We had the cradle Powdercoated & also had the Mounts for the bumpers powdercoated.









Final assembly of the engine/trans to the cradle





Installed Poly bushings into the cradle & installed engine/trans onto cradle.





Mounting up all the accessories.





Archie

Hey Archie,

Don't see any headers on there yet. Just curious if it's getting your standard exhaust for the LSx swaps, or if this is getting a turbo or something special, as it was previously stated the engine was built based off the concept of the big twin turbo 4.8 build that was in Hot Rod.

quote Originally posted by dobey: Hey Archie, Don't see any headers on there yet. Just curious if it's getting your standard exhaust for the LSx swaps, or if this is getting a turbo or something special, as it was previously stated the engine was built based off the concept of the big twin turbo 4.8 build that was in Hot Rod.

Yes, the engine was built by a LS Turbo guy in TX & the Hot Rod magazine thing was about a Twin Turbo setup. The plan is for us to build it without the Turbo(s)we will be able to get it running for some test driving but not doing a lot of Hot Rodding. Then the car will go to San Antonio for tuning & to put together the turbo plan for it. The the owner will drive it a while while the Turbo guy gets all the parts together & schedules it back in.

We are putting the headers on it & a simple 2.5" dual exhaust system (but it won't be ceramic coated) Then they can modify the exhaust as needed to feed the Turbo(s).





I know, It needs to be lowered but (It Ain't Done Yet)




Archie

Archie and crew, I'm having withdrawals! More progress, please.

update Archie??

quote Originally posted by bjc 350: Archie and crew, I'm having withdrawals! More progress, please.

Agreed what he ^^^^^^^^^^^^ said

Bump!

looks nice in black



kitcars.com/classifieds

[This message has been edited by fourpoint9 (edited 05-01-2013).]

Bump

Well it's time for an update.

We've been doing quite a bit on the car lately. Including some of the conversion from an automatic car to a stick shift car & hoking up some of the shift cables, hyd. lines, throttle body, battery box, Big Brakes & the like.

Mostly we've been working the interior.

The owner has supplied us with a lit of information on how he wants the interior to look & we've been executing his plan with our own twist & ideas.

Mocking up ideas for dash.....

We like the style of the instrument pod we've seen pictures of. By scaling it we determined the gage sizes in the picture & the pod size.



From that we made a pattern.





The customer wants 5" dia. Speedo & tach. & to do that we had to increase the size of the instrument pod & made a new pattern.







Making sure the top of the pod isn't going to e too high avove the steering column.



Then, from parts in the parts bin labeled "Parts I've had long enough that I don't remember where I got them.", we pulled out this dash to begin with....





From there Kris made some flat fiberglass sheets & built the initial version of the dash pod.....& back to Mock Up.





You'll notice that when scaling the original pod size up to be able to handle 5" gages, the pod also got wider. Wider to the point where it's into the canter section of the dash & ctr. console. Not to worry, we've got a plan.



We also are going to modify a set of my inside door panels from my Interior Kit, so we fitted one of them into the car too.





More glass work to get the bottom line of the pod established where it sets on the top of the doner dashboard.





More fitting.....







We decided that we wanted the top of the pod more rounded where it sits on the top of the dash....





Kris modified that & we started on what we call the center pod. We also glassed in the speaker openings in the top of the dash & glassed in the mounting for the defroster vent. Starting to get somewhere now.....







While doing this, he's building the center pod from scratch.....



Note how we got the center pod on the center of the car by tucking it up under the end of the instrument pod.

Here you can see where we rounded up the top of the Instrument pod....





Sanded it up & made new speaker openings.... Note the oval theme.....LOL











We also are modifying the door panels but I'll show you more on that in the next post.

The customer is also considering having a Turbo (or 2) put on the car by his engine builder. He wanted us to make provisions so he could add a couple of gages to monitor the Turbo(s).

Here the fiberglass face of the center pod as holes in it to allow 2 gages that can be added later. The brushed aluminum plate that we are going to cover the pod with will not have the 2 holes for the gages. But now they can be added easily by the Turbo installer with just the correct size of hole saw.







Archie

Archie,

Looking Amazing as always!

Thanks for sharing.

Update time.

We got the engine running & drove it just a little this week but you gotta read thru all this before you can see.

We started fabbing the lower dash comsole.





We are using the console from my Interior Kit (IK2) & installing a center glovebox/armrest that the customer supplied.





We have an Alumium gage face, it will be brushed Alum. finished later. We also have a similar face on the Center Pod.







We are modifying a pair of my IKS Door panels tochange the shape a bit & take the A/C vents. They will also have storage under the armrests.







We fabricated up the exhaust with 2.5" mandrel bent pipe. It's paints a high temp black.















We also installed the bigger fuel pump in the tank & the braided fuel lines.



more to come.....

Great progress. It's been worth the wait!

Car is looking GREAT, Awesome work as always . Wouldn't expect anything but exceptional from you guys...

------------------


87 GT
series 1 3800sc (7.597 @88.53 1.579 60ft)
(series II swap in progress)
85GT Northstar
86GT 3800 n/a

very nice work archie

I suppose the customer is always right, but that instrument pod looks way too big. Very nice work on it, but it sure fills a lot of the dash.

quote Originally posted by couldahadaV8: I suppose the customer is always right, but that instrument pod looks way too big. Very nice work on it, but it sure fills a lot of the dash.

I have to agree the pod intrudes into the windshield to much put the clock and fuel gauge into the center pod and drop the dash pod over the steering coloum to lower its profile

Looks like the shifter could use a little blue pill to help it out (or up)!

