Obviously updates have been slow to come. There have been a few issues shaking down the mechanicals, but last week we made great progress. We recently converted the rear to a Detroit Speed Coil-over kit using the JRI shocks. One of the coils broke right after we installed it, but Detroit Speed replaced both quickly. Having the adjustability out back has really helped dial in the stance. One of the exhaust pipes had to be moved to accommodate the shock, but the team at Boise Muffler were outstanding to work with and had us up and running in about an hour.
After getting the steering box back from Lee Manufacturing, the steering was greatly improved, but the front end was still a mess. I bought a new set of coils for the QA1's, but they were the same 450# coils even though the coil-over invoice said they were 350#. Regardless, I sent the extra set of coils back to Summit and picked up a Detroit Speed Kit for the front when they were on sale. Got the alignment done and took it for a drive. The difference is Night and Day. Mostly because of the coils. Our car is HEAVY with all the sound deadening. I think if we had put 550# coils on the QA1's we would have been fine and saved a bunch of money. I'll find someone that wants the SpeedTech arms and UMI sway bar. They would be a great setup with the right coils.
The Optima RedTop died. When we were chasing the electrical gremlins and damaged alternator, we deep discharged the Optima too many times and it finally succumbed to the damage. We even bought the smaller Optima Charger to try and recover the cells, but it couldn't get it done. Amazon dropped a new one to us this week and everything is back up and running.
23Mar13
Got the car back from the engine back from Performance Solutions. Matt took great care of us. No problem with the engine, Just condensate build-up from all the short stops and starts without getting the engine up to temp.
The AGR steering box is a mess! It is very loose at center. We tried adjusting the slop out, but it won't clear up completely. The pump has a pretty good whine to it so it's all coming out. Had a great talk with Tom Lee over at Tom Lee Manufacturing. Great guy and very knowledgable. He is going to check out the AGR box, rebuild it, and match our C1 steering pump so everything is dialed in the way we want. We gave serious consideration to converting to a 670 box, but after talking to Lee, they can seem a little twitchy for a road cruiser so we will stick with the 800 series.
11Mar13
Roadster Show went well enough. Got second in class. Not bad for our first outing and we missed first place in a very competitive class for the show. We met some great people and saw some nice rides over the weekend. Got a very nice invitation to a show in Salem Oregon if we can get the car there. Great offer from a great group of guys.
After reviewing the judging sheet, we got counted down for dust on a trailing arm, water spots on a side of the transmission cover, dust behind the motor mounts, and the paint needed to be polished. We knew the paint wasn't quite ready, but once we get it polished, it will be better.
27Feb13
We were accepted to the Roadster Show with a drop off March 6th. It's been a mad dash to try and get everything ready to go. The Audio system and bulk of the interior are finished, but not fully assembled. We got the front end aligned yesterday at West Side Bodyworks and then dropped it off at Ace Autobody & Customs for some last minute touch-up. The trunk needs the most work to fix a chip in the paint I made when trying to install the deck lid weatherstrip. When the quarters were welded on, the gap was left too tight. We also need some touch-up in the hing area to get better coverage of the color where the panels don't cover everything.
The goal is to get the car back Friday or we are sunk. Still LOTs of work to do between now and the drop point.
04Feb13
Fast forward to the new year and we are in the process of re-assembly. The car came home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and we have been steadily reassembling as we have time. The process has been painful at best. The car is fighting us at every turn.
This week we submitted registration for the Boise Roadster Show. It's going to be tight, but we are working to have it ready for the show. Updates in the Body Work section.
Setup our new agreed value insurance policy with Hagerty. They are a little more expensive than some others, but they have a great reputation and were very helpful. We will give them a shot and see how it goes.
10Oct12
After almost four years, the paint is nearly done. This week the car received three more coats of final clear and it looks outstanding. The boys over at Ace Autobody & Customs did a great job. The hood shot is still in the booth only a few hours after it was shot. The reflection is deep and clean. A light block, cut and buff and we will be ready for final assembly. Goal is to have the car home by the end of the month.
The bumpers have been delayed. Ogden Chrome called and said they are having problems with a plating tank. The bumpers are out of copper and just waiting for the final finish. We should have an update late this week, but I'd rather wait for the bumpers and know they are perfect.
15Sept12
Not many updates this week. The shop has been letting the paint cure out a bit before flat sanding. The upholstery guy may start the headliner Monday. I really wanted to do it, but the timing is better this way and we can get the glass installed after the headliner before the car comes home.
08Sept12
Base coat, stripes, and first layers of clear are down. Now the car comes out for wet sanding and the headliner. Hopefully we are back in the booth within a couple of weeks to get the window jams sprayed black and lay down the final clear. The black stripes seem very subtle. You almost have to be looking directly over them to see them on the hood. It's exactly the look we were going for. Seeing the black, I think the silver stripes would have been too brash. I'm glad we went the direction we did.
05Sept12
We have color!!!
Granted, the color looks very muted and a little strange without the clear, but it's 6 coats of base color. The stripes are masked for black in the morning and then 3 coats of under-clear. We should be out of the booth Friday to let the car flash off and get ready for color sanding. Once the flat sanding is done, we will go back into the booth for the pin-stripe and final layers of clear. It's definitely coming together.Ogden Chrome is picking up our bumpers, headlight bezels, exeterior door handles, and corner marker bezels tomorrow. We know we will have the bumpers done, but we need to see how much they want to do the other pieces. We already have repop door handles and marker bezels, but the quote is free so we thought we would check.
01Sept12
After just over three (3) years, it's time to paint! The car is in the booth getting masked and ready to get sealed up and base coat Tuesday after Labor Day. Should be a day in the booth for color then mask for stripes and three layers of clear. After the clear we are going to have the car fully flat/wet sanded before having the pinstripe applied and then 3-4 more coats of clear.
As much as I would like to do the headliner myself, the timing will be better if we have the shop's upholstery guy put the headliner in before placing the glass. It will be easier and better in the long run.
Giving some more thought to adding a second 10" sub to the trunk. It looks a little strange with only a single back there. The one I have know is a 2ohm driver so we would have to run in series which puts us closer to 4ohms. Not quite as much power, but it would be easier to do it now than later.
29July12
We ran into trouble with BASF. When the paint was ordered, they converted it to their new waterborne series which we didn't catch. Fortunately, they were able to find 6 fresh quarts of the solvent formula after numerous calls. We are going to hope 6-1/2 quarts are going to be enough for the whole project.
The car went to it's first car show without us. Ace Autobody & Customs took the car to Northwest Motorfest to show off their prep work with the jams shot. The Huntington Blue Pearl looks great and covers well.
