A few good things have happened over the last 2 weeks. My Nephew came down from Harrisburg for the long weekend... on the same day that my new 351 based headers showed up from Georgie at Gas-N. No way I was letting this opportunity go to waste, so I put him to work. He did a reserve stint in the USAF working on C-17's out of Dover, so I think I can trust him.
There's the gap I'd been looking for on the drivers side header-to-engine mount. About 3/8". Just what I wanted. Thanks Georgie!!
Next up was the dash. I'd been putting this off as it needs to be done very right and if I dont like it, it can be quite expensive to redo. Using a tip from Edward, I used a circle cutter in my drill press at the lowest speed. It made a lot of noise and cuttings, but it got the job done. I used a step drill bit for the ignition switch, horn switch and the indicator lights. Glued down the 1/8" Volara foam (also from Edwards build). Even though there were some wrinkles in the foam from my dog sleeping on it when I wasnt careful, I figured the leather would just go right over them. I was wrong.
There were 2 more wrinkles at least as bad as this one.
Ripped it all off and started over.
This time it came out much better. I was very careful about wrinkles as well as metal shavings and even pieces of dirt. I know this time that every little thing is going to show up. The gauges are my Speedhut's that I custom ordered on my own, starting with their Cobra set. No clock.
I really like the look... classy but serious. And just a bit fun. BTW, those indicator lights are 1/2 intensity LED's from Ron Francis made for interior use. I didnt like the idea of a full intensity LED shining right in my face. We will see how they work. The horn button is an LED illuminated piece I got from Amazon. The stock one fell apart on me and I havent seen the spring since.
Started wiring the back of the dash. All of the daisy chains are in there and the sensor plugs are labeled. Still have some small individual wires to run. Everything will be plugged in so the dash is easily removable, as well as each gauge being removable from the dash. I have a few 12-pin Molex connectors to connect all the free wires for the horn, indicator lights, tach input, gauge lighting, etc. Thanks to Jeff Kleiners earlier posts about wiring the Speedhut gauge lighting into the RF harness... took a bit to understand the difference in gauge and pointer lighting. Once I read his posts, it all made sense and was very easy to draw and figure out.
Keeping on... still working to first engine start.