Attached photo’s of (nine) aluminum panels, that I just picked up at my powder-coater this afternoon.
I asked him about the shinny gold coating I've been seeing on the firewalls of some of the newer TT’s.
My plater didn’t have anything “shiny”, but he does do a process call “Cera-coat”.
It’s a ceramic coating / heat shield, and I picked out the color, from little, tiny, samples, on a key-chain !
The three lined up against the door are 1/8” thick, and will cover 3 sides of my transmission tunnel.
The three odd shaped one’s, are for the fire-wall, between me, and the headers.
The other three, cover the top of the firewall (horizontally), which should keep fire from over-topping the firewall under the hood.
On my old class 8's, they were built as "door-slammers" with the stock cab (sheet-metal). Those were the rules back then !
I really didnt have any idea how many aluminum panels it would take, to fab, bead roll, and mount !
I've lost count !
I'll add more photo's with the panel installed later this week ?
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Newest photo's from the last two weeks. I ditched the three oil coolers mounted behind the seats (I thought there were too many plumbing fittings to potentially leak) and will go with a single Fluidyne in the front (like in my old truck). I decided to put the battery box's where the coolers were, (like in my old truck). Some photo's of the "Cera-Cote" plated, alum panels. And the sway bar....what a pain that was. Where I wanted to put the bar / housing, didnt work, so I used this new location as a combined "fuel cell upper mount". And then there's photo's of the fuel cell vent. Vent tubing flatens out, the sharper you bend it, so from expierence, I made vent fittings out of header tubing,(steel), thus no shape tubing bends. A heck of a lot more work to do !
The vent is tied into the tubing that becomes part of the spare tire sub-frame. It will exit to the rear, and low. Ill shot photo's in my next up-date.
Attached photo of last weekends work.
I made battery cables from #2 welding cable, soldered eyelets on, and used shrink wrap. Also attached said cables to battery selector switch.
Sunday I went over to my buddy “Smitty” to have him TIG weld some alum parts I fabbed for the air cleaner / base.
Fab for the air cleaner not finished yet. The theory is to draw fresh (clean) from underneath dash area, through firewall, and then through stock air cleaner location.
To do this, I have to clear over the Chevy distributor. I’m not sure yet, how I will access the distributor during race. Somewhere in there I will need zues tabs.
I also had to “widen” the air-cleaner base, as so the air-cleaner top, will seal down to it, instead of drawing dirty air from under hood (like it was).
Of course there will have to be some kind of weatherstrip / gasket around the “can” and around the base edge.
I talked to my poweder-coater today, about more ceramic finish on the air-cleaner assembly. I am undecided on new finish.
I also started the dash lighting for all the gauges, and installed some rubber gromets through the tunnel for gauges, battery cables, and wiring.
As I look at these latest photo's, it doesnt look to me like I've actually spent about 40 hours working in the interior of the cab in the last few weeks. Plumbing up the fuel pressure gauge, alternator idiot light, oil pressure low oil pressure switch / idiot light, battery cables, emergency cut-off switch, ignition wiring, coil mounting, Parker Pumper mounting, and just misc wiring in general. phew.....And I still have all the brake and steering systems to build !
For the last few summers, Ive slacked off from working on completeing this project. I'm going to try to keep working on this thing, till I get it done ! Ive done some more wiring this last week. Installed and plumbed the fuel regulator. Then I was worried it was too close to the radiant heat of the header, so I made a little shield. Ive been pop-riviting self-ejecting buttons on some alum panels. And Ive plumbed up the fuel and oil pressure lines to the gauges. Ive also included a few photo's of the tire clearence-to-firewall, as requested.
Good eye, on the "handles". I recall going through contingency years ago, and having a loose helmet brake a few switches. So they also protect the switches from breaking the toggles
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