Friday afternoon, we went to the shop and spent about 90 minutes custom mixing silvers using the Chip Silver as a base and combinations of Chip Silver with stock BASF silvers. The process is pretty overwhelming overall. In the end, we abandonded the silver and will revert back to traditional black stripes. To put our own twist on things, we are going to have a metalic silver pinstripe applied to set off the stripes. It will be subtle, but different enough to set the combination appart. We hope to see color start getting sprayed the week of August 6th or the following week.
Classic Muscle found an original set of rocker moldings and interior door handles complete in GM wrappers. Not cheap, but they look great! We had toyed around the idea of a more ProTouring look, but we will start with this and change things later if we don't like the look. The steering wheel may throw things off from the more stock look so change may be in order.
The dash pad was shipped off to Just Dashes to get a quote on a full rebuild. The repop dashes are known to have horrible fit issues. Rather than fight sending pads back and forth, we will just suck it up and get the original done right the first time.
09Jun12
It's been three years to the month of when we dropped the car at Ace Autobody & Customs to separate the body from the chassis. After all that time and WAY too much money, we are in final primer/sealer. The car looks VERY different in all black with a light white/gray guide coat, but black was the preferred base color for the Blue Pearl. The bulk of everything is dressed out and we are just waiting for the color to arrive to start the final sanding wet sanding before they start blowing color.
The paint is on order which should take ~7-10 days. BASF holds the recipe tight on their Signature colors. Probably a licensing agreement with Chip Foose. For the silver, we are still in a quandary. The original Chip Silver we bought is pretty flat and needs a little more pop. The Audi color we shot has too much pop and doesn't match the depth of the blue well enough. I really want something in between that has the depth of the Huntington Blue Pearl, but the brightness of very clean silver. The BASF rep is supposed to be stopping by the shop this next week so they are going to ask how much margin they have to tweak the formula of the Chip Silver by adding some pearl.
The glass kit arrived at the body shop from Auto City Glass. I was a bit surprised that the front glass was in the kit. I thought I had ordered the 5-piece (sides and rear), but all 6 pieces were in the box. I didn’t take them out, but they were wrapped very well and strapped to a pallet.
13May12
The body shop has made good progress over the past two weeks. Late last week we stopped by and everything is mocked up. We dropped off the windshield trim for the front and back to have the body matched to the trim profile. The front looks pretty good. The rear is going to require some cutting and fill on the new quarters. Have I mentioned repop quarters suck! Regardless, lots of before and after pictures in the end of the Body Work section.
At this rate, the fabrication should be done early this next week and they can start blocking the car. We need to get a statement to see where we are so far. I wasn't budgeting to have this much fabrication work done before paint, but it had to be done! It was interesting to see the front end with all the hardware mounted up. We are definitely going to need to load up the front coil overs a bit more. The front appears to sit too low, but the trash tires throw the whole stance off so much it's hard to tell.
--> 27April12
It's been a productive week. The car went to a frame shop Tuesday to figure out if the skew was in the quarters or the frame. After dropping off the rear glass for final fit, the shop said the frame is within 1/8-1/4" of spec. The suspension we put together looks rock solid and right on the money.
Clint and the boys over at Ace Autobody & Customs will mount up the deck lid and start squaring up the quarters. After further measuring, it turns out the re-pop quarters don't match. The driver quarter has a more tear drop shape where it approaches the rear bumper. Mark can dice it up and re-shape the corner to match the passenger side and bumper.
If everything goes well, we should be ready to review the full mock-up and check the gaps in the next couple of weeks.
17April12
Well the day has finally come. We dropped the car at the body shop for final body work and paint. The Blue is a lock as BASF Huntington Blue Pearl. The silver stripes are still in the air. Clint is going to work up a new spray-out for final approval.
We should know by the end of the week if the car needs to have the frame straightened. The right rear is still sitting too high. With the bumper mounted, it's even more noticeable. I'm sure we will get it figured out. The bumpers are going to get treated to a full shaved finish before re-chrome. No mounting bolt heads or jack hook locations. Should look very clean!
Now it's time to reorganize the garage so we have a non impact zone for the car to reside...
06Apr12
Great news!!! Ace Autobody & Customs are ready for the car to start the final fit and block the panels. I'm guessing 2-4 block sessions and at least one more layer of primer before sealer, base coats, stripes, and clear.
There are a number of things that need to be addressed before they can start blocking;
04Mar12
Spent a few hours mounting the fenders back on the car to check some of the gaps and complete more of the mock up. Rounded up all the front bumper hardware and mounted the supports, brackets, and pads. Spent most of the time looking for two powder coated brackets that I couldn't find. Had to break out the original photos of all the parts we sent to powder coat just to make sure we hadn't overlooked them. Fortunately, they were found... Next step is to mock up the new Ring Brothers hinges and check more brackets. May actually re-mount the front bumper and fit the new grill assembly.
29Jan12
Finally. Some good progress this weekend. Got back into the garage for some time in the trunk. We figured out a good way to mount the vertical pieces and built the bracing. With everything mocked up, we were able to punch the hole for the subwoofer. Looks good. It will sit nice and high out of the way, but we will still put a grill on it just to be a little safer.
With the original design of the side panels, half the trunk would need to be torn apart to get into the rear marker lights. With a little work, we created an opening and false panel that will give us easy access to the sides where we can get to the light sockets and hide a tool kit, flares, cables, etc. S should work out great.
27Dec11
The new Ice Silver Metallic spray-out is back. It has more pronounced flake than what we were originally looking for, but it still looks quite good. The original Chip Silver looked more like a platinum than brilliant silver. We pulled a few more color chips from the same color family, but none of them appear to have the same amount of flake. I suspect it's a function of being sprayed over the Huntington Blue.
28Nov11
Big update to get things caught up this week...
Tis the season for Legendary Auto Interior's yearly holiday sale. It's about the only sale they have each year and prices generally go up in January so we put our list together. Headliner, front and rear door panels, arm rests, arm rest pads, carpet, and all the door hardware and clips. Paul at Legendary was very nice to work with.
A few weeks ago, we reviewed he first spray out tests of the Chip Foose/BASF Huntington Blue with the Chip Silver. The blue looks great but the silver was a little muted. Asked for another silver sample with an Audi Ice Silver Metallic. Hopefully we will see the sample this week or next. We also looked seriously at the House of Kolors "TruBlue". It was very nice and nearly translucent, but a little lighter than what we wanted.
