Sounds like a productive weekend! Anxiously awaiting the pics!
Glad somebody is making progress, I'm on that piddly stuff where you work all day and can't see where you did anything!!!!
Printable View
Sounds like a productive weekend! Anxiously awaiting the pics!
Glad somebody is making progress, I'm on that piddly stuff where you work all day and can't see where you did anything!!!!
Hey Dave,
Thanks, progress has been good all along but, as you know, the little things take time.
Mel and I hit it hard again this weekend! I got the new battery for the shop camera Thursday so I got a few update pics from last weekend.
This is a pic of the housing panhard bracket tacked in place. With the panhard bar mocked in.
http://images108.fotki.com/v205/phot...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Another angle.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC006F-vi.jpg
Here is a pic of the whole suspension hanging in the chassis.
http://images57.fotki.com/v256/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
This is the outer gusset for the panhard bar frame bracket tacked in place.
http://images58.fotki.com/v132/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
The upper shock xmbr tacked in. I will be making gusset plates for this to tie it into the rail better and it will also carry a set of down tubes for the cage.
http://images39.fotki.com/v1291/phot...MVC003F-vi.jpg
Mark
This is a pic of the custom decals I had made for Bad Ast Motorsports.
http://images108.fotki.com/v191/phot...MVC002F-vi.jpg
I am putting the stickers on all of the suspension parts as they are finished.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
Storage for the 4 link and panhard bars.
http://images59.fotki.com/v684/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Today and yesterday the chassis saw the light of day AND the underside of a certain Astro Van... We started marrying the chassis to the body Saturday. Cleaned out a LOT more of the crossmembers (all of them to be exact) made a few notches in the forward rail sections and got the chassis shoved up in there...:)
http://images54.fotki.com/v77/photos...MVC012F-vi.jpg
Making way for the new chassis... There were 8 of these "tabs" left, spot welded to the old rails that we cleaned off today
http://images15.fotki.com/v235/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
After hitting them with a plug cutter and chisel...
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
Cleaned up with the grinder...
http://images50.fotki.com/v1523/phot...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Rail notches for frame clearance. I will plate these in over the winter. The drivers side is a bit more "notchie" then the pass side.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
http://images59.fotki.com/v683/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
After a couple of days worth of cutting and grinding we got the frame up in a near semblance of it's actual position.
http://images59.fotki.com/v683/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
http://images57.fotki.com/v221/photo...MVC010F-vi.jpg
http://images59.fotki.com/v684/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
I found this...
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
INSIDE the right hand rail section... WHY would a bird want to get in the rail? Probably to make a nest but it couldn't get out... Sad, very sad.
Thanks for looking.
Services and funeral are next Thursday at 11:00AM.
:)
Nice work on the project, good to see them come together finally, isn't it? Neat looking decal, too!!! Should draw some interest.
PS--Is there a prayer service for da bird prior to the funeral, I have an appointment Thursday.....
Thank you Dave. There is no planned prayer service but you can send money to the "Birds the Words" charity. :)
I hope your grand-daughters are okay... Sorry to here about the strife.
Any body mods planed??. Chop top,channeling,etc??. Given that,now maybe you start the roll bar/cage tacking it in and then remove the body to finish weld it all around.
Hey Gary,
There are body mods planned, but those will wait until the van is running good and all of the suspension is sorted out. I hope to have it drivable by spring and will spend the summer working out the bugs.
Cage work is already planned and will progress as soon as the body mounts are in (this week). There is a lot of work to do to the front inner fender structure for tire clearance and the dog house area around the engine. I will be building a whole new dog house and will be re-building the entire floor to accomodate.
The cage will be built inside the van while it is off the chassis. I built a body cart to hold it over the winter and that is where I will build the cage. The cage will actually drop down thru holes in the floor so I can finish weld all of the tubes. It will then be raised into position while the chassis is re-installed this spring.
There is still butt-load of work to do. We have actually just scrapped the surface so far...
