Brokegang

Great thread! Nice build a lot of useful tips!

Chezmanbespoke

Ill see you in the spring! I will definitely be down for TX2K16!

Thanks Brokegang! Glad to hear the info can be of use to some

Chezmanbespoke

Well,

Not a big update for the car itself yet, but a major step for me in getting even more work done this winter!

Got myself a new shop Not very big, only a 16x24' steel building, but big enough for the car, my tools and space to make some magic happen.

First up on my list for this winter will be the Ford 8.8 differential conversion. Ive ordered a differential carrier from a 2007 Ford Exploder, 3.55 ratio, will also order up a locker for it, as the ford 8.8 has gotta be the cheapest thing on earth to beef up! Nothin like a brand new locker for $250!

Here's some shots before I get it all setup, car will be moved in on Thursday night!





Ill start posting updates as I get into the nitty gritty of it. Excited to spend more time this winter on the attention to detail of the swap, I want this car to be perfect for next year.

NotAPreppie

I used to be jealous of your car.
Now I'm also jealous of your man cave.

I gotta move out of the city.

Brokegang

Love this build!
Has your brother made any progress on the coding of the program?

.

If budget isnt a issues on rims check out vip modular...

FINISHES ? VIP Modular
Definitely cant wait to see more of the car!

Was you able to stay around the $12k budget?

Ive heard of a couple of builds where it only cost some $7k.

What year did you get that mustang steering rack off of?
(will edit if it wasn't a mustang steering rack)



My first build was a 1992 firebird as well but your ls9 thirdgen build puts mine to shame lmao... Something about those thirdgens and t-tops bring out the mullet in me....

Keep up the good work!!!

Chezmanbespoke

Hahahaha! I am definitely with you on the thirdgen getting the mullet excited! Looking forward to getting back to mine, just gotta recover from my RX8 build LOL. Have been thinking about the 5.2L V10 out of a Audi S6 to swap into the camaro now that I have been able to play with the Bosch Motronics systems!

Unfortunately my brother has been insanely tied up with school, and a contract job of developing the software system that the shipping company I work for operates on (Which isnt bad for a 22 year old! ), He is hoping to get back to fiddling with it over the next few weeks, thankfully the new shop is near by to where he lives so he can go tinker and see what he gets out of it.
He is confident he can get it all functioning easily, just a matter of spending some time with it. We have everything in the cluster working off spoof data except for the odometer, we just need to figure out what the ABS module is saying to make the odometer move so we can replicate the signal.

Admittingly, I blew my budget apart. I have am just shy of $16k USD into the car (Over $20k Canadian loonies), though I hit a point where I determined "**** it, only money" and spent extra in places I really didnt need to, just so that I would be happy with the aesthetics of the swap.

Things that drove up the costs:
-Expensive *** fuel rail covers
-Every fluid line is Stainless braid/Teflon
-Gold heat shield is expensive, also not needed, but looks badass LOL
-Fuel system updated with bigger pump and capabilities then I really needed
-Aluminum driveshaft more expensive then steel
-Probably didnt need an 11lb racing batter but its so much fun saying my battery is the size of a motorcycle battery hahaha
-Steering can be kept as an electric system

More then that, thats off the top of my head. Of course, I am including in that everything I bought for my build, and some of it was unrelated to the swap, like racing brakes/fluid/ducting etc, racing seat, that kind of stuff. I am fairly confident I could replicate the swap under $12k if I just wanted a driver car.

For me, the build is 80% of my excitement with the car, so going for some parts I normally only dream about, and putting effort into places it ultimately didnt matter, was the reason I was so happy with the outcome. I am excited now to get more detailed with it, and hopefully make something of a show piece after that happens to be pretty damn quick


Steering rack that I bought initially was said to be from a 1998 Mustang GT. That rack developed some play in it, so I bought a re manufactured rack that I gave the parts guy 2004 Mustang GT to look up, visually it was the same rack, fit in perfect, and steering ratio feels the same, so I am fairly certain that the 94-04 mustang GT's are the 15:1 ratio IIRC. They can all be interchanged as far as fitment goes.

One thing I will say, if you go to the mustang rack, remember that the 94+ mustang rack's input for the steering U joint is what they call a "Mustang V" and was a bit tricky finding a U joint for it. I ended up using a Borgeson U joing that was the V to a 3/4 DD bar, then cut the steering column, and replaced the splined bar that met the RX8 rack, with the DD bar that could meet the borgeson U joint.

