OK, it’s not really fine, but it sure sounds better than admitting I’ve been lazy on keeping this place up-to-date.

So, progress, here goes:

• Ditched the Corvette C4 rear-end and chassis for a custom chassis
• Picked up an 80′s Jaguar IRS, narrowed each side by 5 inches (turns out this was probably an inch or two too much.  Brakes are inboard.
• Created a “4-bar” link for the IRS.  It’s actually a 2-bar with large urethane-style bushings and gromets attached via 1″ DOM tubing to a 5/8″ heim-joint.  More later.
• Picked up an LS1 from a guy in Santee, CA for $1500.  It runs perfectly
• Picked up a C5 Corvette oil pan for said LS1 for $60 from the Pamona Fair Grounds Father’s Day swap meet
• Picked up a T-56 (F-Body style) 6-speed manual trans for $1300, fully rebuilt, in the San Fernando Valley
• Created modest engine mounts, though I’m not entirely pleased with them and will probably need to address this differently in the coming months.  More later.
• Learned how to tear-down, shorten and rebuild a GM steering column.  I’m offering this service now for $150 per column if it is not a column shift. $250 for column shift style. Parts are extra. No shortening.  Too much liability.  Thanks attorneys.
• Found cool bolt-on roll-bar brackets from Fiber Tech in Santee, CA.  Welded the steering column bracket to it for the front mount
• Mounted the brake/clutch pedal assembly inverted (swing pedal style, rather than floor mount) on the left side of the column.
• Gas pedal will probably be swing type to get the proper pull motion for the throttle cable.  This car will not be DBW (drive by wire).  After having driven a handful of cars with it, I’m thoroughly fed up with it.  The pedal lag is stupid.
• Firewall support is now in place.

So, over the next few weeks, I’ll be detailing out the process of doing each of these, to hopefully make life a little easier for those trying to build your own chassis.

A rule of thumb I ignored, even after hearing it, I recommend you heed:

Start with the wheels and tires you want with the wheelbase and track you want.  Build the rest of the car around it and everything will turn out fine.

Had I done that to start I would not have had to go back to the frame and “Z” it up 4 1/2 inches in the front to accommodate the cross-member.

I have pics of most everything listed here, and those that I don’t have listed, I can snap photos of.

If you haven’t used Sketch-up before, it’s a pretty amazing 3D tool that’s free.  Just google the term and you’ll find it immediately.  In any case, once we have the frame wrapped up, I’ll update the file to reflect the work we’ve done.

I’m also going to work on getting a lot of the photos I have been taking up onto the site.   Possibly tonight.

Lastly, I think I’m going to be redoing the engine mounts for the Mustang’s LS1.  I’m not thrilled with how they look, and I’m starting to get some real interest in how we did this conversion. Maybe I’ll sell “conversion kit” on the cheap to off-set some of the costs associated with building this thing.

Yes, I know, I’m talking about SELLING something that I learned how to do – a real shocker isn’t it?  And here we all thought capitalism was dead!

Stay tuned!

UPDATE (23:55 11/19/09)

I have posted a TON of photos tonight.  You can find the galleries along the top menu.  Check them out!

Oh, and I hooked up two little 6.5″ Polk Audio coaxial speakers in place of the LPF 6.5″ Boston acoustics that were in the middle headrest bar.  MUCH BETTER!

Not so much.

See, the headlamp housings I purchased (JDM style black outlines) don’t support the HID bulb and ballast.  I thought, “no biggie, I’ll just modify it so it fits.” Well, that didn’t go so well either.  The housings within the headlamps are completely different.  I ended up cracking the igniter wire’s insulated housing next to the bulb.  No clue if it will still work…

Ultimately, I chopped up the wire harness of each housing, and spliced them together as necessary to make it work.  All good now, and the left lamp housing is in.

Oh, and the car has been in a small crash before I purchased it.  The front left corner is pushed in a little.  The fender doesn’t line up with an OEM lamp housing, the plastic mounting tabs were broken off the HID housing, and all the mounts on the chassis were bent backward.  I wouldn’t have a problem with this if I had been told about it, but finding out the hard way sucks.  I probably would have bought a new fender and put it on at the same time just to make everything kosher.  Instead, I ended up palm-slapping the fender into the appropriate shape around the headlamp. It still looks fine, but dammit, this is my [almost] perfect car.

+150 HP, +120 Lb. Ft. of Torque, sunburnt orange, and a non-crunched fender.  Then it’d be perfect.