My Daytona Clone

[Fin Day]

Thanks !

The color looked a tad darker in the chart but i am very pleased how it turned out to look.
Most of the comments i have heard have been positive, but there is allways someone who says i should have used 69 color...or smaller rims or different this or that.

After paint the progress was really, really slow.
My friend found from Moparts that a guy was selling his half done engine.
actually it was a pile of parts - all the machine work not yet done etc.
To me it was a dream pile with price i could agree with myself worth paying
Old engine quickly sold, the parts shipped here and about one year assembling and I had a 604" KB, stageV all alu Hemi.

Two pics once again:

[Stevearino]

  Oh my.

[tan top]

   

[farm966]

Wow! Nice!

[Charger_Fan]

That is just jaw droppingly gorgeous. I love that color.

Wow, so do I!! Really beautiful paint color.
And a nice huge HEMI to boot, this car is gonna be great!

[Fin Day]

Thanks for all your encouraging comments !
I really hope that you all still like it when you see it finished....

Engine ready so i could just throw it in ?
I did test fit the old engine in the engine bay and it went in so this was gonna be easy.
Well, it wasn´t.
Should have test fitted with ALL the new stuff that I got.
K-member was the same but the old block was with rb motor mounts, now i used Schumacher mounts, new Borgeson steering box (smaller than the old stock one, but should have test fitted before assembling anyhow), new TTI 2 1/4 headers, new a little wider alu valve covers.
The engine hit the right shock tower and those damn headers hit to the Borgeson box, steering shaft, torsion bars, and what else ? Can´t remember but if they can hit somewhere they did....
So, a little shock tower hammering and new paint.
Not so little header hammering and several test fittings and in it went !

Heres one pic.

[Dave Kanofsky]

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.  Great job persevering through the challenges.  I hope it performs as good as it looks, because it looks great!!

[djcarguy]

 

[Charger_Fan]

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.  Great job persevering through the challenges.  I hope it performs as good as it looks, because it looks great!!

What Dave said..    The finish line is SO close!

[tan top]

        awesome stuff      

[Fin Day]

Thanks again !

There were times (everyone has those moments ?) when i was ready to drive the car to the nearest lake and throw all the tools with it 
Come next weekend and wife asks what are you going to do ?
Me: Go to the garage ofcourse and this time do something right...

Next - assemble the lights to the nose cone. i had great instructions how to do it so that wasn´t such a struggle.
Some of the fasteners or assembly parts which came from Janak were just too flimsy - did not think they would ever work, so i made some of them from thick aluminium and used stronger bolts etc. using Janak parts only as a reference.

Also had to test how the wheels and tires fit. Fenders were not installed yet but hoped to see how it stands and how (too) big those wheels and tires look like.
This time i wanted the car to break also -> big brakes, 13" Baers front & 12" Wilwoods back -> 17" wheels minimum but could not find big enough tires so had to choose 18" wheels and 285/40/18 tires back & 255/40/18 tires front.
Could use a little more tyre i think but maybe after these are gone...

[djcarguy]

 

[XS29L9B2]

nice car europeen neigbour

[Fin Day]

Thanks neighbor, i am very interested to see how yours is progressing !

Three pics once again:
First time out and a couple from a magazine shootout.

[tan top]

    looks awesome 

[DAY CLONA]

Very Nice!...glad to see your dream come true

Mike

[Stevearino]

Great. Now I have to paint my car red.  Man that is killer.

[Fin Day]

Mike, I waited, hoped, dreamed etc. of the day when i actually drive my own Daytona !
Really a dream come true !

Steveriano, your car is so awesome and special that i gladly take your compliments of the color.

The car was finished last year - this year was to be the one when i drive it, go to happenings and test it in the 1/4 mile and so on.
Well that did not happen - once again...
100 miles test driving and then started fixing the little gremlins : inadequote charging and cooling was so and so. I had my charger rebuilt and thought that it might also help with the cooling - i have eletrical water pump and i am not sure if it worked perfectly when all my electrics did not work as it should.
Again some test driving - did not get anywhere before i got some noice from the engine - lost a couple lifters and cam is wiped. Not a disaster but this summer was done 
E-mails once again start to fly between me and Tim Banning (FHO)...

[XS29L9B2]

nice pictures 

[Fin Day]

nice pictures 

Thanks!

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Man that is a stellar looking ride!

May I ask the reason why you chose not to do the tail panel black out?

[Fin Day]

I thought and thought how it would look like with the chosen color and one tough one was the taillight blackout. I just came to the conclusion that with that huge black wing it does not need to draw any more attention to the rear of the car. Instead i did paint the grille black which "should be" painted with the body color.
So, just personal preferencies....

[wingcarenvy]

Wicked!

[Daytona Guy]

More pics, More pics, and I say AGAIN, More pics!!!!!!

Dane

[BigBlockSam]

NICE!!