Im working on getting the car apart now as I have sold my swap kit, and am going to refab it to try to make some space for some other toys in the engine bay

Pistonized

Awesome work !!!
Happy to see there's another Canadian as excited about this as I am. I swapped an LS3 TR6060 into a 2005 and have ran a pretty much a full season at the track. I was planning to do a write up but somehow never got around to it yet.
From my own experience I regret keeping the EPS and will be converting to a hydraulic rack this winter.
I run the 3.91 rear end gears and differential unit from an FD3S automatic and it has made a huge difference. I highly recommend it as a "budget" solution. It has really woken the car up on the track.

BTW - love the microbrewery insets

Cheers from Edmonton.

Chezmanbespoke

Thanks so much!! Same here!! Glad to see its a couple Canadians being on the front end of making these things work out , I am planning to road trip mine out to Vancouver next summer, will have to meet up along the way!

Haha I hear 'ya, its tough to keep up. I was trying to keep on top of my build thread as I could but found lots of times I was forgetting to take pictures and update haha. Your swap looks beautiful!! Glad to hear you are also beating it up on the track

Interesting to hear that! I had decided pretty early on that I didnt want to try to keep it, as I am a huge fan of hydraulic steering feel, and honestly, the mustang rack setup in the car had one of the best steering feels I have ever driven, though I will say it leaves a bit to be desired on steering angle. Must be a shorter arm length on the mustang spindle to get them a bit more steering angle.

Did you find a good price on your 3.91? I looked around, and everyone wanted pretty insane money for them, I guess since 70%+ of FD's are LS swapped by now, they are hot product hahaha. I have my 8.8 on order, I am excited to get that part of the swap finished up, as I just want to build the backend to be a tank so I dont have to think of it ever again. I believe the 4.444 rear differential ratio add's alot of extra stress on the mounts under engine braking.

Gotta love Canadian Craft Beer!! Cant get enough of it! Though, between craft beer and this car, my bank account has been brutalized LOL.

Looking forward to seeing more progress on your swap! Cheers from Guelph, Onterrible!

Chezmanbespoke

So, in the past couple weeks I have managed to get the car shifted into its new shop

The engine came out over the past couple weeks, working on making sure I have every last piece that a fellow LS RX8 builder will need as he will be using the mount kit that I ran in my car this summer!



Unfortunately the FedEx man is busting my *****, had hoped my differential would be in today, but looks like I'll see it tomorrow
Looking forward to getting to work on figuring out how I will be mounting the differential, I am hooked up with a guy who has a kickass waterjet table, and Im hoping to design some bracket's in CAD to maybe reproduce my 8.8 swap kit in case someone else wants to take the same route.

Also should be seeing my CTS-V Brembo caliper set tomorrow, have some pieces at the machine shop being modified right now so that I have some more rotor options. Planning to run the 370Z's 14" rotors, and will be developing a mounting bracket to fit it all.

On that note, would anyone be interested in a big brake kit under $1000? I would include new modified front hubs, Brembo 4 piston calipers, mounting brackets, braided flex lines, 14" brake rotors, pads and hardware.

I am doing front and rear 4 piston brembo's in it, and plan to offer a similar kit for the rear Have a few tricks up my sleeve for the master cylinder to match the calipers, will have to see how it plays out but ill keep this thread updated!

Brokegang

Future Rx8 lsx swap kit entrepreneur?

I have been doing research on different swap kits....
One site is down to catch up with all of his orders,
While the other two have promising stuff just very costly. ( pay to play!)
RX8 - V8 Roadsters $6,744 not shipped/or included core charges
https://www.hinsonsupercars.com/s-11...-rx8-2003.aspx $5663 not shipped

Compare to those numbers how much do you think you saved on fabbing up the mounting,subframe etc. parts yourself? (if you dont mind sharing)

Cause as this overwhelming budget continues to climb based on ready made swap kits makes me think about learning this fab work with a help of my friend.....But then again the V8roadsters kit does look really promising.. but with a more n likely $7,000 total with shipping makes my wallet hurt and runaway.

Cant wait to see another track video!

That gold wrap is awesome!!

