Manifolds

Got the exhaust manifolds mounted on the engine. Kind of a complicated affair, with some of the studs poking into the water jacket and all. Some other odds and ends like the distributor and the coil also went on.

Both manifolds on the engine. Did a mock up of the water pump. The alternator bracket is not painted yet, as it seems to be a misfit from a 440. The mounting hole on the bracket is not flush with the hole in the head, putting the alternator at an angle, which is not a good thing. The waterpump housing will have to come off again, I will also paint it orange.

Parts

Got some parts I've been chasing for quite a while.
This piece of trim fits inside, above the rear window .
After mediablasting it showed some ugly holes, and due to the structure I was not able to fix it. Another look at the holes the rust left on the original trim piece.

I bought a good piece on ebay , ot of a blue interior car obviously, so I can complete the interior. The different color doesn't matter, since all of these parts will have to be painted red anyway.

Hanging up the pieces for a first coat of rm paint. All metal interior parts will also be treated to a coat of flat clear, hopefully making them more durable.






Passenger side splash shield... This was one of the few pieces missing when I bought the 'Cuda. Obviously due to antenna installation there was no original splash guard installed on this side of the car, instead there was a hand crafted aluminum shield that personally threw in the trashbin. The plastic shield was also found on ebay.

Off topic

No news on the 'Cuda as I took off to go skiing. I spent a whole week in Sölden in Tyrol and enjoyed wonderful condidtions in the alps. Skiing is one of the select things in life that are just as fun as blasting over the backroads in a sportscar or your favorite classic.

This particular pic was shot on the same slope the alpine worldcup series starts off every season.

Red dasher

Test fitted the dash and the carpet. Even though both will have to be pulled out again - the dash because the airvents have to be installed from the rear of the dash and the carpet because of the electric system.

I love the look of the red interior with the light color, sort of like having your high impact color on the inside of the car. Colorful interiors were characteristic of the cars of that era with a variety of hues to choose from. I think the red interior conveys that spirit very well.

The instrument cluster was redone perfectly by Doc Stinger, new dial faces installed , indicators freshly painted, everything cleaned and checked.

I decided to go for aftermarket speakers under the stock speaker shroud instead of the original piece. I cut a piece of plastic to cover the remaining space between the speakers so none of the under-dash cable massacre will be visible though the shroud.

Have a brake

Put the new power brake booster in the engine bay. The brakelines aren't installed yet.

Dash

I'm making more progress on the dash. This board holds the indirect lighting for the gauges, I put in three of those cute tiny lightbulbs and gave it a new coat of flat black paint after masking of the transparent areas.

Dashknobs

Not a very sexy part but I put some work into the dashknobs. There are little arrows recessed into the front of the knobs and the paint was faded and partly missing, specially in the yellow arrow. With some enamel paint from the modelling shop and a very fine brush I redid the paint on both knobs.

Here is the result I have almost all of the paint left over, as it didn't take much at all.