Re-installed the OEM rear bumper. The rear quarters are going to need some work. Somehow, we didn't have the bumper with the body when the quarters were installed and they gap very unevenly from side to side. Helps explain why the body appears to sit high on the right as well. Once the fit and finish is done, I'll send the bumpers out to Ogden Chrome for rework.
Built an alignment/spacing jig for the pop-rivet window clip holders. Drilled the holes and popped the rivets in. They worked great and once the final primer and paint get shot, they will be sealed up and better than original. While checking out the gaps with the new OEM polished window trim, we found some pretty healthy gaps around the front windshield from the factory. With the vinyl top on, it would be hard to see, but with the vinyl gone, it's going to be a bit ugly. I'll send the beat-up original trim pieces with the body for some work to match the body to the trim.
Installing a simple Viper alarm system and power locks. WAY back we had considered shaving the handles and locks, but as Clint pointed out, the door panels are huge and look strange without the handles and locks to break it up. The door locks promote scratches in the paint during unlocking so we will use the power locks for a nice clean interface. The starter disable, shock, and tilt features aren't bad on the Viper, but the power locks were the primary reason for the install.
Ryan over at Canmaro (canmaro572@yahoo dot com) in NY set us up with a full set of OEM trim polished to perfection! We got the lower cowl piece, a full set of front and rear OEM windshield trim and the ultimate in a clean set of OEM drip rail moldings. Very hard to find! I'll send some of our original pieces back along with our original rocker moldings for polish before we are said and done. I have to give Ryan a lot of credit! FedEX destroyed the first set of rear moldings, but he had another set and was able to swap them out promptly without incident.
Speaking of good finds, we found an original in the OEM box grill assembly. It's perfect and a great replacement for our original. We also found a new OEM in-the-wrapper set of Malibu grill trim pieces.
24Sept11
It was a momentous day. We pressure tested the transmission with marginal success considering that I couldn't hold the wheels and get enough RPMs to test the drive pressures, but everything seemed fine. Afterwards, we put the car on the stands and went from front to rear tightening all the hardware. Finally, we pulled the car out of the garage under it's own power for the first time. The trip was short to the middle of the block and back, but a good madden voyage. The passenger side plastic wheel well rubs on the tire a bit when turning, but it isn't being supported by the fender. Overall, a successful journey.
11July11
A little more time in the shop today with some success. First order of business was to build a circle cutter template for the router.
The bulk if the trunk is framed out now. We just need to create some attachment points for easy access and get ready to cover everything. The sub box will be behind the false wall in the back firing towards the rear of the car to maximize the amount of space remaining. The goal was to design a system that would allow a 27" dia spare tire to fit in the trunk if we ever needed it.
04Sept11
Time to start in the rear audio installation. This weekend we built a new 1/4" MDF package tray for the 6x9's. I'll seal it up and put down a couple layers of floss or batting and cover it with the same black vinyl as the kick pods.
After mocking everything up multiple times, I decided to build the amp rack on the floor of the trunk. There just wasn't enough room on the vertical divider that will hold the sub to place the amps the way I wanted. Once the amps are located, I'll build a false floor with inserts to hide the wiring and protect amps when we put things in the trunk. The goal was to have enough room for a ~27" do-nut spare for long trips.
The sub box is pretty small, but matches the JL-Audio recommended size exactly. I could have put 2-10's back there without any trouble.
30July11
The kick pods are complete and look pretty good. They needed a few minor tweaks to get the speakers centered up due to the speaker terminations, but we should be ready to go. The new a/1 mono-block arrived for the 10W3v3-2 sub woofer so we are ready to start roughing out the design. I'm tempted to order another 10" sub while they are on sale, but it would probably be overkill. The JX360/4 will run the front component and rear deck 6x9s. All in all, it should be a clean install.
I just wasn't happy with the Russel braided Pro Classic heater hose in the way we had to heat and stretch it over the barb-less fittings on the Vintage Air unit so we ordered a set of Russel 10AN adapters and barbed fittings. With the new barbed adapted to the hoses, we were able to use standard Good Year heater hose which should work out much better. While working on the cooling system, we received the shrink-to-fit radiator clamps and installed them on the upper radiator hose. They make for a very clean looking install and clamp up nice and tight.
No updates on the wheels, but it's only been about three weeks. It only took 2 years to decided what we wanted, you would think we could have a little more patience. Yea... Right!
19July11
The process hasn't been as smooth as I had planned, but that tends to happen the first time you try anything. We ended up with a layer of fleece, two layers of resin, a layer of non-directional mat, three more layers of resin on the front, and back filled some of the areas with more resin. Everything was going along great until we did the final test fit. Sure enough, all the build-up on the drivers side wouldn't let the pod clear the e-brake bracket. Out came the saw, more glass, more resin, more body filler, and it was time to stretch the vinyl.
As if the project wasn't fighting us enough, the first attempt at laying vinyl became a disaster. I cut a relief cut too deep and it tore exposing part of a radius I was trying to cover. After tearing all the vinyl off, we found it left some of the vinyl backing in splotches which would show thru the new vinyl. The details get ugly, but an hour with lacquer thinner, stripper gel, and a bondo scraper brought us back to where we started.
After all was said and done, we have our first pod covered. There is a very minor wrinkle at the bottom radius I can't get out, but it's barely noticeable. Chances are the perfectionist will take over and I'll end up peeling this one again. It depends on how the driver side goes. Anyway, here is the first one.
The line-up for the subwoofer amp is changing. After picking up the JL Audio 10W3v3-2 there were concerns if the JX250/1 would do it justice. A quick call to the JL fulfillment center and they are swapping out our JX250/1 for the JX500/1. They are only charging the difference which means I still ended up with the savings from the JL sale a while back.
12July11
Only a small update today. The kick pods are covered in fleece and the front sides have 2-coats of epoxy resin. I need to learn how to spread resin quicker and buy more disposable brushes! Picked up a can of Bondo body filler to start the smoothing after the resin coats dry.
10July11
The website updates have been slow, but he progress on the car is coming along. After MUCH deliberation over wheel selection, we finally ordered a set of fully polished Rushforth Wheels SuperSpokes. The setup will be 18x8(245/45) for the front and 18x10(285/40) for the rear. They should look great with new 6-piston Wilwoods up-front. I just wasn't happy with the 4-piston calipers in the front so we ordered new calipers a while back.
The engine and everything under the hood is about 80% complete. The SPAL digital fan controller was a great addition and I think we will be happy with it rather than having both fans running full time when the thermostat kicks in. All the wiring is covered in black TechFlex and all the wiring will be hidden over the wheel wells were possible.
Speaking of wheel wells, we ordered the metal fender wells and had the holes and dimples filled before powder coating.
