Wow lots of nice work thanks for showing us

Almost forgot one of the most visual mods to the car. Some thing I feel all gasser need.
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I bolted the front sheet metal all together and built a tilt mechanism out of the original hood hinges. Reverse them and turn them upside down. Then attach them to the front frame horns. Built a support frame from the hinges to the front assembly and tilt away. Easy and works great.
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https://i601.photobucket.com/albums/...thinges006.jpg
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Mark L

Now that is totally cool. Really makes getting to the sides of the engine easy.

We had a local yearly all Pontiac event called Pontiac Heaven. I wanted to take the car and put it in the show corral so I made some temporary trailing arms, enough to locate the rearend and make it a rolling assembly.
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Had many good comments and lots of excitement about the build. Even won an award for most popular Catalina. But I did figure out until later that mine was only Catalina there. But I'll take it anyway. Bragging rights ya know.
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I played around with using the original dash and just moving it back into place.
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But I'm going to try to make my own custom dash. We'll see how that works????
That all kind of catches you up on all the stuff I've been doing. The motor is ready to be assembled. The light pistons and the aluminum rods caused the bobweight to be so light they are probably going to have to machine down the counterweights to get it balanced. An added cost but a good thing to have to do. This thing should RPM like crazy. I also settled on a cam from a guy that originally made the cams for Lunati and Hydrodyne cams. It's a 114 LCL. 251/241 int/ exhaust @ .050 (less exhaust duration for the turbo) and around .650 net after lash solid roller. Waiting to hear that it is ready to come home. Mark L

That hood hinge idea is simple and looks like it's going to work.

Hey 65 I forgot you were on this board too. Probably tired of seeing this old Indian on the boards. The hinges is something I did on my '63 Catalina/Ventura back in '72-'73. I did the same thing and it worked great, so I've always kept it in mind for a future build. Just never thought it'd be almost 30 years later, heh! The work great, the hood spring makes it easy to lift the heavy front end but t does take a good lift to close it. Lifting at the front grill/hood line. My only concern is on a real heavy windy day, since it is a little spindley. But it does work well. I just have to figure out how to get the bottom of the fender at the door to release enough to get out and around the bulkhead. That is still a problem. I might end up cutting the bottom of the fender away and permanently attach it to the body so the front end goes up without any body contact. I just don't want to cut the fender if I don't have to.

Mark L

I've seen a '78 TA with a tilt front clip and think they cut the bottoms of the fenders off and mounted them solid with the cowl.I have a picture but I don't have it scanned to the cornputer, it's on 35mm.

I just don't like the look of the fender with the cut in it. BUT!! If I can cut it nice and clean, and mount it with alignment tabs on the two halves so they interlock together when closed then I might try it. I would really like to get fiberglass fenders and hood. That would really be nice for the weight lose. I've just got so much other stuff to buy and I'm running out of funds. I have to do some real hard looking at the fenders and then just go for it I guess. Usually that's how I make up my mind on mods. I just jump in and then cover any problems that come up. But again. Some tabs on the cut edges so they interlock the edges when closed may be the answer. There. You just talked me into it. Thanks---I think, heh! Mark L :nm

If you could come up with another pair of fenders and cut one short and the other long so you'd have an overlap joint with a little tweaking??? I'm not a body man I couldn't do it but kinda like a big rigs fenders?I've seen fenders cut on a angle and straight at the body seem.I know how funds are tight, That's my problem right now, can't keep enough gas in 3 vehicles and fix the brake lines on my Bonny too. It's been setting for 2 1/2 months right now, well it's been warmed up and moved around and taken out of town for a mile or so and alot of kicking it in neutral and down shifting.It's kinda hairy with little or no brakes.

really nice project, just out of curiosity if that timing cover covers the holes for the water pump how does that go?