The cage finish weld I was talking about are the ones by the roof.Often those are welded as best you can considering the ceiling.I was suggesting a cage height adjustment given a top chop.
"The cage will actually drop down thru holes in the floor so I can finish weld all of the tubes. It will then be raised into position while the chassis is re-installed this spring."
No top chop. I've talked about this before. The vans are too wide to make a chop look good unless it is very minor chop. Not worth doing in my opinion.
I worked on trimming down body mount bushings during the week and got the chassis centered up and aligned so Mel and I could get the mount brackets finished up and tacked on today. We got all of that done AND pulled the chassis out and put it back on the rotisserie AND took the van off the lift and rolled it over to the cold side of the shop so I can putter with it this winter. I hope you enjoy the pics.
Trimming the mounts. I set them up in the horizontal bandsaw and trimmed them down to one inch high.
http://images41.fotki.com/v195/photo...MVC006F-vi.jpg
This is 7 of the 8 mount bushings I did. I still need two more to finish them up.
http://images109.fotki.com/v146/phot...MVC008F-vi.jpg
After squaring up the chassis we measured how much we would need to notch the body mount brackets. 1" by 2" was the magic number.
Running the tubing through the verticle saw.
http://images51.fotki.com/v94/photos...MVC009F-vi.jpg
After getting all of the brackets ready I tacked them to the frame. We re-used the 6 old cradle mounts and added 4 new (two per side) towards the rear.
http://images108.fotki.com/v205/phot...MVC013F-vi.jpg
http://images15.fotki.com/v2/photos/...MVC019F-vi.jpg
We fabbed up the rear mounts from 1/4" plate and some short sections of 2 x 3 tube.
http://images108.fotki.com/v360/phot...MVC014F-vi.jpg
These are just tacked right now. I am going to start the finish welding tomorrow.
As they look in the van.
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
http://images58.fotki.com/v154/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
We got the van off the hoist and onto the body cart. It sure did roll around nice.
http://images109.fotki.com/v146/phot...MVC020F-vi.jpg
My wife had a good time taking us for rides...
http://images108.fotki.com/v205/phot...MVC018F-vi.jpg
Once we got it rolled back in the shop we raised it up off the cart and set it on some jack stands.
http://images51.fotki.com/v103/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
http://images109.fotki.com/v779/phot...MVC006F-vi.jpg
The chassis is back in the shop. With body mounts! Have a few additional brackets to make and finish the welding. That will be tomorrow.
http://images57.fotki.com/v256/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Thanks for looking
Mark
I like the looks of the 8 wheeled van body, but isn't that going to be kind of tough to steer??????:whacked::whacked::whacked:
Really nice work as always Mark!!!! I'd say you had a very productive week!
So Mark short of a different cut-out for the flooring and dog house for the on center drive train,are you retaining the stock flooring and not tinning it??.BTW looks really good bud.
Nice work on the chassis and rear suspension. Lookin good.......Im watching this build with a close eye....Im also learnin a few things from watching you too.
Well, today was another good day. We got a crap load of "little bits" done. Capping off and reinforcing the upper shock crossmember, capping off the body mount brackets and getting the support tubes made for the lower shock mounts and panhard bar mount on the rear end. I also did a LOT of welding today. The housing has some to do yet and the chassis is probably about half way there.
One of the caps... Man, these little bits take a lot of time.
http://images15.fotki.com/v2/photos/...MVC002F-vi.jpg
You can see the some of the other pieces we made today already welded in.
http://images51.fotki.com/v94/photos...MVC003F-vi.jpg
The passenger side.
http://images109.fotki.com/v146/phot...MVC010F-vi.jpg
I will be using these areas to carry the roll cage down bars so we plated it in with a flat area for the tube to sit on and weld too.
Fitting the lower shock mount support bars.
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC012F-vi.jpg
The panhard bar support.
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
I tied the lower shock and panhard bar supports into a small plate welded to the housing.
