Howard's daytona trunk lid almost finished.

[hotrod98]

Howard drove down this weekend and we finished installing the closeout panel on his trunk lid. This is the steel piece that Gean Gregory had made several years ago. We still have to make and install the pieces where the hinges mount. I hope to start on the hinges after we get back from the Monster Mopar show. My goal is to be able to sell a kit so to speak where someone can buy a trunk lid and hinges that fit properly without having to be modified by the buyer. Should be a bolt on item. These trunk lids will have the correct radius and lip at the front edge and will look virtually  identical to the originals. The hinges should look and work like the originals as well. Next, we'll work on making the front drip channel for the trunk opening.  These parts should make the job much easier for a guy to install a vega plug or even one of the correct repro back glass panels.

[hemigeno]

Larry, that looks awesome!     Glad to see you're making some progress.

Are you still coming up on Friday to the Aero deal?  I need to get you some directions if you are.

[Howie]

 :icon_smile_sad:Sure wish I could make it to the mopar weekend but military duty comes once again.  Retirement isn`t too far off then I wont have to worry about it no more then I wont miss any mopar shows.

[BigBlockSam]

nice! that looks great. 

[tan top]

 nice work

[hotrod98]

Thanks for the compliments. I just wish that we were further along with the daytona stuff. That's the problem with a full time job at a dealership. Way too many hours spent working for the man and not enough for myself.
Geno. I can't get away until noon which will put me into St. Louis around 8:00 Friday night. Hopefully, I can plan better and maybe even be driving one of the clones next year. Thanks for the invite though, very much appreciated. Hope to see a lot of the guys on Saturday.

[BigBlockSam]

how was the show

[Troy]

how was the show

I'll try to post pics ASAP but I took 500+ total and a video or two of the wing cars on the track.

Troy

[hotrod98]

Wish I had seen the wing cars on the track. It was a very nice show. Nowhere near as large as the nats, but I still didn't get to see everything in the one day. The nice thing about this show is that the cars are spread out a little and you can get some nice pics. And, with the smaller crowds, the pics have lees people in the way when you're taking the pics. Finally got to see hemigeno's truck and car...nice. Was great seeing some of the guys from the forum. Just wish there was more time.

Rene, unpacked your trunk lid today. I'll start cutting this week.

[BigBlockSam]

Rene, unpacked your trunk lid today. I'll start cutting this week.   

that makes me happy, happy , happy. the plug is roughed in . just waiting for the trunk lid so we know where to  make the drip rail. did the show get you excited?

  I took 500+ total and a video or two of the wing cars on the track.

Troy

wow! i look forward to seeing those pictures. I'm sure i will be copying alot of them. thanks. Rene

[Charger Aficionado]

I need the front trunk Driprail!!!  PM me if you have an extra re-fabbed one to sell!  Is the trunk lid CURVED on top from the factory?  (I directed my body man to cut down a regular one and re-cap it w/ my factory cap).  Origininal Lid has back edge Bent bad...

[BigBlockSam]

hey
i got my drip rail from a 73 charger, that my friend was parting out. it's the correct shape for the daytona . Larry turned me on to that fact. Rene

[Charger Aficionado]

Awesome man!  Thank you! 

[hotrod98]

Just getting my challenger finished, was a big load off of my shoulders. We're going to start spendng a lot more time on the wing car stuff now. Hopefully the nose will be fully altered by the end of the day saturday. I'll try to stay late here at the dealership tonight and work on your trunk lid. I'll take pics as I go. I need to check the stepped areas out on that 71 up dutchman panel. It may require alteration in that area to work with the converted trunk lid. While the radius is dead on, the steps may not align with the 69 rails. I'll try to get Gary (gary42) to bring his panel by the shop one day this week and we'll check it out. If we can make that panel work, it will make everything much simpler. Can you imagine the difficulty of getting that vega panel to not only the correct length, but the correct radius at the same time while doing it as one piece. I really want ot simplify this whole process for everyone. Would love to provide a kit that included a trunk lid, hinges and front drip rail. Would take a lot of the hassle out of converting the back glass for people.

[daytonalo]

Larry , word of advice on any glass part , use only vinyl-ester resin , it resists shrinking but is more expensive than general purpose resin ! If your glass did not recommend this,     beware !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
                                                                                                                                     Larry

[hotrod98]

Thanks. The guy that's doing my glass work has been building parts for the racecar guys for years. His stuff is top notch. I'm lucky to have this guy around. He's playing around with carbon fiber as well. The only area that he's not real familiar with is the cast resin parts. He's going to do some investigation on that stuff.  The headlamp doors are a cast resin part and we will have to learn how to make them. I have a set of the steel buckets and it looks like I've found a guy that can make them relatively cheap. We're planning to make a generic looking steel z-brace to keep costs down. I already have a prototype.
Like I've said before, I'm going to concentrate on building solid functional parts over correct looking parts to keep costs down for the cloners. There are already people out there building the correct parts for the full on resto guys. I'm not interested in competing with them. They can keep that market. Who cares if a z-brace has all of the indentions like the originals as long as it works and keeps the nose in place. I hope to help get more clones on the road. There was not one single clone at the Monster Mopar wing event last weekend at St. Louis. I was very disappointed. That has to change.

[BigBlockSam]

That has to change

[daytonalo]

I'm with you ,I agree make the parts resemble originals but function as good or better . There is nothing wrong with a glass bucket , infact I glassed mine to the nose and made a access plate so that my headlight door can be removed without removing nose ! I also came up with a simplified headlight door adjustment system . Keep me posted , I just teamed  with a friend who has been building boats for 25 years along with other projects , he said  no problem have to  get it in primer so he can splash a mold off it .                                                              Larry

[hotrod98]

Larry,
I saved the pics of your method of mounting the headlamp buckets. I may do something similar. I mentioned to Howard that after we get the nose mold built that we might tinker with the z-braces to make them work better. The down side of building these daytonas is the large number of pieces needed.
Brought the tubing bender to the shop this morning and I've been doing some measuring. I'll need to check the setback for each of the three bends before even trying to bend up the first hinge. Looks like fun to me. So far I've built 26 sets of wing braces and two of the trunk lids. At least it's a start.
Larry hotrod98