I've been busy for the last couple months, painting parts, assembling, and fighting the ever present questions of why I'm doing this. It's got pretty cold in Ohio so painting requires military like planning. Most of the paint I've been spraying has been SPI black epoxy, which like most is suited for 65+ deg. Very nice product as a durable chassis coating, much, much tougher than any top coat I've used. There was a last bit of mock up in placing the brake lines in the driver's foot well. The lines are designed for the right hand drive model but with some creativity can work for the left hand version. I hit everything with 80 grit and wiped it down with SPI's water based degreaser.
Before the weather changed in late Oct the goal was to spray the chassis, cage, many suspension parts, and some fiberglass paneling. I'm working out of a 2 1/2 car garage so it's a ballet of prepping parts, hanging drop clothes, moving things outside the garage to prevent overspray...etc. I originally planned to spray the chassis in halves (bottom then top) but after running the mental math I realized it would be better the spray it all with it placed on edge. I built some steel stands that grabbed the rocker panel lip and bolted to existing holes in the chassis. After shooting the epoxy I masked the chassis for Raptor liner. I sprayed that on the bottom, front wheel wells, and the rear (fuel tank) ends. I debated not doing the liner but figured in the end the 30ish oz's of weight is worth the added protection.
Once everything was sprayed (and this took a few rounds of tent building and spraying) I started on the assembly. One thing is certain, there is A LOT of random hardware to put this thing together. Strange lengths. Difficult to find configurations. All of that. Much was self inflicted due to the changes and additions I've made but none the less, a pain. Hats off to the people using large engines in this chassis. My 302 base is plenty big enough.
The last item I finished up last night was a carbon cover panel for the window in the adapter plate. I looked at the area and though it's be my luck to have something wedge up in there during a track day or something.