It's hard to see here but the plate welds in over the lower shock tube and bottom edge of the housing and the panhard bar tube sits on it. It also very effectively spreads the load over a larger area.
http://images51.fotki.com/v94/photos...MVC016F-vi.jpg
One of my welds. I am getting better.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
Body mount weld.
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
We got a ton of work done this weekend.
I will be plugging away at the finish welding this week. I have a few early welds I need to grind out and re-weld so that is what I will be working on.
Thanks for looking
Mark
Nice work Mark, the van is really starting to take shape and lookin' good!!!! Thanks for the pics, lots of incentive there!
My thought Mark is the Astro's are pretty heavy.In the range of 4,000lbs +.So my thought is you trying to save wt anywhere you can.That does take a fair amount of a engine to get it to move. have you given any thought for a projected wt??. Just my two cents worth.
Hey Gary, I am not concerning myself with the weight. There is really nothing I can do about it. Granted it will be heavier with the full frame and all of the cage work but I think the 509 will be up to the task of moving the van down the road. My main focus has been in getting the CG lower. That and moving the engine rearward and down will definetly help in the handling department.
Things have been going slow although I have not been slacking!!! Got all of the chassis welds completed over this past weekend along with the rearend housing. I added some triangulation bars to the back side of the lower suspension cradle. Fabbed them up out of 1 5/8 DOM and fit them to the bottom of the side rails.
This is the passenger side (upside down on the rotisserie) :)
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Looking at the rail fitup. This was a head scratcher... Took some thinking and mocking up to get the cuts right...
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC003F-vi.jpg
I got the shock towers mocked up and welded tonight. That means the welding is about 99.9% complete. I have LOT of clean up to do to get it ready for paint but that will happen this weekend.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC019F-vi.jpg
After the welding.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC002F-vi.jpg
http://images43.fotki.com/v1505/phot...MVC005F-vi.jpg
This what I've been up to.
Thanks for looking
Mark
This is another thing I have been doing. A friend of mine has a little junkyard just up the road from me. He brouoght this down for me to strip. I pulled off the entire front end, Hydroboost setup, tilt column, overhead console (and bracket), instrument cluster and throttle pedal, the last few nights. I will get the doors for the electric windows and locks and I will strip out all of the light grey interior trim and dash along with all of the wiring. I think the light grey will look better then the beige that is in the van right now...
http://images46.fotki.com/v1506/phot...MVC015F-vi.jpg
This thing is a pile. It had almost 260K on it though so it was rode hard and put away wet...
It had been hit hard in the right front also. You can see some wrinkles in the sub-structure. This is kind of wierd because Bad Ast had been hit hard in the right front also...
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC016F-vi.jpg
The hood is bent at both corners so that will be used as a donor for hood experimentation.
http://images58.fotki.com/v154/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
The roof console and bracket.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC012F-vi.jpg
Looks great Mark!!!! Really fun when all the pieces start coming together and it finally looks like what you wanted!!!
Thanks alot Dave! Yes it is a lot of fun! I can say I am very proud on how well this frame and both suspensions have come together. I hope the rest of it goes as well as this has.
When are you planning on setting the body in place??? Anxious to see how the whole thing is going to look!
Soon. I am anxious also. I have a bit of work to do to the front lower control arms (finish up the welding) and I want to get everything in primer just for the rust protection, but I am hoping we will be looking at dropping the body on in December. I have a lot of cage and tin work to do and it will be better to do it while the van is "one piece".
I hope to be spraying primer on the chassis this weekend sometime. We'll see, there is a lot of cleanup work to do.
This past weekend was another milestone! WE HAVE PAINT!!! After almost two full days of grinding and cleaning the chassis is primed in black, the upper and lower control arms and panhard bar are in dark gray hammered and the spindles and rear housing are black hammered. I think I will spray the frame with the black also... It comes in a quart can and I think it looks nice.
The chassis as we got parts primed. We started at the back and worked our way forward.