Chezmanbespoke

I am working on developing a kit, I want to offer a bunch of different small kits that can be grouped together according to what is needed. Im interested in offering:

- Mount kit including Engine mounts, Trans X member, and hydraulic steering conversion parts
- Ford 8.8 Differential swap kit including mounts, CV Axles and driveshaft to match with my engine mount kit.
- Fuel system kit with pre-modified fuel sender, external regulator & lines
- ABS Relocation kit with prebent lines
- Wiring harness plug & play
- Module to make gauges operate (We are at 90% completion so far, finishing up code & designing housing for us to 3D print and place circuit boards into.
- Headers & True Dual Exhaust system
- CTS-V Brembo 14" brake system
- Carbon skinned strut tower brace that fits over LS swap

I have made a huge amount of progress in developing these parts, but still have a bit of ways to go. Trying to juggle developing parts, full time job and other commitments lol, along with having the extra cash to dump into the development of the parts. My plan is to start releasing kits over the next couple months as I complete each. Some parts I could easily put together over a day.

If anyone is interested in parts kits, early adopters will get better pricing,

please email me: chezmanbespoke@outlook.com


Thanks for all the kind words!! Ill be keeping this updated as I go!

Chezmanbespoke

Okay!!

Bit of an update, havent made as much progress as I would have liked to, but such is life.

My Ford 8.8 differential unit should be arriving today!

In the mean time:

I have been working on the CTS-V brake swap kit with a friend who is significantly more skilled in CAD then I am, but we have made great progress on developing a mounting bracket. We are shooting to be able to offer a Big Brake Kit including the 4 piston front calipers, pads, 14" rotors, brake lines, hardware etc under $1k.

First attempt with sorting out a matching rotor for it (Nothing actually matches perfectly) was a 2014 SRT8 Front rotor. Almost there, 32mm thickness, 360mm diameter, but bad rotor height that makes it contact the knuckle. Damn!!!

That being said, we may have come up with a solution and I should see a rotor early next week to try to work with, and ill keep updates coming. The brake system will fit inside of the stock wheel, but we are working out whether the wheel will need to spaced at all to clear the caliper behind the spokes.

SRT8 Rotor, no go. this is spaced 2mm too.



Little mock up over the stock rotor I was doin last week:



Checking fitment inside of the stock wheel, really fills them up! :




Annnnndddddd,

To continue my bad financial decisions, I stumbled across another project

Have wanted one of these for a long time, found it in a field when I was looking at trailer frames! Best $300 I ever spent

Chezmanbespoke

AWESOME THINGS ARE AWESOME!!!!! :bowd own:


Stay tuned as I have figured out some more ways to burn up money! Thankfully I am wifeless and can still be irresponsible with my income LOL (Because Racecar)

NotAPreppie

One of these days I'm going to understand your obsession with wasting money on brakes. But this is not that day.

Pistonized

The stock RX8 brakes are pretty damn good even on the track, having said that, I completely understand his brake obsession

Chezmanbespoke

I will definitely agree the RX8 has a great factory brake system that is significantly more capable then it appears.

That being said, I do believe there is something to be gained with a bigger rotor to absorb transfer more heat energy, and some extra bite to get it hauled to a stop with the extra power. I want to be able to drag race the straights at the track and stomp on the binders at the end!

But beyond that, This is by far the most exciting build I have done, and I am just looking to add in more fabrication challenges and to make the car more of my own brew

Also, Big brakes look kickass

Chezmanbespoke

Quick little update,

I have a 355x32mm rotor that fits!!!! It is a little bit of a custom setup, took an OE rotor, and had a local machine shop do a few modifications to it, but it fits flawlessly.

Working now on my bracket, but here's a quick tease of the rotor sitting nicely over the hub



Will post up some more updates over the weekend as I am hoping to get a fair bit of work done

Chezmanbespoke

Alright guys,

So some updates on my fun(?) with the brake system!

Looks like I am going to be ******* around alot with these trying to come up with a solution. Reassuring who ever is reading this, that I do know this is more or less pointless and I am fighting for very little improvement, but I like the challenge, and I am sure having some extra bite is surely not going to hurt anything I have a couple different master cylinders to work with, once i decide on my caliper sets, ill be working through making sure the brake bias is as needed.
So, the CTS-V Caliper on a 14" rotor is a no-go without some serious creativity with the knuckle, and I feel that defeats the purpose as I want to offer bracket kits for anyone else wanting to supersize their braking system.

