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@madmike1157

Ok.. and see my above edit... lol.

I may just have to really work that metal though because the boy really wants the mad max vibe. It's either that or believe it or not, leave the "patina" and clear it... not fond of that option.. I don't feel like it fits the category for that look...

Also, want to compliment you on your engine pic above, it's beautiful. My cameraman buddy has a 92 short f150 you've inspired to do a turbo I6 300 in. He's looking for where he can get a cyl head for it, asking me to chop and fuse two cleveland heads.. yeesh. Not sure about that, but it's been done..
 
@madmike1157

Ok.. and see my above edit... lol.

I may just have to really work that metal though because the boy really wants the mad max vibe. It's either that or believe it or not, leave the "patina" and clear it... not fond of that option.. I don't feel like it fits the category for that look...

Also, want to compliment you on your engine pic above, it's beautiful. My cameraman buddy has a 92 short f150 you've inspired to do a turbo I6 300 in. He's looking for where he can get a cyl head for it, asking me to chop and fuse two cleveland heads.. yeesh. Not sure about that, but it's been done..
Naww!!!! if the guy has a 300, you don't wanna cut two cleveland heads....(because you'd have to buy new Edelbrock aluminum heads, and then butcher them)

You buy any of the plethora of stock LS heads, and do it instead.
Here's a pic of the 300 w/ a pair of LS6 heads sacrificed for the cause.
ls1300head.jpg


I tell ya If I knew from the start that I was gonna use a belt driven oil pump, this would've been engine in the car rather than the heavily modified 250 that sits there. The fact that a 300 had its factory oil pump right in the middle of the block (which would have wreaked havoc w/ the factory k member) was why I didn't go there, but if I knew that you could hack two LS heads apart and weld them bitc hes back together and have this,.. You'd be welding more than just one set of heads.

:thinking: On second thought,...I'd probably have tried gluing them together first....Everything on the current engine is glued, may as well glue two heads together too right?
 
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Naww!!!! if the guy has a 300, you don't wanna cut two cleveland heads....(because you'd have to buy new Edelbrock aluminum heads, and then butcher them)

You buy any of the plethora of stock LS heads, and do it instead.
Here's a pic of the 300 w/ a pair of LS6 heads sacrificed for the cause.
ls1300head.jpg


I tell ya If I knew from the start that I was gonna use a belt driven oil pump, this would've been engine in the car rather than the heavily modified 250 that sits there. The fact that a 300 had its factory oil pump right in the middle of the block (which would have wreaked havoc w/ the factory k member) was why I didn't go there, but if I knew that you could hack two LS heads apart and weld them bitc hes back together and have this,.. You'd be welding more than just one set of heads.

:thinking: On second thought,...I'd probably have tried gluing them together first....Everything on the current engine is glued, may as well glue two heads together too right?

Interesting.. I'm going to point this out to him!
 
Ok, I lied.

I decided to slow down the progress pics to show why it takes all damn day to build what might seem like little more that two bars and some screen to cover it.

The bars were bent some while back after I decided to shi tcan the original console that was integrated into the dash. The caveat to building a console that "floats" is that it will to a certain extent expose any mount structure, or wiring, or the shifter itself if it is built too high. Built too low, and too much of the shifter handle would be exposed. I said earlier, that the design criteria is to have the shifter ball hover about 1/2" over the mesh substrate.

So that is what happened first. I bent two bars, and made a couple of straps that I tacked on the bottom to hold the bars at a certain width apart so that I could fit them to the tunnel. Once that was done, I built permanent mounts at the front and back to hold the "console" at a set height above the floor.
temporary_zpsc2bbc618.jpg

Once I got that stone in stone so to speak, I removed the console so that I could weld the support ribs that the mesh will sit on.
temporary_zps8b490ff5.jpg

The support rails are made up of that same expensive assed cold rolled 1/4" x 1/8th inch junk I use on top of the mesh as trim. That stuff had to run dead in the middle of the center of the bars, which meant I needed a jig to hold the rail in place while I welded it. Nothing special, I was able to make up some wood spacers that did the job nicely (but it still took the time and tools (which I just happen to have) to do).
temporary_zps70128daf.jpg

Once placed under the bars I was able to tack the rails in place.
temporary_zps3a7228bb.jpg

* note the pile of tools growing.
Again, easier said than done, the bends at the ends of the bars angle inward, so that meant that I had compound bends in those support rails to hand form while I was tacking all that crap in place.
Once that was done, I trimmed the excess off w/ a cutoff wheel, and started the arduous process of drilling and tapping (how many holes do you spose?)..............a bagillion holes in top of the trim steel so as to sandwich the steel mesh between the top and bottom. (Each rail got 13 holes actually) 26 holes in total. 26 holes that had to be drilled, and tapped, then the top had to be drilled one size larger, and countersunk to allow a 4-40 machine screw to pass through and recess flush into the top piece. Of course as my luck goes w/ taps, I broke the piece of s hit off while on the 12th hole on the one side.
*** Note to self......taps are fragile! quit trying to use a weenie little puke of a tap as a lever to "shift" the mesh when you can't get one of the stinking screws into the hole.
***** Second Note to self. Buy more than one tap.
I didn't even bother trying to go to Home Depot looking for a 4-40 tap, so I marched along, and went about fitting the bars back into the car to get the hole for the shifter handle cut out.

