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Today I worked on finishing the exhaust, and getting it hung.
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I managed to do that without any incident. So I moved on to building the lower radiator hose.
Everything is getting so close down there, there simply isn't enough room for a flex hose, and I didn't wnat to use one of those anyway. I built it out of one 1.750" exhaust mild steel bend.

I just replied that I didn't have a TIG, and I had no TIG skills when I built the exhaust manifold, but today that has changed. Awhile back, I bought my old TIG back, and I've been practicing.
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TIG welding is more of an art than it is welding. A mig takes about one hour to get decent enough to weld competently, and a TIG requires countless hours just to get decent enough to use it. I'm finally getting comfortable with it.
I welded the two cut and spliced halves of that J bend, and set it into one of the hose ends to hold it for this pic. I'll still have to remove the radiator, so there's no point in making it permanent yet.
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I'd say it's getting a little busy down there.
The rest of the day I spent starting to build the mount to hold the two oil coolers beneath the front bumper as depicted in my drawing from my last reply. That started by cutting a rectangular notch out of the bottom of the bumper.
The bracket is made out of a combination of 16ga, and 14 ga. mild steel.
I'm pretty happy w/ how it's gonna look.
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Both coolers have -10 fittings, and I made the thing work so that those fittings, and the hoses that come to them will run through the bumper.
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There'll be a shroud to completely encase the two coolers when I'm done, this is just the top, and bottom mounts.
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There is an inch between the back of the coolers, and the cold side charge tube that runs behind them. I know that that thing gets pretty hot, I hope I don't have issues w/ heat soak making the coolers hotter than they'd be somewhere else.
 
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Is that rust or blood that I see on the stained concrete? No auto repair/fabrication is compete without the shedding of blood...
 
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Is that rust or blood that I see on the stained concrete? No auto repair/fabrication is compete without the shedding of blood...
I'm sure if C.S.I. were to come out here, they'd find a little of both. But in reality that'd be the end result of countless lbs of metal dust that was ground off all of the junk I've done over the years. One day, I'll get out the muriatic acid and a stiff bristle brush, and make all of that s hit dissapear. But as it sits now, I'd just stain it again with all of the sheet metal fabrication that's getting ready to happen.
 
Man, you've gotten a lot done since I've last taken a peek in here. As impressive as all of your engine modifications have been, I can't wait to see what you do with some sheet metal.
Yeah, me too. Now that I can tig decently, it'll be even more easier to build a car that 7 outta 10 don't like.:nice:
 
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For your next build, how about a Purple Pinto with a 4 cylinder, 255 cu in Indy style turbocharged offy in it?

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For your next build, how about a Purple Pinto with a 4 cylinder, 255 cu in Indy style turbocharged offy in it?

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Naaww that'd be too commonplace. The fact that there are actually vendors still making stuff for THAT engine excepts it from a future possible build.
I think in keeping with my "how much more can I possibly have to modify" theme, the next build will probably start from an ingot of pig iron.
 
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A side note before I get to the meat and potatoes.

This morning I'm running errands, and when I walk around my truck to go inside I see I've had a stoweaway:
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Evidently since I have no trees above me, this dude crawled up on the truck from the ground, and managed to make it all the way up onto the bed cover before he became the worlds fastest tree frog.
While this really isn't amazing in itself, what was kinda cool was this one little thing........
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This was the tiniest little frog I've ever seen. Climbing up from the ground must've took dude all night. I went inside a store and came back out and he was gone. ( probably breakfast for some bird).

Anyway,........I digress.

If sheet metal workers that build entire cars out of aluminum, or thin gauge steel using an English wheel and a brake to form a fender on the likes of a Rolls Royce are gods, I am the lowest form of one celled pond scum ever to attempt the same.

I managed to get the shroud built, but it's no where near ready for it's close up. Nonetheless, here it is.
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The outside angles were formed out of two pieces, bent in a vise using little more than pair of vise grips, and a hammer. What I got out of that was something that was close enough to weld.
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They really didn't fit together very well, and the welding you see at the top is my attempt to fuse the two angles to a top plate that bolts to the bumper. The whole thing has taken about 8 hours so far, and will probably have another 8 in it after bodywork. It will take some filler to fill in the holes, flatten out the waves, and put a sharp edge on the top where the shroud meets the bumper, but again like I said earlier, that thing will see things my way one way or the other.
I did come up w/ a grille to kind of protect the front of the coolers.
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Actually pretty simple, the piece gets sandwiched between the front of the coolers, and the back of the shroud, no place for it to go from there.

The shroud will be body color ( Competition Orange) as will the bumper, and that grille material will be satin black. Although I'm kinda sick of messing w/it, I have to finish the stupid thing, the humidity just makes the thing start rusting if I leave it for more than a day.
 
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Todays' new problem stems directly as a result of my decision to use UPR upper, and lower CA's, and change the housing bushings over to poly as well. I'm getting ready to put this thing on the ground, and it's sitting on it's suspension while still up in the air. There doesn't seem to be any suspension travel in compression, and only marginal extension when allowing the rear to drop.

I believe that the thing is binding. I greased everything, and filled those zerks to bloat, but still barely any movement.

What do you guys do to free this up? The red car had boxed stock arms and new rubber bushings, so I have no reference for this setup?
 
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