I covered rear side panels and just mocked one up in place. Just get an idea of what the finished rear seat area will look like.



Mark L

Well, the weather has finally turned the corner and it is now a workable temperature again. So I've made the plunge and am installing the radiator in the trunk. I bought a -16 AN used hose with fittings off of E-Bay. Bought 1 inch copper (expensive) 10 foot tube and several 45 and 90 degree fittings to run the water from the rad to the front of the motor. This is the radiator support for the trunk.









I've also decided to build my tilt front end without the hood. Just the fenders and grille. In a stock '63 there is a big by large front filler panel that closes off the upper grill area from the back of the grill to the top of the radiator. I looked into chroming it but they wanted $160 to do that. I took it to a powder coater and for $45 it will be sandblasted and coating in a semi-gloss black. It should look good behind the grill without a hood.
I also bought some polished 2.5 inch Stainless Steel tubing to build my up pipes from the headers to the turbo. I'm using Heddman shorties, cutting off the outlet flanges and having V-Band flanges welded on. And the same flanges added to the tubing. Then I'll be able to locate where the tubing will take me to locating the turbos. If the tubing allows, I'm going to mount the turbos along the firewall, compressor inlet towards the motor and the exhaust exit towards the fender. The turbos will exit into a 3 into 4 inch cone expansion and into 4 inch 90 degree elbows, taking the exhaust just inside the fenders (much like gasser wheel well headers) down to the bottom of the frame to another 90, then back along the rocker panel pinch welds. Then out in front of the rear tire. Letting the turbos be the mufflers. We'll see how that all turns out.

Mark L

Looking GREAT!

Thanks Don. It'* nice to be out of my summer hibernation again. Mark L

Finished the radiator mount and the top shroud piece. I made a 1/2 by 1/2 square tube surround for the radiator opening, made a flat sheet metal top with the opening to match the radiator opening and bent the sheet metal around the 1/2 by 1/2 tube frame. Next I'll make sides from the top down to the trunk floor and use foam to seal it all in. The dual fan shroud bolted/sealed up to the bottom of the trunk floor will then pull all of the air thru the radiator and out under the car. I still have to take the trunk lid to the guy that will put in the louvers.





I also bought 2.5 inch polished stainless 180 degree tubing and had the welder that I go to weld on the V-Band flanges.



This how it will install and come up over the frame to the turbos. The second set of 180'* will get cut in half and the now 90 degree bends will get welded back on in as "*" shape to match up to the turbos. The pic shows the header installed with the first tube coming up. The second 180 is just setting in the flange. I have to take it for cutting and welding yet.



I have a Crusie/Car show this weekend so I hope to get that front grill filler panel from the powder coaters by tomorrow.

Mark L

Trailered the Catalina to the big city wide Cruise on Central Saturday. I was very pleasantly surprised at the interest the '63 garnered. Almost every person walking down the aisle stopped to study the car. There were times when there were 5-8-10 people all around the car. Many pics were taken. Really felt good. These are some pics of the Cat.









The cruise was great also. I give a BIG shout out to the Police department. They required that the event owner install temporary fencing/barriers along the street to prevent anyone from accidentally falling into the street during a burnout. Then they stepped back and let the guys/gals have their fun. As long as the burnouts stayed stationary and did not try to do a funny car type burn out, everyone was left alone. Big props to them.

Mark L

Haven't been on the Forum much since I retired as Admins here and un-retired my electrical contracting business. Your car is looking better with every picture and some of your mods are as far outside the box as I've seen. Amazing project Sir.

Thank you very much for your kind words. Now that the weather has cooled I've been concentrating on getting the radiator to front of engine all piped or hosed in. I've been buying a lot of the long pre-made (some new and some used) old Nascar team hose assemblies. -16 AN from the radiator to the front and back. There is so much to do now that the big bulk stuff is almost completed. I got the intercoolers all mounted and that allowed me to place the turbos. Now I have to build a turbo mount for each side. I want to make some nice fabricated mounts so they don't look Rat Roddy. With the intecoolers in place, I'm also buying pre-made Nascar hoses for that. E-Bay has been my friend LOL. Anywho, again thank you for your reply to my thread. I need to add some more pics to keep it more current.

Mark L

Haven't posted for a while. Now that the weather has cooled I've been doing all the little projects around the house. But I've been doing a little here and there in between. I made a pair of turbo support mounts. Welded to the flanges and bolted on to of the frame. Added some holes to make it nicer.



I also added a fuel pump extension so I had more room above the balancer/bottom pulley for belts. Added some fittings and ran some fuel lines for mock up.



Bought a bunch of left over Nascar braided lines to run the water from the trunk mounted radiator up to the motor in front, and back. Still working on that. But you can see the lines in the fuel pump pic. Anywho. I plan to buy steel on Monday to build a start up/run in stand. It'll be too hard to run in and break in the engine in the car. I have to have access to the distributor and it is hard with it in the car. While the motor'* out I need to cut an access panel into the firewall so I can get to the distributor. Like I said, lots still to do, but getting closer every day.

Mark L

Just a follow up on my little 4 cylinder project. I cut my old tunnel ram in half and this is how it looks.





Wanted to run a blower on the 4 cylinder to help with low end torque. So I picked this up today. It'* a blower off of a 3.8 Buick motor.





The blower case inlet is a 70MM opening without the throttle body in the way. It should ingest a lot of air. Plus there are two other openings into the blower inlet that could add a lot of additional air if needed.

I plan to mount the blower on a plate that hangs off the side of the 4 cylinder. Take the boosted air from under the blower and run it up to an intercooler, then blow that into one or two throttle bodies on the half tunnel ram once I make a plenum box. Should work fine as long as I can make enough room for accessories on the front of the block. But this is all in slow motion since I'm still working on my Catalina. The 4 cylinder gets stuff when I find it.

Mark L