Time for some updates! Been busy with life but have been making some progress on the car. I have all the un needed holes filled in now in the engine bay. Added on some structure reinforcing bars between the shock tower area and the firewall. I was trying to make a less expensive version of what U.S. Cartool makes for the b's, but it was going to be a pain trying to get them to fit up well with the various attachment points, so I ended up doing a version of the XV style units instead. Where I placed them on the rear, there is some north/south sheetmetal structure to back them up so they don't just push on an area with no backup. I took my Rotabroach units to the shock tower attachment points plus where the lower portion hooks onto the frame rails/upper control arm boss s that I could get some more welds in those areas to help further solidify them together. I rented the a/c mock up unit from Restomod Air, going to use the Haymaker unit, to get that fitted up on the backside as the attachment either welds on bolts to the firewall. I went with the weld on. There is a a 2" step in the mounting plate and a 15* slope on the firewall in the area that I chose to mount it, so I made up some brackets from 16ga material that allows for the 2" step, on the one side, plus the 15* slope on both. The studs they supplied me with got welded to the brackets and the brackets got welded to the firewall. I also ordered the bulkhead units so I can get them layed out and punched in before I start the mud and paint work in the bay. I've been working on my radiator core support and have that starting to come together. I decided to make my own as the original had been hacked over the years, wanted one to accommodate the new Be Cool unit and not restrict the air flow, plus wanted something with some structure to it to help strengthen up the car. The lower tie bar was done with some 2" square .095 wall, radius bends from a local metal supplier to make the 90's and some 3/16" pieces I have that weld to the rails with the rest of the bar welded to them. The upper part of the bar holds the same depth dimension as the old wobbly unit that got cut out. On the upper, I found someone local who could bend 1X2 .120 wall rectangle so that got me the main radius that the old upper tie bar has. He could not do the sharp/short bends at the end, so on those I traced the old bar onto the new, where available, then trimmed areas away and added material in others to get me to the required shape. I will make further structure framing to attach to the vertical portions of the inner fenders with some more 16ga reinforcing straps to hook the framing together to the inner fenders plus make new side air baffles, which will be welded to all too, so that the radiator cooling airflow will be focused with less escaping where it need to go. I have the dimensions from Restomod for the condensers so I'll pick one that fits best and is the largest that I can get away with. For the fluid coolers, I had been thinking about making a duct in the lh fender behind the lh lamps, which would focus air flow to the units that would be mounted in the space ahead of the wheel but behind the lamps. I thought of another way to do them, at church[ sorry Lord], where I'll put them side by side in a duct/mount panel behind the bumper. There looks to be enough space there so I'll consult my Earls book and figure a combo out. The park/ts lamps will be going bye bye in the bumper, going to go LED with halo's so the halo's can be the park/ts units, and let the holes in the bumper be ducts to the brakes or split then to do brakes and coolers. Before I weld all the upper rad structure stuff in, I'm going to slip the engine/trans unit back in to make sure everyone plays well together, then whip out the Lincoln glue gun and lay some hot metallic glue on them all. Having the engine back in will enable me to figure out where I can put the o2 bungs in the collectors, need them accessible and at the correct angle of the dangle down, then I can get them coated. For the bay, backside of the hood, fender jambs, door jambs etc I'm going to paint them the original color which is ruby red ploy but go with a firemist on the metallic as it shows up better than the ploy which is the finest of grit size. Should look nice when done. Doing all the inner stuff now will make the exterior portions easier to do at a later time when its in the works to redo the outside.
