Another Mopar Off My Bucket List - Barracuda Fastback
After I re-positioned the body hinges and cut the Lexan for clearance I noticed that the front body latch will also need to be re-done. It's amazing how making one change can affect so many other aspects of a build.
The windshield now:
I went ahead and removed the Lexan from the sides of the car. It's going to be the easiest access point getting in & out when the body is down.
Next on my agenda was the headers. I knew I needed to fine tune the fit after I made them and now that I believe I've got the body sitting the way it will stay it seemed like a good time to take care of them. I did a lot of measuring before I cut the tubes. Rather than a single bend - they needed to have a second 'kick-up' to be parallel with the body and each tube had to be slightly different.
This is the way they looked before I modified them. The ends are parallel to the ground but not with the body.
And this is how they fit now after tacking them back together.
I had to jack the car into the air prior to taking my measurements and cutting them up. There wasn't enough room to work with the car on the ground.
Rather than cutting off the flanges I chose to cut each tube and angle them up before tacking them back together.
As I was working on them it occurred to me that it might be nice to fab some caps to keep rain out. I cut the end off of a Mountain Dew can and polished it out to see how it would look. I'd often seen beer cans used before and thought this would be a cheap way to go.
The cans looked OK and I thought I might even spray them with some of that translucent red paint. Before I got that far I decided to tie the exhaust tubes together before final welding. It would keep them from moving around and strengthen each header. Unfortunately I won't be able to use the cans for caps now. I guess I'll fabricate one long oval cap for each side instead.
I still need to pull them back off and finish welding them but they already look 100% better to me.
After I re-positioned the body hinges and cut the Lexan for clearance I noticed that the front body latch will also need to be re-done. It's amazing how making one change can affect so many other aspects of a build.
The windshield now:
I went ahead and removed the Lexan from the sides of the car. It's going to be the easiest access point getting in & out when the body is down.
Next on my agenda was the headers. I knew I needed to fine tune the fit after I made them and now that I believe I've got the body sitting the way it will stay it seemed like a good time to take care of them. I did a lot of measuring before I cut the tubes. Rather than a single bend - they needed to have a second 'kick-up' to be parallel with the body and each tube had to be slightly different.
This is the way they looked before I modified them. The ends are parallel to the ground but not with the body.
And this is how they fit now after tacking them back together.
I had to jack the car into the air prior to taking my measurements and cutting them up. There wasn't enough room to work with the car on the ground.
Rather than cutting off the flanges I chose to cut each tube and angle them up before tacking them back together.
As I was working on them it occurred to me that it might be nice to fab some caps to keep rain out. I cut the end off of a Mountain Dew can and polished it out to see how it would look. I'd often seen beer cans used before and thought this would be a cheap way to go.
The cans looked OK and I thought I might even spray them with some of that translucent red paint. Before I got that far I decided to tie the exhaust tubes together before final welding. It would keep them from moving around and strengthen each header. Unfortunately I won't be able to use the cans for caps now. I guess I'll fabricate one long oval cap for each side instead.
I still need to pull them back off and finish welding them but they already look 100% better to me.