Build Thread

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Fri Mar 09, 2007 4:03 am

Here's an even worse PS (the glare threw me off) with the Orange Widebody's vent.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:28 pm

Well it's Spring Break and instead of the typical Las Vegas/So Cal trip (did that last year), I came home to hang out with the family and work on the car. I've installed the decklid vent, run the wires for the solonoids in the doors, put the exterior door panels on (with the trim and handles), and started working on the rear fascia install.

So far, I've ran into a couple problems. First of all, the cut out for the license plate is a couple inches small all around. Looks to be more suitable for a motorcylce plate. Also, the rear mounting points seem to be way off. I might be going about it as far as that goes wrong though.

Is there any difference between notchback and fastback trunks? Not the top shape, but the size of the bottom? Thats whats in my way right now.

Pictures will be up most likely by the end of the week. It's coming together quite nicely I think.

Series8217 · Post by **Series8217** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:28 pm

Unsafe At Any Speed wrote: Is there any difference between notchback and fastback trunks? Not the top shape, but the size of the bottom? Thats whats in my way right now.

Nope, they're the same. The trunk is part of the chassis.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:41 pm

Okay. I really didn't think there was a difference between the two. Thanks.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:42 pm

Double post. Damn dialup.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:08 am

Okay. I have access to some pictures finally. They're not the best and don't show everything being that the batteries in the camera kept dying.

Anyway, last week the first thing I went to work on was the decklid vent. This mod has been documented plenty of times so no real need to go into much detail.

Mounting the vent itself was alittle frustrating being that it was alittle bowed and the bolts aren't in the same place on both sides. I got it on though. Looks good I think. I plan to glass it in as well as add a slimline fan to the bottom to force the air out.
Sorry the pics are so dark.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:14 am

After the decklid vent, I moved onto the doors. I already had the poppers and solonoids hooked up like I've said before, but I finally got around to running the wires. Thus far only the driver's side door will open via the remote. I'm going to wait until the new alarm is installed before I get them both working. I've never seen remote doors in person before. It's kinda cool.

You can see the solonoids in the lower latch side of the doors. Pretty easy install.

After those were hooked up and I could actually get into the car with door handles, I put the shaved door panels on. The driver's side door had better fitament. There's a slight gap between the window and door on the passenger's side where the panel bows out slightly. Also, the hardware mounting points didn't line up as well on this side either and required more modifications to the door than the driver's side. Still I'm happy with the results.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:14 am

Next up was the rear fascia. I'll admit I was a little intimidated by this project being how large and how expensive of a piece it was.

First I obviously had to remove the tails and the old fascia.

Then I hung the fascia with no fasteners to see how it fit.

I ended up having to remove all the honeycomb support underneath as well as that thing laying on the ground in one of the pictures. A big issue I noticed is that the license plate cutout is about two inches too skinny and an inch short. That problem I haven't figured out yet. Also, the bottom mounting tab on the fascia hit the bottom of the trunk. Its hard to see, but here's a picture of what I'm talking about.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:14 am

To remedy this last problem, I took out the cutting saw ($10 at Harbor Freight

) and went to work on my $1200+ piece of fiberglass. This is about where the camera I was using went dead. I cut off the obtructing tab and made a brace out of metal across the remaining piece to help distribute the force. Then I fabbed up a couple L shaped brackets to mount the brace to the bottom of the trunk. Worked out pretty well and is completely out of sight. Also, this method requires none of those damn rivets the stock fascia is secured with, so future removal is less of a pain. These brackets combined with the lip up in the taillight region alone secured the fascia in place pretty tightly. Still, I made another brace across the top lip and secured it to the rear clip/frame using two stock mounting points. None of this is visible once the taillight panel is in place. I still haven't attached the wheel well liners yet, but they seem to line up well. I need to find some of those nylon rivet type things that the liner bolts can screw into.

