Willow Springs, Spring Fling, MATS 1600 mile road trip

[ntstlgl1970]

The XV inner fender braces showed up, and my front bumper brackets don't fit the front elasto bumper (will require some grinding on the brackets). did talk to the paint guy, he is still on for doing the job. I have the blaster lined up and have been working on taking the car even further apart. Cleaned up the garage some and working on my checklist. Hoping I can get the car to the body guy by the middle of August. 

The injectors are edlebrocks 35pph that I used because they are only 1.5 inches tall.

[hemiken]

Hi Eric,

Can you post a picture of the area you had to grind for the bumpers to fit please buddy.

[ntstlgl1970]

Hi Ken,

This is one of the things I plan to work on over the weekend, I'll get some pictures posted at some point

[hemiken]

Thanks for that Eric,

I plan on using Elastameric Bumpers aswell and would love a heads up on the modification side of things.

[ntstlgl1970]

Gean Gregory told me that the bumpers should fit stock brackets, but I don't know if the brackets that are on my car are for a 1970, I had replaced them at one point so I have no clue.

[hemiken]

OK buddy, i will wait and see the ones you post to see if they are different to mine thanks

[ntstlgl1970]

Ok I didn't get as much done this weekend (it was pretty hot here) but I did get the gas tank out, drained the old (4yrs old) gas into my commuter car, which almost filled it up (bonus!!). Finished cutting the exhaust out, removed the pedal box, master cylinder, proportioning valve, defroster duct, fuel tank, fuel pump, vapor seperator and some other misc stuff. Got to work on getting the bumpers fit to the car. Turns out my brackets for the back were a little tweaked so I had to spend some time straightening them in the press and beating them with a hammer. Also the "L" bracket for the small part that hangs down below the bumper where it goes to the frame, the bolts won't come out/nuts are freewheeling in the frame. I'll have to cut those up and hopefully fish out the remnants with a magnet through the frame hole. I have to spend some time straightening the rear bracket/frame where the bumper mounts as there are a couple of bent areas there too. I did get the front bumper on the car, had to spend some time trimming rubber flashing from around the mounting studs and then clearancing the brackets where they mount to the bumper. Took a while but once I bolted it on, it was all worth it! 

 

[hemiken]

That looks way cool Eric, i love this look good to see you sorted out the brackets buddy

[FY1Cuda]

Very nice.  That front bumper fits a lot better than my fiberglass "elastomeric" front bumper.  I may have to shell out some  for those eventually.  Was there any prep needed to the bumper itself? 

[conv340]

Ok I didn't get as much done this weekend (it was pretty hot here)

  Your bumper looks great! If I thought I could have got one to fit that nice I could have saved my self a lot of work  I hear you on the body work thing Its killing me. Its hard to get motivated lately but I'm past the point of no return 

[ntstlgl1970]

Thanks Ken, FY1 and Bob.
I think the bumper will fit a bit better when I tweak the passenger fender a little. The bumper has no paint or anything on it at this point, I just wiped it down with wax and grease remover before the pictures. I'm really happy with it so far. The only thing I did to put the bumper on was clean some moulding flash from the back side where the studs are, there was a little bit of rubber covering the threads on a couple of studs and some "lumps" of material that I trimmed with a razor blade to get the brackets to sit flat. There is some prep that will have to be done before paint, mostly the same things, some moulding flash on some edges and maybe a little sanding to get everything perfect. Best $1700 I've spent on the car so far. Wish my AAR hood would have been this nice.

[ntstlgl1970]

August was a busy month, was on vacation for a while, but last weekend, got the XV shock tower braces welded in. They weren't kidding about the clearances being all over the place, check out the difference in location of the stock upper shock plate in relation to the opening in the "well" for the shock absorber between the left and right side. This is about the worst mismatch I've seen on mine so far, maybe it was a Friday or Monday morning car....

[ntstlgl1970]

pic before this, check out how far forward the stock brace is in relation to the cutout for the shock!

[ShelbyDogg]

Wow.   That thing was way off.   The great workmanship that went into the building our mopars!

[ntstlgl1970]

got the rear bumper on. I'm really happy with these bumpers, they fit really nice. I spent last weekend trying to repair the threaded inserts for the brackets that bolt to the lower bumper extension/bumperettes and ended up just cutting the frame open and welding in some new nuts. what a pain. but anyway at least there is more progress.