Fuel Cell halfway installed

I bought a used 15 gallon fuel cell from my neighbor and got it halfway in the car. It's no "Fuel Safe" cell, but it will do the job well without costing $700. I first used the plasma cutter to get rid of the spare tire well, then I cut a circle of 20 gauge steel to cover the hole. I used a spot-weld method to attach it to the car, which worked much better than I thought it was going to. Now there is a ton of room under the car for a diffuser...if I ever get around to making one.

I cut a hole in the new steel to make room for the sump on the bottom of the tank. I am planning on routing the lines into the trunk to a fuel pump, then back under the car to the fuel rail. The removal of the old tank will hopefully shed some more weight as well as make some room for my side-exit exhaust I'm planning.

Kirkey Race Seat Installed

The Kirkey race seat finally arrived...it took about 4 weeks to get a 15" size, I guess they aren't that popular. I just wanted the thing to fit as perfect as possible, and 16" was too loose. It is the intermediate road race version, and I added the Halo head restraint. To attach the seat to the car, I welded some aircraft-spec bolts to the chassis and lined up the brackets.

I decided to not buy the seat cover, I'm going to place some fire-proof foam in a few key areas instead. The seat is about 6" lover than the other one, and I can barely see over the dash! This is great for center of gravity, but bad for visibility. A little foam on the bottom should help a bit. The halo is a nice touch, hopefully it will help limit lateral head movement in a side impact. The seat also feels like it will work with a HANS nicely. Overall, I think it's a great seat for the price. After I add a seat-back brace, it should be a very safe solution.

Hood and trunk fitted and trimmed

The hood and trunk lid are done, the carbon work came out nice. The hood has been pinned and attached with quarter turn fasteners, I'll post photos later. The hood weighs about 7 lbs, although I will probably add some heat shielding to it soon, bumping the weight to about 9 lbs. I think the trunk lid is about 4 lbs.

Short throw shifter and SS brake lines installed

I finally got around to installing the short throw shifter and bushings I bought a while ago. The shift lever is from a 2.3L Z3 (I think) and the throw is greatly reduced. Installing just the shifter is pretty easy, but if you want to replace the bushings in the linkage, that is where things get tricky.

The recommended procedure is to remove the exhaust system, heat shields and driveline, then lower the transmission 3" to access the linkage. After looking at what a pain it was going to be to remove all that, I almost gave up...until I remembered- THE PLASMA CUTTER! I cut a 3"x4" hole in the transmission tunnel and drove out the retaining pin and cir clip without any trouble. I replaced the badly worn bushings at the selector rod and finished up in about 20 minutes. That is definitely the way to do it, thanks plasma.

I also installed some stainless braided brake lines and bled out the super old brown fluid and replaced it with some Wilwood 570. Easy job, except for the inboard rear lines...I'll tackle those when I replace the diff.