Things have been moving a lot faster lately. I can't justify having my entire garage tied up for this project much longer; the car needs to at least be on its own wheels by July. I'm now trying to spend a minimum of 2 hours/night, 3 nights/week on it, plus whatever weekend time I can.

The Panhard rod bracketry for the rear suspension is finished - pictures next week. It took half-a-dozen attempts to get the frame stanchion right, another three tries to get the axle bracket done, two shots at the diagonal brace, some nasty position-welding to tack the pieces together while under the car to get the angles right, etc. If nothing else, it's been a lot of welding practice.

The upper mounts for the Bilstein Caprice/Impala rear shocks proved easier than expected - cut an L-shape chunk out of some 3x5x0.187-wall steel tubing, grind the edges to fit, drill and cut the holes for the upper end of the shock, and voila.

Having trial-fit all these bits, I've now pulled the rear suspension again. Next project is to get the frame perfectly level on its jackstands, bolt the old Cruise-O-Matic back up to the 390 block, and set them back in the frame to measure distance from block to firewall, transmission tailshaft position and angle, and a bunch of other stuff pending arrival of the new engine and transmission.

The engine is still in progress, though it looks to be ready in a month. I've purchased a big-block E4OD transmission that was reputedly a '96 take-out from an F250 being used for 5.4 mod-motor/E4OD testing at Roush; it was for sale on eBay, I missed the auction, dropped the guy a note, and ended up buying it anyway. It's not here yet, should be going on a truck any day now.

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The 390 block and Cruise-O-Matic are temporarily bolted back into the frame so that I can take measurements. I'm rather surprised at how little space there is between the transmission tunnel and the transmission itself. This is especially disappointing because...

Be afraid. Be very afraid. That's a yardstick next to the transmission.

The thing is every bit as big as I'd been warned it was. There's no hope whatsoever that it's going to fit under the stock floorpan. The bellhousing section looks okay, but whereas the gearcase on the original iron Cruise-O-Matic ends approximately 18" aft of the bellhousing face, the E4OD is fat for 31".

It looks six feet long, but it's really only 38"

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