JB the chassis clip is from McDonald Bros Racing and its 75 x 50 x 3 box.

Mal

Well my timing was perfect, I went back to work on Tuesday after 5 weeks leave and my rear chassis clip turned up Wednesday.
Pretty happy with how it turned out to. Fully adjustable top and bottom control arms and new diff housing. Also got the Wilwood rear disc brake kit to match the front to go with it.
Now just have to find the time to get started on fitting it.

A few pictures

Well my holidays are over and its back to work on Tuesday. Pretty happy with what I got done over the past few weeks

I ended up spending a few days on the front subframes welding holes, removing seams and repairing rust










Then with fingers crossed I attempted to refit the subframes to the body. 

Can’t believe how easily this went back on. So glad nothing moved that I had braced while I was rebuilding the front floor cross member










So happy with how that went back on I couldn’t resist trying the front end to. Still have to get the new bushes for the front end as well.

Hey Rob, yes the hot spots on the firewall are heat shrinks. The booster runs sideways as you said and works with a vertical shaft and rose joints. Its an engineered unit I bought over the counter. The last one I did I used a setup out of a Hiace van and that was a lot more messing around but still works well.

Cheers
Mal

Update rounding up from the weeks work,

I got the brake pedal and under dash brake booster bracket mounted.
Brackets made, a bit of messing around but not to bad.








And, with the bracket in place. Will be able to fit a small booster in there no problems.










Then a couple of bits I wasn’t quite happy with on the firewall. Having filled in the holes in the firewall I wanted one side to mirror the other side so it looked all even so to speak.

The bits I wasn’t happy with are in the next photo where the red arrows are. The ID plate area and the lower horizontal rib that goes to the edge on one side but not the other




Reshaped the RH side to look like the LH side






Then the lower rib section




Now that looks better




But wait, there’s more

To finish off the last half of my Saturday I gave the donor engine a pressure clean and relieved it of its outer shell.








And tomorrows another day.

JB, I like what you did with your spare wheel door.

Mal

Thanks guys,

Al,
The front end, power steering rack, steering shaft and steering column is all from the Rod Shop.

Still haven't got the wheels yet, but was looking at 10x15 rear and 5x15 on front. Rear tyres I wanted was 285/40/15 but they seem to be no longer available so I guess it may have to be 295/50/15 if I still go with the 15 inch.

Thanks guys.

Today I got the firewall finished.
Just a matter of a couple of modifications and filling a few holes.




Seems as how I’m not using the original wipers I decided to get rid of the hump in the centre of the firewall that it mounts to, and smooth it off so to speak.




To get rid of that I just cut across the edge of the hump and a couple of vertical cuts and then folded it back in.








Middle section done




Then I removed the seem that runs across from one side to the other
And while doing that I recessed the left side of the firewall about an inch to give the motor a bit more clearence on that side.




Next I welded in the steering column plate and smoothed that off








Lastly a trial fit of the steering column

Yes I don't like the look of the fabricated tubs either, I'm going to put about 60 mm in each side and refit them so it has the original appearance. Not that any of the mechanical s will be original but the body will mostly be.

Yep you got it Errol, the original rails are just there to keep everything square and straight until I get the new chassis clip. The new chassis is narrower by 100 mm and will actually fit inside the original rails.

Update time,

I made some adjustable car stands to sit the car on while I replace the chassis rails




I took the body off the roll over jig and got it all squared up on the new stands








To start with I cut out the rear wheel arches










Then started on straightening them up, never seen so many dints






Now just waiting for the new ¾ chassis clip to turn up from McDonald Bros Racing. All set up with triangulated 4 bar and coil overs with a new 9 inch housing mounted in it, and a set of Wilwood brakes as well.

Thanks a lot guys
Mal

Thanks for that, the rear section of my cross member is angled so do you think the sump will still need modifying

To those in the know,

Which sump do you use on a 304 when fitting into a FC. I also have a rod shop IFS front end with front mounted power rack.

Thanks

Mal

Just spent a few day messing around with the RHR wheel arch repair.

I ended up getting a wheel arch cut from another ute. Started by removing the inner wheel arch part from the cut and sandblasting the section I was going to use.

So this is the wheels arch in its unrepaired state




Next I cut out the rusted section and exposed the also rusted out inner wheel arch section






I started by repairing the rust to the inner section first










Then to trim the new section to fit






Then all welded in doing a small section at a time trying to keep the warping to a minimum






And finally all ground up and done

Continuing on with the front floor support.
Making the transmission tunnel







Finally both front and back sections cut to shape of the tunnel




Then I used cardboard shaped into the tunnel and fitted the front and rear tunnel sections to get the shape of the top of the tunnel




With the pattern made I cut out the top of the tunnel section, shaped it and fitted it into the tunnel and retrimmed the front and back sections to fit then started welding






With the tunnel all welded up I took it out to clean up the welds




Once that was done I refitted the tunnel and welded it all together






All done for now just needing the underside of the tunnel section to be made and fitted. I may leave this open just in case I need to trim it up a bit when I trial fit the engine and gearbox.

Can someone tell me what or how much modification needs to be done to the firewall to fit a 304 injected V8 into a FC

Thanks

Mal

Thanks Neil, no not a lot left. Nothing like a challenge.
Errol, still got the FB. Haven't even had any genuine enquiries on it either. I've set my bottom dollar at 50k, If I can't get that for it, it can sit in the shed with the others.

And moving right along
I did a bit of cutting and messing around to get the new transmission somewhere close to where it needed to be before starting on the hump section part of the floor cross member that goes over the top of the transmission

Next the LH front corner panel
Inside wasn’t to bad as at some stage someone had put a new outer end of the floor brace and done a repair to the inner part of the front corner. Just a pity it was all a crap repair.




The outer section was a total mess




Started by cutting all the crappy outer section out







Now to start rebuilding the corner














With that done I went on to fit the new outer floor cross member panel