We've started the audio install. The details are in the Interior section. Everything is JL Audio from amps to speakers. I hope the head unit will be adequate, but if it doesn't work out, we will put a modern HU in the glove box. One of the big parts of the audio install is the fabrication of two custom kick pods. They will house the 6" separates and will be covered in black vinyl after some fiberglass work.
29Jan11
Welcome to the New Year! Forgive me followers, it's been 2 months since our last blog posting. Between the holidays, family and work schedules, there hasn't been a lot of time to put into the website. There has been some progress on the car though. The new repop dash arrived a couple of weeks ago. The speedometer had to go back because it had a dimple in the face due to shipping damage. The new one should be here today. We mocked up the other gauges and there will need to be some work on the housings to get everything aligned like it should. The Tach is shifted to the left. The fuel gauge isn't strait, and a few other annoyances but I'm sure we will get them worked out.
While we were playing with the dash, I held it in-place in the car and promptly scratched the left side. If the body of the dash were black, it wouldn't be noticeable, but the chrome coating underneath makes the scratches quite noticeable. We found the SEM Landeau Black Top Coat spray locally and will try a little touch-up after we quit messing with the mock-up. We also plan to fix the bright center pod chrome. It should have been black...
07Nov10
Admittedly, we are WAY behind in our blog updates. Mostly due to a complete home computer hardware change. The whole place is Mac based now and it's working well. In fact, this will be the first entry from the Mac with a new HTML editor.
The car is coming along pretty well. Plumbing the heater lines misc pieces has been much harder than I think it should have. UPS has dropped a Summit Racing box at our doorstep every week for the past 4-weeks it seems and I still don't have all the right pieces. The location of the A/C compressor and the lines that run from it are creating some challenges to getting the heater line ran out the side of the water pump like we want. We cut a deep socket and ground the remaining sides to get to where we could install the male adapter but now we need a 45 degree -10AN fitting to see if we can get the hose behind the compressor.
The Radiator is on order from Ron Davis Radiators. Should be here in a few weeks. It's an all aluminum construction with twin Spal fans. Talking with Bill and RDR, he suggested a 195 snap switch for the fans and a 180-185 thermostat or we will run too cool. Who would have thought that could be a problem.
The fuel tank and sending unit are on order as well. The goal is to get to a point where we can start the engine in the garage every few weeks to keep everything lubricated and keep the seals from drying out.
26Sept10
Here are a couple of shots with the engine/transmission in place and the new Concept One pulley set installed.
25Sept10
Huge day for the project today. The engine and transmission were mated up and dropped into the frame. Had a tough time getting the transmission mount to line up, but after loosening the cross member, it all fell into place. The Bowtie Overdrives brackets for the TV and throttle cables look like they will work well.
Once the engine was in-place, we installed the Concept One serpentine pulley and belt system. It looks outstanding!!!
24Sept10
Picked up the new torque converter built by Continental. Pulled the cover for the transmission and installed the new spring from Bowtie Overdrives for the shuttle valve and installed the Shiftworks brackets. Should be ready to put the engine and transmission together this weekend.
03Sept10
The engine fired up on the dyno. After some tuning and adjustments, we
are sitting right at 392.7hp @ 4800rpm and peaking at 454lb-ft of torque
at 4000rpm. Should make for a great cruiser in front of the 700R4 and
3.55 gears.
We pulled the trigger on a Concept One polished Victory Series serpentine kit and Vintage Air Gen IV SureFit System. We will go with the braided stainless
Aeroquip hoses to tie into our AGR quick ratio steering box. Matt over
at Matt's Classic Bowties was a HUGE help in sorting out what we needed from
Vintage Air for the shaved firewall and ordered us the compressor delete
kit so we didn't get stuck with two compressors.
The e-brake system is routed and rough-adjusted. Just a few more
adjustments so we can trim and tie-up the excess cables.
02Sept10
The engine is making progress. The bulk is assembled and ready for the
dyno down at Performance Solutions. The raw heads and polished intake turned out alright.
We were concerned that they wouldn't match up very well, but there isn't
much of the head that can be seen below the valve cover and headers. The
old carb doesn't look as great, but it should work and will likely be
covered by something big and polished. The e-Street heads weren't what
we expected, but Matt assures me they will work as well for our
application as the Performer RPMs for less cost. The plan is to see it
on the dyno Friday 9/3 or Monday 9/6. Definitely need to clean up a few
areas and add some dress to the package, but if it runs well. More
images in the Power Train section.
27Aug10
Stopped by Performance Solutions today to see if we were going to make the dyno. No such
luck. The short block is assembled and it looks like all the remaining
loose parts are on the build shelf, but strangely absent were the
heads... Nick mentioned they had not received their Edelbrock shipment
for the day so perhaps are parts will be in and assembled in the next
week or so. Still no rush, but I'd like to hear it fired up.
Expecting an assortment of parts from Classic
Muscle Saturday so we can work on the emergency brake system and
get it linked up to the new Wilwood setup out back.
23Aug10
Time has been flying by with little to no progress on the project. We
paid off Clint at Ace
Autobody & Customs so that is behind us. He is storing the
fenders, hood, deck lid and rear valance for us while we work on the
rolling chassis and body segment.
The interior is 90% covered in the second skin material. We ordered
another pack just to make sure we had enough to completely cover the
trunk when we get that far. We went ahead and painted the back side of
the firewall area semi-gloss black to match the other black details. It
matches very closely to the 60% black powder coating. To add a little
thermal barrier to the roof, we installed a layer of Second
Skin Audio Heat Wave Pro. It should do nicely.
Talked to Matt over at Performance
Solutions early last week. He is thinking the engine may be ready
for the dyno late this week. I can't wait to see how it does. We left
the heads natural with the polished intake and polished valve covers.
I'll have to see how it looks, but we may want to change out the valve
covers down the road.
17Jun10
Continuing to roll-out more Second
Skin as time and the arm will allow. About 80% of the interior is
done minus the doors and we have a box left with 20 sheets so we should
be able to detail the doors and trunk without too much trouble.
Got pricing for a Concept One serpentine system from Matt's
Classic Bowties. Caught a thread over on Chevelles.com
about the newer StyleTrac systems from March. I've sent a price request
to Frank and Lisa over at Prodigy/GPSuperStore
to see what they can do for us.
02Jun10
The main car body came home last week. The team from Ace Autobody & Customs picked up the rolling chassis Tuesday night
and delivered the chassis with the body and doors attached. There are a
few minor issues, but nothing that couldn't be addressed or will be
resolved when we go back for paint. More images in the Body Work section.
