The legs are now attached to the bench seen in the previous post. Its so nice to have a welding table where I can be in a comfortable position while welding. This helps tremendously in the quality of my welds by improving posture. This helps make my movements more fluid and consistent.

On to cleaning up the shop and welding up the frame rail soon. I will need a argon tank refill soon. I may to that this weekend.

Little Update. I have been building up a welding table from a roll around cart that grandpa gave me. When I was taking off the caster wheels I noticed it had a "Property of US Postal service 1979" sticker on the bottom. I asked Gpa, but he doesn't remember how he acquired this one. Anyway, it will make a nice work bench once I've extended the legs. I need to clean up the welded surface and make sure it is level. Then I will weld the legs on and be done with it. I may add a Aluminum plate to the top so that I have a flatter welding surface. I'll have to see what I can get for scrap in this size.

The rear diff is out of the Z. I need to buy 4 more tall jack stands to support the front and back of the car before I'll be comfortable completely cutting out the remaining floor pan. Once that is done I will prep the passenger side rocker panel the same as the drivers side. I have drilled six 1" holes in the rocker panel so that I can roset the panel to the box tubing.

Here is an updated picture of the engine bay. Its pretty cleaned up. I need to remove some misc brackets completely, but so far so good.




Here is my idea for the intercooler location:




Yesterday I bought a little $12 propane torch to melt the remaining lead out of the A pillars so I can completely shave the drip rails. I had a weird taste in my mouth the whole rest of the evening after this:





I'll be back working on the car this afternoon after I get my work projects finished.

Here is a picture of the engine bay with the engine pulled. I need to clean all of this up once I get the floor pan figured out. I cut out the drivers side rocker panel yesterday. I've mocked up a 2" X 2" tubing to replace the current rocker panel. This will allow the floor to be raised several inches over a factory floor pan. This will allow me to lower the car much further then you could traditionally with a factory floor pan. This is the bases for the hole roll cage that will be going into the car. My only concern at this point is head clearance to the A pillar bar. I may omit that bar in my car to keep it more streetable as I don't want to have to wear a helmet to get inside the car. Since I'm not really build this car for any sanctioned race organization, I have a lot of freedom on the cage design. I'm not intending to be doing any serious drag racing with this chassis, so I'm happy to not have to do a NHRA cage. Also, since I will only be doing track days at the road course, I won't need a spec cage for that. The cage will be built from chromoly steel tubing as I purchased a lot of it several years ago when I was going to turn this car into a dedicated drag race car. Its all a big compromise to make this car something I will use regularly. I don't want to have to tow it to use it. I want to be able to jump in and drive it where ever I want.

Justin

BTW

I'm still undecided on which engine to use in the car. Its going to be a Toyota 2JZ or a Subaru eg33. I just can't decide!!!! The 2JZ I have needs to be rebuilt, so that adds to the lead time. The Subaru eg33 is in good working condition and could potential be a runner if I drop it in and wire up the stand alone ECU. The big trouble with this is the overall width of the EG33. It is so wide, a lot needs to change. I need to take a second look at the transmission flywheel adapter plate. If I can easily adapt the EG33 to the Tilton clutch I have, I think I will go with it. Otherwise its going to be 2JZ. I can always buy a 2JZGE pull out for $500 local to get the car on the road. Just need to decide. Hopefully I can mock up each engine and then make a decision.

/J

The L28 is out! Finally is all I can think. I had to pull the engine and trans so that I could replace the rocker panels and floor boards. I hope to have this job finished by the end of December. Hopefully! I will snap some more pictures tomorrow at the shop. I haven't been able to do much work as I've been trying to catch up on my Christmas shopping. The plan is to go after work tomorrow and clean up the shop as well as the end bay and cut the floor pan out. From there I can weld in the new 2*2 rocker panels, and weld in the new floor pan. Should be fairly simple from what I can tell. There is a cascade effect though, as I am raising the engine and transmission position, so the rear differential is also moving up. This will help a great deal in straightening out the half shafts at my extremely lowered stance.

/J

EG33 Engine next to Z.