trying again

[Matt Walter]

the brake lines are all star performance and i got them from jegs. you can find more on this by friend requesting me.

https://www.facebook.com/matt.walter.334

i'll have more updates coming soon. i had a small accident monday night while trying to get the engine bay stripped. i had an angle grinder fitted with a wire wheel, which kicked back from the edge of a piece of metal in the bay, freed itself from my grip, and flew into my face. i'm OK overall, but it got my cheek and lip pretty good. i'll get back out in the garage maybe tonight, but i took last night off.

[JERICOGTX]

Where did you get your brake lines from? Those look nice and clean. Where do we find the progress reports on FB?

[Deucemopar]

Great progressed!

[Matt Walter]

it seems social media has really move over to facebook and instagram instead of traditional forums, so i have a lot of what i'm doing posted over there, however i will keep these threads going at least through the end of this year if possible.

started some mock up of the clutch hydraulics. i'm a little frustrated about having to use hydraulics instead of a real racecar type pedal setup, but honestly, i'm out of time/resources so this will have to do. looks like this will fit, but have to get the trans back in the car to make sure.



fuel pump mount is all done. i'm pretty happy with this.



in an attempt to keep things from moving around too much, i've welded the seams on the strut towers. this just seems like a good idea.



pause for life for a second. seems like i can't get a weekend in the garage without huge interruptions these days, lol. this weekend's interruption was brought to you by the drive belt tensioner pulley in the dryer exploding.



this might be a distraction, or it might be for my sanity. trying to get things cleaned up in the bay. i was never satisifed with the last brake line setup, and the line going to the rear was messed up (not beyond function, but it needed to be redone). so, here we go, lol



and i got the radiator hung. pretty satisified with this too. more parts coming this week. hope to have the engine bay in paint and the rearend reassembled.



speaking of rearend, we have a new strategy. i will be seeking out a 29.5-30" tall street tire, and running a set of 4.57's. after how this year has gone, we just haven't been able to do enough testing and practicing of the gear swap, and i know it's gonna be a problem if i try to do it. so, 55 mph cruising speeds it is.

[Deucemopar]

I got the job at ATI Performance Parts in Baltimore and start tomorrow. that was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. this will allow me to focus the side work/parts sales back into the car again and i can try to get this thing back on track.
.

Good progress Matt.

Congrats on the job! Can you ask them where my trans is when you go in ... lol. J/K. Suppose to get update in morning.

[Tommy71]

Progressing nicely !!!

[Matt Walter]

so the photobucket debacle (if you don't know about it, google it) had me pretty frustrated and i wasn't sure what i was going to do. i decided to use just another free web host for now so that the pictures could continue. I have no idea if i'll be able to repair the older posts in this thread or others or not yet. I could, but it would take way more time than i have these days.

I got the job at ATI Performance Parts in Baltimore and start tomorrow. that was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. this will allow me to focus the side work/parts sales back into the car again and i can try to get this thing back on track.

I got back into town this past monday from a two week trip to Ohio and Tennessee to help mom and dad's business some while I wasn't working. this allowed me to keep the money flow thankfully. I have spent the majority of my free time in the garage since then and have the wheelie bars fitted, which of course required custom brackets which i cut out by hand, lol!


I also got the anti roll bar built. The parts are from PA Racing, per usual.


with as low as the car is, i had to clearance the ttop well for the bars. i'll patch this soon.


something of real interest! fully assembled 40 spline axles with rifle drilling and flange lightening are 1lb 1oz lighter each than my solid 31 spline axles. totally blown away by this!


fuel system is updated with -8 return. pretty happy with the way this turned out.




that's all for right now.

[Matt Walter]

so just to update, the interview that i had back 2 weeks ago now was actually very promising, but we've had a hard time coming to an agreement on salary. i sent my final offer to them today and have the attitude of if they don't take it, i'll find something else. Dad has some work for me to do over the next 2 weekends for MotorManiaTV outside of my normal responsibilities for them and I will be able to maintain some income that way for a little while, all while being aggressive on trying to get another new 9-5. honestly, if WRC and MMTV take over, i could very well be better off. it's difficult and scary to try to do that though.

thankfully i have plenty in the garage to keep me busy and i decided to try to clean up the mess i have in the engine bay on my car before i built the exhaust, so i chopped the frame rails off right at the star of the wheel wells. i love the way it turned out. the exhaust looks awesome now too.



a cool side-product of these super tight fitting headers: the engine can be pulled with them installed.


now that the big car show we go to is over (yes, i took the car with no engine or front bumper cover, lol!) i can focus on some other parts of the car. i own all the stuff i need for the rear axle updates and i will move forward with that now, including the wheelie bars (i'm stoaked about those, lol).

engine updates: we are still waiting on pistons. things are slow there. we'll get it though.

[Deucemopar]

Awesome!!!!

[Matt Walter]

car came home from JSC Racing Fabrication today! Secret squirrel stuff no longer secret if you're on facebook, lol. for those of you that aren't following along on there, here ya go! i'm way excited about this. these guys really knocked it out of the park!



ok, so the car is home, but no more real progress will be made till the big side job is done and gone. lots to do on both cars, but it's critical that car make it to the show/race at the end of june. My big event this year is drag week. i may very well sit the june show/race out unfortunately. gotta pay the bills though ;)

[greenXpress]

[QUOTE=Matt Walter;n1158940]got a sneak peek picture of the secret squirrel stuff. can't wait to get the car back now

[/QUOTe

Area 51 type stuff makes me feel so inadequate .............. I'm just trying to fab a new cup holder.

[Matt Walter]

got a sneak peek picture of the secret squirrel stuff. can't wait to get the car back now

[Deucemopar]

Nice work!

[Matt Walter]

i'm assuming it is also honestly. i hope it holds up. i'll have a spare something or another (probably my old tsunami from aeromotive) with me in case.

driver's side now looks like passenger's side.


not a bad looking pair


and while it's not anything really to write home about, i'm pretty dang proud of this. final 2 seams actually looked pretty decent



i've gone as far as i can without the car here so now i wait. back to slaving away on the side job, lol!

[Deucemopar]

Re: fuel pump. I'm sure he knows the project is for Drag Week. We were looking at different race pumps and some are not recommended for continuous use. I assume this one is?