We started laying the Second Skin Audio Damplifier Pro. It goes down pretty easy and we are
taking our time to get good overlap and tight adhesion with the body.
What a difference it makes! We spent too much, but the car will be very
quiet once it is all done.
Matt over at Performance
Solutions said the block checked out good and he ordered the new
Eagle rotating assembly. Heads are targeted to be Edelbrock RPM's, but
he will tear them down and have them polished to match the new polished
intake.
Still debating on Serpentine belt systems. The front runner is the
Victory Series by Concept One. They have a very nice integrated power steering pump and
reservoir and ship the system with an Edelbrock Endura Shine water pump.
The second choice is the Tru-Trac by Billet Specialties. The Billet version is very nice but also more money
and requires an external reservoir for the power steering.
The color selection of the week: Back to Cortez Silver (or similar) with
black stripes.
16May10
Updates have been slow to come lately, but with good reason. A minor
tennis accident has had focus on the car sidelined a bit. Final review;
Radius and Ulna fractured, compound extension of the Ulna, two (2)
plates and fourteen (14) screws. I will be offering tennis clinics on
what not to do later this summer. There will also be an advanced course
on typing one-handed (Titled: Ergonomic keyboards are not your
friend).
Dropped the engine off with Matt Compton at Performance Solutions Thursday. They will tear-down the engine, clean it up
and have it sonically checked before we go too far. Still planning on a
stroked 383 with the original 2-bolt block. Shooting for 380-420hp at
the crank and able to cruise all day long with enough vacuum for the
power brakes.
Stopped by Ace Autobody & Customs Friday and the body is nearly complete.
Everything has been blocked, undercoated, and ready to jam the smoothed
firewall. It may be ready to come home later this week if everything
goes as planned. We still don't have a final body color selected yet!
Still looking at Greys, Black, Silvers, and even a modern Blue with
great pearls in the sun.
A couple weeks ago we received 120 sqft of Second Skin Audio Damplifier Pro and seven (7) sheets of Luxury Liner
Pro. The combination should make for a quiet and very tight ride!
04Apr10
Not a lot of progress for March. Ace Autobody & Customs lost the primary guy that was working on
our car and had a number of entries to finish up for the local car show.
However, the last few weeks have picked up quite a bit and the car is
progressing. The first coat of primer has been blocked on the body and
doors, hood, and deck lid. Looks like we need at least one more coat of
primer, but some pieces may take a third to get fully blocked out. Once
the exterior is blocked, Clint will shoot an epoxy on the interior to
seal it up and undercoat the bottom. At that point, we should be ready
to drop it on the body.
We still haven't come up with a finish color... The Cyber Metallic isn't
quite what we are looking for so we cruised the car lots looking for
colors yesterday. The last time we went color shopping, we ended up buy
a new car for my lovely bride so it was a safer venture this weekend.
The BMW color we were looking for wasn't quite dark enough. Mercedes has
a nice Steel Grey and Palladium Silver that looked really good. The
metallic flake is very fine, would cover nicely and would balance with a
black strip very well. Before we called it a day, we looked at a very
interesting color called Urban Titanium Metallic. By itself, it looks
like a silver grey, but next to a grey car, it takes on a warmer
coloration with a hint of brown undertones. The only concern is with how
large the metal flake is and if the black stripes would contrast too
heavily with the course flake.
I suspect the car would look something more like this. The picture was
captioned as a Shadow Grey, but the lighting must have been very warm
because it had more of a bronze coloration.
It's official... I hate picking colors!
28Feb10
It's been a few weeks since there have been any updates, but really,
nothing has been happening. I stopped in at Ace Autobody & Customsthe other week to see how things were
progressing. The firewall is filled and smoothed. The next step is to
undercoat the bottom and apply some more seam sealer and weld a few
pin-holes up. After that, we should be able to join the fresh chassis
and body before returning it to the house. Once home, we can start the
interior and rough assembly.
We still haven't selected a color, but the new GM Cyber Metallic Grey
and a couple of colors from Mercedes in the gray/silver range are on the
short list. Final color and wheel selection might be the hardest part of
this whole project!
As for the engine, I'm perplexed, befuddled, and confused. Part of my
head says we want something different like a powerful LS3 as a pull-out
from a 2010 Camaro. The only thing keeping me from that path is the
added complexity of the harness and ECU. That, and they look kind of
ugly. The other part of my head says, stroke the original block to a
strong 383 with Trick Flow or Edelbrock heads and an Edelbrock intake
topped by the 600cfm Edelbrock carb we have sitting in the garage. It
would be simpler and cheaper in the long run, but lacks some of the new
technology cool factor. That "cool" factor could also get us in trouble
should have problems down the road. There is something simplistic and
easy about a build GEN I small block sitting between the rails. What to
do...
08Feb10
Still looking at new ideas for the interior. We originally planned on
going with a traditional repop 3-hole SS-style dash, but with the
direction the car may take, something more unique like a Paul Atkins Custom Dash and pad may be more interesting. I'm not sure
we are ready for something that far out there, but if we go off the
depend and drop in an LS1 or LS3 to go in-front of the 700R4, then why
not... If we did, the seats would definitely need a different covering
than the stock look. Truthfully, I'm not a huge fan of the pattern for
the '72 seat covers, but I have a set in the garage.
24Jan10
Mated the old motor and new 700R4 transmission together to mock-up the
cross-member placement. It all went together very well and one hole on
each side of the frame was already in the correct location. The other
hole was 95% in alignment and only needed a little work with the drill
to drop the bolt through. More pictures over in the Powertrain
section.
17Jan10
The body is in first coat primer and the work looks great. The straps
that were added to the roof made a huge difference. The firewall
is marked, but we need to review the wiring harness and some of the
holes to be filled. Updates are in the Body Work section.
13Jan10
Ace Autobody & CustomsAce Autobody called today and the main body
is in the first coat of primer. We need to go down and mark all the
places in the firewall that need to be filled. With the A/C unit going
under the dash, we can smooth the firewall. The interior will get a coat
of epoxy primer and then a layer of Dynamat.
10Jan10
Added the pictures of the body work progress to the Body Work section. Decided to keep the rocker moldings after all. The
factory holes are in the front section so they will be easy to reference
for drilling the new rear holes. Our original rocker moldings look much
better than anticipated and should polish up very well. Retrieved the
NOS wheel moldings and they look brand new.
Worked on the hub and rotor assemblies for the front. We had attempted
our first safety wiring of the inner hub, but hadn't verified the torque
values on the bolts so this weekend we tore everything apart, re-torqued
the bolts and safety wired everything. I think it looks pretty good.