Saturday.
http://images15.fotki.com/v2/photos/...MVC006F-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Sunday.
http://images58.fotki.com/v156/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Didn't wait for the paint to dry for these...
http://images59.fotki.com/v112/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
http://images54.fotki.com/v77/photos...MVC018F-vi.jpg
The chassis still has some work yet, front bumper brackets and some roll cage work but at least now it can go thru the winter in one color. :)
Thanks for looking
Mark
The rear end and spindles got a Rustoleum black hammertone finish. I worked on deburring the housing yesterday and ran the spindles thru the sand blaster and got them primed.
The housing after I had sprayed it with rust converter. It was ready for primer after this stuff dryed.
http://images51.fotki.com/v103/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Another shot.
http://images51.fotki.com/v299/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
After a couple of coats of rustoleum grey primer.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC020F-vi.jpg
http://images58.fotki.com/v279/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
I decided to go with a darker color for the housing and spindles. Just to break things up a bit.
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC009F-vi.jpg
http://images51.fotki.com/v303/photo...MVC011F-vi.jpg
The spindles in ALL of their modified glory. I still have to drill and tap for the Corvette brake adapter.
http://images58.fotki.com/v132/photo...MVC003F-vi.jpg
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC005F-vi.jpg
Let me know what you think!
Mark
Last post for today! Can you tell we got a hell ofa lot of work done this weekend? :)
The upper and lower control arms were run thru the blasting cabinet after I deburred them.
These are the upper arms... The one on the right had just come out of the cabinet. It was the guy on lefts turn next...
http://images57.fotki.com/v300/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
As the parts came out of the cabinet I would hang them on my trusty step ladder and prime them.
http://images44.fotki.com/v301/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
I got all of the arms primed Saturday afternoon. It sure was a beautiful day for the middle of November!
Here are both lower arms in their Grey coats
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
Both upper arms.
http://http://images54.fotki.com/v62...MVC002F-vi.jpg
At this point I am ready to start a mock build. This will probably end up with the van on the chassis so I can get tire clearances established and start building the cage...
Thanks for looking, I know this got kind of long.
Mark
I have been picking away at the details during the week. I get home from Warren around 4pm so I have some time to spend in the shop in the evenings. Last night and tonight I worked on painting the 3rd member and UCA cross shafts and drilling and tapping the suspension bushings (8 of them) for grease zerks.
Here is the 3rd member before paint. I used the same Rustoleum Black "Hammered" that is on the housing.
http://images16.fotki.com/v258/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
and after
http://images20.fotki.com/v533/photo...MVC013F-vi.jpg
Drilling and tapping the bushing sleeves in the upper control arms.
http://images16.fotki.com/v363/photo...MVC005F-vi.jpg
After tapping
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC006F-vi.jpg
and with a zerk installed.
http://images56.fotki.com/v1298/phot...MVC007F-vi.jpg
Same process on the rear link bars.
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC015F-vi.jpg
here are the cross shafts in R.B.H.
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC004F-vi.jpg
Tomorrow night I will drag out the blasting cabinet and blast the rack and lower rear shock brackets. They will get the same black paint.
Thanks for looking
Mark
How about an update from the past couple of weeks? Spent a lot of time cleaning up and rearranging the shop so I could get all of my "summer" cars put to bed for the winter. Also got the van set-up and bolted to the frame and moved into the heated "working" side of the shop.
Got a little bit done (and "undone") this past weekend. I worked a bit of O.T. during the week so I didn't get much done other then Wednesday afternoon which I spent stripping parts off the donor van. Thursday was spent doing the Turkey Day stuff and I worked Friday so, out of a "four day" weekend, I had Saturday and Sunday to work in the shop. Saturday Mel came out and he worked on stripping the rest of the interior out of Bad Ast and I stripped the dash, wiring harness, interior door trim, brake pedal and bracket and a bunch of little things off the donor van. We have quite a pile of parts for me to organize. I need to buy some more storage tubs.
