1970RT
Well-Known Member
Much appreciated. That cowl is designed to *barely* clear that exact blower. The plan is to build an NA motor, but there's room for more if 750ish hp gets boring.
David
The Willomet Charger
- Thread starter 1970RT
- Start date
David
Jarven1977
Well-Known Member
Pure fabrication **** in this build. Been a while since I checked in but you've made great progress lately.
Greetings from Sweden, keep up the good work!
Greetings from Sweden, keep up the good work!
1970RT
Well-Known Member
I’m spending 3/4 of my time prepping another vehicle for a show in November, but I’ve been squeezing in time for the car.
Setting driver position, steering rack location, header clearance, and firewall fab all have to happen at about the same time.
Test seat, test wheel, test column drop, but the actual flaming river column.
Clearance to headers will be tight.
Final bead roll layout with room for master cylinders.
Recessed column pass through.
Prestretch.
Rolled, windowed.
Welded, hammered, blended.
Test fit before final seam weld.
Just a few finishing touches left to wrap this part up.
David
Setting driver position, steering rack location, header clearance, and firewall fab all have to happen at about the same time.
Test seat, test wheel, test column drop, but the actual flaming river column.
Clearance to headers will be tight.
Final bead roll layout with room for master cylinders.
Recessed column pass through.
Prestretch.
Rolled, windowed.
Welded, hammered, blended.
Test fit before final seam weld.
Just a few finishing touches left to wrap this part up.
David
Hemirunner
Well-Known Member
The culmination of excellent design, careful planning and flawless execution…. Well done. Now, let’s get another video update out, lol.
1970RT
Well-Known Member
Thanks man. Really do appreciate those kind words. As you know from your build, there is a lot of designing parts in free-floating 3D space and that just burns a bunch of test and fit time to get it “right.”
Videos come out again starting in September, and some more in February. Views go waaay down in the summer.
David
1970RT
Well-Known Member
Getting seams like this perfectly flat takes some time.
The fit was already super tight, so most of the tacks are autogeneous. I still use filler on the weld, and lately I’ve been using a “backwards” travel direction. I just pedal pulse 7-10 dabs at a time right to left, with each grouping stacking up left to right, so the last dab of each grouping ends where the prior one started. The penetration is super consistent, and heat input doesn’t grow across the part.
I stumbled across the technique, and will keep using until I find something that works better.
Bumping and blending this 18” seam alone takes a little over an hour.
Meanwhile, SendCutSend boxes have arrived, and it’s time to work on the truck.
David
The fit was already super tight, so most of the tacks are autogeneous. I still use filler on the weld, and lately I’ve been using a “backwards” travel direction. I just pedal pulse 7-10 dabs at a time right to left, with each grouping stacking up left to right, so the last dab of each grouping ends where the prior one started. The penetration is super consistent, and heat input doesn’t grow across the part.
I stumbled across the technique, and will keep using until I find something that works better.
Bumping and blending this 18” seam alone takes a little over an hour.
Meanwhile, SendCutSend boxes have arrived, and it’s time to work on the truck.
David
1970RT
Well-Known Member
How about a bit of catch up?
SEMA 2025 was a great blur. The suburban showed well.
Back on the Charger.
Steering was first up. The rack needs to point up toward the firewall, and move up about 1.5" so the end links are flat at ride height and there's equal bump adjustment up/down.
Rev1
From top to bottom, the part that came in the kit (Rev0), a 3d printed test (Rev2), and a template for Rev3.
Templated rack location for final version. It's all kind of crammed up there, and it's the one time having the engine pushed back 12" has made a sub-project easier.
Driver and column position substantially refined. I've been 3d printing a lot of temporary parts.
Also, installed the LS7.
The dry(ish) sump oil pan changes clearance for the 3/5-4/6 crossover tubes, but it'll work fine. There's a good kit out there that improves scavenging without changing the pan and it'll get a baffled external tank. Those two will resolve the limitations of the stock system.
The Vibrant Performance polished 90s are gorgeous. There's just enough room to make a set of 2" equal length 180* headers. Target length is 30"-34".
And now we're caught up. Collector mounts arrive this week, and Rev1 steering shaft location is close enough to get started routing headers.
David
SEMA 2025 was a great blur. The suburban showed well.
Back on the Charger.
Steering was first up. The rack needs to point up toward the firewall, and move up about 1.5" so the end links are flat at ride height and there's equal bump adjustment up/down.
Rev1
From top to bottom, the part that came in the kit (Rev0), a 3d printed test (Rev2), and a template for Rev3.
Templated rack location for final version. It's all kind of crammed up there, and it's the one time having the engine pushed back 12" has made a sub-project easier.
Driver and column position substantially refined. I've been 3d printing a lot of temporary parts.
Also, installed the LS7.
The dry(ish) sump oil pan changes clearance for the 3/5-4/6 crossover tubes, but it'll work fine. There's a good kit out there that improves scavenging without changing the pan and it'll get a baffled external tank. Those two will resolve the limitations of the stock system.
The Vibrant Performance polished 90s are gorgeous. There's just enough room to make a set of 2" equal length 180* headers. Target length is 30"-34".
And now we're caught up. Collector mounts arrive this week, and Rev1 steering shaft location is close enough to get started routing headers.
David
Nice to hear from you David. Which one of those 3 intakes hanging on the wall are you going to use?. Hope they don't cause dieseling.
1970RT
Well-Known Member
I recognize those from my GM dealer days. Only good thing about 5.7's was they make a bad azz race block for a gas Olds engine with appropriate heads.
1970RT
Well-Known Member
I've only ever seen one DX 350 block, and it was in a still running 350 diesel in a cadillac. All my junk is from the later 6.2 and 6.5.
David
for all that bare steel … do you wipe it down with some rust protection?
ill have a paint project on my truck that will probably take a while due to work so it my be bare before some primer gets on the panels
watermelon
ill have a paint project on my truck that will probably take a while due to work so it my be bare before some primer gets on the panels
watermelon
1970RT
Well-Known Member
Wiping down with acetone and not touching it does surprisingly well, but I have wiped down some areas with WD40 or penetrant. That's just for sections that are totally done and only need to wait for paint prep.
David
1970RT
Well-Known Member
Got the steering rack figured out. Rev3 makes full use of the flaming river’s ample travel and is bump neutral at ride. This moved the shaft slightly, but it’s still in the same general neighborhood.
David
David
Nice work David.
1970RT
Well-Known Member
Started on the headers. #6 crossover is half made, but I’m leaving the last bit mocked up so I can play with nesting radii into the collector.
39.378” primary length, so loooong dudes.
David
39.378” primary length, so loooong dudes.
David
Are you going 180's?
1970RT
Well-Known Member
Nice.
Mopar Taxi Guy
Member
Good day David.
Is the bottom side of the rocker welded in the same fashion?
Is the bottom side of the rocker welded in the same fashion?
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