Brutal day today. It was 96 degrees F inside the garage. I had my big fan running at high speed all afternoon which kept some of the humidity down, but the temp never went down.
Never the less, I had a lot to do and a list of what I wanted to get done. So I hydrated like crazy and ignored the fact that I was soaking wet all day.
Went to Dave Hoffman's body shop as planned this morning and picked up my door and front splitter. All went well and I was back by 11:30 this morning to get to work on my list. Installed the front splitter right away as it was easy and got it out of the way in my shop.
Focused on the custom bracket I had made for the exhaust hanger at the end of the transaxle. I need to drill the four holes (two for the transaxle mount and two for the U-clamp) make a few custom grinds, media blast everything and paint with high temp silver paint and then let cure (I painted in the basement as it was too humid outside for anything to dry).
While the paint was curing I then set about measuring for the location of the K&N airfilter bracket and filter. RD Ent. makes a very neat airfilter bracket that is low profile and simple. I bought one to use for this installation. Once I figured out the right location for the airfilter (the angle is important to connect to the airbox and the airfilter must be above the bottom of the pan of the body) I marked the holes to drill, installed stainless steel bolts, nuts and washers and bolted the bracket in. As the "firewall" is a bit flimsy, I made sure that I used large SS washers and a custom plate on the interior to provide the right support. Everything went according to plan with the only small issue being one of the fuel lines was in the way. I made a new one and routed it accordingly.
One major note; I reinforced the inside of the filter with a schedule 40 PVC adapter and used a 3" rubber gasket and hose clamp to attached the filter to the bracket. That made it a lot more stable and you could really tighten the hose clamp down without distorting the rubber on the filter.
I went back to installing the exhaust system bracket and bolted everything in to the transaxle. It is solid and looks good. My only concern is the silencer (Muffler) is too close to the chassis at one end. Will need to do some fine tune adjustment.
Installed the front radiator hoses and clamps. I tried to installed the supplied electric fan that came with the radiator, but it won’t bolt up to any holes on the fan shroud. I'm tired and sweaty and just drained. Will figure that out on another day.
Had a beer and admired my work before heading to the shower.
