Mav1970's Insane 69.5 Street Project

Still looking awesome. You are doing a great job!!

 

You cut the flange off. Looks good that way.....Great job!

 

Thanks guys

Take the fenders and hood off of your car some day and take a look around. You quickly realize that Ford never intended for all of that to be visible, especially with the stock shock towers and radiator wall - just a weird looking misshapen "box". Those flanges are gone - the cowl is smooth now also - went to an AC heater box so the motor no longer sticks through the firewall - heater hose exits will be re-located lower - no more fuse block sticking through firewall. I have to keep thinking about what is seen as the nose tilts forward

 

I kept thinking that when i replaced that side panel using your template. But mine are covered so i decided to keep that look. Yours on the other hand is a piece of art!

 

Thanks for the compliment but I wouldn't go that far


To me, it's more like building a Rat Rod that will still look like the car I started out with when it's done

 

Far from being a rat rod! Mine looks like a rat rod with peeling dead skin!!!!

 

I would agree....a piece of art.....

 

Well, the last 2 days "progress" haven't gone as well as most have. I posted about removing my external spot weld flanges from the 2 front corners of the firewall. The driver side flange I had removed the other day and the front and side pieces just sat there nice and relaxed with no spread to the new open seam. The passenger side flange was removed some time ago and had spread open so that is the side that I started on. Most of the time I don't have anyone to help hold things into place or put pressure on things needed to be welded so I do the best I can. I first built a corner plate and tried plug welding it from the interior. I only wound up burning through the firewall and the plate was moving around a lot - it just got ugly on me so I packed it in for the night on Saturday. Today I cleaned up the mess with a sander and built a new wider external corner plate but this time I was going to plug weld it from the outside. It eventually knitted pretty well but I was still having trouble with the welder today. My welder is down on the lowest heat settings and running thin .023 wire. I've used this combo on other parts of the car's sheet metal with great success. Today it just wasn't going to co-operate I guess

You can see my "helper" in the photo

Hopefully the driver side will go smoother

 

Got the 2 front firewall corner plates made and plug welded into place. These replace the ugly external seams that stick straight out of the firewall. Still need a little cleaning up with some filler and another part of the project will be done. The firewall will be a lot better to look at when the front end is tilted forward. Pictures aren't the clearest - I'm using my cheap Samsung phone since my Nikon went belly up

 

Two things.. Plumb some drainage tubes for the run off from the cowl.. What's taking so long?

 

I didn't get a chance to read the whole thread stopped on page 16... I'm not sure if you figured out how to align/latch your tilt front end, but might want to take a look at saturn sky and pontiac soltice cars, they have full tilt front end from factory, and use two simple latches and cone set up to align.

 

I haven't come up with a rock solid plan yet for the pivot yet but I'm open for ideas. I see a lot of tilt front ends & hoods at car shows and take tons of photos. The way mine has to work is the stock fenders, hood, valence, rock guard and grill all have to be made into one single assembly. Just trying to come up with a way to make these all one has been the hardest part yet. Figuring out a way to get it all to work without adding a ton of weight to the front end and having it look bad

 

I was thinking of welding 2 lengths of 4 inch black pipe into the cowl drains and install them through 2 holes sawed into the fenders so the water will drain on the outside of the body

 

Speaning of cowls

I got the inside of my cowl cover coated with POR 15 this morning. I thought what POR 15 that was left in my quart can had dried up but I took a 1 inch hole saw and drilled through the 2 inch thick crust and into the well of good stuff still in the bottom of the can. The stuff dried up with plastic wrap under the lid and the lid tight

 

2", wow it must have been a while since you used it last. I use plastic under thenlud every time too. I usually get about a quarter inch thick skin on the top. I take my mixing stick and break it around the edges if the can and remove it. The stuff underneath is always good thankfully. A hole saw, that's crazy! Haha good job getting the most out of your can.