Some of the stuff off the donor van.
http://images51.fotki.com/v303/photo...MVC007F-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
Bad Ast is pretty well gutted right now. Once the seats were out we got the rubber floor mat and all of the interior door trim removed.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC001F-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC004F-vi.jpg
All of that was Saturday's work.
Today we worked on a plan for the cage and tin work. we measured the inside of the van for the "C" and "B" pillar hoops. I will model those in UG to get the cage designs going.
I also welded some nuts to the upper front fender bolts as that is the only way to get them off after the torx bolts take a set...
We also dropped the jack stands a bit to make getting in and out a little easier and got the van leveled up side to side and front to rear. We also put another set of stands in the middle of chassis so it is sitting on six stands now instead of just four.
Did some cutting also. We laid out the cut lines to reposition the doghouse for the new motor location. You can see them in black felt pen in this pic.
http://images112.fotki.com/v386/phot...MVC017F-vi.jpg
Aftercutting out the piece we will reuse I cut out the rest of the floor as it will be when we start to rebuild it.
http://images16.fotki.com/v363/photo...MVC019F-vi.jpg
Here you can see the new location for the back of the doghouse. I have moved it 18.5 inches rearward and 3 inches to the drivers side. It looks like a lot and it is.
http://images16.fotki.com/v258/photo...MVC020F-vi.jpg
You can see here where I cut the flange up near the throttle pedal. This is about as far forward as it needs to go for rocker cover clearance. I will reshape the throttle lever and brake pedal arms to move them three inches to the left. There is nothing there to get in the way so I should have plenty of foot room after the work is done.
http://images51.fotki.com/v278/photo...MVC021F-vi.jpg
Had a good weekend, I hope everyone had a nice Turkey Day and I thank you for looking.
Mark
You got a lot done! The van sure does have a nice clean floor in it, nice when there isn't any patch work to be done there. Cutout for the new engine looks great, hope to see it in there soon????
Plasma cuter best tool next to sawz all
Looks great! Reminds me of the old 60's vans with the doghouse back between the seats. Great progress; keep 'em comin!
Thaks alot guys! I hope I can keep it going. There is a lot to do and here it is December already! I am back working some O.T. at the real job so I don't get home at night until after 6. I will try to avoid working (read that "making money") the weekends so I can get some work done on the van.
I did my cyber shopping part today. With the start of the floor work I decided to look into getting a pair of seats to build around. I had been looking ,and knew what I was going to get, so I was surprised to see Summit had the seats on sale for 156 and change down from 189.99! I pulled the trigger on them during lunch. Scat ProCars in black. THEN... I thought I would check Jegs.... Criminy! Jegs had the same seats on sale for 141.99!!!! Crap. I called Summit to see if they would match Jegs price and the salesman said he couldn't match the price BUT! He would let me have them for 140.99. WOW! I was happy. And with free shipping other then having to pay an oversize fee I think I got a pretty nice deal. I also ordered two sets of seat mounting brackets that will probably end up in pieces, but they are a start anyway.
Here are the seats I got. One driver & one Passenger. I know they are pretty basic but they will do the job for now.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...661L_MH-vi.jpg
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...661L_BP-vi.jpg
Thanks for looking
Mark
Haven't updated the build in a while.
Been busy at work during the week so I only get the weekends to get anything done.
Last weekend Mel and I built a K member to support the floor under the new doghouse location and to carry the repositioned front inner seat bolts.
We also set the mock up motor and trans in place. We will be building the new floor and doghouse around it.
Bolted the heads and headers on so we know exactly what we need for clearances.
http://images51.fotki.com/v278/photo...MVC017F-vi.jpg
Here is the K member. It is built from 1 x 2 x .083 Rect tube with angle on each end to attach to the rail.
http://images51.fotki.com/v628/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
Yesterday I layed out the bolt pattern on the floor and drilled the holes out with a step drill. With the brace clamped under the floor in the correct location the drilled holes marked where all of the AVK's will go.
http://images56.fotki.com/v362/photo...MVC002F-vi.jpg
I drilled the tubing out to .391 for the AVK's.
