80% of the metal work is done in the bay now. All access, AC, wire loom tab, wire harness, battery and mounting holes are welded up. The main harness will be all new with a multi pin bulkhead connector. Even the wiper motor will get a mini bulkhead so that the bay will be modular and easily stripped down. The body guy is going to cut access holes on the other side of the upper rail so that I can snake everything through and get to the hood release cable. It should look incredibly clean when he primes in a week or so. He said it will likely be ready for paint by mid to late January. 

The restored tail lights are finished too and came out even better than I could have expected. Sanded smooth, polished and Xpel clear wrap.

Machinist is assembling the head to check for lifter shim clearance and once those are ordered, the head will be complete. All the small components for the short block are on order and the final items for long block assembly will be ordered next week. CP is working with the mold now to design and CNC the custom 12:1 compression pistons which will be WPC treated on the skirts and ceramic coated on the dome. The engine should be complete by the end of January.

 

wow you really have stripped the clutter out of the engine bay , that is going to be show car clean.  You're in the home stretch!

Thank you! It's really exciting seeing it progress at this stage. 

This is the first time I have ever gone this far with a car and I am excited to see the end result. I tried to clean up my old 510 bay as best as I can but this time I want to go more like this Z32 which is the most amazing looking engine bay I have seen in a long time. 

The body guy has my bay down to bare metal and is just finishing up a few more things before it gets primed, filled and then primed again.

 

 

Edited December 4, 20186 yr by five&dime

This will be an epic car when it's finished! Looking forward to the trophy pics!

Thank you, Mark! It's getting close'ish! 

Next up is welding all the engine bay sheet metal seams for the inner fenders, shock towers, firewall and lower frame rails with silicone bronze and then smoothing. This is something my body guy has gotten really excited about and you can tell when talking to him. He has always wanted to do a full show engine bay. It will look just like that Z32 bay with everything nice and clean. Once that is all done the primer will go on before the exterior of the car is painted and then Xpel clear wrapped for protection. I plan to test fit everything in the engine bay and start the rest of the car's reassembly. I will then have my friend tow the car back over there to have the bay base/cleared after we get the engine, wiring and plumbing all mocked up and then pulled back out so there is no real risk of damage to the final product.

Why silicone bronze?

Because it bonds to anything and flows under low heat with high tensile strength.

 

I had other theories: didn't want to weld everything solid or it was easier to shape down the excess weld

Thanks, Wheee!

Just a public service announcement to make sure we're all talking about the same stuff...

This is silicon bronze:

But THIS is silicone bronze:

I'm Captain Obvious, and I approve this message.

Well played Captain Oblivious!

I could bond to that...

Do you run that through a MIG? The silicon bronze not the silicone bronze...