Having said that, I offer myself as your new shop clinician. Please hire me. I'll keep it cleaner than a tit on a distributor, and yes I know what that means and DD will back me up.

Christmas came early yesterday.

Mueller (Mike) stopped by for a visit and brought me this WAY COOL emblem he made! He had his twin girls with him, too. Totally enjoyable! My wife hung out with them while Mike and I got to know each other while poking around in the Red Barn.

Mike's a great guy, as I'm sure you'd all guess.

Great meeting you Mike! Hope to see you again soon.

As I'm fitting the pedals, I'm running into the lack of space at the front of the foot box area. One small change is that Tilton recently released a master cyl design that has options for a line outlet out the top.
This saves me the space I'd otherwise need for a banjo fitting and fastener.
New ones installed, "old" one for comparison.

So, yes: I replace brand new, unused parts that hadn't even been installed.
Why would this part of the build be any different?

That emblem rocks! Nice touch.
Looking good Chris.

Hi Chris,
thanks for letting me and my twins slowing you down from making any progress yesterday for a few hours.

It was great meeting you and your wife in person. Lovely house and too cool "Red Barn" Thanks for the measurement tools, I will make sure any extras will find a deserving home.

I just want to say how cool this build is to see in person, many details left out in pictures that are easier to see in real life. Your artistry and craftsmanship are being put to good use here. I see an award or 2 when you finally bring that car out to a event (which I know winning an award is not your goal )

Thanks again, and next time I come up there I'll make sure to bring some shop clothes so I can give you hand if need be.

I decided to extend the pedal plate mount. The pedal assembly attaches via flanged nuts I welded to the underside . The inboard two clear the floor due to the recess in that area but the outboard two required holes be opened in the floor. I'll seal those off, not sure exactly how...

Pedals attached!

Then I started playing with a heel rest (that'll eliminate any flex in the floor!) and dead pedal. I'm thinking I'll fold some sheet metal and add some dimple die holes. Still some design work to do...

Wow! Nicce tight fit and no cutting For a change!

I know, right?

And thanks for the loan of the stock pedals, Andy. With the new, shorter master cyls (and shortened actuator rods ), I actually got the pedals to sit a bit farther forward than stock. Plus, they're adjustable so I'm feeling pretty good about that.

I was getting all worried about how far left I could get the pedals but cutting that brace area or adding a pedal box meant dealing with a couple things I just didn't want to mess with. Plus, in looking at other builds that use these pedals (Patrick Motor Sports did one) they put them here, too.

There's less than 1/8" clearance between the left side of the clutch master and the chassis. But clearance is clearance. And hey, if it's good enough for PMS, it's good enough for me!

Will you get enough clutch pedal trade before you foot hits the structure to the left of it?. Idk anything about that pedal assembly.

No issue with the functional space with the clutch...I am running the same pedal set in the exact same location. You are fine Chris. I am a little concerned with the console structure and the gas pedal...but you will know best seated in the car. Hard to tell with pics only...

Looks pretty good...

Tony

Andy, Tony - Yep, the pics aren't great at showing how things really fit. As Tony says, no issues with the clutch pedal clearance.
As to the throttle/console, there's room... but, as usual, now that I've seen it and looked at it a bunch, I'm scrapping the current console. More on that as I get to it.

As I'm remaking the console, I've again come face to face with that universal truth:

It really is the angle of the dangle...

It was a fiddly day to get the rear section of the console pretty much done. Fiddly because of all the "angle matchy-match" I was after.
It took the better part of the day but I the angle of the top section of the console matches the main section of the door bars and that first, dropped angle section matches the 45 degree of the rear-most part of the door bar, where it heads back up to the top of the fire wall.

Another of those things that'll likely never be noticed. But I'll know it's there.

Wrapped up the new, abbreviated console rough-in. I like this one better... Let's see if that lasts!

And Seat Belt Planet delivered the custom belts. I added 15" to accommodate the lowered retractor location. I also went with a webbed (vs wire) buckle side. Then I changed over to the top release buckle as it can fit through the slots in the seats.

They fit really well and are quite comfortable. So far, so good.

you had me at Angle Matchy-Match... All I could do today was get my plasma-cutter working n some leaves raked.. Merry Xmas everyone

Get on the Tangerine rear console raise before this slacker beats you to it.

In reality your making much better progress than I am on my conversion car.

Would love for you to bite off the console before I get there, I am planning on building a frame jig, just to make sure I don't screw it up.

