Looks sweeeet Mike, nice work!

Looks great Mike !

The brace under the trans is only temporary to hold the trans while making the proper cross member. Nothing will be below the frame rails.

 One of the most critical parts of the build as far as I'm concerned brake , gas, steering column and seating position. If it ain't comfortable to drive or awkward to reach the pedals it takes the fun out of driving it.
First is the brake pedal, most cars it's about 7"-8" off the floor and 24" from rest the the steering wheel. The brake has to have sufficient travel for full stroke. Then the steering column is centered over the seat. Where the steering goes through the firewall has to clear the engine. Usually the pedal and column want to occupy the same area too. So with much head scratching, trial, error and a few mock ups. Drill some holes and locate the booster. Build under dash bar to mount column. Cut off brake pedal cause it hitting steering column. Throw away factory pedal booster mount bracket cause it ain't working. Draw up new one in CAD. Cut, tack, position, better. Cut and bend 2nd brake pedal to go around column. Ok. Cut hole in floor a little bigger to move column slightly, Be prepared to make another firewall repair. sigh. Steering shaft can't get between exhaust and shock mount. Cut off new shock mount. Throw away. Mock up steering. Will work now. Make new shock mounts. Cool, they look better than the first ones. Modify gas pedal so it will sit properly. Position as far to the right as possible, at rest slightly lower than the brake pedal. Make mount. Mock up seat, climb in. Not time for vroom, vroom noises yet. Check for comfort, steering wheel, centered, dash visable? check. Brake pedal, easy reach, could come over to the right about and inch. No problem do later. Gas pedal looks good. Make up lower column mount. 2 pieces, piece 1 round flange to be welded on column. Piece 2, mating flange to first flange, short length of tube and small hole in end for the shaft to pass through. Second piece will be welded to the floor later. Cut out all the previous patches in the firewall and make one big repair. Much better. Make up shifter bracket to be welded to the floor.

The ugly cut out.                                                                  Much better.

Parking brake isn't installed yet.
Transmission is domestic, straight from the 2004 Chev truck donor.

I had left off the front frame horns because I was sure where they needed to be to clear the fenders. Mocked up the front sheet metal to check clearances. Figured out where to end the ends of the frame, also had to figure how and where to put the front sway bar. Mocked up, measured, drew pieces out in CAD, cut out. Screwed up, threw out started again. Had to narrow the frame in 1" to be able to mount my sway bar. I just moved over the ends and will make filler pieces to make it more esthetic. Bolted on the sway bar and now have to make mounts on the lower control arms.

I welded the nuts for the sway bar in before the welded the horns together.

I also welded some 1/2" nuts on the inside and outside of the frame horns. I figured I may run a bumper or a set of nerf bars or a chin bar so it was easy to do it now.

If I don't end up using them I can either put some bolts in or weld them up later.

 

 

-- Edited by Lightspeed Mike on Friday 16th of December 2016 08:44:27 AM

It's a chassis engineering sway bar. It fits, but is very tight on full lock. Can't say I'm completely impressed. Order all the front end stuff form Horton thinking I would get a kit that would fit together. Nope, almost everything I ordered was a different company. I got to make it fit.
The brackets for the sway bar are designed to bolt on to a factory MII control arms. Using CAD (cardboard aided design) I have designed my own. They are next to be welded on. I looked on the Ride tech (strong arms manufacturer) website and didn't see mounts available for these arms. Not impressed with their stuff for the price I paid for it.

Looks great to me but for that matter anyone doing anything looks good to me. Nice when you have a shop to work in.

Lots of nice work there Mike, looks great!

I wanted to get the fuel injection wiring sorted out instead of it lying there intimidating me. I got the wiring diagrams, connector pinouts, etc. Most people who run these engines usually discard any thing that doesn't make it run.
I wanted to keep all the systems except for the anti theft intact. It requires more fuses, wiring and thinking. The Ecu will be mounted under the dash instead of under the battery like the trucks do. I am trying to keep this modular too like newer cars, IE not have to cut the harness apart to extract it from the car. The OE fuse block was way to bulky and didn't need all the circuits, At the scrap yard I managed to pick up 3 fuse blocks from the sunfire/cavalier family.
They are fairly simple and can be repinned almost any way you like. This is what they look like when you get them.