That being said, the CTS-V Caliper WILL WORK if used with a 15" rotor and an adapter bracket. Since I already have the caliper, and a GT500 Shelby 15" rotor, I will design a bracket to make use of it in case anyone likes the lighter CTS-V 4 pot caliper, and is okay with 19" wheels, or sifting through which 18" wheels have a favorable inside diameter.

Its so close to straight up bolting up, but unfortunately the RX8 seems to be about a 135mm caliper lug spacing, where the CTS-V is approx 128mm. That being said, if it did straight up bolt in, it would require about a 368mm rotor diameter to have the pads sit on the rotor correctly.






Moving on, I have another caliper on the way to work with, it is unfortunately the heaviest caliper I will work with, tipping the scales at 14lb's (Gasp!) compared to the 9lb of the CTS-V, which is less then 1lb heavier then the stock one on my bathroom scale lol. This is a forged monoblock 6 piston porsche caliper, it seems to have favorable mounting lugs off it that just may work out okay on the 14" rotor, and it will definitely fit inside of the stock wheels after. It uses the same 32mm rotor thickness that CTS-V calipers do, so it should work nice with the 14" rotor I had modified to fit the RX8.



Here is a size comparison to a roll of shop towel LOL



Another interesting thing I came across as I was digging up information on brakes, the 05+ Porsche Boxster uses the same 28mm rotor thickness, and a similar diameter rotor to the RX8. This caliper is also a radial mount and would be significantly easier to develop an adapter bracket for. This may be a potentially good option for a quick upgrade to a smaller 4 pot caliper, that could retain the original rotors?

The final piece of the puzzle that I havent really got a close enough look at yet to start thinking about, is the annoying as **** e-brake caliper on the RX8 makes it extremely hard to retrofit a better caliper design, as I will have to come up with a E-brake system. I will update on this soon as I come up with a solution, if there is the will, there is a way

And otherwise have made some other progress to the car!

Working on removing the dash so I can modify the firewall a little to get a more favorable mounting position, I will update this more as I go!



Still keeping the canned patience in stock at the shop



Picked up my E30 project over the weekend! Going to pick up a 1.8T engine for it this week, needless to say I will be very busy this winter!!

Chezmanbespoke

Finally!! It has arrived!!! Even looks insanely promising for fitment!


Got a chance to actually weigh both calipers, CTS-V Caliper is 8.4lb, 6 piston forged monoblock caliper I have now is 9.3lb, the RX8 stock front caliper is 13lb with pads, it may work out to be less then 1lb heavier as calipers.

That being said, the cheap rotors I am using right now, scaled to be 6.8lb heavier each then the RX8 stock front rotors. though are 355mm x 32mm vs 323mm x 24mm of the stock rotors. Hopefully some extra meat in the rotor will help me shed heat.

Probably doesnt matter What ever, they look kickass, and I am insanely excited to fit them!

They will be getting powder coated Orange to match my Avro Arrow theme I have planned for the car for next season, that is providing they work out like I have in my mind right now, and dont end up with another very expensive caliper that I dont need lol

Sat a CD into it to get an idea of sizing.





God damn beautiful!!! Even if they make a marginal improvement, they will look kickass doing so! From what I have dug up through a couple weeks of intensive brake research, is the RX8 calipers seem to be bad for flex according to some guys who have got serious racing them, and there is a big difference in pedal feel just from changing out to a stiffer caliper. We shall see!

For the rears, I do believe I have come up with a solution to the puzzle, have a couple different pieces on the way to screw around with and see what I can come up with!

Planning to get a bunch of work done on it this weekend, gotta start getting into a little more chassis surgery so I can start fabricating my mounting parts!

Updates to come

Chezmanbespoke

Thankfully was a nice weekend and managed to get some work done!

With the sun and 12c weather yesterday, opened up the shop so I could work on the RX8 and E30!



Got the dash and HVAC system ripped out of the RX8 so that I can do my firewall modifications and not burn the car down, also will be completely eliminating AC from the car, as I have no interest in working with it. Wasnt that bad this summer, and its heavy

I notched at the firewall, I will post pictures once I close them up as it isnt so photogenic at the moment LOL , will be closing up the opening where the heater hoses used to come through, and a pair of 10AN bulkheads will go through the firewall for the heater hoses as the heater will still function as normal. I will be modifying the heater core on the inside so it can hook up to the bulkheads, have planned it out already and looks like it will be straight forward

Hoping to do some test fitting tonight to see if I need to go any further back with my notching. In theory, the F body T56 shifter setup should be dead center in the opening. Have some parts on order to begin fabricating the new engine mounts and transmission crossmember!