Finalizing the console front section.

Your console has "levels"...cool!

Tony

I mistakenly took my e-brake remnants to Cary's in OR, but he was kind enough to return them! So part of today was figuring where they'd go. The good news is that with a couple correctly angled holes in the lower cross brace, essentially straight below where they're sitting, these'll end up in the same locations as stock!
Love it...

Here's the planned location for the e-brake handle. Forward of stock and with no "cut out" but it'll do just fine. And yes, it's rotated forward so once it's welded in, the handle won't touch the floor.

I'll have to lengthen the connection to reach the e-brake cables but that shouldn't be too big a deal.

Oh, I also added a small access opening...

It did to occur to me until peering through the access panel but I have had issues with those plastic manifold connectors leaking. I'd suggest moving to proper braided lines...sorry for the late notice. Here is mine...its not pretty but its as tidy as I pull off. Come to think of it...the picture below IS your engine!

Tony

Click to view attachment

That is one plain looking water distribution block, it needs some 3D profiling or pockets or something to match the rest of the motor.

If only I knew someone with a CNC machine...

Will you be able to grab that with your back against the seat?

Or laser etching (again, Mueller)

stock hand brake who authorized that

More progress on the "unauthorized" stock e-brake set up...

Next step is to braze them in, just like factory.

Then it was on to fab work related to the "inspection cover" area. The first step is to reinforce the area I removed.
So, out comes the roll bender and some 1/8 steel.

In place with some holes for rosette welding to the lip of the rear part of the fire wall.

You have the coolest toys.

Very cool!

Have you ever used the Blue Devil SILBRZ rod? It's a silicon bronze TIG brazing rod-not too expensive and works really well if you don't want to drag out the oxy torches and flux.

Yep, just got some bronze rod so will give that a go. Pics soon!

First reinforcement piece in place. Let's call this one the "inner" reinforcement...

...because here comes the "outer" reinforcement. I want this outer piece to be angled at a particular angle so I can use it as a take off for the removable inspection panel.

So, I started with a paper template. The fun part is to make a flat plate end up at angle but have straight edges, the paper pattern needed to be a curve.

Plus this needs to be roll bent... More fiddly, fiddly.
There was only a little cursing when I screwed up my first attempt.

But with more, um "experience", Attempt #2 worked!

And the angle I was after?
The measuring/template making worked!

(the gap you see is because the vice grips pull it ever so slightly out of position...)

The angle matches the seat back. Silly, I know but there you go...

The real reason I need that angle, or something close to it, is to get the firewall forward enough to clear the fuel lines/fittings.

And once this is all welded in, I'll redo the cross bar.
I ended up not liking how much the initial design protruded into the interior space.
This is much cleaner.

And I forgot to mention, I'll plate between the inner and outer reinforcement pieces to tie the whole deal together. In all, it'll be plenty strong for the RaceRod.

Console all welded. Looks like this is the design I'll be sticking with...

...well the shifter certainly won't break free! Looks really great Chris!

T

Beads of commitment.

I like it!

After thinking about how I want the access cover to work, and things like routing fuel lines into the engine compartment, I rethought the rear of the console.
- the 1" square frame will serve as the "landing zone" for the front base of the access cover (easier to seal against a flat surface)
- the space within it will be plated and serve as the mounting area for the bulkhead fittings for the fuel lines (and possibly the rear brake line and throttle cable) as they move from inside the console to inside the engine compartment. Should work nicely.

If only I had the entire plan in my head vs making it up as I go, I wonder how much farther along I'd be... Ah, well.

As I'm working to fabricate the fire wall access panel and looking at the other sheet metal work I have to do, I realized I don't yet have the skills I need to get the results at the level of quality I want.

So the project is going on a "sorta hold" while I practice. To help speed this along, I've signed up to take a 4-day coach building course from Wray Schelin (Pro Shaper) in MA.

http://www.proshaper.com/

In the meantime, here's a small hood scoop practice project I did. It turned out nicely but it just feels like much of it was luck. So, off to school I go...

Well then you sure are lucky.

Chris that looks like fun but wow a long schedule.. 9 am to 10pm each day?? I would be pretty worn out. I am sure I could get my work to pay for it though..

I've been meaning to say something about your lack of skills, but wanted to be polite. Man, I would kill for your lack of skills! That coach building class should be a blast. Can't wait to see what you build when you come back!

Chris - You never cease to amaze me!

T