The list of stuff that got done on July 4 and this weekend was pretty substantial, fortunately. Unfortunately, I didn't take a lot of pictures.

Other than building the can for the 5 gal Racell in the frunk, pretty much everything up there is located and we primed and painted all the structure gloss white to make it easier to identify any leaks. On our next work weekend, we will need to re-install everything and then start building and connecting the lines (AWIC, fuel, coolant, brake, clutch).

We finished the buildout of the rear firewall and most of the pass-through locations. We rivnutted the chassis for when we're ready to permanently affix the rear firewall and tested all those. The only holes left to cut are for the electrical passthrough(s) and probably some rivnuts to add to locate ECU, etc. Will add some heat control to the reverse of the firewall before we do final install. Actually took a photo of the bulkhead:

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We did a lot of work on the gas pedal. We weren't happy with the way that it was mounting to the front firewall and flexing around, nor with the way that the top was banging into the clutch pedal extension arm across the top of the pedal cluster. Ben did a ton of fabrication and welding work on this -- basically all morning on Saturday -- and took a bunch of pictures, so I'll document that separately. We will probably need to revise the pedal itself before it goes final, but it's planar with the brake pedal and clears the extension arm now, so we shouldn't have any problems with pulling the throttle butterfly to 100% WOT now.

Ben also did a lot of fabrication work yesterday to build a single mount for the radiator and the AWIC heat exchanger in the nose part. We are using a universal Ford/Chrysler aluminum racing radiator because they're practically universal and cheap (and I have 2 in the shed from prior builds), so that got mostly completed and just needs to be bolted in. Then we'll work on the venting/ducting so that they are getting plenty of airflow and then duct that out of the hood cleanly to try to reduce hood lifting like we've seen in so many 818 dashcam videos.

We finished up buildout of the stock turbo (clocked it with Mechie's kit) and got that installed back onto the motor. We did a mostly-final install of the dry sump plate (just need 2 more longer bolts for next to the oil galley input) and test fit the Canton oil takeoff at the stock filter location, the lines for which will likely just get looped since we are sending oil to the filter via the external oil pump. While we were test fitting the engine in the chassis, we revised the 3D printed prototype oil pump mounts. We'll re-print for final fitment before we send the final design out for machine shop fabrication:

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Also finally finished up building out the engine side of the valve cover and crankcase vent lines so we can route those to the oil tank (and then to the catch can) when we do final engine and oil system installation. Also did some conceptualizing about location for the oil and transmission oil coolers, we will likely mount those above the transmission and duct them from the sides and out the rear of the rear valence. Not ideal in terms of getting high pressure airflow, but the alternative is to mount them in the front fenders and we don't really want to run the oil lines that long unless it becomes absolutely necessary. But that is an option if we can't get oil and trans oil temps in a happy range on track.

We designed and 3D printed some little bolt-on mounts for the fuel and AWIC hardlines that are running down the middle of the car and then welded in some tab brackets with rivnuts for them to attach to. Since FFR sent us a chassis with the center console caging, we figured we'd put it to work.

Finally, the toughest part (psychologically) was that we cut out the x-braces on the floor of the driver and passenger area. It always sucks to take a built part of the chassis and excise it with the sawzall, but the seats simply were not going to sit low enough to pass the broomstick test without getting the mounts lower. Thanks to prior projects, we have a stack of .125 plate steel sitting around, so I got to spend some quality time with the plasma cutter and cut a bunch of plates that we will weld to the bottom of the chassis into which we can place the new seat mounts. I mean, if we're going to add weight to the car, at least it's steel plating right under our butts, so we're actually aiding in lowering the car's CG and polar moment, right?