 

 

Removed all the fuses and relays, removed back cover, remove all the wiring and cleaned. Followed wires, labeled, made notes, drew diagrams, studied wiring diagrams.

Cut, soldered, and repinned till it looked like this.

In place.

I have 2 wires from the maxi fuses that will feed the inside fuse panel/ ignition switch and I think I will be having 3 wires coming back from the ignition switch to the fuse/relay panel.

Yes maxi fuses are way better than damn old fusable links that manufacturers used to use.

 

 

Got a chance to finish up my serpentine belt setup. Had  couple of ideas, finally settled on this setup.

I fitted up rad shell, made up mounts, installed radiator and found things getting real tight.

Ordered some slim fans, wait 2 weeks.

Ordered some air intake parts, wait 2 weeks.

Time to figure out rad hoses. First thing I need to do is turn the lower thermostat housing 90 degrees, I need it down instead of to the right.

Looked them up to try and find one, by the time it hits my door step I'm into $160+

I have aluminum and a TIG welder, what have I got to lose?

The problem, going the wrong direction.

First make jig plate, drill fixture to reference to.

Drew lines to reference outlet location, and new lines 90 degrees where I want it pointing.

Cut up a couple of small pieces of 3/8" aluminum for tabs. Clamped it all down to the fixture ready for welding.

Did the same for the other side.

A bit of time on the sander and files to clean them up. Ready for new mounting holes.

I won't say this is my finest aluminum welding job but it did seem to stick together. I found that 4043 filler rod worked better than 5356.

One of the old ears was in the way so I trimmed it off and cleaned it up the best I could. Nobody will ever see this part buried down below anyway.

Ready for install.

 

Any concern about hot used air from the engine area being pulled in through those 30 holes by the fans?  
I understand why the holes are there but air will take the route of less restriction. At a stand still/idle would the air under the hood not just circulate through the fan and back through the holes and through the fans again? There is no restriction at the holes but there is going through through the rad. If so there would be no air movement through the rad atall. 
Just my opinion.
TMJ

I always hated the original hood design on these cars. They were split in the middle and the each half of the hood and side panel were riveted together. I disliked it so much that years ago I separated the sides and hood, sold off the center strip and welded the hood together without a plan of how to make it work later. My only regret was I should have done a better job of welding the hood. I now have some wrinkles to work out.
I always liked the tilt forward design, so with cardboard and scissors in hand I made some strips and played with the pivot points till I got to where I figured it would work. Transferred the ideas to metal and assembled. A bit of tweaking and it seems to work. It's not finished yet, I still have some finessing and gusseting, latches etc to do but I am pleased with the result so far. The coolest part is that it's self balancing. The hood will stay about 3/4 way open all by it self, no prop rod, no binding of the hinges. I will make a prop rod to hold up when open though.

 

I'm making this car emission compliant, fortunately there isn't much on this engine but I do need a charcoal canister. Original bracket, toast. Made up a new bracket but it bolts to the frame from the back. I didn't want the bolt heads rubbing through the plastic can. I have wanted to try this for a while so I made a stamping die to recess the bolt area. Stuck it in the press and Voila recessed panel.

Yes I should have left more material on the top, but the holes were all ready in. Nobody will ever see this anyway.

 

Nice tool Mike. It worked well.

Very Cool. A fella can learn a lot by watching your progress.  Thanks for sharing brother...

Thanks for the positive comments guys.
Unfortunately I haven't had much time lately to work on it. I have done a few things, remount he ECU to a better spot, mount the power seat switches, refine the hood hinge etc.
Getting into a few head scratchers now. Hood latches, where to find a right rear fender and exterior body work (ugh).
Trying to decide tail lights, I'm thinking Chev HHR taillights may look good. Opinions here are welcome. Please don't tell me to use 59 Caddy, I like fresh and new ideas.
Will post updates when there is something fit to print.

A bit more progress, I finished the flange enough attach the fender to. Lined up the fender marked the cut line and trimmed it off. Cleaned up the edges and proceeded to make the two pieces one.

I plan to rework the back edges of the fenders where they meet the tail panel. I want to trim the leading edge of the fender in order to tighten up the running board to the body.

 

 

Looking GOOD!!!

 New right rear lower fender section welded in.

 

 

nice Mike!

Nice work for sure!!

 

junior

Sure meets my approval.