yeah I second both of these please! Even a couple more photos of the centre console with gauges from a couple more angles, been planning to make my own for a while now so would be a big help.
Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments. I came on this site recently as I have seen quite a few nice builds on here, and figured after all these years, I should probably join the community here. here is a little more info on some of the specific things you noticed. I spent about 20-30 hours on the upper and lower intake manifold, ported all of the runners, chopped up a donor plenum and swapped the 6th runner out so all are the same size and shape. And then to finish it, i welded up everything unneeded on it, and relocated the balance tube. I relocated to the underside of the manifold, and used -10AN braided stainless line for the runs. Oh and then shaved all of the brackets not needed, the pcv system, and all of the other items I no longer run on the car. It is all do-able, but a lot of work. There are some pictures of the underside of the plenum on the recent build thread on stanceworks. Oh and to match, I produced a new throttle cable cover that was longer and covered all 6 of the runners. It looked weird with it stopping short of the 2 back runners. as for the dash, that was a huge undertaking a few years ago. Produced the design after a ton of hand sketching, made the item in a dense foam, then poured molds for the shape, and finally was able to pour a whole plastic dash piece in plastic just like the original. Houses the gauges I need to make sure the motor is running properly, most importantly the wideband A/F. The front brake ducts are also my own design, just like the japan spec front fascia lower lip that i produced in hand laid kevlar. They are all holding up really well and the lip gets dragged around every time I drive it. As for the engine bay tuck, It is really hard to describe the amount of time and pure obsession that ensued here. I welded in completely new wheel arches that i hand formed on an english wheel, welded it all in, body soldering, smoothing, then welded shut every hole in the engine bay. built the motor while it was out. then sat there and relocated and or removed everything on the car that I did not see a purpose for. separated the entire engine wiring harness and removed all of the wires that were no longer needed for components removed. mounted the main fuse block to the frame rail under the front fascia, redid the entire power steering system with new hardlines in a different configuration so I could reroute the reservoir to under the center panel. no more A/C, no AIV, PCV, EGR, cruise control, carbon canister, among the others i cant think of off the top of my head. re-routed and plumbed the whole fuel system with braided stainless lines that ran directly into the back of the fuel rail from behind the motor. Inline fuel filter tucked up along side the driver frame rail. Fuel pressure regulator mounted under the brake booster with a custom bracket I cut on a cnc machine. Then all of the intake manifold changes, assembly and back in the car. Running 2 10lb batteries in the trunk with a nascar shutoff switch mounted next to them. All I would say as a word of advice is to occasionally stand back and see if everything is as cleanly run and simplified as it could be. In the end it took me 2 years to get the engine bay and motor to where it is today. Its really hard to describe the actual moves, but just take your time and think of the simplest way to locate something, or remove if not needed. There is a lot on these cars that is just simply not needed. all of these designs are my own, and one day I will find a company to sell my designs to, so they can reproduce in small batches for the community. I am an architect and industrial designer, so i am constantly thinking of ways to improve on the original, but make it look like it was made that way originally. Thats my goal when I build cars. And ive built quite a few...
Cool, I had seen you were an architect but didn't know you were also an industrial designer. I am too, though now working as a clay modeller, still sketch a bit though & like yourself always looking to improve that clean oem look. See my build thread for what I'm doing with a wing currently. Would still love to see some more angles of your custom gauge set-up, been working bits out myself but still undecided on placement of gauges, angle v. straight mainly & offsets. Anyway keep up the awesome work.
I get why it'd be hard to describe the process considering the time, labour and fabrication involved. Do you have any happy snaps of the power steering routing?
