I was having issues with my snack getting into my piehole without wearing it. LOL!

 

[ckessel]

I was able to get the three pieces welded in today. After that, I cut out the last piece over the t-bar area. Will get it prepped up for some welding etc. I removed the remainder of the bulkhead unit that was not removed when I put the SFC through. The old floor section didn't look bad on the backside.

 

[ckessel]

Today I did some grinding on the inner structure, needed to remove old welds etc plus clean off the grunge in the weld areas. After that I cut some angle, to weld in the SFC area, plus a piece of flat to give the hoop a little better attachment in its area. From there, weld them in.

 

[ckessel]

Today was pretty productive. Got the floor on the outside of the SFC welded to it. There was a spot on the inside corner that got a little too much cutting when I was removing areas for the SFC. I put a piece of copper on the backside and got that welded together. From there I made a pattern, transferred it to the sheet, cut that out, did some trimming and got it close for the day. Tomorrow I'll finish trimming it and then weld it to the surrounding areas.

 

[icetech]

Can't wait to see what that car weighs when done

 

[ckessel]

When I had got it scaled in 13, it was 3941. 1/2 tank fuel, 440, 727, p/s, a/c, buckets, no spare, rear seat, carpet, insulation etc, no driver. The Indy engine alone lops almost 200 lbs from that off the front end currently but with me adding structure etc it will be interesting to see where it ends up when I get it driving.

 

[ckessel]

Today I put the latest piece in. Got it secured all around with the glue guns. After that, I made up a template for the next large piece. Cut it out, hammered down the edges, checked the fit, put the car in the air and makes the back side so I could drill spot weld holes, dropped the car down and took the piece out, drilled holes, de-burred it, hit it with the surface prep disc, wiped it down with acetone, gave it a coat of Ospho. Tomorrow put it in and on to the next areas.

 

[ckessel]

I got the new piece secured. Used the TIG on the butt weld doing a small section at a time since there was some waves on the inner piece. Once that was done I swapped to the MIG, held the piece down with a screwdriver to make it flat to the seat framed a hole at a time worked my way to the outside. The next time out I'll get caught up on weld grinding before I fill in the rest of the areas.

 

[ckessel]

Got caught up on the weld grinding. Then I punched the holes through on the seat frame so those are open once again. After that I made up the next two pieces to tie up the front of the SFC. Will get those secured then head to the other end and get it covered up. I have cardboard boxes flattened out to use as grinding shields. Works very well. There was quite a bit of grit to vacuum up when I got done.

 

[ckessel]

I got the two pieces on the from of the rail secured. Cut out and formed the pieces for the back of the rail then got the first one tacked down.

 

[ckessel]

Today I got started late. Did some errands after the local c&c meet. After lunch I went down to get the back area filled in. Was going to do it yesterday but I had an eye exam and got the orbs dilated, so no welding happened. After a local hot rod buddy left this afternoon, I got all but one piece secured. Started to cut and trim the bead section but the brain farting started so I stopped for the day.

 

[ckessel]

I made up the last piece today and got it welded in. After that I put tools etc away, took my stainless toothbrush to the welds and seams of the new stuff top and bottom. Vacuumed the floor and trunk, put it up in the air, blew air through the seams then vacuumed the garage floor and lift. I then put down some of my scavenged paper and boxes on the floor and lift. Then I got out my cans of Eastwood internal frame coating putting a basic spray pattern on the new seams followed up by switching to the modified nozzle I made and jetted the coating into the seams/joints etc. Did the same on the topside. I initially was going to put the engine/trans in today but decided to get some coating in instead. The areas I shot today will get seam sealer applied later on so there will be plenty of drying time for the heavily coated areas before sealing.

 

[ckessel]

Did a little touch up on a couple of barely covered spots. After that I moved stuff around, pulled the engine/trans out, got it positioned and now it's in place. Going to start formulating a plan for the air cleaner unit. INTMD8 gave me some ideas.

 

[Nxcoupe]

Did a little touch up on a couple of barely covered spots. After that I moved stuff around, pulled the engine/trans out, got it positioned and now it's in place. Going to start formulating a plan for the air cleaner unit. INTMD8 gave me some ideas.

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Looks great. That engine looks killer, just bad to the bone.

 

[ckessel]

Thank you for that. I started mocking up the filter unit. Did measuring, contemplating etc. Looked at some oval elements, especially the E-1980 K&N unit, more measuring etc. I couldn't remember how far the the outer fender sticks above the inner. Looked at some photos from when I was initially taking the car apart. I uncovered one fender so I could get an actual measurement, its 1.5" above the edge of the inner. I marked a line on some wood and clamped them to the inners so I could duplicate the added height. More figuring and measuring. I need to clear the fuel rails some, 1/4" would be fine, plus I need to clear the throttle arm on the body. I may just make a pocket in the base to clear that. Like in the movie Apollo 13 when they needed to be able to make the CO2 scrubber with materials on hand, I'm going to shoot for using the element and some of the base out of the Holley one that was on the car. I already have it and would like to not buy anything. News as it happens.

 

[ckessel]

I realized that the wood I clamped onto the inner fenders was mis-marked, corrected that. I put some stir sticks on top of the rails to duplicate air gap needed between the base and rails. More measuring, contemplating. I see K&N has a 14x2 5/16" element, which will clear my level/hood better, so I'll figure that into the mix next. The level represents the bottom of the hood without the crown in the center as I want to make sure there is clearance from lid to hood. I'm going to look at adding a piece onto the TB cable/linkage arm, have it pull forward from the bottom as opposed to pull rearward from the top. That arm is going to be interfering with the filter base. If it looks like that will be the ticket, I'll duplicate the leverage/ratio of the cable stud from the center of the shaft and remove more from the topside. More stewing to continue. This stuff is fun as it requires more thought and solutions to be formulated.

 

[ckessel]

So I was stewing on the filter unit last night and decided to see if I offset the base to the rear some and figure out how far the throttle arm sticks above the TB when the arm is vertical, I could try a spacer and see how much room I would have to the hood. Looking at it today, it seems like that may work. Having the unit to the rear some allows me to use my existing K&N element. So...I started making my TB spacer. Since I don't have a slip roller machine at my disposal, I started the fabbing by using my bead roller. From there it was working the piece with plastic mallets until I got it close enough to weld it together. Next go around will be to file down the welds and get it trued up so it's properly round. I can buy an already made spacer but going this route coast me nothing as I already have material plus its helpful with skill building. If it looks like that will work, I'll cut some .062 5 series material for the element to sit on. I can get it positioned and then make patterns to fill in between the element base and spacer, cut material, do some welding and see what I get.