Matt's 1970 'Trans-Am' Cuda

[Matt]

Lost some momentum this past week. Also, couple of customers have unexpectedly placed fair-sized orders at work, which is going to affect my schedule for the next month or so.

Anyway,

Picked the car up from the blasters on Tuesday. Looks good, and no huge surprises in terms of rust holes.

The new floorpan arrived from the USA, so I cut the old one out this weekend and got most of the edges prepared.

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The car is now off the rotisserie and back on the jig, so that next weekend I can cut out/replace the torsion bar crossmember and weld in the new floor.



Meanwhile Dave B has been getting on with the engine build. Summit are still showing a delivery date of 4th Feb for the long-awaited oil pump pickup, so fingers crossed.

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[autofetish]

[Matt74]

This is a great thread. Looks like you have a similar amount of work to do as me only you are moving much faster than I am with my car.

Very impressive!

[Matt]

Right time for the weekly update

Engine nearly done at Dave B's . Still waiting for the oil pickup from Milodon. Called Milodon and apparently the tubes are currently in their workshop being bent, so hopefully not too long now. It occurs to me now that the quick ratio steering arms may not clear the road race oil pan, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

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Bodywork coming on slowly.

Patch under the rear seat area.

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Old floorpan and torsion bar cross member removed

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New crossmember in. This is a Goodmark part and the quality and fit are very good. Note torsion bars installed to confirm correct angle.

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Floorpan laid in to test fit. AMD part . Very good fit.

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Going to weld in the floorpan tomorrow morning, then the shell's off to have the rollcage installed.

[DaveB]

Nice work Matt

[autofetish]

Great stuff !!!

[Pete]

Is there any 'Cuda left??

Fantastic work, Matt - are you doing all the fabrication yourself?

[Matt]

Hi Pete,

Yes indeed there's not much Cuda left. Next off is the roof skin.

I'm doing most of the metalwork, including the floorpans and crossmember. The rear rails and boot floor were done by Paul at work with me instructing !



Brief update

Floorpan finish welded

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Engine and gearbox mocked in place ready for cage install. THe cage will extend forwards to the front shock towers, and will also include mounting of the new pedalbox assembly (with twin brake masters and a third master for hydraulic clutch), so I wanted to make sure we weren't getting too close to the engine with anything. (Thanks a million to Gerry for the loan of the block/heads).

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Then we trundled the dolly to Nickson Motorsport in the unit next door to have the cage done

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The cage is underway - Nick is a real tube artist. I'll get some nice detail pics soon but here are some snaps for now. Parts of the cage will come out again for welding once it's all cut and fitted up. At the same time Nick is lowering the floorpan on the drivers side (to accommodate my height) and fitting the seat . Handy that the roof skin is to be replaced, as NIck can cut holes in it for improved access

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[SAV@RPM]

That’s great work Matt and you are really moving on with it as well.

[Mark B]

Amazing work. Wonder if the original owner would be interested in seeing it. He wouldn't recognise it.

[MattH]

Wow, wow, wow, such great work and SOOO fast too.

Seeing that unpicking of the rear boot area reminds of when you did similar with the back half of a Coronet years ago. Do you still have that car?

This is simply stunning progress

[autofetish]

[Matt]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Matt - I sold that Coronet to a very nice guy in Germany. I 'd built a car that was too nice for me to actually use.

This was some years ago, before much was available in the way of aftermarket panels. The car was a 69 R/T with very rusty rear sheetmetal, which I bought (from Dunc) pretty much as a stripped shell, with all the parts in boxes. I think it was £1500 if I remember correctly.....

By chance I found a rust-free rear half of a 69 Coronet on ebay in Indiana, so I bought it and had it shipped over. I fitted the rear quarters, dutchman panel, trunk floor, wheelhouses, and taillight panel as one whole assembly onto the original frame rails. I don't think I'd do that again in a hurry. It fitted well considering that the cars were even built at different plants....

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[Matt]

Anyway, back to the matter in hand .

I've just managed to finish with a complicated order at work that's been keeping me busy and worried for four weeks, so time to get on with the car again.

The roll cage install is just finished (good timing).

I can't take any credit for the work in the following pics !

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The new pedalbox is mounted on the cage, and the bulkhead has been reworked to accommodate the extra master cylinders. Positioning the new pedalbox was always going to involve something of a compromise, as the factory brake pedal is cranked around the steering column. The result is that the new brake and clutch are slightly to the left of where they would normally be, and the accelerator will have to be extended sideways to suit. It still all feels comfortable when sitting in the car though.

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The cage structure extends forwards onto the front shock mounts, and this will stiffen the front end of the car considerably. The finished design Nick decided on here is a little different to the factory race cars. The pic shows the work slightly incomplete - the sheetmetal around the masters still needs to be seam welded, and the scuttle cowl panel is just laid roughly in position - it will have to be notched to clear the cage tubes and will then sit lower in its original position.

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[Matt]

Nick altered the floorpan on the drivers side. We needed to accommodate mounting bars below the new seat, and also lower the seat in the car to give as much headroom as possible.

Ideally we would have had the exhaust H-pipe installed for this, but that wasn't possible as it's still on a boat from the US. I'm pretty sure the new floor will clear the exhaust. Fingers crossed.

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