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It isn't right so it is going back in. The car has color-shifting paint which means you need to shoot it all at once otherwise it won't look right and the painter took the doors off and shot them off the car. Headlight lenses still aren't right either. Fuel cap worked out better than I thought and I was worried about the Marke X brake lights but they turned out OK. At least the car is together sort of, still, need to do the interior and seats. Was going to do poppers on the doors but the door latches are working fine (given I don't have side windows or a top anymore just reaching in and opening the door like you do a cobra works fine). Those aren't the final wheels and tires, but the flares and increased power-bulge (for the air cleaner and distributor) turned out nicely. Rear Right side Fron Left Side Left side rear Headlight cover (still isn't right).
Had to get creative with exhaust to work around the license plate. Since there was no place to put it rigged an electric drop-down (it will be down when the engine is on) but that forced us to take the exhaust out to the side. Still not that happy with the rear lights so looking at some other options. We got the electric e-brake in (had to go electric as the prior owner removed the hand brake and there was no easy way to restore it). Fossway big brakes are in, and a new center dash is in. Seat covers are on (BAS) but still have to do the seat heaters, carpet, dash, stereo, and center console. I can't wait to see it with the new wheels and tires. Changed out the front shocks again with a set that look and should perform better. Here are the pictures. We will redo the intake. Exhaust rear Exhaust right side New Fossway big brakes new seat covers Electric emergency brake License plate holder (will drop when engine is on). Exhaust left side.
The stock plastic reservoirs look like crap and I'm not going to be using the stock heater, which is kind of a shame because I rebuilt it. But going to electric heat which should work better with a topless car (plus I really don't like pulling air out of the engine compartment). Here is the fix for the reservoirs and heater. I think it came out really nice (still need to do engine bay paint).
OK we have the wheels on the car. Going to have the center chrome ring taken to black, also need to lower the rear and raise the front. The odd thing about the rear are those shocks are from XKS and they are supposedly for the car but the springs are way the hell too stiff and the car is sitting about an inch to an inch and a half too high. Engine bay has been cleaned up some, but there is some additional work to do. The engine fired and sounds AWSOME! Looks like we are a month to a month and a half to complete. Slowly it advances.
Intake came back from fabrication. The engine is looking pretty good. The blue hose is a bit out of place though but I'm using waterless coolant so I don't really want to mess with it but expect I'll have to. New fans are doing a much better job, car is now running under 200 degrees rather than pushing 260. The radiator is a high-performance aluminum version for the stock six but it just may not be enough. I may look at an oil cooler first though.
Getting closer, the interior is almost done. I may want to bring the front up a bit, but the stance is close to right. Rear lights still aren't where I'd like them to be, but think I have a workaround. The front looks pretty clean, not sure what the to holes in the intake is for or why the body shop didn't fill them. We still need to recover the glove box side with new leather and finish up the window trim, but it is almost done. That's a Sony Stereo head unit. Center console came out OK, the Jaguar in the back is a nice touch, and under it is the USB cable to tune the stereo system. Another shot of the front dash. Seats look better than I thought they would This is the amp in the boot; you can tune it from inside the cab.
Just waiting on the final dash leather from England (and then the window trim leather), the wheel centers still need to be painted, and the dyno tune next week. Just had it buffed out, the wheels fixed (got rid of the polished metal centers). Still haven't come up with a fix for the tail lights (that will take some special fabrication that I may do much later) and I'm struggling with what to do with the outside mirrors, tempted to just leave them off. The color is stunning though. Freshly buffed out Paint closeup
I was told I should have around 425 HP with this engine build but it is far closer to 300. So some more tuning to do and we need to change the intake as it is way too restrictive.
Have the car back for the summer but it is running hot (220-240 with waterless coolant so it won't boil over). Plan is to swap the engine out for an LS-7 in the fall and put in an oil cooler. The most annoying thing is the new clocks face has come lose so I'll need to replace it (and apparently everyone is out atm). Anyway it drives pretty nice, missing side mirrors so will address that as well, and the sound system is pretty awsome even before I turn the radio on. interior from the back seats front right side Front Front left side with F-Type Rear with F-Type Rear Engine left Engine right (note the shock mounts have been reinforced, no torsion bars)
Fixed the side mirror issue, added a powered oil cooler and rerouted the intake. Car is now mostly running below 220 (waterless coolant often adds 20 degrees but you jump to a 360 degree boiling point). The mirrors are really for an off-road ATV like vehicle but I think they work and the view is now amazing. Distance view of car with mirrors Mirrors close up New intake and the powered oil cooler is on the far side of the engine.
That is a beautiful build. I am curious about the head unit. Were you able to mount it without modifications to the dash/console? Any pics of the process and how it is installed?
It was handled by the stereo shop, Sounds Fast, they had to build a console for me (the prior owner who did the engine swap made the transmission tunnel huge so we had to work around that). Pretty much all custom, but that is a single DIN Sony head unit that should fit in the stock mount but the display might obscure the switches. That mount was long gone when they started. The upper console (dash center) just has piano black wood, otherwise, it is pretty stock (granted all the electronics, gauges etc., are new).
Well back in into the shop it goes for the winter, now the 350 is coming out to be replaced by an LS-7 with a 6-speed trans. This factory built engine, not one thrown together from parts. HP should be in excess of 500. Changing out the taillights as well because they didn't turn out well. Here is the start.
We will have to redo the front end completely; the existing one isn't strong enough for the engine. But here are shots before that is done and the new engine and transmission. The folks that did the V8 swap decades ago really screwed up the car, but it should be a ton stronger when we are done. New Engine New Transmission Before front-end rebuild.
When we got the old engine out it was clear the front frame had been so badly damaged by the early engine swap it was unsafe, so rather than replacing it with stock, we decided to build a much beefier one so that I wasn't concerned about the engine catastrophically exiting the car if I hooked up. It isn't done yet but admittedly this is much more robust.
New Cabin floor and interior frame New front frame from the front. New front frame from the side. (we'll also clean up the firewall and the transmission tunnel).
Back from paint but...