Moving onto the brakes, I did a little bit of massaging to the knuckle, and looks like they will be a nice fit Grabbing a set of brake pads today to do some mockup, but here is a shot with it mocked up!



Even fits inside the stock wheel, mayyyyy need spacers, I havent been able to confirm yet.



Ill update with more info in regards to the bracket and knuckle modifications once I have a finalized solution, very much still in the design stages at the moment.

Chezmanbespoke

Well,

Nothing too crazy to post up, had a busy weekend, and am somewhat getting ready to move into the house infront of my shop next week, which will be excellent and allow me to get much more work done!

Got a little aid pack to get rolling in the first bit of chassis modifications, bushings to be used for the engine mount, bulk heads for the firewall, push-lock hose for the heater hoses, another bar to make a new steering column, some adapter fittings and what not for the fluid coolers and heater hoses. Also got some poly diff nose bushings because someone on another forum said the mustang cobra and exploder use the same nose bushing. NO THEY DONT. I am an idiot and didnt dig further, so got a $50 bushing set here that is no ****** good to me lol.



Cut the heater hard lines where they run under the dash, this is a general mockup of how they will go, I need to weld shut the old opening the heater lines went through, then I will drill 2 holes for the 2 8AN bulk heads I have to mount in, and the push lock hose section will be in the interior side. The push lock hose will then be shortened accordingly to meet up with the bulk head (They are way long right now)



The water pump will have the steel sleeves removed, and will be tapped for NPT fittings.

Picked up a bunch of steel stock on the weekend too, some 11 gauge plate to close the notches on the firewall up, some steel structure tube for the mounting arms, and then some 1/4 plate to use for the 8.8 diff mounting setup

More updates to come this week! Hope to get back to the brakes this week too

Chezmanbespoke

Alright guys,

Bit of verbal information to add into this in regards to the brakes.

Headed over to Pfaff Mclaren this morning to go meet up with Steve (ScubaSteve8 on here) and chat RX8 race car's, and also to drool over this piece of art they just brought in



MY GOD ITS SO ******* GOOD

Anyways, We got to chatting brakes a bit, which led me to another day of intensive thinking that now has me headed in yet ANOTHER direction with them.

So, note to anyone following. DO NOT FOLLOW MY LEAD UNTIL I HAVE A FINISHED PRODUCT CAUSE MY BRAIN HURTS AND I AM GETTING POORER AND POORER. Unless you like boxes of expensive brake calipers that wont really work without intensive creativity... in which case, please! Follow my lead

To all of you who told me not to do this, here is where I'll take a "told you so" , Oh well, im being the guinea pig, so everyone else can do this easier if it works out haha.

THAT BEING SAID! I am confident I have finally found the solution, and I knew all along it would be the best bet, I just didn't want to swallow the $300 per caliper price tag. I should have, it would have been cheaper by now LOL.

The last caliper I am trying to fit, if it doesn't work, I am abandoning this and just going to buy Wilwoods, is the same 355x32mm rotor spec, but the massive benefit of this caliper, is the radial mounting, which will make fitting it a cake walk compared to trying to find a caliper with favorable axial lug mount positioning. I am very thankful a local friend of mine parts Viper's out and has a few calipers laying around that he has agreed to lend me for mockup to verify I am correct in my thinking before I end up with $1000 worth of calipers that I cant use.

So, I will update on that next week as I am going to grab the calipers monday.

If I had not been tripping over dollars as I chased penny's so to speak, the front big brake kit would come in at under $1000 total (depending on Pad/Rotor selection) for caliper, pads, rotors, and brackets.

Once I am in a better position for working with brakes, I will move into master cylinder setup.

On a note for the rears, I have a rear Cayenne/Q7/Toureg caliper on hand right now that I actually managed to grab for $41 so I dont feel too bad if it isnt close, fingers crossed. Havent looked too closely at the rear yet beyond how I could setup a mechanical parking brake caliper.

I am hoping to be able to use a stock RX8 front rotor on the rear, but heres a pic of the caliper:

Chezmanbespoke

I will note that I am still learning alot about performance brake systems as I go and by no way claim to be an expert.