Time for another update on the Dino.

Here, we have hardwired the instrument panel. At to top, you can see 2 plugs, this will allow someone to service the gages & remove the gage panel by just unplugging the 2 plugs.



Then with notes in hand, we get inside the car & wire up the Fiero harness with the mating plugs.





Rob made some custom exterior door handles from 1" x 1.5" Alum. bar stock...







We will be rounding off the edges & polishing the handles & then getting them chrome plated.

Next time we get to door panels off, we will be making an extension of the door panel to cover the shaft od the door release.





Continuing the building of the Radio/AC control console & the forward end of the center console.











Mounting the shift boot....



Making the cover for under the steering column.....









Here we have th main dash out & are glassing to close up the spaces around the pods.





A little more work on the column cover & revising the mounting of the instrument pod cover...





Checking the fit of the dash mods...









We made a little fiberglass radius mod directly under the column....





The chrome lower boot retainer snaps right into a crrectly sized upening in the top of the console.



...........

Nice, very nice!

Looking Great...Thanks for the Updates!

Love the door handles

Thanks guys, It's looking better all the time.





We built what I call a Cell phone tray below the radio & towards the shifter. It goes up under the radio a little bit.









Glassing up both sides of the rear bulkhead cover.....



The ECM for this engine is larger than for the later LS engines, so we're building an ECM cover...





When we build something like this, we do it out of flat fiberglass sheets. We typically hot glue it together & it will initially have sharp corners.

To round off the corners (as in the pics above) we use some body filler & lay down about 1/2" of a radius of filler on the inside corners. Then after that cures, we hand lay fiberglass mat & resin over the filler radius & about 1 inch up onto each of the 2 walls. Then later when it's cured, we use a grinder on the outside of the square corner. Removing the fiberglass corner & the filler to get to the new "rounded" corner on the inside.

Ok, back to the ECM cover......

The ECM cover will fit over the ECM when mounted like this.....



But that is kind of awkward where it meets the rear of the console, so we're mounting it a little forward at the base.





We are making a couple of wings on the rear bulkhead cover so that it goes up to the inside edges for the MR@ window.





We'll continue from here next time.

Archie

Right now Jim can't get to his EMails, but he can get to PFF, here's an update Jim.

Continuing on the interior.

We are adding a "triangle" to the "B" pillar covers to go back into the pockets on either side of the MR2 window.







Working on finishing up the door panels.

Inside door handles & building pocket that doubles as the inside door pull.

















We also built a boss on the door skin to surround the shaft of the exterior door handle & installed the new Dwe Wipes.





More work on finishing up the door handles & pockets.







And installing the lid on the armrest storage.



Inside & outside door locks....









Get well soon

Archie

Due to the passing of Jim Buell, this last August, his family wants me to sell this car for them.

They're not giving it away & it's not a Fire Sale.

Please feel free to contact me.





















Archie

what ever happened with this car?

------------------


87GTseries 1 3800sc (7.597 @88.53 1.579 60ft)
(series II swap in progress)
85GT Northstar/ 4t80e
86GT 3800 n/a---sold
Northstar Rebuild

It has been sold to a PFF member in Florida.

Archie

quote Originally posted by jb1: what ever happened with this car?

Archie, Do you have a paint code or description of the blue paint used for the lambo ? I'd like to paint my car that color

[This message has been edited by PaulJK (edited 05-20-2014).]

wow this was a really great build. archie you really do nice work at your shop.

I ended up with this car. I couldn't stand to see all that work sit go unappreciated. I actually have that same Dino kit on a car I've had for 23 years and currently redoing it as well. Current challenge is to get a engine builder/programmer to tame that race engine. Holy Schmoly!! Whiplash. Archie smoothed out the rear quarter panel to get rid of the unusual step off there. He also did a great job getting smoothing out the fiberglass to match the side view mirrors. I'm especially happy with the MR2 rear glass instead of the Fiero glass I have on my other Dino.

We want to see pictures as you go.

We need pics...



Bob

Those familiar with the Robert Carter / Norm Dino kit will know of the raised area on the rear quarter panel. Not sure what the thought was since it is not seen on any Ferrari Dino. Archie did a great job of eliminating it. Need help on how to post photos

[This message has been edited by Lurate (edited 04-11-2015).]

quote Originally posted by Lurate: Those familiar with the Robert Carter / Norm Dino kit will know of the raised area on the rear quarter panel. Not sure what the thought was since it is not seen on any Ferrari Dino. Archie did a great job of eliminating it. Need help on how to post photos

Click on "Pennock's Image Poster"...it's the red/blue icon at the bottom of the webpage. Just follow it's directions. I use Microsoft Paint to resize images to .jpgs that are no wider than 1024 pixels, and compressed to less than 300KB.

[This message has been edited by Neils88 (edited 04-11-2015).]

I have always been in awe of the work coming out of Archie's shop. This by far is my favorite. Thank you for letting us know where this fine automobile ended up. Pics will always be welcome here.

Archie is incredible, no doubt. I looked at the picture posting instruction above; and, unfortunately, it is for Windows and I have only Macs. Bummed. If you don't mind sneaking over to the MadMechanics forum, I started a thread there:

http://www.madmechanics.com...o-gt.html#post210210

I have a mac now too and can not use PIP anymore .I just use photoshop now , works fine .Thanks for posting the link to your build .

Looking good

Any videos👍😋❓

The sheer amount the work put into these conversions is mind blowing. Awesome work, excited to see what it looks like when all done!