SRT-8 Daytona Clone

[Stevearino]

DJ the rear edge of the fender is really the easiest place to add. There are plenty of salvage LX platforms out there. I got mine on e-bay out of Pennsylvania  for$8500.00 last year and it was shipped to me for just $300.00 through their broker. That was for an SRT-8. There are probably some near complete 5.7 cars in the Northern California area for a lot less.  Even if you only got the drive train out of the car after you bought it and parted out the rest it would be cheaper than buying the drive train by itself.

[Stevearino]

With the hood back out of the way it was time to start figuring out how I was going to build the recessed cowl to cover everything.
Once I had established the curve of the cowl I had to figure out a fresh air inlet. I kicked around a lot of different ideas for the grill itself and decided since I was not going to re install the old cowl that I would use adapt the grill work from it into my new piece.
I used scrap pieces of the rubber molding I was going to use to seal the cowl to the windshield bed to maintain my surface relationships while I fit up the various parts.
Once I was done with the grill insert I had to build a short duct to move the air from the inlet to the fresh air inlet box in the engine bay. The last picture is of the floor of that duct mocked into place.

[tsmithae]

That's a great idea and very well executed!

[Stevearino]

After building the top and the sides of the fresh air duct I removed it to prime, paint and seal the interior of the box before installing it permanently to the cowl.
In order to minimize the water infiltration into the area around the wiper studs I had to build two wells around the studs with a tight fitting rubber grommet. I back engineered the well from the grommet that would fit. It required a 1" hole and the well needed to be 1 1/2" to clear the wiper base. I punched out some .040 steel to create the bottom of the well and used some thin walled 1 1/2 inch steel tube for the well wall.  I welded the washer to the bottom of the tube first then fit the grommet in . After re installing the cowl I slowly clearanced around the stud until the whole well assembly slid down over the stud.

[Stevearino]

That's a great idea and very well executed!

Thanks. This part is takin forever.

[Stevearino]

Once I had  the stud well fit up I tacked it from the top side then I removed the cowl so that I could weld it up from the bottom side and then trim off the top flush.
The third picture is of the cowl re installed with the well in place.
With the upper cowl established I started to close out the forward section starting with a "Z" flange with a top step to give me a front edge to go to. This worked out good because I already had flange to cover the firewall batting that I could drill into and avoid compromising the sub cowl.

[Stevearino]

I fit up some pieces to finish the surround to support the top closure.The last two pictures show the top closure on the forward section of the cowl.
There is quite a bit more to do here but just to see if everything was holding station and to try to get some feeling of accomplishment after messing with this for so long, I put the windshield base seal on and fit the rear hood seal to see how I all looks.

[Indygenerallee]

Lookin' good Steve!!! 

[Lighthorseman]

Amazing.   

[Aero426]

You make it look easy, which I am sure is not.

[Daytona Guy]

That car will be priceless !!!!!

Dane

[Stevearino]

Lookin' good Steve!!! 

Can't wait to see yours when you get started again.

You make it look easy, which I am sure is not.

I stay away from the mechanical stuff as much as possible so as to not screw things up. This is the stuff I am comfortable with.

Amazing.   

Thanks man.

That car will be priceless !!!!!

Dane

Thanks Dane. That means a lot coming from someone with your extensive history.

[Baldwinvette77]

That looks great 

[Stevearino]

In order to finish up the cowl I had to see how the hinges would play into the whole deal so that meant I had to get involved with  framing out and hinging the hood to the car. I was going to lengthen the hood to help the fender location but decided I wanted the proportions to be stock in length so that meant cutting the rear extension back loose and shortening up everything.
  Since I was going to be removing all of the inner liner I had to build a hood jig or cradle so the the shape would not distort after I removed the support.
First thing I did was form some "L" shaped steel to fit the profile across the back of the hood and then transferred it to some 3/4" plywood and cut out the shape on the band saw.
  I repeated the process for the front of the hood.

[Stevearino]

  Next with the front and rear profiles sitting on the hood I traced the side profile and cut two pieces with this pattern to make the sides of the jig.
  Finally I put some triangle gussets on the corners to keep the whole thing square.
  In the inverted position on the table you can see how the hood shape is completely supported.

[Stevearino]

With the jig supporting the hood I removed the remaining liner and cleaned up the rust and treated with OSPHO. I then took some 1/2" x 1 1/2" .049 wall steel and framed out the perimeter and installed two cross braces of 1/2" x 2" .049 wall.
With the sub frame built I removed it from the jig leaving the hood skin behind to fit it up to the car. I used some angle iron to temporarily cleco the hood in place over the cowl centering it up on the car.

[Stevearino]

 I had hoped to use some modified version of the 06 hinges but it just wasn't practical. I ended up making my own using some .090 steel with a 1/4" press fit hardened drill bushing to be attached with a 1/4 20 stainless sleeve bolt.
  After determining the location with the hood frame on the car I put the frame back in the hood jig and slotted the bottom side of the hood frame at the back corner and slid the hinge in and welded it up.  The last picture is of the hood frame on the car with the frame in the raised position. Now that I have all of that established I can go back to finishing up the cowl.

[Brads70]

Wow great  build! 

[ACUDANUT]

But why ?

[Stevearino]

Wow great  build! 

Thanks.

But why ?

Why not?

[Baldwinvette77]

Damn youre hardcore 

[Ghoste]

Wow great  build! 

Thanks.

But why ?

Why not?

True enough.

[Highbanked Hauler]

     Spotless work there Steve,  how did you happen to get into doing that type of work to begin with ?      Al

[djcarguy]

Well/////////happy turkey weekend ta ya. but please step away from the bird an post more bout your daytona build,ha ha. any buyer for the old 68 floor ,frame remains??
        hood frame looks great ,but long in open position. if ya mount the wing it may excite an inspire ya an us the masses following ya build,, i know wings get my mind an imagineation going.


         well enjoying your vision an build,and skill with metal . hope the turkey didnot kick your butt or put ya to sleep for long,lol..    wing seat an some steering maybee an run up an down the drive for motivation an pixs???  thanks for sharing ya vision an progress,, enjoy..DJ  

[Stevearino]

     Spotless work there Steve,  how did you happen to get into doing that type of work to begin with ?      Al

Took a class back in 1990 to learn how to hang bodies on stock cars and went back home to New Jersey for the next 6 years to figure out how to move me an my family to where that work was in N.C. Got down here in 97. Got lucky and after working for some independent body hangers I got on a Busch team (Cicci- Welliver). Got even luckier in 2002 and have worked at Hendrick Motorsports since. Didn't even know how to weld until I was 40 so I am late to this game. I use to build commercial trade show exhibits for a living. By the way. Hanging bodies on stock cars is a lot simpler than this project or what I have seen a lot of guys on this forum doing on their own restorations just in case you think I have some big leg up on this stuff.

Well/////////happy turkey weekend ta ya. but please step away from the bird an post more bout your daytona build,ha ha. any buyer for the old 68 floor ,frame remains??
         hood frame looks great ,but long in open position. if ya mount the wing it may excite an inspire ya an us the masses following ya build,, i know wings get my mind an imagineation going.


          well enjoying your vision an build,and skill with metal . hope the turkey didnot kick your butt or put ya to sleep for long,lol..    wing seat an some steering maybee an run up an down the drive for motivation an pixs???  thanks for sharing ya vision an progress,, enjoy..DJ 

Patience my friend.Patience.