Started working on Howie's Nascar Daytona recreation today.

[hotrod98]

Howard brought his 70 Charger down from Claremore, OK earlier today. Before starting on the front end, I had to mount the wing...you know...for inspiration. After attaching the wing, temporarily of course, I removed the right fender and started doing a little measuring. The first thing I did was make a template of the slight radius of the valance panel where it meets the fender. Since the valance has a radius, the fender has to have the same radius. I used a piece of 1" angle iron and made a few cuts on one edge so that I could shape it to match the radius of the valance. I placed it on the valance and double checked it before tack welding the cuts to stiffen it so that it would hold it's shape. You need to double check to make sure the welds didn't change the radius.
I then clamped the angle iron to the inside of the fender behind the flap. I made a cut in the wheel opening where it intersected with the angle iron and bent the w/o lip out slightly. I slowly bent the flap over and gently shaped it with a body hammer. When the flap is all of the way down, I just hammered the edge against the angle iron until it was a sharp radius to match the existing lip on the fender. Using a straight edge, I marked the flap to cut a lip to the same dimension as the original lip. I then welded a piece to fill in the gap that's left between the original lip and the new lip and cut and welded the wheel opening. I placed the valance on the fender to check for fit. It made a nice tight seam. While I've got the fender off I decided to fill in the marker opening. This will save Howard some work later on.
As soon as the other fender is transformed, I can get on to mocking up the nose.

[hotrod98]

More pics

[hotrod98]

More pics

[BigBlockSam]

holy daytona batman!
  and your worried about doing the rear window plug. your a pro. you'll eat up that fab work on your daytona. nice work bro . thats a tight seam. keep the pics coming. ita gonna look great . Rene

[hotrod98]

Rene,
I've built daytonas and superbirds in my head so many times, I feel like I've already built one for real.
It took about 20 minutes to install the wing and about an hour to convert the fender. The other fender shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. Now I can't wait to get that nose together. I have a feeling that my own daytona car will go together pretty fast since I'll have this one and my superbird clone finished by that time.
I'll probably install new quarters on Howard's car while it's here. Overall his car's pretty solid really. Just needs a little body work here and there.

[daytonalo]

WHAT VENDER SOLD YOU THE DAYTONA KIT ?

[hotrod98]

WHAT VENDER SOLD YOU THE DAYTONA KIT ?

Most of the parts are from Janek. Howard bought them a few years ago. For the most part, they're nice parts. I'm not impressed with the headlamp pieces though. I just don't think that fiberglass is a good product to use in this area. We may try to use carbon fiber on our headlamp parts for the extra strength. I'm going to use the f/g z-braces that Janek made to mock up the nose and then take them to the fab shop to see if they can make them from steel at a reasonable cost.

[daytonalo]

I MADE MINE IN ABOUT AN HOUR , I HAVE A BRAKE IN MY SHOP . THEY LOOK GREAT ALTHOUGH THEY DONT HAVE THE DEPRESSSION . I MADE MY OWN STEEL PIVOTS .  LARRY

[Howie]

Wow Larry.  I should have put that wing on there a long time ago. Sure is some inspiration.

[hotrod98]

Wow Larry. I should have put that wing on there a long time ago. Sure is some inspiration.

Putting that wing on was what I needed to jump in head first.

I MADE MINE IN ABOUT AN HOUR , I HAVE A BRAKE IN MY SHOP . THEY LOOK GREAT ALTHOUGH THEY DONT HAVE THE DEPRESSSION . I MADE MY OWN STEEL PIVOTS . LARRY

Larry,
I have a small brake in my shop and I have access to a pan brake. With the pan brake I could make a z-brace that has the lip like the original. If the fab shop is too high, I plan to make my own. I sure miss having access to all of the sheet metal equipment that I did when I worked for a local fab company. We had CNC equipment everywhere. Even our press brake was CNC. I built some awesome parts while I worked there. I was building parts with 5 thousandths tolerances across 6 bends. Most of the stuff we built was for AT&T and they were picky as hell.
Larry, do you think the nose will be stable without the stiffeners in the z-braces? I plan to make mine with the lips to help stabalize them. Somewhere, I have a set of dies that I made to put those large radiuses in body panels for dragster bodies. They are almost the same radius that's in the original z-braces.
My fiberglass guy wants to make a set of molds off of the 70 hood and the modified 70 fenders that I'm working on. I told him that it might not be a bad idea since the 70 stuff is getting harder to find.