Sorry that I don't have any pictures of the fascia mounted on with the taillights in place. In my opinion it looks pretty good.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:02 am

I'm seriously contemplating a targa top.

dratts · Post by **dratts** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:03 am

I have a 355 spider conversion. You should do lots of frame reinforcement before cutting the top. Mine was reinforced by a nascar shop and I'm not satisfied. V8Archie did a frame reinforcement which might have been more than was necessary. I'm thinking of closing off the tunnel bottom to get some more rigidity out of it and possibly side frame rails.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:27 pm

dratts wrote:I have a 355 spider conversion. You should do lots of frame reinforcement before cutting the top. Mine was reinforced by a nascar shop and I'm not satisfied. V8Archie did a frame reinforcement which might have been more than was necessary. I'm thinking of closing off the tunnel bottom to get some more rigidity out of it and possibly side frame rails.

Thanks for the info.

Also, since I do have my car up here at school with me now, I will be taking more pictures this weekend. If anyone has anything in particular they want to see, just let me know.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:32 pm

Here's a "sound clip" of my car from this last summer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3gaVsPzA0hg

The Dark Side of Will · Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:50 am

Unsafe At Any Speed wrote:I put the shaved door panels on. The driver's side door had better fitament. There's a slight gap between the window and door on the passenger's side where the panel bows out slightly. Also, the hardware mounting points didn't line up as well on this side either and required more modifications to the door than the driver's side. Still I'm happy with the results.

Did you buy these? Were they part of a kit? I wasn't aware smoothed door handles were pre-made.

cactus bastard · Post by **cactus bastard** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 10:05 am

Unsafe At Any Speed wrote: Not really wanting my first fiberglass project to be on a peice as big and crucial as the doors, I bought a pair of the fiberglass door skins that Driven Visions sells.

They're not listed on the Driven Visions website though.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Fri Apr 20, 2007 11:58 am

Yeah, the door skins were from Driven Visions. I'm not sure why they're not listed on the website. Then again, I don't think they were when I bought them either. I think I saw them in a post on the other forum. That said, they might still be available if you just ask him.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:06 pm

So I never did get those updated pictures. I might have a couple soon though. I've also ordered the sideskirts and they should be here soon. I also ordered a set of Mr. Mike's black Italian style skins with 4 point slots. I have to go to Alabama at the end of the month for six weeks then to California for a few months, so I won't be making any progress for awhile. On the other hand, I'll actually have some money then, so things should start moving more quickly.

I still want to go with a targa top. Also, thinking about bonding the hood, front fascia and upper fenders together to make a flip front. Any thoughts?

Unsafe At Any Speed · Post by **Unsafe At Any Speed** » Wed May 28, 2008 2:22 am

Just wanted to bump this to say that it is not a forgotten project. Once I PCS in Sept/Oct I plan to get it to wherever I am (Minot, ND; Great Falls, MT; or Cheyenne, WY) and get back to work on it.

FGT · Post by **FGT** » Wed May 28, 2008 3:53 pm

Unsafe At Any Speed wrote:I do already have a Warber panel, but I definatly see what you mean as for the function of the Driven Visions vent. I'm having a hard time visualizing how it would look with my front fascia and whether it matches up to the Stage 2's and Mustang vent. I used to be leaning toward a single vent design, but I dunno now. Dammit. I just need to make like 5 different hoods. :thumbleft:

Hey what did you decide to do with the hood scoop? I used the Driven Vision and it was a nightmare to fix. I practically had to have it re-done completely. You will have to about CUT 1.5" of metal from the spare tire well, it's nice and deep. If you where is FL I'd let you pull mold from mines. Well when I get my car back down here.

Unsafe At Any Speed · Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:48 pm

FGT wrote:
Unsafe At Any Speed wrote:I do already have a Warber panel, but I definatly see what you mean as for the function of the Driven Visions vent. I'm having a hard time visualizing how it would look with my front fascia and whether it matches up to the Stage 2's and Mustang vent. I used to be leaning toward a single vent design, but I dunno now. Dammit. I just need to make like 5 different hoods. :thumbleft:
Hey what did you decide to do with the hood scoop? I used the Driven Vision and it was a nightmare to fix. I practically had to have it re-done completely. You will have to about CUT 1.5" of metal from the spare tire well, it's nice and deep. If you where is FL I'd let you pull mold from mines. Well when I get my car back down here.

I really haven't decided yet. That looks really good in your picture though. Do you have any more angles? That sucks about the quality of the part though. As for the cutting of the spare tire well, I don't really mind. I care more about the depth and look.

Edit: What mirrors are you using?