74 Challenger with twins

[daaboots]

Great progress!

[cuda hunter]

WOW!!   

I've not read this thread in full until now.

All I can say is   WOW !!!   

I am very impressed!   

Thank you for sharing with us. 

[YellowThumper]

WOW!!   

I've not read this thread in full until now.

All I can say is   WOW !!!   

I am very impressed!   

Thank you for sharing with us. 

Thank you.
Manufacturing is in my blood.
40 years in the plastic injection mold business. Don't build at work any longer. The home building feeds the need.

[YellowThumper]

Valve covers complete. Annealed som 1/8 aluminum and formed heat shielding. Coil brackets now complete. All coil wires finished with added heat wrap protection.
Pleased with how it turned out.

[YellowThumper]

Miserable weekend welding underside connectors in. Along with grinding to clean up areas that are visible.
Glad that is done.

[YellowThumper]

Not much picture worthy.
Work continuing with building of the exhaust.
Mock installed the engine side for what feels like the 200th time.
Tail pipes started and hung.
Mufflers are hung.
Over the axle and forward up to X pipe.
Unfortunately ran out of bends. Need to order a couple more.
Roughly 3 feet remain to fully connect both pipes.
Fun times also dealing with miserable sunny Ca. weather.

[daaboots]

Looking great! I just added some custom subframe connectors on my car, however, I was on a rotisserie so no upside down welding

[YellowThumper]

Minimal progress as I filled argon mix for Mig welder but then promptly ran out of argon for the Tig. Tig handle started leaking Coolant also.
Moved on to brackets and then band saw broke its drive belt.
Home shop with antiquated equipment has its down days.

[YellowThumper]

Exhaust continues.
All the hangers are complete.
Gotta love the torch. Also known as the (I am not asking) tool.
Full lengths of pipes are now all tack welded in proper place. Will drop and full weld next.
Moved on to the rear to layout where and how exhaust will exit.
Starting with new bumper brackets to tighten up its alignment to body. Mounting tabs welded to bumper and all bolt holes are welded closed. Will be properly smoothed out later.
Split a spare rear tail pan to customize it.
Center portion is raised to tuck tight to bumper. It will house the dual exhaust outlets. Center exhaust tips are the only non factory visual I want for the car.
Left and right sides of the tail pan will be extended upward to match raised center. Bottom lip will remain same level as original. Blending fillers will be made to merge pushed out center with outer pieces.
Lowest portion of pan will remain original level. Tips will not sit any lower than pan.
Tips will be shortened closer to the panel and the opening faces will be angled inward.
This will remain only mockup only to define exhaust location for the pipe exits.
Main focus is to get it running and on the ground again to finalize conversion to the EFI.
Methodical steps.

[YellowThumper]

More pics

[YellowThumper]

More heat shielding.
All my add on wiring passes thru firewall where heater motor used to pass thru. This covers from there towards engine. Mounts to an existing bracket for catch can.
Insulated and cushioned back face with rubber to prevent chafing.

[YellowThumper]

Exhaust continues...
Main pipes now 100% welded. No new pics.
Repair to 30 year old welder completed again to fix a new coolant leak.
Frame connectors and exposed metal covered with chassis saver protection.
Heat shield added to protect master cylinder and brake lines.
No pic but fuel lines near exhaust wrapped in heat shielding.

[YellowThumper]

Keeping it muted but project creep is happening.
Needed to rebuild the coupler and also had some light rust at the firewall pass thru. Pulled column to correct.
Then the "well since I am in here" kicked in.
Will repaint column.
Pull custom dash cluster and finally finish it as was planned many years ago.

[YellowThumper]

Welp...
All the mechanicals are now complete.
Paced for hours buttoning the last of the details.
Finally attempted a start. Plenty of cranking but no fireup.
Only electrical I touched was the column. Replaced ignition and turn signal wiring. All other remains the same.
Frustrated to say the least.
Will start going thru testing procedure.
But overall I am burned out and need a break.
Ecstatic about progress thus far. "Transition" started about 12 years ago now.
Short pause but will figure it out.

[YellowThumper]

Guess I lied the other day stating I was gonna thak a break from this.
Worked on tracing wiring and found I missed reconnecting a ground.
Yep that was issue.
Still needs tons of details for actual driving but this is a huge milestone.