[aronhk_md]

Thanks Silver Judge. With the 88mm turbo and some other goodies hopefully she'll do more than just look pretty too. I havent polished the valve covers yet. I know I'm weird, but I cut out the tops and am putting in the ceramic glass they use in oven doors.....with LED lights so you can see the rockers/girdle. Silly I know....but it was a fun thing to attempt.

Very excited to see what the block and other painted parts look like when they are done. That dark charcoal metallic grey should make the shiny stuff pop.

Thinking maybe I shouldnt polish the valve cover spacers. Might just paint those the metallic gray too to break it up a bit.

[ERIC AULL]

Aron, That is one sweet looking motor....just clear coat it and let it fly!! Eric

[Silver Judge]

Wow, special thermal glass will make up the tops of your valve covers?
That will be cool, keep us posted

Did you do all of that polishing yourself? Man, that looks like hours and hours of detailing

[aronhk_md]

Well, I cant clearcoat the heads due to the heat, so just have to polish occasionally. The intake I'm not sure yet. The serpentine track system came polished and coated.

The heads and intake took me over 100 hrs to sand and polish. That was my project last winter.

It is shiny isnt it......lol

[bankbook]

LOOKING GOOD!!!

Nice to see it coming along so well Aron.

[70 bird]

Damn, thats some serious shine! looks great Aron!

[bryansMtngto]

Hey Aron motor is looking great. You'll have to keep us informed interested to see if you get discoloration from oil on the underside of the glass. I'll try and snap a few pics of the brackets tommorrow, I'll be out in the garage most of the day.

[Bnick166]

Aron....how/where did you mount your power steering reservoir?
Few pics at a different angle would splain a lot.
Brad

[aronhk_md]

Thanks guys!

Brad, thats my friends shop so I'll have to take more pics when I go back over. Pic 1 is the only other one I have right now that shows it at all really. It was a custom mount made by the previous owner. The guy I bought it from had the march system on his firebird for 200-300 miles before getting sponsored by Billet Specialties.

[grandville455]

damn nice Aron!!!.. How will u keep that stuff shiny and not getting yellow?

[aronhk_md]

Thanks! The heads I will just have to polish twice a summer I think. The intake and valve covers I will likely have powder coated clear. All the stuff on the front is either powder coated clear or chrome.

[bryansMtngto]

heres a few pics of the mounting system i use on my front end. can tilt or remove it.

[aronhk_md]

Thanks for the pics Bryan. Its a good system, but unfortunately it wouldnt pick the nose up for me as it tilts forward, and you know how far the nose sticks out on these things. lol

[ERIC AULL]

Aron, the motor looks sweet...love the serpentine systems. I used a Billet Specialties Tru-Trac on my motor ...fits great. Good luck!!!! Eric

[aronhk_md]

Thanks Eric, definitely hope it works as well as it looks

[bryansMtngto]

was thinking about that if you added a little length to it and a 2nd step instead of were my comes out. YOu could gain 1 1/2 possibly 2 in. that would raise it. Not sure if that would give you enough clearance. Just a thought. maybe something to place with???

[aronhk_md]

Hey Bryan....never saw your response before, sorry. Visiting the thread for the first time in a few weeks. The set of hinges I got from Mr Twister are interesting. They took me 5+ hrs of playing around with to figure out how they operate. They actually each attach to the subframe stub at the front. Then there are two separate attachment points to attach to the front end (or literally the frame I will be creating for it) and once attached the whole assembly pivots forward using a compressed gas strut to assist. While pivoting it rotates on a cam that raises the nose about 5.5 inches as it pivots.

Then.......this whole assembly is attached to a heavy ball bearing slide....so the whole front end can then slide forward about 16 inches. I had to play with the placement of the attachment points and it had 4 of us scratching our heads. At first the whole thing would bind up as you attempted to pivot forward. Then it would tilt forward, but only lift the nose 2 inches. Finally got it to tilt forward and raise 5.5 inches. Yessssssssss!!!

I am making templates of the hinge parts as I take them apart for cleaning. That way if I ever decide I'd like to make another set...

Also had to modify and reverse the pieces inside the slides.....I wont get into why. Just wouldnt fit otherwise. There went another several hours. Not to mention glass beading, some extra welding, and of course painting and re-assembling.......sigh. By the time all is said and done I'll probably have a full week of work just in the hinges. But I cant complain....I believe they will do everything I need them to!

Painted the shortblock, oil pan, valley cover (allpontiac cast), water pump, and valve cover spacers yesterday in House of Kolor Galaxy Grey. Its a really nice charcoal grey metallic. So it went like this...

Beer.....etching primer.....beer.....white HOK sealer.....beer.....freak out cause its getting darker and colder outside (inside too) and the jet propane heater just died. Thinking I am out of fuel cause it feels kind of light, so while my friend Aaron mixes color (he paints for a living), I run as fast as I can to the Lowes 7 miles away in town. 20 min round trip, and when I get back he has put down the first coat of color, but its getting quite chilly even inside. Hook the new tank.....still wont fire. igniter is working, but it just puffs and goes out. Unscrewed the cover on top to look underneat and it fires right up...................so we left the cover off. LOL. Warmed back up in about 5 minutes with 85,000 BTU's helping out.

So...........another beer.....another coat of color. This stuff covered VERY well, so we only put two coats. Time to mix up the clear, and away we go.....damn that clear is shiny on those parts! Beer. Final coat of clear...........and time to sit back and admire the beauty of it, and check out all the dust in it. lol. Oh who cares right? We were going to name any bugs, but we didnt get even 1.

I untaped it all today, and have to admit it looks a LOT better in person than in photos. Its the color itself. Very monochromatic in pics, but very alive in person. Something I'm going to keep in mind because soon the car is getting painted too, so I may go with the Tangerine instead. In fact, as soon as the tilt front end is installed the car gets paint, which is still going to take time...a lot needs to be done to secure the front end to the car besides just the hinges.

But the engine will look very industrial with the grey and polished aluminum.

[aronhk_md]

Ugghhh.....10 hrs of smoothing out all the ugly casting bumps and irregularities on the top, and sides of the timing cover, and I dont even get a picture of it! LOL. Oh well, thats the part people will see when the front end is tilted. Oh, and check out how I smoothed all the casting crap on the front of the block! Its like glass there. That also took about 3 hrs. How many people do you think will notice it behind the March serpentine setup? LMAO...boy am I stupid.

[bryansMtngto]

Kool never heard or seen any like that. need to post a few pics of them before and after you have mounted if you dont mind. Sounds like they will work great for your car.

[aronhk_md]

Yes Bryan, going to get some pics shortly...they are in the process of being modified and cleaned/painted.