Looks great, another great /6 to make people say "cool."

Today I made some new seat belt shoulder brackets to replace my old system, which was coming undone slowly as you drove. That's bad. So it needed an overhaul. The new mount I made involves a plate, a solid threaded bolt, and washers.

I started with simple 1/4" aluminum stock, which I cut down to 3"x3" with a cutting wheel (not exactly machine-shop quality). I drilled 4 holes - one in each corner, and counter sunk them with a larger drill bit to allow the screw head to sit in. In the center I drilled a 1/2" hole, and on the back of the hole, counter sunk it so that the bolt head would sit flush with the back. I used the same bit, undid the clamp, and spun the brackets face down on the table with the drill to make a round pattern that looks like a brushed aluminum piece, and it looks cool. I did it on accident on the first piece, and repeated it on the second. I put a 1/2" bolt on there, and then used a nut and secured it against the face.



I took the washer out of the mix that you see in that image so it is just the nut resting on the aluminum. I do similar on brackets when I am working on wood rollercoasters, so I'd assume it will hold this in place too and be good without the washer. It also looks better.



This is the back of each, not cleaned up very good, but I sanded them after this. This shows how the bolts sit on the back.

I rounded the edges with a belt sander and made it look a little better.




They look ok. The big washer was just a placeholder for where the shoudler piece goes. After I get the system worked out better, I'm going to cut the bolt excess off and maybe find a finish nut for it.

It's a little rough, but still a work in progress. I used 4 heavy sheet metal screws to attach it. I think eventually I'll do rivets, as that's what some old car conversion kits use, but don't have any long enough to reach. The screws are real solid. I went to the other side of the car and yanked on the seatbelt as hard as I could a bunch. It still caught every single time, the cam stopped like it's supposed to, and the bracket did not move, or become loose.



Next is to cut off the excess when it stops raining, and find a cleaner looking nut to finish it better.

That is not a good way to mount that bracket. One violent stop and those sheet metal screws with pop out of the pillar. You should but that bracket inside of the pillar. That would make a nice solid mount.

I haven't figured a way to get it inside the pillar, besides cutting the outer pillar off and putting it inside, then putting the pillar back. This is the same system I've seen on conversion kits, but they say to use rivets. Would a rivet be any better? Seeing as they expand out on the back?

Try this:
http://www.wescoperformance.com/retrofi ... -door.html

That's the idea I went off of, but didn't notice the plate on the back slid up through a 1 1/2 inch huge hole. I'll think on it more, but that may be the only way to get the back on behind the sheet metal. I can make some small 1" plates to go behind. Good call guys.

Well. It was painful. I reengineered the brackets. I have a large 1 1/2" hole drilled right beneath them now. I'll have to hunt down a plastic cover for those. But I was able to get a nut set on the back so it can't back out, and a plate behind the sheet metal about 1 1/4 inch wide with a standard and lock washer on top. That's about the same as the other side. I lost one cutout into the drivers side pillar. I'll probably hear that rattle eventually. Pics to follow.

That's right before I matched the hole in the center. Making that large hole felt bad, but it's worth it. That's the only way to really get to the back of the bracket sans cutting the outside of the pillar off. I'll find a nice plastic or rubber pop-in cover for it.

But for now the seatbelt covers it pretty well. Maybe it's an opportunity to add some kind of lighting, or a tweeter... but that would be pretty close to my head.

I put my other exhaust manifold on today. A couple of the old runners on the last manifold didn't quite make contact with the gasket on the head and as such they leaked a bit. It always sounded like an airplane under the hood.

Now it's quiet. The white baked on coating didn't hold up perfectly the first run and dissolved a bit. It seems stable now. I followed the dirtections exactly on the can which involved baking it twice it in an oven. A couple spots got messy looking when I ran it. Oh well.

I had to clean up some of the black from the leak on the block too.

That white was fun while it lasted...


Here's my review of VHT header paint:

No

I even followed all directions, baked it as said, and waited three months to even put it on the car. I don't know what the heck.