I just eyeballed where the shifter handle wanted to come through, which was fairly easy considering you can see right through the mesh, so I marked it and cut out the rectangle that is the shifter handle.
temporary_zpsf9114f4c.jpg

The ball was almost the cause of another meltdown though as it had to be drilled out, and tapped up to the 1/2-20 size of the shifter. You'd think that I'd know that aluminum, and steel are potential gall points, but for whatever reason, I chose to screw that dude all the way down on the shifter w/o the benefit of any anti-sieze when I fitted it the first time. Now that I needed to remove it, you could tell that it was in fact gonna sieze on the handle. So I removed the console, removed the shifter, sprayed some WD-40 in the ball, and started the slow process of working it down the threads. I managed to get it off, but it took some threads with it. I retapped the hole, put the shifter back down, put the console in place, and laid the mesh in place. I applied some anti-sieze to the threads of the handle, and screwed that dude on there.
temporary_zps16f4f929.jpg


What's still missing from the console are the two cupholders, and the Dakota Digital gear position indicator, which is a little square piece of billet aluminum w/ red letters on it. (Like I needed to spend 250.00 to know that I'm in reverse). I'm also gonna have to extend the slot to allow the shifter to move back and forth. That resulting hole will mandate that I create some sort of 1/8th-1/4" thick piece of alum trim plate that will finish out the slot, after which the shifter ball will look like it is right on top of the console after that.

Of course the trim isn't installed in the pic either, but you can see the holes on the one side that were drilled up until I broke off that stinkin' tap. Even the freakin cupholders are custom, hand built things in this car,.......I doubt it'll ever get done.
 
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Great googly moogly! That is a bagillion holes.. Glad I didn't make the trip..

And Mike, I spit my drink out laughing at the growing pile of tools. I was picking my pile of tools up this morning with a feed shovel...

Thought I was the only one that did that.. haha.
 
Did you figure out your sheet metal with a bazillion holes? I think I might have a few sheets laying around of varying sizes.

car1.jpg

There is more behind these two. Not sure on size or spacing of the holes. I have a few sheets though. I have to move somethings around but I am not sure they are a full 51". Let me know if you want them and I will pull them out to check measurements and send them your way.
 
From Old_Blue's thread. None of what you say is untrue per say. You just have a way of making things sound easy (er) than they are for us without your skillz... That, and you cant help but wonder if some good high school kid with a fox body has read through this thread and shared it with his Honda buddies. That being said, how many of them do you spose are whipping out cut off wheels and sawzalls, and chopping up their four banger heads and gluing them back together for more powa! I mean hell, if this guy plans on 400+ hp out of an American I6 (not even a three P Diddy out of a Supra), surely their JB Welded Vtech will hold 27 lbs of boost, and make 800whpowas! Dont act like its not true. Im not the only one fooled by your trickery. Next thing you know kids will be ripping out dashes and shaping your mesh into replacement interiors for weight savings. Holes mean lighter, which means faster quarter mile, which is just like they made more boooooooooooooooooooost! Thats all, keep up the good work, nice job, looks good.
 
From Old_Blue's thread. None of what you say is untrue per say. You just have a way of making things sound easy (er) than they are for us without your skillz...

Here,.....going back to Old blues thread (considering the above is referencing a statement I made over there)

I'll let you in on some of my "making it look/sound easier than they are for the rest of us" mad skill set.

HOW TO DO A GOOGLE SEARCH:
by Mike Matkosky.

#1. A question pops up in your head.
(In this case, let's just say that the question is: Where can I find a 164 tooth flexplate to fit a 351 windsor)
#2. Type in the words: 164 tooth flexplate, 351w, 28 oz.
(Although you don't have to, adding commas between items helps the search engine narrow down the results to increase the liklihood that the very first result will be exactly what you are looking for.
#3. Raise your one ass cheek slightly so you can reach into your back pocket to remove your wallet.
#4. With your other, unused hand, reach for your phone, wake it up, and dial the following:
800-230-3030.
#5. Listen carefully to the verbal instructions, and press the extension as it applies to your situation.
#6. Order part.
#7. Resume sitting in chair.

See,....no manic CL searches,.....No phone calls to some dude 80 miles away, No worries.

This concludes our lesson today.

Please be sure to copy and paste this instruction set into your home page, so that the very next time a question pops up in your head,...you'll have the answer in less time than it takes to actually type the question.
 
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By the way.... The bagillion holes are not for looks. They are lightening holes (not to be confused with lightning holes). Probably good for 3/10 in the quarter. Assuming that Aussie VTAK kicks in at 1200 and it was a good day for the QC guy at JB Weld.


On a more serious note: I'm going to have to go back and look at the portion that describes all of the head modifications. I recall the highlights mostly.
 
By the way.... The bagillion holes are not for looks. They are lightening holes (not to be confused with lightning holes). Probably good for 3/10 in the quarter. Assuming that Aussie VTAK kicks in at 1200 and it was a good day for the QC guy at JB Weld.


On a more serious note: I'm going to have to go back and look at the portion that describes all of the head modifications. I recall the highlights mostly.

That just gave me another idea.

Even I have to spend too much time flipping through a bagillion pages when I try and look back at something I said/did in my own build thread.

maybe I could create an index page that we could insert at the beginning that would point to the specific areas where I did stuff like modify the head/block, or the mini-tub, or the suspension etc.

obviously most of the junk I've done serves no purpose to the collective, but the fox specific crap would/might be useful if somebody didn't have to sift through a ton of s hit to find it.
 
That just gave me another idea.

Even I have to spend too much time flipping through a bagillion pages when I try and look back at something I said/did in my own build thread.

maybe I could create an index page that we could insert at the beginning that would point to the specific areas where I did stuff like modify the head/block, or the mini-tub, or the suspension etc.

obviously most of the junk I've done serves no purpose to the collective, but the fox specific crap would/might be useful if somebody didn't have to sift through a ton of s hit to find it.


You can already edit all of your own posts, correct?
 
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