While we were at it, we pulled the mock-up bolts from the caliper
brackets and applied the 271 (RED) locktite and torqued
accordingly.
24Dec09
Merry Christmas Eve... Stopped by to see if there had been any progress
on the body work over at Ace Autobody & Customs. They solved the thin roof issue by
installing some nice wide steel bands from the inside and bonded them
into place with some metal bonding adhesive. The front fenders are
pretty much blocked out and a little bondo in some low areas. We marked
all of the fender emblem holes, rocker molding holes, and hood pin
mounting locations for fill and smoothing. Had second thoughts on the
rocker moldings, but it would be easier to add them later if we decide
to go back to them. We still have a set of original wheel well moldings
that may be installed to accent the wheels. The hood was popping a
little in the upper cowl area so they are also installing extra metal up
there to stiffen everything up. The work looks good. Lets hope we have
enough money to finish it...
22Dec09
Worked more with Bear and Todd over at Right Stuff Detailing and I think we came to a solution for the rear
hard line to caliper attachment. It turns out they have the perfect hose
that goes from a 3/8x24 inverted flare to a female -3AN. The hose is
actually supposed to end with a 3/8" fitting for a Mopar application (Don't
tell anyone), but their hose maker didn't have the right end type
and mounted the -3AN and supplied an adapter. We will simply remove the
3/8" adapter and install a 1/8"x-3AN male elbow into the caliper and be
set. As for the front-to-rear brake line, it seems they didn't ship one
with our original order so a new one is coming along with the new flex
line. Now to find some clips and we should be able to wrap everything up
with the brakes!
21Dec09
We received the new brake lines from Right Stuff Detailing and ran into a few challenges. Things just weren't
fitting up quite right and we had a discrepancy in fitting sizes coming
out of the new proportioning valve for the rear brake lines. After a
quick call to Todd and an email with Bear, it would seem we didn't
receive one of the lines we need with the kit. There is a bridge line
that drops from the rear of the booster/proportioning valve down to the
frame rail to meet up with the front-to-back brake line. Still going to
need quite a bit of tweaking to get everything dialled in, but I guess
it's progress. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't relocate the
proportioning valve and would keep it on the frame. This should give us
better header clearance, but I think it would have been less hassle.
The rear brake lines are going to be a different story. The hard lines
look great, but the adapter method we came up with isn't going to work.
The ideal solution is to have a 3/8"-24 inverted flare to -3AN fitting
flex hose, but I can't find that hose anywhere! It's going to take some
sorting out to get everything connected. The guys at Right Stuff have
been great to work with. I'm sure we will get it figured out.
14Dec09
After thinking about the polished booster and cast aluminum master
cylinder, I went ahead and called Todd at Right Stuff Detailing back to have the distribution valve changed to
chrome with the polished stainless bracket. He was thinking they had not
shipped yet so we should be in good shape.
Contacted Frank over at Prodigy/GPSuperStore
regarding wheels. It's tempting to take my lovely bride and kids up on
the offer to get me wheels for Christmas, but I just can't do it yet.
Other parts need to be paid off first and the body work isn't done yet.
It's killing me with the old ugly wheels on there, but it's the right
thing to wait. Yes... I'm mostly trying to convince myself...
13Dec09
Not much new progress this week. We ordered the brake and fuel lines
from Right Stuff Detailing . Todd helped us out on the configuration and how
to setup the rear axle how we want with braided stainless going to the
Wilwood calipers. We are going with a conversion kit which will move the
proportion valve next too the master cylinder and give more clearance
for the headers down at the frame where the original distribution block
was. We ordered the brass block, but I'm wondering if we shouldn't have
ordered the chrome one... Hmmm
04Dec09
The BMR Fabrication springs and QA1
Single Adjustable Shocks finally arrived this week. They went right in
place after a minor enlargement of the hole for the shock post. The new
QA1 posts were a little bigger and there was a little powder coating
buildup in the holes. Nothing a new 9/16" drill bit couldn't fix. At
first I wasn't thrilled that the BMR springs only came in RED, but I
think they look fine.
Today we rolled the chassis out to get a few pictures. Images are
updated in the Suspension
section. Next step is to install the engine mount brackets and order
brake and fuel lines
27Nov09
Not a lot of progress over the holiday. Too much Turkey and too much
Christmas shopping too early in the morning. I was able to pickup the
freshly powder coated pitman arm from Primo's Powder Coating today. It
looks great and went right onto the new AGR steering box. Once the arm
was on, we were able to mock up the rest of the new steering linkages
and idler. The new UMI Performance front sway bar is installed and we are just waiting on
Summit to deliver the rear springs and shocks. Looking at the position
of the adjusters on the QA1
front coil-over's, I'm thinking we should have rotated them to the back.
I really don't want to tear everything back down to change it...
25Nov09
Summit Racing let us down. They had some sort of major computer system
meltdown and the new BMR Fabrication springs and QA1
Single Adjustable Shocks that should have been here today, didn't ship
until today. There is still some question if the shipment really left
Summit today because their online system hasn't produced a tracking
number yet. The tracking number their customer service rep gave me
doesn't appear in the UPS system either. Disappointing!
23Nov09
The website updates have been slow to come, but the progress on the
frame and suspension has been outstanding. We picked up the frame and
all the peripheral parts from Donnie over at Primo's on the 9th. The
rear-end went to Jim's Drivetrain Wednesday and we picked it back up
Monday the 16th. The final selection was 1:3.55 gears. They will give us
good grunt off the light, but still make for a nice cruising RPM with
the 700R4 on the interstate. The 1:3.73 would have been another good
choice, but after talking with Matt at Performance Solutions and Jim, the 3.55s should be a good intermediate gear.
The frame assembly has really come along. For the front-end, the
SpeedTech coil-over conversions are installed along with the spindles
and new Hotchkis steering kit. We picked up a new AGR 12:1 quick ratio
steering box last week and Donnie has the pitman arm for matching powder
coat.
For the rear-end, the UMI Performance parts are in stalled and the rear-end is attached. We
decided against a full coil-over rear-end in favor of QA1 single-rate
adjustable shocks and a set of BMR 2" drop coils. I REALLY wanted to go
with a coil-over kit, but the retrofit kits seem to have bad press due
to the angle of the shock and coil. The best solution is to get a
weld-in kit, but with the rear-end powder coated, that's just not a good
option. Besides, the coil-over kits are 2X the price of good shocks and
coils. Let's hope it works out.
Pictures should be updated this weekend after Turkey day and a short
road-trip Saturday.