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of work on the dart, as I had the urge to go enter it in a car show about 3 blocks from my house. I thought why not, it'll be fun, not hoping to win anything - so now it is forcing me to address the things I don't like with it, and fix them in the next 14 days.

First I got cracking on cleaning the interior real nice. The front bench is definitly not going to have a cover made by then, so it'll just go as-is with a lot of cleaning.



My personal list of things I'd like to do:

-Find some way to cover the ugly dash pad
-Clean the carpet out better
-Patch the carpet under the driver's foot area that I wore through
-Get all the windows way clean
-Finish carpeting the trunk, and put new vinyl over the spare tire cover
-Repaint the chrysler pentastar emblem over the subwoofer
-Get a safety prop for the trunk
-Finish detailing and painting under the hood
-repaint all visible framing in the front black
-Get my artist friend to make something interesting for under the hood
-Cleanup and a good tech wax
-Re-upholster the door panels with something darker for now.
-Polish off all the chrome stuff nice
-Good clear wax job - shiny shiny shiny

And also this is purely for fun just to say I did it - that's all.

I went to go fix the rust on the grill, and decided to clean it up good, scuff it and do something bolder than just clean it - black part of it out.



I since then blacked out the bezels too, that was just an in-progress shot.

I also took off the tail light bezels and redid the black stripe in them. I used semi-gloss black and some fine-line tape to keep the chrome setup.



I took all the black bezels and finally added in the trim. I used an aluminum color to do it.







I need to do something with the dash...



Rear bezels look a lot better - more definition.



OF course I go to brighten up the engine bay, and when I take a picture the sun moves...



It's getting there...

Looks cool. keep up the good work...

_________________
65 Coronet, 4 bbl, .060 over, mild cam.
66 Valiant, Black, 3spd, Hyperpak, headers.
works in progress...

This is my next little project. I'm making a homemade - er - I don't know?

I didn't like the way the exhaust manifold looked, and it started to be flaky looking once the VHT melted off, so I cut up some 3" wide aluminum to make what I am calling the "shadow plate" for now - till I think of something else to call it.

It covers up the last 1" or so of the head that protrudes from the side of the valve cover and utilizes the two hook bolt points on top of the head to mount via 2x 3/8(16) bolts.

It will also have the PCV and vacuum hoses pass through individual grommets somewhere along the plate, so they can run back then across the valve cover and look kind of clean.

It also incorporates multiple locations to mount a return spring so I can make something cleaner than the original return bracket bent over...



This is just cleaned up with some 320 sandpaper, I'll finish it out with 800 or something and then polish it up.

It serves no real purpose, but looks interesting I think.



Test fit - with just one bolt in place. I'm debating where I want the PCV and vacuum to pass through - they won't be draped over the spring as they are in the photo, that was just to get them out of the way.

Great project, I appreciate the details and enjoy reading your thread.

I went to a show. I just felt like it. I saw two other slants. One was in a pretty wild barracuda. The other in a 72(ish?) scamp.

Surprisingly, everyone wanted to talk about the slant, and said it was cool. There was only one tool walking around with his friend that I saw saying how they woulda built it different... etc... They pointed and laughed at a lot of people's stuff. I'm assuming this is a typical carshowdick or something.

The whole experience was real positive and I'd like to do it again. I was worried people would think my car incomplete and not show worthy, but then I saw a lot of (for lack of better terms) messes that made me feel if that was good for show, so was mine.

I had fun, and that's what matters.

Tsss... Tsss...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBO8hHEHVDQ

Been working on this on board compressor for a while. It keeps me from having to pull into a gas station to change the pressure for raising the rear end (for a fun day or whatever) and dropping it back down to comfortable ride height. I have a 12v solenoid routed under the hood to purge pressure, a gauge on the driver's kick panel to monitor it, and the compressor is behind the driver's side tail light in the trunk. The fill for the jacks is also located in the trunk. It keeps everything pretty much out of sight.

And a short video of the purple hard bangin six, and that quiet... too quiet glasspack exhaust...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWL823eRcuY