what kind of cowl are you going to use? I have been considering cowl hood options for my car, but its tough since these hoods are aluminum, I've read a lot about fiberglass cowls not adhering well and cracking

 

 

wow, that's impressive work.

nice XJ - any details on that?

 

Wow, yes I'll agree that looks sharp! Have you had good luck with it lasting? It seems the cracking normally comes up after running for a while with all the heat generated from the engine...Dissimilar materials expand at different rates and you get cracks....

 

I attached my cowl scoop with 3-M Panel Bond adhesive, then glassed it in. No cracks in 11 years, and it gets HOT with that Kenne Bell under there.

 

Great job on bonding the glass to the aluminum, I work in a go fast boat shop part time and we have great success bonding to aluminum. Basically make sure the aluminum is scuffed and cleaned well with acetone and bond away. Most folks don't have a Methacrolite, ( not sure on spelling too many ester fumes ATM, LOL), epoxy gun to assist with the bond but Thereelbiged technique is the next best thing. Well done, great advise. Having a lot of experience with front mounted tractor stacks on pulling rigs I bet you get a bit of hot coal sucked into the cockpit, would change that part myself as I feel stacks belong on race boats and rigs but that is my opinion, I bet the bright flashes during shifting are a bit distracting on the highway, LOL.

Party on, great job and I do love your straight axle build, forward motivation should be great, looks like there is going to be some serious wheel shake with your set up but track time will tell.

awesome work
Movieboy4fun

 

 

 

What happened here? Haven't seen an update in a while!

 

renovating my bathroom and overhaul on a Jeep 4.0. I will be back to this soon. Plans on driving it by the end of the summer

 

some more progress today, welded intercooler pipe. I’m not good at tig aluminum yet so they’re ugly

 

Fit up the blow off valve cold piping is done. Next is fitting up the wastegate

 

Moved coil buckets in front of the axle and started cage plates. Building a 8.50 cage next

 

Also fit up wastegate, forgot to add a pic

 

Started cage, I love building cages

 

Got one bar done after work

 

Where I’m at with the cage so far

 

Hard to tell from the picture, so maybe I'm wrong, but does the lower portions of the main hoop angle in towards each other? I thought that was not best practice, but I don't actually see it mentioned in the SCCA cage rules, so I'm not sure if I'm imagining that or not.

 

Not sure if there are any official rules, but I have always been told to match the contour of the car as closely as you can and the main hoop can only have 4 bends totaling 180 degrees plus/minus 10 degrees. This does allow for a bit of angle on the lower section, 5 degrees max. Also leaning the main hoop is OK up to 7ish degrees. Was a "Rule of Thumb" I was taught, never had a bar fail inspection with the NHRA tech.

Dean0

 

The main hoop does angle in towards itself on the sides. This is so I can get it as tight to the top as I can. Nothing in the 8.50 cage specs that I saw about that. It’s very minimal

 

Also mounted drivers seat

 

Little more progress

 

Little more done after work

 

Dash bar is in, next I will lower the seats and make door bars

 

Closed up shifter area and lowered seat some more. Also welded steering column to dash bar