I have every excuse in the world as to why this thing is taking so long. Lack of motivation isn't one of them. I am really trying to stick with one small project at a time. The biggest hurdle as of late has been the firewall. I wanted to remove the rain gutter and make a solid flat panel. I also wanted to change the angle of the toe boards at the same time. This was kind of an afterthought from mocking up a driver's seat and realizing the forward footwell space was limited. The problem of course is making sure there is plenty of tire clearance. My major hold up has been deciding the tire overall diameter. I finally just put a limit of 28" and moved forward.
Paper cutouts of the new firewall pieces. In order to make working with them easier I kept them in two pieces.
Initial mock up. Lots of trimming and fitting. I left a little extra because I figured after bead rolling it would shrink/warp in some areas.
Made a pretty simple design for the bead roll.
& spent some time at lunch today rolling some beads. This was my first time using one so I took a bunch of practice swipes with some spare pieces. The plan is to drill some holes about 1.5" in from the perimeter for rosette welds. The toe boards will just be bent up into place and welded/trimmed.
Here is a side view of the toe boards. IMO the old toe board angle is where the pedals should have been from the factory. With the new floor angle that shouldn't be a problem.
Our buddy Andy 'The Nova Guy' Mule found a LS7 oil pan & pump at the Pleasanton Goodguys. I hadn't planned on going dry sump for cost reasons but I couldn't pass this up knowing that Ed has a spare oil tank.
Since the beginning we had plans to run a Dakota Digital dash. I just kept hesitating because we also have a Holley dash. Once I realized that the Dakota harness is a pass thru and that I could stash the Holley somewhere else I pulled the trigger.
HDX-2200 will work out well in a universal situation. I also nabbed two 2000psi pressure sensors so we can monitor front/rear brake pressure and adjust accordingly via a prop valve mounted near the driver. We will also run twin widebands as well.
