Spent the first nice weekend day since I can remember dealing with the rubber bushings in all the stock control arms I bought for this thing. New poly inserts installed.
Well it's not a gutted shell anymore. LOL. Waiting on a couple small parts I didn't know were missing til I started final assembling this pile. Did get a bunch done. Headliner, visors all upper and rear interior parts, even rear carpet. Door panels, speakers and wiring in the doors and rear. Even almost all seatbelts are in. Since nearly none of the parts came with it we shall see how it all works.
I've gotta fit it in the bay, check the headers and trans tunnel fitment, build mounts, weld the rest of the firewall,....... then paint the engine bay,.... THEN, maybe, just maybe, it goes in. So I dunno exactly. Just trying to get parts out of my house and onto this car. Did get more super secret motor stuff tho.
You really can't beat the speed engineering headers. And they do fit with a stock subframe. There might have been a little trimming and a lot of heating and beating to the subframe but the headers won't even have a ding. I have done I think 3 foxes with full length headers over the years and spent more time getting those to fit than this. I really dislike the tubular suframes and control arms. Around here you are asking to bend it up or crack it with the roads the way they are. When I finish up the welding, boxing and re-blasting I will get pics.
A little more work before it snows. I got motor mounts built. I used generic weld up poly LS mounts. The lower brackets bolt to stock subframe mount holes. Even tried on the steering rack and it clears. It is a pain to keep this under a stockish hood. The alternator sits up high and looks like it will hit the hood bracing. I have a truck pan I shortened that fits great except the steering rack runs into it in the front, so Holley pan it is.
I didn't go super crazy with this like some guys do. I left most factory seams and some wave and spot welds. I will caulk it all up and paint it. I'm planning on leaving some of the factory like color fading into the primer look, but I may do it all silver.
Here is a couple pics of the silver basecoat, the sun and shadows are keeping me from getting a finished pic but maybe in a few minutes the sun will go down a bit.