Thanks for the suggestion on panel bond adhesive for my project.

Funny how a power upgrade quickly turns into a body work project :squint: Curious to see how this will look from the driver's seat once finished.

Yes, interesting how that happens. If I had known the amount of work I was getting into with this project beforehand, I cannot honestly say that I would do it again....Maybe I would, who knows. The worst part of this for me is that between this and a table I built for my wife that took a couple weeks, I have not touched my family wagon project in near two months....

I am close though, hoping to take this car for tuning next week or the week after, and then to the painter also the week after.

Yesterday was Dyno day. It was basically a race at this point to see if the car would go to the dyno first or paint and I was honestly hoping paint so I'd have some good shots when it made it to the dyno. That didn't happen, so it looks a bit janky but the power can't be argued with. Made 6 runs total if I remember correctly, starting with a gentle initial tune, then a moderate modified one, then multiple full load tunes when it was getting close to dialed in. Tuner also rode in the passenger seat with me afterwards to check drivability so overall I would have to say I am very pleased with his work. He is out of Sikeston Missouri, shop is called Gregs Tuning Operation, he handles a lot of GM and modern Ford builds. Now back to my car, started in the mid 400's and ended up calling it good at 534rwhp. That figure is at 7.5-8lbs of boost, 16.5 degrees of timing peak, and it was around 50 degrees yesterday. IAT's were excellent with this setup(something you have to normally fight on a PD blower) at only about 20 degrees over ambient. Still have quite a few little things to finish up including my hood and paint, but the car runs and drives great again.

Naturally I had to take it for an actual shakedown spin when I got it home yesterday. I took it in for the obligatory grocery run with no hood and the big temp intake sticking up...why not? Car performed flawlessly, the cam surge seems to be similar if not a bit worse than it was before the blower, but that is just at low speed trying to idle around a lot or something. Around town it does excellent, the cog drive setup is loud, radio is now only for show but I'm ok with that. I bumped the gas one time in second gear in town and as imagined it just blew the tires, so as I was going home I waited until I was on an open stretch of highway and slowed to around 3k RPM's in 3rd gear and just rolled into the throttle. HOLY $%&# BATMAN!! I have not yet actually went wide open on it and it is still just mind blowing!! If I were ever to sell this car I would honestly not let anyone drive it period until they had already paid for it, there are no words for how fast this car is, so it really makes me wonder what in the world the guys making more than me do? Anyway, enough talk, see dyno video below!!

Glad to see that your project is living up to it's potential.
VERY impressive!!!

534 at the rear wheels is what, 600+ at the crank?
If that doesn't do it for you nothing will.

Yes I think the normal assumption is 10-12% loss through a T-56 so 600 is a fair estimate. 600 isn't as much as it used to be, but in a 2600lb car it is really something.

Dude. 534 is incredible. Really nice work, and glad you're happy with it. I've always heard 15% drivetrain loss. Can't recall, are these all stock internals on the engine?

Wonder what your gas mileage will be now? Just kidding.:rofl:

I was pretty happy with that number, especially on that boost. Drivetrain loss seems to vary between which trans you use, even manual vs manual so IDK. I'm sure its somewhere in there.

Yes the engine in this car has stock internals. It only has around 25k miles on the engine at this point, and I see plenty of FI Camaros and Firebirds that have lived long lives. I am not running high boost, and as always since this car is much lighter than an Fbody or GTO I am not stressing things as hard so I don't see any reason why it won't last me a good long while.

As far as gas mileage, that is actually the only bad thing to happen after this whole thing....my gas gauge no longer works. I'm guessing I hurt something when I changed the fuel pump and wiring, but I haven't messed with it yet. This blower has a vacuum refereneced bypass though, so at low load it actually drives like stock, and in all honesty shouldn't kill the mileage.

That is impressive! Congratulations on a really unique build!

After getting her tuned last week I took a few days off from working on it. Now I am back with an update on the hood situation. I am definitely no body many so this is all amateur work but at this point I'd say I am fairly happy with it. As was mentioned last time, I narrowed it 5-1/2" in the center and glassed it all along the bottom. I decided I thought it would be a good idea to glass the top also so I sanded it down a 1/16" or so in the center and laid one single layer of woven glass/resin on it. Give its strength on both sides now. After that I let it all cure for several days to make sure it was good and strong, then I started getting it on the hood. I laid it out on top, centered it up and traced the edge of the flange all the way around. I then took some 1.5" tape(about the width of my flange) and laid it along that traced edge the whole way around, then I cut the hood at the other tape edge. This got me pretty close and with a little more trimming it seemed to fit fine. My plan was to use panel bond(3M or evercoat) between the flange and the bottom of the hood so I prepped both of them and started to lay the stuff on heavy. It is rock hard stuff to begin with. I read that you needed a Heavy duty caulk gun to dispense it and that is no kidding. Mine was considered heavy duty because of the amount of strokes it makes to go from top to bottom, but I still had lot of trouble and had to get creative to dispense the stuff. I had one area where I couldn't get much on but it should be fine. I used about 50 screws with fender washers to keep it clamped tight for a few days before removing and it seems to be on there great. Finally, I started laying on some Bondo glass to blend the edges, which is basically a stronger bondo with fiberglass strands in it. That brings me to current now, hoping it will go to painter in the next day or so.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...09c42a8780.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...dbb393ecef.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...46a4cc38db.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...10e2fd9d09.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...d749ece9f4.jpg