05Nov09
Received the new spindles from Ground-Up
today. They appear to be from Really Right Stuff Detailing and look
great! I don't think we will need to get them powder coated as the body
of the spindles is a nice black already. Kind of depends on how much it
would cost but we will check with Donnie over at Primo's Friday.
Speaking of Right Stuff Detailing (GetDiscBrakes), Ryan from Ground-Up
suggested I contact them regarding our brake line dilemma. At this
point, I'm thinking we need to order a full set of power drum brake
lines, use the stock distribution block, and cut in the proportioning
valve prior to the distribution block. Not sure what to do with the rear
end and new calipers. I was thinking they would need a shorter line and
adapt to a flex line for the caliper, but I'm not sure. Hopefully Right
Stuff can help me figure it out.
29Oct09
Big day for the progress of the car today! I met Clint from Ace Autobody & Customs at Primo's Powder Coating. We dropped off
the frame, rear-end, cross member and all the peripheral mounting
hardware. I took a set of the control arms from SpeedTech Performance and UMI Performance to compare coatings. Both SpeedTech and UMI appear to
be using a full gloss powdercoat. We are going to have the frame and
piece parts done in a 60% semi-gloss.
Emailed Wilwood regarding the brake kit we have from them and what they
would recommend for a spindle solution. their recommendation is a stock
style spindle and couldn't guarantee fitment with a drop spindle. We
ordered a pair of spindles from Ground-Up and they should be here
Thursday. If the timing works, I will drop them with the other parts at
Primo's and see if they can put a gloss powder coat finish on them to
match the control arms.
23Oct09
Stopped in to talk with Clint and the boys over at Ace Autobody & Customs on the way out of town last weekend and
again this afternoon. The quarters look good, but I'm concerned about
some serious thin spots in the roof. The heavy sand blasting exposed
some thin areas where the vinyl had let rust start and the added heat
from blasting didn't help. Chris didn't think it would be too bad, but
it's a little concerning none the less.
Clint wants to put the body on a dolly next week and run the frame and
piece parts over to Donnie Lau at Primo Powder coating Inc. I stopped
today and talked with Donnie about the project and looked at a couple of
powder samples. The gloss looks really good, but Donnie pointed out that
it shows every imperfection and blemish. The 60% is just above a flat
finish so it should work fine, but I'll take a sample of the new control
arms from SpeedTech Performance and the rear control arms from UMI Performance to see what a good match would be. The plan would be
to drop everything off later this next week.
09Oct09
Received new pictures of the progress on the quarter panel install from
Ace Autobody & Customs. They are definitely making good progress!
Sounds like they need to order another rear wheel tub to get everything
dressed up. Clint also mentioned they received the new hinges for the
driver side, patched the lower sections on the front fenders and started
smoothing a couple of dents in the hood. Check out the updates over in
the Body Work section.
03Oct09
Got a call from Clint over at Ace Autobody & Customs this week. Sounds like the new quarters are
hung, the rear valance is welded in and one rear wheel tub has been
fixed. The front fenders are fixed and they started smoothing the hood.
They need to order another inner wheel tub for the other side because it
ended up being worse than expected once they started trimming the rust
out. Hope to get pictures later this week after the put the body back on
the frame to check everything out and get ready for powder coat of the
frame and hardware. I'd REALLY want to start assembly of the frame and
suspension...
The new adjustable upper control arms arrived today and they look great!
27Sept09
Sent our original non-adjustable upper rear control arms back to UMI for
credit towards a set of adjustable arms. Brad and Melody were great to
work with and we should see the new arms in the next week or so.
Called Glenn over at Capital City transmission regarding more details on
our 700R4 build. He considers it a mid-level build capable of 400-450hp
without having any trouble. I think we are shooting for 360-420hp so we
should be in good shape.
No updates on the body work. The shop was waiting for their welder to
come back to start tacking up the quarters. Looking forward to starting
assembly on the frame.
17Sept09
Having second thoughts about our non-adjustable upper rear control arms.
With our plans to lower the overall stance of the car, I'm concerned
that the pinion angle will not be correct for the drive shaft alignment.
Brad over at UMI Performance suggested an adjustable control arm would be better
suited for our application. I posted the arms on Craigs List to see if I
can recover the cost and order the adjustable arms. UMI will take them
back with a 20% restock fee.
07Aug09
The Hotchkis sleeves arrived and fit up to the control arms perfectly.
We picked up a 2-Ton shop crane from Harbor freight on-sale plus a 20%
off coupon. We looked at the 1-ton, but the reach was very short and I
didn't think we could drop an engine and tranny into place. For an extra
$45, it made sense to get the bigger cherry picker. I hope to hear back
on the condition of the frame and if it straitened out when mounted to
the body or if it will have to go to a frame shop for adjusting.
02Aug09
Received the QA1 shock kit today. The shocks look great!
Finally got in touch with Mark at Hotchkis
and he set us up with a set of sleeves for their steering rebuild kit.
Very nice guy and took car of us very nicely.
28Aug09
Better progress this week! The missing SpeedTech
billet ball joint covers came in after a quick call to Prodigy/GPSuperStore.
Seems they were overlooked in our original order. The QA1 shocks are
supposed to be on order now as well. I can't wait to see them.
The rubber bushing kit for the body came in today so we dropped off the
frame at Ace Autobody & Customs so they can join the frame and body and
start tacking in the new quarter panels. We still need to make sure the
body pulls the frame into shape or I have a feeling the frame will be
headed to a frame shop for a quick tweak.
Matt from Performance Solutions and I swapped a couple more emails regarding our engine
build. Sounds like he just finished a nice little 383 with Trick Flow
heads, a COMP cam, Edelbrock 600cfm, Air gap intake, and flat top
pistons. The has 9.25:1 compression, 16in of vacuum at idle, 400ft-lb or
torque and about 360hp. Sounds about perfect for our project.
21Aug09
Not a great week for project updates. The body mounts weren't ordered
and Goodmark was out of stock so we didn't transfer the frame to the
body shop this week as anticipated. The new quarters are here and a
mount kit has been ordered from CCP which should be here next week so
hopefully we can move the frame over soon. I'd really like to get
started on building the chassis after powdercoat.
The engine quote came back from Performance Solutions. It's higher than we originally discussed, but we also
added the MSD distributor, Blaster coil, and a set of ceramic coated
headers to make the system a little more turn-key. It would be a pretty
basic build-up for Matt and his team, but for a similar price, we could
drop in a finished 383 crate motor. I'd rather keep the money local and
there are distinct advantages to having local support if we had any
problems with the motor. I guess we aren't in a big hurry, but ideally I
would like to have the power train mounted in the chassis when we drop
the body back on.
