Engine bay molding: new panels or fill in holes???

[Dan95-5.0]

i'm going to be installing my h/c/i combo this winter and while its down to the shortblock, i was thinking now is the best time to hide the wires, put the battery in the trunk, and smooth **** out.

my question is should i just weld up the holes and box the opened frame rails or do what some have done and install nice smooth panels?

i love the clean look of the panels but my concern is that i have to have a 3.5" hole in the passenger side for my cold air intake. thats a given. but, next year i plan on running a *cough* turbo *cough*. that means i have to make another hole about 2.5" in the same passenger side panel. i'm afraid i'm going to ruin the pannel by cracking the paint and ruining the thing or not being able to use the same hole from my CAI. also, i'm afraid i wont have enough room for the turbo on the passenger side.

and advise or pics would be great

thanks

 

[nmcgrawj]

I would just hide the wires now and wait to smooth things out for when u do the turbo so u dont end up doing it twice if u mess it up or it doesnt fit right.

 

[KBCobra95]

A clean engine would look SWEET!!! But, like said, I would wait till after the turbo. Sounds like its gonna be a beast!

 

[slvrbullit302]

I boxed in the open frame rails and got some sheet metal and body filler and on the large hole I took a small piece of sheet metal and held it behind the inner fender and tack welded it in place, ground the tack weld smooth and used body filler to smooth it all out. here are some pics for ya.........

 

[Dan95-5.0]

got some of the finished product? like motor installed?

i think this method would be the best to just fill in the holes. i might only install a panel on the drivers side knowing i wont have a problem with the turbo routing

 

[94GTLaserRC]

Subscribing...want to see more replies.
RC

 

[Dan95-5.0]

i thought about it and i've decided.........


**** it!!! i'm going to install panels on both sides. i'm going to keep the passenger side pannel nice and tight up against the side to make sure i'll have enough room. i'm going to make the CAI hole very close to the front thinking about the turbo.

when the turbo goes in, i'm just going to have to be very careful not to crack the paint or filler.


the car is still almost a daily driver so i'm going to keep the windshield reservoir but put it in between the strut tower and brake booster where the vacuum tee is. nice and hidden

 

[1slow95]

Sweet! Good luck with it, and make sure you set aside lots of time to work on it. I had a couple 12-14 hour days of nothing but bondoing/sanding before I was happy with it. I also have a bunch of pics on my site, and I followed 1105's tutorial on here(that I can't find atm).
http://highoutputgt.homelinux.net/pics.htm

 

[Dan95-5.0]

dont worry, i saved a lot of pics from your site already lol.

the car is currently in storage till april. as soon as its out, i'll drive it for about a week then the project begins.

new 255 fuel pump and battery in the trunk first just to make sure it runs before i get too crazy. then strip the motor down to the shortblock, weld in the new panels, then relocate all the wiring. then put the motor back together.

i'm going to be starting a new job this month. less hours (only 8 hours a day compared to my 12min now), more pay. its shift work so its going to give me more time to do stuff during the day which is great. my brother is a professional bodyman/painter so its going to be easy and quick i'm sure. i'm sure i'll be able to get the panels and bodywork done in about a week before paint easily.



on a side note, i'm going to start making a custom battery box for the truck over the winter so my battery fits nice and tight in the box and that the box is almost hidden inside the trunk

 

[slvrbullit302]

Dan sorry for the delay but these are the best ones that I have on file.

 

[urban96]

is that a fox IAC?

 

[slvrbullit302]

is that a fox IAC?

Yes it is, cures the idle problems of the 94-95's with cams. car idles like stock with a little lope and no hunting what so ever. I just got a tweecer and the idle is crappier with it than without, partly becuase I am new to the tweecer.

 

[xr8d302]

Interesting thread. Subscrizzle to the izzle....

 

[Dan95-5.0]

i got a question for you guys that have hidden your wiring. how do you access some of the connectors like the spout when you have to adjust the timing, or the connector to hook up your trouble code scanner.

do you have to go to the inside the fender everytime???

 

[1slow95]

I extended my spout wire and zip-tied it to the main wire harness in the passenger side corner of the engine bay, next to the firewall. I also left the diagnostic connector there as well, but I forgot to zip-tie it up and it fell on my headers and melted.

 

[95cobraguy]

the diagnostic connector i left in its proper place but everything else i hid. i just set the timing on my car so hopefully i wont need to access that dam spout for a while. hows the project coming along? did u actually move the main harness cnnector also. the big one behind the diagnostic connector? i also wanted to clean things up but filling in the holes with weld or filler is not really an option so i was thinking of getting some glossy black plexiglass and making some nice panels like that. does that sound possible or stupid?

 

[mricci]

Heres a link to a how to that onebad95 did http://www.gotstang.com/howtos.php?howtoid=19#jumpon gotstang.com

 

[Dan95-5.0]

the diagnostic connector i left in its proper place but everything else i hid. i just set the timing on my car so hopefully i wont need to access that dam spout for a while. hows the project coming along? did u actually move the main harness cnnector also. the big one behind the diagnostic connector? i also wanted to clean things up but filling in the holes with weld or filler is not really an option so i was thinking of getting some glossy black plexiglass and making some nice panels like that. does that sound possible or stupid?

havent started nothing yet. car is in storage and i cant work on it. Its cold in canada during winter man. just collecting parts for now and polishing

you could do what oink did. he got a bag of those push in christmas trees, painted them the color of his engine bay and plugged all the holes. thats alot easier and quick to do. heres a link
http://forums.stangnet.com/showthread.php?t=467909&highlight=bag+engine+bay

thanks for the info guys.


would it be possible to rig the spout with a switch? thats basically what removing the spout does, is it not?

that JB weld trick that onebad95 used is a little iffy for me, i would rather weld even tho its going to be alot more work

 

[95cobraguy]

i think u could just lengthen the spout harness to put in a more accessible area once all the holes are filled.

 

[moneypit94]

here are some pictures of how i cut mine out this last week and put new ones in... Have some grinding and sanding and painting left.

The verticle welds in the middle weren't supposed to be there. I had bent the pieces in a friend's break and when they were welded in i found that i didn't have enough room for clearence so i had to cut those triangle pieces for the extra room and cut out the old from behind. I have about an hour of time in welding in this prodject and about 3-4 in cutting the right pieces out.