Thanks Mike, I forgot about the high beam lens. I had hoped for cleaner lines. Interesting and Mind numbing, even using a desk top lit magnifier
1968 Barracuda Notch 340
- Thread starter I8NEMO
- Start date
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Scored the Borgeson box from Bergman, landed yesterday. Added his coupler parts to the order. Header tube 1 is tight on the box, got one bolt a little cockeyed and hit the brakes, pulled everything out and tapped all 3 mount holes. Might be denting a tube. I reached out to Bergman about grinding/shaping the box a bit, I know it's a bad idea, I'll see what he says before I dent a tube/ shift motor. Clutch fork, t.o. bearing and new clutch rod kit showed up. Waiting on alternator and plug wires. Challenging and fun= Hot Rodding
Back at it this morning. To hopefully minimize the tube denting I chose a 3 tiered approach.
1. Driver side engine mount shim
2. Grinding Borgeson box. Via text with Bergman I think we agreed on 1/8" depth of grind
3. Flatten #1 tube
The passenger t bar was 1/8" from header so a radical engine move was out. I found the factory bumper bracket rem I had modified, perfect for the shim, 1/4" thick with a slot ready to go. I jacked engine under oil pan using plywood and 2" packing foam, worked nice, i did crank down a little on passenger mount to help a tilt effect in order to get shim to clear the bolt. This moved the engine about1/4" to passenger side , install passenger header and t bar to check fit. It's good. I decided to give the headers and box a test fit. nope too tight. So sequence again:
Unbolt box leave one bolt loose and flop box towards fender so headers will extract. Unbolt headers and hang as high and as far back as possible.
Back under car, remove steering box. Slide crate and bundled towel under header connector to catch.
Back up top, lower header onto crate.
Back underneath, lower header and remove.
Grind as needed on steering box. This first attempt was before I heard from Bergman to grind about 1/8" off so I went light.
Fix up the bench and header to prepare for tube flattening. I used tape on header and a towel taped to socket . Beat header tube.
Reinstall box and header in reverse step order. I
Still have part of the tube touching the box and know exactly where to smack and grind for round 3 tomorrow. Shoulder says we're done for today
1. Driver side engine mount shim
2. Grinding Borgeson box. Via text with Bergman I think we agreed on 1/8" depth of grind
3. Flatten #1 tube
The passenger t bar was 1/8" from header so a radical engine move was out. I found the factory bumper bracket rem I had modified, perfect for the shim, 1/4" thick with a slot ready to go. I jacked engine under oil pan using plywood and 2" packing foam, worked nice, i did crank down a little on passenger mount to help a tilt effect in order to get shim to clear the bolt. This moved the engine about1/4" to passenger side , install passenger header and t bar to check fit. It's good. I decided to give the headers and box a test fit. nope too tight. So sequence again:
Unbolt box leave one bolt loose and flop box towards fender so headers will extract. Unbolt headers and hang as high and as far back as possible.
Back under car, remove steering box. Slide crate and bundled towel under header connector to catch.
Back up top, lower header onto crate.
Back underneath, lower header and remove.
Grind as needed on steering box. This first attempt was before I heard from Bergman to grind about 1/8" off so I went light.
Fix up the bench and header to prepare for tube flattening. I used tape on header and a towel taped to socket . Beat header tube.
Reinstall box and header in reverse step order. I
Still have part of the tube touching the box and know exactly where to smack and grind for round 3 tomorrow. Shoulder says we're done for today
5th times a charm. Just kept at it, probably 10 total hours installing and removing steering box and header to get this as good as I could. T bars and front end buttoned back up, radiator and fan back in.
Whipped up this bell housing mount, need to slip the tranny back and install a flywheel for the engine break in before disassembly. As it turns out, the rectangular box steel feet I welded on were just thin enough for the tranny cart to clear. Nice to get lucky once in awhile
Flywheel in today, trans buttoned back up. My 1/4" motor mount shim created more work at z bar, not a big deal however that shim translated to a 1/2" movement at the air cleaner which means modifying the hood plenum opening.
Reminds me of the Eyebrow on a Harley Road Glide known as Sinister
Trying to imagine it with an AAR cuda style fiberglass hood on it. Not sure about that look with the 67/68 hood.
Got my z bar rebuild kit, installed new parts then determined how much end play is built into the engine side= .75". Set the ball stud into the tube bore halfway in,then measured for my tube lengthening need. The interior bore on either end is greater than the bore of the main length of the tube and is specific to the plastic ball bushings, so cuts and welds need to stay clear of the end bores. After the cut, and after the lengthening tube piece is cut, I'll chamfer all mating ends for a deeper weld. Pics not uploading tonight so, maybe tomorrow. Found a cleaner coil mount, still have that location to work out, looks like firewall, the high rise Mopar manifold isn't lending a clean spot without all kinds of bracketry. Alternator finally shipped yesterday after I called, damn thing was ordered a couple weeks ago. Steering column is down off the rack so need to fit that up, then I'll get into wiring harnesses, get this motor broken in and start tearing everything down for paint.
Pics loaded this morning.
Steering box, header, starter, z bar and steering column all playing nice finally. Gotta dent the tube yet at T bar. Went with ring weld studs for a firewall mounted coil
Steering box, header, column, z bar and starter all playing nice now . Alternator landed finally, just had to work out some spacers.
Got about 4 hours in yesterday morning. Bullied the Pitman off old box and cleaned it up. I chose the auto zone POS puller designed to fail, added some angle iron, it worked, barely, feet were bending badly. At this stage in the build I really only needed to mock steering column in, yet I went ahead and installed all components save for the column seal. I will be cleaning this car up and rolling it outside for a final stare down before disassembly, steering with a wheel instead of kicking independent tires was the plan. So, the new coupler with the Borgeson box and my column length was right on the money and with everything together, working the steering wheel I could feel and see at the left front rotor how nice and tight everything is, and responsive at 14/1 vs the factory 16/1. Amazing difference. Well worth the time and expense.
Pretty much. Lol.
View attachment 1715620063
Sent this hack job with a mouse color scheme to a graphic designer at Fast Signs. I included frontal pic showing where Dark Argent and Lime Crazy meet along with written details specific to having the two colors meet along the fender top body line including the zig zag just behind the door jamb. Also included both colors from SW website
He sent this, but called after he got the gist of it. Still cool to see it " painted" more renderings coming including quartering to and away
Ordered wiring harnesses and battery tray, working on plenum opening modification. (Fast signs) renderings done today. Ehh, not bad. Got plenty of time to decide on this or something else
Yeah not feeling the paint scheme. Considering the factory metallic green color. Ive been lamenting on a paint color for 15 years or so. (Pic from Year One. )Working on electrical mounts, adding weld nuts or ring weld studs, no more machine screws or loose nuts/ bolts
Battery tray arrived. Got battery to ground and relay/ starter electrical done. New harness in. Waiting for dash harness so jumped on moving LCA bump stops
Thought I could cheat the bump stop hole to accommodate the tubular A Arms. Yeah no. So cut the mount off, closed up my drilled hole and relocated the mount centering under the A arm
The chrome dual feed I got doesn't leave enough room for a filter up top. SSTubes has a kit from pump to carburetor with a filter. The inlet spread is for 9.5" , these guys are customizing to 8.75" spread for my 3310 no charge. Has an old school look, and from what I've read on these cheap chrome feeders leaking, I'm glad to be getting away from it. The kit is actually for a big block, so I may need to adapt to my pump to carb tube, still at this this point after much searching and question asking, this is fwd progress
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