Levi Zoesch Pro-Touring 69 Ford Maverick MEGA Build

lookin good..wish i welded up the cowl when i did my car...anyways, if your going to a C4 and a high trans tunnel like that, think about the shifter as it will sit extremely high on the tunnel, shifting with your arm up in the air might not be that great, (asuming you have a manual valve body and you are shifting all the time) unless you have plans to set it in lower somehow.

 

I've been absent while in Southern Oregon...................why do you want the tunnel so high. Just not understanding the thought...........and height.
In the picture of the early Camaro I can't see why the tunnel is sooooooooo high. Had a friend that finished a 68 and he used air suspension and could "lay frame", and his tunnel was only half that high........and he runs a 6spd
and SBF.

The cowl looks really great!!!

 

Thanks, the cowl was a PITA the first go around. I ended up ripping it out, I made the concave a little to dramatic the first go. It came out perfect, was proud of myself.
The car will be a auto. Shifting will be just to drive and

Have you ever sat in a BMW? I used to own a 02 525i BMW, and I loved how the console came up and felt like you where in a cockpit. It was confortable to sit in, lean on, etc. If the transmission tunnel is low it feels to "open". Its hard to explain idk...

I will also be forming the dash into the transmission tunnel to serve as a center console. I can stuff the shifter into the trans tunnel so it looks like the factory did it (after market B&M shifter (cable)). It may seem confusing or weird at first, but when I get done it should come out very well. Its not going to be 2 feet from the floor, but more along the lines of tip of my hip high. (12-14 inches from ground)

I gotta get the chassis supports done, and get some seats in there to figure out where I want it to sit, and how far back I am going to be. I have a steering wheel to mock up to get the angles etc. Just all takes time.

I have been extremely busy with a project for work that is hindering me from working on the car, it is also roughly 8 degrees in my garage right now. Maybe 10 degrees outside. Nasty for the next week.

 

Did you put the firewall back in?

 

Not yet, I need to do a final template, scribe it on the sheet metal and take it 45 minutes to my grandfather house who has a bandsaw, it'll give me better cut than disc cutter

 

Ok, now I understand..............not that it's important for me to.........since
it's your car and your build. I am kind of literal, so sometimes I need to see it rather than imagine it.
I have driven a couple of BMW's, a 630csi and 540i........both in Germany.

 

Old shell, new everything

 

Removed the remaining of the top portion of the torque box. Prepping the area to add the new 2x3 piece of tube. Need to order the rear trans loop so that it all ties together. The fun is starting to begin.

What is a good way to strip all the rust without spending 3 hours grinding it off? Can I weld a good deep weld with rust scale on it like this, or is it best to strip?

Whatcha think?

 

Clean it up good while it's all exposed. I wouldn't even consider cutting corners in load critical areas like that. Once it's clean.. I'd also consider using welding primer for protection.

Quite a few alternatives to mechanical rust removal out there. I still prefer to do both though.. bulk mechanical removal with a rough wheel.. then spray some liquid remover into the hard to reach areas/nooks and crannies. Rust Bomb.. Metal rescue.. Ospho products.. etc.

 

If that hasn't rusted away in the 40+ years since the car was built, it'll last another 40. Eastwood makes a internal coating that would do the jub, and its a lot less work.

 

lol.. then why bother doing most any of the stuff we do on these cars if they've survived this long?

In my mind.. at this level of a buildup.. an extra hours worth of work and 20 bucks in materials sure wouldn't disuade me from going the extra mile.

Course, as a painter for almost all my life.. I've made wheelbarrow fulls of cash just to "hit it and forget it". Or cooler sounding fancier terminology is "encapsulation".

So.. to each his own and it'll look perfectly fine from my house anyways. Plus.. it's not like rust ever degrades the strength or cuases cracked welds either. lol

 

Exactly what I used on my torque boxes - the stuff I used was in areosol form called Eastwood Internal Frame Encapsulator and comes with a plastic tube for getting into a small hole in frame rails - it is a crazy looking light green color

 

Can you weld over it? Or do you do it last?

 

I used Eastwood Weld Through Primer in the spray can on parts of it until I finished welding everything together - afterwards, I was able to get the final green coating into the passenger, front torque box throgh a hole I drilled into the box - then I welded up the hole

 

Sand blast it!!!!