[BigBlockSam]

do you think the nose will be stable without the stiffeners in the z-braces? 

yes i  think it would be stiff enough. remember some people don't even use the z brackets but i would make that little lip on the bottom and top. that would make it bullet proof. keep me in mind with the z brackets. i haven't figured that part out yet. are you gonna bolt them to the valance like in this pic. Rene

[hotrod98]

Yes, I will bolt them to the valance. That's just one more reason to add that lip. Since it would not be possible to extend that lip all of the way along the edge at the bends, I plan to add a piece in the radiused bend areas and weld it in place. I have a spot welder, but may just plug weld them in place. Should make the part plenty stiff. I'm going to try to bolt the fiberglass z-braces on one night this week.
I'm more worried about the headlamp areas than anything else. I think things will certainly slow down a little when I get to that point. I'm not going to be happy with them just opening and closing properly...I want them to open and close properly for a long time. I don't see those thin fiberglass parts in the headlamp area holding up in the long run.

[BigBlockSam]

your rite about the light pivots. they must be metal to last. your getting me excited about finishing my wing car. putting the wing on the car just revs me up to . Rene

[WingaXbert]

do you think the nose will be stable without the stiffeners in the z-braces? 

yes i  think it would be stiff enough. remember some people don't even use the z brackets but i would make that little lip on the bottom and top. that would make it bullet proof. keep me in mind with the z brackets. i haven't figured that part out yet. are you gonna bolt them to the valance like in this pic. Rene

Just a friendly note, the Z bars don't bolt to the lower valance, a stepped cross brace bolted to the bottom of the C frames, that are bolted to the Z bars, connects the valance's front flange, the valance's rear flange bolts to the lower radiator flange with 2 bolts per side (4 total), 5 bolts on the front flange, the pic in your post Rene,...........I think your looking at what appears to be 3 lower bolts on the passenger (inside) Z bar? connecting/attaching the lower valance,............is an "optical"..............the C frame attaches to the Z bar with 6 bolts per side,........the lower 3, on the extreme  lower edge of the Z bar, .......thus the appearance in the pic, of appearing to bolt to the valance? yes?


WingaXbert

[hotrod98]

I'm figuring this stuff out as I go along.  I have several braces that I haven't even looked at yet. It's like one big jigsaw puzzle. It's funny how Janek calls this a kit when I don't see any headlamp hardware. Why bother selling this stuff if you're not going to sell the guy enough stuff to put the damn car together. He expects you to go out and buy the rest of the stuff needed from someone else or alter parts to make them work. The headlamp door doesn't even clear the headlamp opening and will have to be altered to make it work. I can see why people give up on these projects and put their stuff on ebay. I think a lot of guys think that this will just bolt together. I have a well equipped body shop at my disposal as well as body men with many years of experience to help me when needed. I don't know everything which should be painfully obvious by now. I'll make this stuff work right though.
I think that anyone selling Daytona noses should have a working assembly available for sale. They shouldn't expect do-it-yourselfers to have to alter their stuff just to make it work. We had a customer order the shelby deck lid and quarter extensions from Mustangs Plus last month for his 66 fastback. That stuff is total junk. It doesn't even begin to bolt up and fit right. My guy spent 20+ hours altering the stuff so that it would align up. My question is "why sell that crap to the public?" Doesn't anyone take pride in what they sell? Those guys at Mustangs Plus have to know that their stuff doesn't work yet they continue selling it to the unsuspecting public. Their side scoops don't even have provisions for attaching them. They don't tell the customer that though. I will tell you that as for Janek's parts, most of the pieces are top notch. So far, they seem to fit very well. My only complaint is with the headlamp stuff as I've mentioned before and of course the lack of necessary pieces to make the headlamps work.
Okay, what I need now are pics of a nascar nose setup since this is going to be a Nascar recreation. Howard is going to Talladega soon to get some pics of a car displayed there, but it would be nice to find some closeups of a car that's at least partially torn down. I'm a drag racer and haven't been around stock cars much and have never seen a Nascar Daytona in person. According to Howard, they don't use latch trays so I need to know how to connect everything top side. The major difference on this car from a real stock car will be stock type working headlamps.
Anyone have any pics of how the nose is attached on a stock car?

[hotrod98]

We worked on Howard's car a little more this evening. Gary42 (Gary Peek) came over and helped. He's getting some practice for when we start building his clone, hopefully later this year or next. Gary installed the frame brackets and the fiberglass z-brackets while I converted the left fender. I"ll weld it tomorrow night and then we can bolt the fender on and slide the nose into place. Even though Howard's not gong to use a latch tray, I'm going to bolt mine on just to see how it fits. We're almost down to bolting some headlamp parts on. The progress will slow down some at that point. I'll post a couiple of pics of the nose in place tomorrow night.

[hotrod98]

more pics

[Daytona R/T SE]

Looking good, Larry! 

[Daytona Guy]

Now here is a guy that knows what he is doing. Great work man.

