86 El Camino with a Schwartz Performance Chassis.

[howehot]

Looking good Dan! Everything play nice between the chassis and the body so far?

Fit like a glove.

[Samckitt]

Looking good.

I have always wanted to do new gauges like this too:


But want to keep all 4 little ones in between the Speedo & Tach. I wonder if a new face for the upper 2 could be made to place it upside down & only show half the gauges instead of the full diameter. Hmmmmm... Gonna have to look into that now.

[howehot]

Time to mock up the SS nose. Rehung the doors and fenders. The front bumper had to be cut up to allow the SS nose I got from Honest Charley's. Seemed a shame such a nice bumper had to be sacrificed.







This tab on the fender also had to go.



The nose fit pretty well. I'll leave final judgement for after the hood is back on and everything is squared up. Josh will be home Sunday to help finish up.

[howehot]

The SS nose fits very well. It follows the body line nicely and the lines on the are almost exact. I love it when a plan comes together.

[CruizinKev]

looks great!!! good work!

[Ben@SpeedTech]

Looking good gentlemen. It's coming together nicely, keep it going!

[howehot]

Toaday was cut up a perfectly good hood day, also know as CHRISTmas. Instead of going with a cowl hood I decided to do hood vents. After a lot of looking I found a set from Hoodlouvers.com. Next was making them functional.

They were positioned to allow for function and the graphic we are working on. The first louver is right at the top of the radiator. I tape the outline of the louver and then again inside so I could mark the area to be removed.



I used a cutoff wheel and went to work.


Now I have a hood with two large holes so I proceeded to add several smaller ones to allow for more air movement through the bracing. Also removed nose weight, lol.




They will be held on with many stainless steel rivets but that will wait until after paint. The louvers are made off aluminum and the white is just a protective covering. Not sure what the finish will be on these when completed, either body color or grey to match the chassis and wheels. I'm thinking this El CaMEANo is starting to look its part.

[jlcustomz]

Coming together nicely. Needless to say, your elco should handle marginally better than mine. (OK a lot better) . The honest charley noses are a bit nicer than the lauren engineering stuff, only minor sanding & filling to make things perfect.

I agree with your choice of hood vents as opposed to the overused cowl hoods. Vents in the very forward hood should also help unload air from lifting the nose at speed. Might make some for my custom glass hood one day.

[Schwartz Performance]

Those louvers are sweet! Nice pick.

-Dale

[howehot]

The roof and numerous coats of paint. The dust you see is from the roof only. Josh worked for 2 hours with a DA and 80 grit.

[howehot]

The rear roll pan had some fitment issues, one being it was to narrow. So what does one do with a new part that doesn't fit, cut it in half. Once it was positioned correctly I fiberglassed it back together. I also had to add to the radius in the right hand side. Now Josh will do his magic and finish it off.







Also the grill did not fill the opening. After a long thought process I got some abs plastic to fill the void. This will get glued to the bottom of the nose and once again Josh will do his magic to finish it off.
Friday the glass man is coming to remove the windshield and back window. Getting closer to priming.

[SRD art]

Coming along nicely Dan!!

[howehot]

Started mocking up the brakes and pedal assembly. Using a master cylinder from a 79 Riveria with 4 wheel disc. This has a 1" bore. Also has an adaptor from manualbrakes.com and sickspeedmonte's bracket for a F body clutch master cylinder. Took some fab work to get everything mated but they are now a threesome.

[SSLance]

Manual brakes and a third pedal... I like where this is heading.

[ih8z28s]

I like the direction this is going!

[Schwartz Performance]

Lookin great Danny boy !

-Dale

[howehot]

Time for a few updates.

First, I added 2" to the bottom of the nose. This kit was from Honest Charlie's and fit very well. The end pieces are fiberglass and required trimming to fit properly. Josh will fill in the original body line in the nose to eliminate the double effect.





The bullet has been purchased. It's a Wegner Motorsports 427 short block built on a LQ4 block. Top end is LS2 ported heads and an epoxied intake. Should make a little over 500rwhp.



Lastly, tomorrow Josh will epoxy prime and high build prime the shell and select pieces. Sunday he will apply the Upol Raptor bedliner tinted to match the future paint color.

[Bonehead]

Did you mean to say you used BAER brakes? Or using something other than one of Hal Baers kits?

[howehot]

Did you mean to say you used BAER brakes? Or using something other than one of Hal Baers kits?

That is what I mean, never noticed the fact I, with the help of autocorrect, spelled it wrong.

[Bryce]

Nice progress.