The good news of the week is that our SpeedTech Performance shipment arrived. The bad news is that the QA1 shocks
and billet ball joint covers did not. In talking with Roger over at SpeedTech,
it appears Prodigy/GPSuperStore
ordered the control arms separately and hopefully is having the QA1
shocks drop shipped. I haven't been able to get in touch with Lisa so I
will have to call her Monday to see what is going on. The lesson
learned; we should have ordered direct from SpeedTech. I like the guys
at Prodigy/GPSuperStore, but they have a business to run for custom
builds and they are hard to get email responses from.
11Aug09
Had a great call with Matt Compton over at Performance Solutions regarding a build-up of our engine. He had some good
ideas regarding a full rebuild using our existing block and upgrading
the heads, cam, and intake. Not sure if we will stick with our Edelbrock
600cfm carburetor, but we will have to see what makes the most sense.
Should have an estimate package next week or so. While talking power
train, he suggested using 1:3.55 gears in the rear-end with the Eaton
Posi we are going to have built up. Matt finished an overdrive Mustang
that was turning only 2600rpm @ 75mph down the interstate. Seems quite
reasonable and probably better than what we would have had with 1:3.73
gears.
08Aug09
Separated the engine and transmission last evening so I can give back
the hoist we've been borrowing (Thanks Bill!). The latest
edition of Hot Rod Magazine has a coupon from Harbor Freight for a 1-Ton
folding engine hoist. It's tempting to pickup the hoist for $100 and
have it available when ever we need it. If I can't borrow one, we might
just have to get one and sell it when the project is finally done. They
sure are handy!
The engine is on the engine stand we picked up on Craig's List and ready
to be torn down. Still not sure of the final direction. Part of me says
just replace the heads and intake and see how long it gets us by. The
other part says we are too far into the project not to tear the engine
all the way down and build it back up or look at a crate motor.
06Aug09
Checked with SpeedTech Performance regarding the shipping of our front control arm and
coil-over package. Turns out they didn't have an order for them on the
books. Needed a quick call to Frank and Lisa over at Prodigy Customs (GPSuperstore)
to let them know SpeedTech had stock again and since they already
charged our card back the first week of July, it would be greatly
appreciated if they would get our parts on order. Lisa called to
confirmed the order today and everything should be shipping...
Summit
Bucks were expiring in another week so we ordered the thrust bearing
package for the QA1 coil-over's to make adjusting easier. Also ordered an
Energy Suspension engine/transmission mounting kit so we can confirm an
OEM style transmission mount will work with our new 700R4. There is
conflicting information that our late model ('85-86) Camaro
tranny needs a different tail-stock to mount up correctly. We will have
to see, but it looks like everything will fit. Of course the
transmission cross member will still need to move back.
31July09
Created the Suspension
section outlining our plans for the front and rear suspension. The rear
suspension is still undecided, but we very interested in the new
SpeedTech Performance non-weld coil-over conversion with QA1 shocks.
30July09
Stopped by to take a look at the progress today and was surprised by how
far the team at Ace had come without the frame. Both rear quarter are
cut away and the piece between the rear window and deck lid is removed.
Pretty scary looking really, but that's why I'm not doing the body
work! More pictures in the Body Work section.
18July09
Degreased the new tranny with engine cleaner, Simple Green and a stiff
brush. Sanded a few of the casting marks to remove the sharp edges and
overhangs. Sprayed a full can of hi-temp primer to cover all the nooks
and crannies. Not sure of the final cover so we will leave it in primer
until we decided on the engine color and spray them together.
16July09
Picked up a freshly rebuilt 700R4 transmission from Glenn at Capital City
Transmission with a rebuilt torque converter and generic TV cable. Looks
pretty good, but could use some degreasing and a coat of paint.
The Hotchkis premium steering rebuild kit arrived today, but to our
disappointment, the kit does not have the adjuster sleeves as shown in
the pictures. Turns out, it's not part of the kit according to Hotchkis.
12July09
First images are back from sandblasting. It's pretty much what we
expected, but the sandblasting itself looks great! You can even see the
holes along the right rear quarter where the car took out a carport
upright long before I took possession. You can also see where the body
guys of long ago filled the gap over the rear wheel with a mixture of
fiberglass and bondo. You can't escape the ugly truths with
sandblasting. Fortunately, the floors look good. My loving and ever so
tolerant bride dropped off the first installment check to pay off the
sand blasting and order the sheet metal. She may regret the days I tried
to sell the car and she wouldn't let me... Images in the Body Work section.
09July09
The new UMI Performance control arm reinforcement/frame braces came today.
They look outstanding and the sale price with free shipping made them a
great price. Sounds like the sheet metal will be ordered tomorrow
(Friday).
08July09
The body came back from sand blasting and as expected, there is some
work to be done. Looking at two full rear quarters, a rear inner wheel
well, lower valance, rear window to trunk lid filler, front fender lower
patch, and a set of driver side hinges. With all the new metal going
into the rear end, it will make the decision to leave the vinyl top off
a little easier.
Next step is to check the severity of the rear frame twist I noticed and
re-join the body and frame for the panel work to make sure everything
stays where it should. The quarters are out of stock until around July
20th so we may not see much work until everything comes in.
07July09
Ordered the transmission today. Should be ready to pickup later in the
week once the torque converter and TV cable arrive. Decided to order
stock spindles to go with the Speed-Tech control arms and QA1 coil-over
conversion kit.
Called Right Stuff and In-Line regarding brake and fuel lines so we
should be ready to order everything we need. Still a little confusion on
how the rear brakes will hook-up so we may wait until the frame is back
and the calipers are mocked up to see how the stock lines would have fit
the brakes.
02July09
Dropped the rear end off with Jim's Drive train Specialists for
tear-down earlier in the week and picked it up today. The original
gearing looked like a 1:2.76 ratio which would explain the smooth
highway RPMs, but poor out-of-the hole performance. Planned to change
the ratio to a 1:3.08 or lower, but after talking to Jim and Glenn at
Capital City Transmission, we are going to pickup a fresh non-locking
700R4. We will need to get a ShiftWorks
700R4 conversion kit for our staple shifter. Chassis, rear end, and misc
parts should go out for sandblast and powder coat next week.
26June09
The body went to shop today. Clint and the boys from Ace Autobody & Customs stopped by first thing this morning to
transport the body and chassis to their shop for body removal. After
about an hour, the body was off and the chassis was loaded back into the
trailer for delivery back to our place for re-assembly. Should be off to
sandblasting the first of next week and we can see what the body work
will require.