[BigBlockSam]

it must be great to have a shop like yours. next house big garage and  a lift. i'm tired of laying on the ground in my backyard . i lift would be great. by the time you get to your daytona, you'll be able to build it with your eyes closed. Rene

[hotrod98]

I'm learning something new every day.
Okay, here's the plan. In a few days, I'm going to go get my 69 out of storage and bolt my 70 fenders and hood on. I don't like the way this nose fits. The radius on the nose is different than the radius on the fender. Now I need to know if it will fit my car any differently. If it fits my car the same way, which I'm guessing that it will, I'm going to alter this nose before building the mold. I had to alter the valance some as well, but overall it's a nice part. I didn't get a chance to install the f/g latch tray. Since I really want to make a steel latch tray, I'm not too worried about the f/g part at this point.
Now, let me tell you. After Gary and I set the nose in place and backed away to get a good look, my heart started to pound. I don't know what it is but just seeing that nose and wing on that car blows me away. Gary kind of got excited about it as well. He said that if it was a running driving car, he would drive it even though it looks a little like Joe Dirt's car. I agreed with him. I would proudly drive that thing. I don't know what it is about Daytonas, but they are the epitome of cool.
Here's a few pics even though it was a little too dark to take pics from that far away at night.

[BigBlockSam]

 

[Gary42]

I totally agree with what Larry said before we decided to quit for the evening, if he were a bit younger it definitely would have given him a "Woody" just looking at that car up close. It has a much different effect on someone from seeing things built on the net, as it is to see  , touch, and admire up close a Daytona comming together   .

[hotrod98]

Hey...50's not that old. Okay, so maybe it is. I miss the good old days.

[PocketThunder]

Hey...50's not that old. Okay, so maybe it is. I miss the good old days.

when were those?  i'm 31 and i miss the good ol days....

[hotrod98]

The good ole days was when I was buying big block cudas for $800. In 80 I bought a 69 ss rs 396 4 speed camaro with 30k miles for $1100. At that time we didn't think we would ever see premium fuel again. In 79 you could buy hemi cudas for $1500 or less all day long. Back in 74 the parking lot at my high school was full of chevelles, challengers, chargers, camaros, mach 1's...looked like our car shows today. I drove a 69 SS Chevelle 396 4 speed in high school. It was only 4 years old when I bought it in 73 with 16k miles. I paid $1500 for it. I found it and bought it back in 1998 with the intentions of restoring it, but the kid that I bought it from had severe seller's remorse and my wife convinced me that I would always choose my 71 Cuda over the Chevelle when I went out on cruise nights or to car shows so I sold it back to the kid in 2002. I will admit that I have a lot more cars today and a lot of other toys as well that I didn't have back then, but I still miss being young.

[Howie]

 :METAL:OH YEA!

[BigBlockSam]

yea, the good ole days. in high school i drove a 69 gto 400 motor. 8 yrs old and i bought it for $500 bucks. i poped my first cherry in that car.
  when i was 21 i raced a small block  63 Chevy 2 cool little car. it had a real bad body. so i found another 63 nova with a good body. me and 2 friends switched all the drivetrain and all related components in one weekend. lotsa beer. thats what i miss, all that energy, then sleep for 6 hrs and work another 12. now it takes me an hour just to get out of bed.  Rene

[Gary42]

Rene,
You must be doing good if all it takes you is a hour to just get out of bed, heck it takes me an hour alone just to figure out that I have to get out of bed .
I truly think that the excitement in my life will come around once again when my Rallye is complete and I open the garage door to see the Daytona smiling back at me, now thats a real "Woody" waiting to happen. Hell my wife may even have to take me to the ER because it just hadn't gone down in months, and I keep losing consciousness .

[Ghoste]

I'll be 44 in two days and it's always taken me an hour to get out of bed so that's no big deal.  Losing conciousness around a Daytona is serious though.  What's gonna happen when you drive it?

[hotrod98]

Mental note...work on auto pilot system for Gary's Daytona clone. He passes out a lot when he gets around Daytonas.

[mikepmcs]

he'll be able to wave with his left hand and hold his girl/road soda/you fill it in... with the right.   

[hotrod98]

That's Gary.
Now I have to get a pic of the boy sitting in Howie's Daytona...waving...holding a soda...that's it. We give that poor yankee such a hard time down here sometimes. I could just imagine the hell that they would give me up there. 

[Silver R/T]

keep up great work

[tan top]

good work,( hotrod98)

[70daytonaclone]

Hi Larry any updates on that Daytona? how about those parts? Yea I can't wait to buy more parts to build my own. Thanks fojr the Thread. Stephen

[hotrod98]

Howard drove down last Thursday and we met with the fiberglass guy. We all agree...the nose doesn't match up to the fenders as well as we would like. Meanwhile, I've got to get my chal convert together or I'm not going to get to show it at all this summer so the daytona has to wait a few more days. I'm going to install my 70 fenders and hood on my 69 and see if the nose fits any differently before we start altering the nose. Once we get that nose fitting the way that we think that it should, work should go a little faster, I hope.
While Howard's car is here, I'm going to go ahead and install the vega plug and alter the deck lid.

More later.

[wetfeetmi]

Hey, hotrod, I glued my Mustang scoops to my fastback. They aren't coming off unless some-one hits it in the parking lot. Love your e-bodies. I am assembling my headlight buckets now.  Rick