This is the installation tool. Thread the insert onto the mandrel, put the insert in the hole and tighten the setting tool with two 3/4" wrenches. Setting 14 inserts took about 1/2 an hour.
http://images9.fotki.com/v248/photos...MVC012F-vi.jpg
I also made a tapping plate to carry the load at the middle of the floor. 1/2" plate with 3 1/4-20 tapped holes for each side of the brace.
http://images54.fotki.com/v104/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
It took about an hour to tap all six holes. It fit very well and adds a LOT of support at the middle of the floor
Here you can see it being bolted in. It slides into place between the tubes and clamps everything together.
http://images60.fotki.com/v661/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
All bolted in making for a VERY stout floor...
http://images53.fotki.com/v249/photo...MVC001F-vi.jpg
I also trimmed down the doghouse from the donor van. Cut it off about in the middle. I will use this half to rebuild the center once all of the floor work is done.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...2&d=1323652836
After the sawsall had its way with it...
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...3&d=1323652986
Today we got a lot of "stuff" done. Stripped out the column, dash, wiring harness, brake booster, HVAC stuff, doors... basically there is nothing left that will bolt on...
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...4&d=1323653053
Mocking up the doghouse with the rocker covers in place. There is a lot more room than I had anticipated. I will need to move the throttle and brake pedals a bit but that is easy.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...5&d=1323653226
With a seat in place.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...6&d=1323653276
Also got the 3 in 1 machine working today. Bent up a piece of 18ga to use to stretch the seal flange for the doghouse. I will be using this and some separate pieces to smooth the transitions.
[imghttp://www.pro-touring.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=52397&d=1323653467]http://[/img]
A close up of the bends. I had to sweeten these up a bit with a hammer but they turned out pretty good.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...0&d=1323653665
I started working on the transition in front of the drivers cylinder head. I cut the pieces with a cutoff wheel in a die grinder so I could do a little bending. This will be reworked to smooth out the bends.
http://www.pro-touring.com/attachmen...1&d=1323653821
Well, that's about it for the last two weekends. I hope to have a lot of the tinwork well on it's way next weekend.
Thanks for looking.
Mark
I have gotten out to the shop a couple nights this week. Tuesday night I bent up some test pieces to start developing the new flange area by the drivers foot. I need to put an "S" bend into it to walk it around the cylinder head. I kerfed out the piece I made so it could be bent into shape without kinking. I will make a hammerform to bend the real piece to fit.
http://images61.fotki.com/v218/photo...MVC008F-vi.jpg
I also put a nice roll into the new flange section I made Sunday. This will blend down into the floor nicely.
http://images57.fotki.com/v1354/phot...MVC006F-vi.jpg
Tonight I puttered around for an hour or so. I cut the original engine cover in two and bolted the front half in place. This is the gap I have to fill.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC012F-vi.jpg
It's really not that bad, it will get kinda tricky on the drivers side but once the floor and flange area's are rebuilt, making a new glass cover is pretty simple.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC014F-vi.jpg
Any design suggestions? I should probably keep it simple but it would be easy to go a little wild here...
Got one of the new seats set into place.
http://images54.fotki.com/v627/photo...MVC018F-vi.jpg
There is a lot more room than I thought there would be.
http://images12.fotki.com/v335/photo...MVC016F-vi.jpg
The bend I am putting in the cover at the firewall actually lets my foot snuggle right down to the throttle pedal. I will still move it outboard an inch or two but even that wouldn't be necessary.
The shifter is going to be a problem though. I ordered a TCI Outlaw shifter today. I hope to have it tomorrow or saturday. Proper placement is getting real close to the back of the cover and routing the cable will be a trick...
I hope to get the hammerform started tomorrow night. I would really like to be welding the floor together Saturday. :)
Thanks for looking.
Mark
Nice work Mark! The dog house is coming together very nicely, leg and foot room looks super! More room then there is in a lot of 30's Hot Rods with the narrow cowls!