Interestingly, the caliper I am showing there has approximately 16% more piston surface area then the RX8 caliper, and has the benefit of being a 4 piston caliper, these would be VERY easy to fit to the front of the car.


Here's where I am looking to the more experienced guys, would there be much to be gained with a little stiffer front caliper, little more piston surface area, and opposed pistons so no risk of slider sticking? This also scale'd in at 7.9lb with brake pads, pin's and half a cut flex line hanging off it, so its a decent bit lighter then the OE caliper

I would imagine a 16% increase in piston diameter could be used with the stock master and rear brakes as I understand the 4 piston calipers, depending on size, often move less fluid to apply the same pressure? I may have been steered wrong in my reading. RX8 caliper piston: 2290.22 mm2 surface area, 2646mm2 surface area total on the 4 pistons in this caliper. It is used on the rear of the vehicles I listed in my previous post, but I am not sure it really matters which end its bolted to.

Chezmanbespoke

So I got to spend some time looking into the brakes last night, and looks like this car wants me to get into the grey hair biz early lol.

As I stated in my earlier post, I am abandoning plans to try to make the 17Z caliper work, CTS-V is a no go unless a 15" rotor, and the last I am going to try to fit is a set of Viper calipers, which I will do so Monday.

I started looking at the rear brakes last night, and its even worse then the front. The issue with all of it, is the mounting lugs are horribly placed for retrofit. In the rear, there is no way (that I can see) to mount any brembo caliper of any type due to the mounting lugs being WAY too tall.

This is using the 14" rotor I had modified to fit the RX8, mocked up onto the rear to get an idea of how big a rotor I need to be able to fit. This rotor has a 65mm wide pad contact area, and the lugs have about 10mm of coverage. This would be possibly fine, as most rear brembo's are a 53-56mm pad surface height, but the lugs will interfere with the body of a caliper, even if its radial mount.



For the rear, to get a little extra grunt out of the rear binders, the only option I can see working, is to use a '13-14 Mustang GT500 rear rotor, which is a 350x18mm rotor, on the stock caliper with a spacer bracket to move the caliper approx 1" out. The GT500 uses a nearly identical rear brake as the RX8 except for larger rotor diameter. This will give a little more leverage to the brake, and hopefully a little better heat transfer capability. The GT500 also uses a similar parking brake, so by reusing the stock rear caliper, it eliminates need for creativity with the parking brake.

Obviously, they dont look badass, and that makes me sad

Anyways, that's enough for the brakes for now. I will wait till next week and try the viper caliper before I think about them again lol. Gonna bury these in a corner so I cant see them anymore lol. Definitely got way too excited trying to fit the CTS-V ones and sent me spiraling down a path of over complicating things. Oh well, hopefully someone else will benefit from this information and not all will be lost.



Moving on from that, I am planning to spend alot of time this weekend working with the engine, transmission and differential mounts. I am certain they will fit, which will be a nice change of pace from the brakes lol.

Things that make me happy... Was up in Ottawa last weekend and stopped by Beyond The Pale brewery there to pick up some of their new "Party Animal IIPA" and MY GOD GUYS, if your into bitter pale ale's, you will love this! Just on the edge of being boozy tasting (9.0ABV/65IBU) , but doesnt quite cross the line. DELICOUS!



More updates to come over the weekend as I get some more done

Chezmanbespoke

Got a little bit of work done over the weekend, admittedly, not as much as I would have liked, but I was moving into the new place yesterday so I was a little tied up.


Decided to take a break from the brakes (lol), and do some engine fitment work, wish I took a picture of the shifter positioning, but I forgot. With the engine positioning right now, a GTO shifter would be too far back, F-body is a little bit forward, but will work OK.

Excuse the disgusting mess on the car, wiring is everywhere. The wiring harness will be getting extensively modified, but I will cover that in a few weeks when I get to that point. Trying to stay ahead, as before I know it, it will be may, and I will have a half complete car LOL.

Here's a shot of the engine sitting in it:



Its almost in a good place there, but I am going to do a little more massaging in the passenger side firewall notch and then it will be ready to close them up I have some 11g plate I am going to be using to close them up, as I know the area I am digging into is a structural area, so I will be making sure I add back in everything needed to retain stiffness in that area.

Excuse the fact that the notches arent pretty yet. They will be lol



Here's the same shot from last winters build to get an idea of the rearward shift



And from last winter



Got the welder plug wired into the panel without getting zapped!