I know this isn't normally something to post in a build thread, but I figured , its my thread. I have been in contact with a few manufacturers over the past few days and got back a positive response from Maxxis today on the development of a 275/35r15 tire. As it turns out, I need more grip these days, so I am trying to find it. I have started a petition linked below for anyone that would be interested in a tire this size. Please click and sign if you are, so we can help convince manufacturers to bring this to market.

http://chng.it/9TsbSd4VT4

I signed up. Great idea. Your car sounds great on the dyno. Nice work.

So sadly with the exception of pulling the car out of the garage to retrieve my lawn mower, it hasn't moved since dyno day. My painter is dragging his feet a little but he does a good job so I'll take bad with the good. Only real update I have is to speak about the intake. You can see in the pictures from pre-dyno day that I had a temp intake in place just for that day, its been a lot more of a challenge getting an intake to fit properly than I thought. Ended up sourcing a long radius tube and cut it up a bit, its tight but it should work ok. I'll also build a box in the front corner to keep engine bay heat out.


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...c90ff0b8e6.jpg

Haven't posted in a bit because honestly, I haven't had anything to post. The guy I use to paint my stuff has been busy so he just hasn't had time to really devote to my parts all at once. He has been making progress though and overall I think I did a good job on some of the hood, and I also think that there is a reason some people are professional auto body workers. He had to strip/redo some of my work, but he sent me a picture of the hood in primer and its really nice to see the project coming together. I am very happy with where the hood is going now that I can see it all in one color, even though its not blue.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...26168253bf.jpg

Always worth the effort of a great body man, I did my own on my vert first project, (68 Stang), but didn't understand the importance of a water separator on my compressor. In the end I had moisture trapped under my primer coats that caused major lifting problems a few weeks after I had the car painted. I was told I broke two rules, no water separator and IR Propane Heat was putting too much moisture in the air. After a complete strip and repaint with the correct procedures I learned my lesson, Body Men are worth their weight in gold, LOL. Love the sound of that blower, bit jelly here :thumbsup:

Keep Moving Forward

Dean0

Yes I agree. I had even told him while I was working on it myself that he would likely have to go back and fix my screw ups, probably be cussing me along the way. Good thing about working with one guy for a long time, he stepped me through a few things he did to show me how/why I went wrong, I'll chalk it up as a learning experience.

When I bought the parts in December I certainly didn't expect the journey I have been on for this hood, but man we are getting close to this car looking respectable again.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...1bcf459da4.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...9d5b37d1f9.jpg

Got the painted parts back Saturday, still got a few things to finish up now that they are back but I wanted to loosely hang them so I can get a little payoff.......all I can say is man was it worth it, I feel like this car looks meaner than the old front/hood could ever even dream to be. Will get better pictures with the car cleaned up soon, but here is a quick teaser.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...db03739c06.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...df7d509a7e.jpg

It sure looks outstanding and I am very impressed by your cosmetic and mechanical work.
Have you given any thought to a more aggressive rear spoiler to complement the front hood scoop?

Looks good, the Mazdaspeed front bumper is def more aggressive and matches the new look. The super(charger)bump won't be sneaking up on anyone.

Any shots from the driver's seat, curious how much of your view it blocks.

I am all about the overall look of the car, so while I have considered other rear effects to make it match, I haven't really seen anything that looks like it flows well and matches the rest as much as the MSM spoiler, and that isn't 1500.

I spent the day cleaning it yesterday, have a very nice set of MSM headlights coming to replace these because they aren't to the level of perfect I want for this car. Once I do that I will actually bolt up the font bumper and get some pictures of the whole thing! It doesn't block my view terribly, figure its a 3.5" cowl.

Your view may be out the side windows most of the time ... no problem. :-)

Got my MSM headlights in...finally getting to actually put the car back together. Here is a comparison of the lights, the ones in front are the new nice ones, the rears are the ones I painted/cleaned. Both are nice lights honestly, but I wanted them to be perfect.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...b2813c617e.jpg

Finally some real pictures of the car after all my work this winter, and not with it just cobbled together!! Last picture of car when we used it for our gender reveal

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...6be9dac11e.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...617da56c4e.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...4a4fb67c1d.jpg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...2c24729ab7.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...3d2ca5ba11.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...e713f08ec4.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.v8m...55ed629bbf.jpg