Well not exactly what I thought I would be working on today. I wanted to get back to that hanging brake bracket. The windage tray sitting on top of the ARP main studs with washers for clearance for the stroker creates fitment issues for the LS3 pan. Got to thinking about it and reading on all the Corvette forums that stock batwing pan is going to be a better deal for cornering. Although I will probably never have this thing sliding crazy on a track. Never know though. So I have the early one piece batwing oil pan which of course this thing had sludge and crap down in the bottom so all I can do is glass bead the hell out of it and then now going to let it sit for about 2 hours with carb cleaner in it. Then rinse the heck out of it and use a borescope to inspect all those areas down in there. Then I will have to modify the windage tray to fit the pan. Pain in my ass today.
Well half a day cleaning I got all the crap out of there finally. 2 hours in the carb cleaner. In and out twice each solvent tank and the vat. Shortened a little plastic brush to get down in there and scrub. Checked it all out with the boriscope. All good. sheesh. See if I can get this windage tray to fit
That ended up being a lot more work than I anticipated. That's what happens when you mix and match parts. Just cut some long notches in the windage tray and then gusseted with a couple pieces of tubing sliced long ways. It all fits good now. After loctiting the bolts on the melling oil pump, even after using a nut driver three of them stripped so I had to drill them out and use an easy out.
Brake pedal is mounted. I'm hoping I can get enough throw and adjustment to lower the pedal and not have to reconfigure the actual arm of the pedal itself. We shall see. Right now it sits too high but there should be some adjustment there. It's going to be a pain in the ass once the dash is in to lock that clip and fill that reservoir with fluid. I'm guessing if I pull one of the EFI gauges out of the hole I will be able to see to fill. And the nice thing is those just have a quick little plug and they're easily removable.
I also added a piece of 3/16 plate steel in that corner to help with the twisting of that .120 wall bar. Should be pretty stout for the steering and the brake pedal both. All the metal work on the interior will be a big project but other than that and the dash I'm running out of fab work on this truck.
Well this truck probably got beat on out on the farm and nobody cared. Top of the dash has a pretty good bow in it and I'm trying to figure out how to straighten it without warping the heck out of it. I think I have an idea that might work.
Found a piece of 3/4 1/8 wall tubing. It will fit just a little bit better in there. Also motor is almost done other than getting the trunion kits put into the rockers and then installed.
Oh and that is the dampener that comes with the Holley mid Mount front drive kit. We did broach and machine for a keyway although this is not supercharged. Little extra safety.
A whole lot of 1 inch welds. Long way to go but at least it's roughed in there. Not quite sure how I'm going to make the end caps and pieces around the roll bar yet.
Lots more sanding and Bondo on the dash. Getting smoother and closer. And the end caps are welded in. Now making those funky little pieces up in the corners. Very time consuming.