Looking good Richard, lot's of custom work!

 

Some years back I owned a Jag XJR and had entered it in an open concour where Jag was featured marquee.

Parked in the Jag group, spotted a 65 Corvair kind of parked in the middle of nowhere some 75 feet away. I walked over to have a look at it and as I was admiring it an older gentleman likely in mid 80’s came over to me introducing himself as owner and asked what I thought.

I said I thought very nicely done and then asked why he was sort of in the middle of nowhere. He responded by opening the hood,,,normally the trunk on a Corvair and saying with a smile that the Jag guys nor the Chevy guys would have him, so thought best to park off by himself.

Turns out had a Jag V 12 under the hood(again trunk). We spoke for some time about the car. He told me that as the Jag engine with its carbs, he could not close the hood. To resolve this he had taken the fuel injection units off of a pair of Buick V 6 engines and adapted to the Jag engine and all was well with closing the hood.

Also told me that he wanted Air Conditioning but no room for it in engine compartment(again Corvair trunk).

He then had me take a look under the car. At rear wheels just in front of differential/axle housing was mounted a regular old style GM v6 air conditioning compressor driven off drive shaft by I forget now, either a belt or a chain.

He had told me that he was a retired Engineer and was over 80 when he built the car.

Another interesting swap that I have seen at Pleasanton Goodguys meets is a 65 Corvette coupe with side exhaust. Car is running a Chrysler 392 Hemi. As a 56 Chrysler 300 B owner myself, I was very impressed. Car looked quite stock, but I knew when I first heard it drive past me I had to flag the guy down as I knew from its exhaust banter that this not a regular old Chevy engine.

 

Been several months since an update-

messing with several little loose ends and tightening them up-

The steering- Rack and Pinion- finally completely fitted and looks like I have enough clearance with the pan- tie rods fit w/o issue

The tie rod lengths are no issue- a lot of grinding to make it all fit-










Here's the original mount- and below it the second one I made up






Here's where I "notched" the rack -and below where I took some more off the base mounting foot





I did end up elongating the mounting holes a bit and now have almost a ˝" worth of clearance.

 

Here the exhaust- got the thermal sleeves and heat shield on-

 

Found some really neat throttle linkage ends- made by "Steinjager." They make a lot of Jeep parts- but also have a lot of neat stuff in the "Builder's parts" section.

These are stainless steel- quick disconnect and with some 10-32 threaded rod and some 1/4" stainless steel tubing -it turned out professional looking-







And to the Gas pedal-

 

Got my sparkplug wires done... first half

.

I whipped up a bracket made from aluminum angle- then buffed it up.

Now the next side and then make a cover for the coils- since I'm running Vintage Air- I'll make the cover look like a heater box.


Got the second side done....

 

Here's the tank-

I ended up using the Holley Hydromat for the pick-up. It was a little expensive ($150) but after having to drop the tank and remove previous Aeromotive foam that dissolved in the tank- I had two walbro pumps - went ahead and put in a redundant pump- Wired it so I can switch between them. The Aeromotive set-up was designed to handle two pumps,

I only had red wire- so I just used a Sharpe to strip one wire to differentiate them-








Here's the Gas cap

I redid the fill neck and gas cap- as it wouldn't fit my Dodge Challenger gas cap lid-

I used a 'remote fill'- welded in the smaller thread for a gas gap from Tanks Inc.

The cap has a flap and is sealed- worked out great

Had it welded to the stock filler neck after I cut it down- then I powdercoated it matte black-

 

Fellow forum member 'Madhatr' Chris sketched this up for me-

"DAS HAIFISCH" or "The Shark"

I followed his lead- my wife bought the nailpolish and I dabbed it on- I'm gonna have her redo it as it was the first time I used nail polish...OK 35 years ago in High School doesn't count!!!

What do you think?

 

Jesus, even the spark plug wires are treated as A-part. At least YOU have an excuse for taking so long.

 

Love the build and the progress. In fact, I'm so motivated by this, I'm getting off the computer and getting in the garage.

 

I think you are in love with details Richard.

 

Looking good

 

Perhaps I missed it if you mentioned it, but what kind of transmission is that and are you running any kind of intake air filtration?

 

great work

but I'd add some ''jam/lock'' nuts to the tie-rods,and while their off,cut a couple grooves so you can fit an open end wrench for alignment

keep posting pics ,very cool

 

No nuts, dust boots or zerks on tie rods, And steel still appears bare on adjusters, I'd say he's just not finished there. Love the OCD details of this build and a V12 Vette.... Badass!! Subscribed for rest of the build. Amazing some of the talent on this board with these Vettes!!

 

Yep- 24 connections-12 thermal sleeves and 100ft of wire- NOW that's A part!!!

THANKS!!! Glad I can motivate!!!

Love- obsessed- same thing!!

Thank you!!!

I made a custom bellhousing with a Chevy bolt pattern, Started out with a Richmond 6 speed- but now have Tremec TKO 500 5-speed

As far as air filter set up-

I'll incorporate the housing in the hood- open the hood and you'll just see the throttle bodies- rubber gasket-bellows will seat from the hood



Gaskets are actually cut sections of hose from a leaf blower!!!




Here' the air filter boxes- from IIRC a small v6 Buick- I'll run 2 of them- should be enough filter.






Thanks...not quite finished....

OCD? Really?!!! Thank you sir!!!

Been busy the past week with Family stuff....hope to get some time in the garage this weekend. The list is getting shorter

 

 

 

Thank you sir-

Ahhhh- but the N73/74 is about 2 inches longer(see below)- in an already tight engine compartment PLUS it has the vanos which makes it really tough to control by an aftermarket piece and the OEM is basically impossible to fool into running standalone.

Then there was engine management.... When I started - the stock computers(M70 Bosch) could be run as a standalone. All the aftermarket standalone pieces were $5000 that could handle 12 cylinders. My initial game plan quickly changed when I ran across a great deal on a M73....About that time Megasquirt came out with their piece that could control 12 coils and 12 injectors without any additional pieces. Not to mention at under $1500 -it was a no brainer...then I found Jenvey ITBs as the Megasquirt could control ITBs as well...and went from there.

If I were do it again- the only change would be going with the Jenvey ITBs- that look like Weber carbs-for the old school look!!! Just came out about a year ago-neat idea!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

M70/70 upper pan and a N73 gasket- almost 2" longer....