Wiper motor

Sparkling new addition to the engine bay. I installed the wiper motor back to it's old place again. Kind of tricky but it worked nonetheless. I suppose it's still a lot easier to do than after the engine has been installed.

More rear suspension

I connected the rear swaybar with new bushings today. Also mounted the rear shocks to the upper mounting position. Unfortunately the lower peg will not fit the lower eye of the koni adjustable shockabsorber. Will have to see how I solve that problem (either grind the peg down or make the hole bigger I guess)

Detail of the swaybar connector.

Inside job

The first things went into the interior. On the driver side, the brace for the brake pedal and the steering column, gas pedal and some of the insulation inside of the firewall.

There seems to be some discoloration on the front floor, must come from the camera flash as it is not visible on the car. The shifter linkage is only partly installed. The insulation pieces come from a kit with no instruction manual so it took some trying and guessing to line up the mounting holes and fit all pieces correctly.

Heads up

News on the enginefront. The bigblock is coming together fine, a little bit of headwork was necessary to accomodate the thicker pushrods. The heads will be painted in hemiorange as well.

Special spacers between the aluminum roller tip rocker arms had to be crafted to keep the rockers lined up correctly.

Taking a stand

After I don't know how long, the 'Cuda is standing on its own feet again. (I think the wheels came off sometime around may last year.) Both axles are now in place, I guess you could call it a rolling chassis, even though some of the sheetmetal is still at large. The preliminary wheels mounted at the moment are the orignial 14 inch Magnums the car was delivered with back in 1970. Wouldn't look too bad actually, if they only had some fat rubber on them and not the skinny tires they are wearing. The new fuel line is in place as well.

The blue car in the back is a Chevy Monza 2+2, a low milage barnfind aquired by a friend.

Rear axle 2

Got the rear axle in the 'Cuda. Quite an easy job really. I rolled the axle over the leaf springs on a jack and wiggled around until it was sitting in the proper position. Then tightend the u-bolts around the axle and the springs .

Installing the gas line was more of a challenge. It comes in one prebent piece but had to be massaged a little to fit well.

Rear Axle

I started assembling the rear axle. First things first, the renovated leaf springs are bolted to the forward mounting position. These springs are among the parts I would not have restrored a second time. It would have cost just as much or even less to buy new ones...

It's kind of a pain to tighten the screws behind the torque plate
on the spring mount.

No difference on the other side

The idea is to bring the axle over the springs, mount everything and then lift the rear of the springs up to the car. Will have to wait for some help as the 8 3/4 axle is a rather heavy piece of equipement.