Assembling parts on the chassis

Been throwing parts on the chassis as I found them hanging from pipes and lying on shelves. It's nice to have the feeling at least, that these parts are going on for the last time.

Installed original Quattroporte front sway bay. I think it might be just the right size for this car but we'll see. The rubber isolators attached to the sway-bar mounts are supports for the rear of the radiator (which lies almost flat). I managed to mount only one Brembo caliper - didn't have enough bolts for the second. The extra nuts on the forward A-arm bolts are there for attaching the front sub-frame which supports the radiator and clam-shell nose.

I didn't buy shocks and springs yet so that rusty bar is holding the chassis in ride height position for now. The castle nuts came with the new ball joints and tie-rod ends. I'll replace these with nylocs at some point but for now everything comes apart without wrenches. The right side of the sway-bar was left disconnected to keep the suspension free moving in case I need to disassemble anything on the front suspension and for alignment.

Tilton brake and clutch master cylinders and pedals (one MC is actually a Wilwood and is completely interchangeable with the Tiltons) This set-up comes with adjustable brake bias. I have similar pedals and MCs in my 308 and they're very nice for fine tuning the brakes. I sprayed chip-guard on the forward floor panel since it'll be getting plenty of wear and tear.

The elegant accelerator came out of the donor car. I just removed the rubber pad, drilled some holes in it and painted it silver to sort of match the other pedals. The steering column came from came from the donor car too. The steering wheel is temporary.

It's a little lost here between all the black chassis tubes but I installed the parking brake lever, shortened linkage and cables (also from the donor car). The intermediate lever was mounted horizontally under the donor car but works well here in the vertical (sort of) position.

I made the fuel surge tank out of a section cut from an aluminum drive-shaft. The aluminum fuel tank sits just above the differential, once installed. The spacer tubes on the old Konis maintain ride height until the new coil-overs go on. The brackets on top of the rear sub-frame, near the ends, are for the roll-bar braces.

The paint on the suspension doesn't really look this sparkly. The photo flash did that.

I also installed brake hydraulic pipes in the back. The rear suspension sub-frame is attached to the chassis with the upper shock bolts and the lower control-arm, inner fulcrum shafts.

I'll probably attach a few more mechanical parts but the next step is to rivet the aluminum interior panels in place and then to install the exterior body panels. The engine and trans will not be going in for a while since I need to do some work on them yet.