I don't even want to know how you discovered that one.

friend "in the know"....

More progress on the dash. I called American Auto Wire to see if I could get some of their crimp fittings so I could wire my guages in without splices. They sent a dozen out for free and did not even charge me for shipping.

All wired in.

Painted the bezel in satin plastic paint.

Installed in the car.

Started work on the tail lights. I had the housings powder coated silver by a friend.
This is what I started with.


Powder coated housings.

Buffed the lights out with a 3M fiberglass compound.

Sanded and painted the recessed part of the light.

Installed in the housings.

Finished up in the trunk.
The trunk had a few coats of POR15 which had a light coat of primer sprayed over them as they tacked up.

Started spraying the trunk spatter paint.


Clear coated so it would be water proof.

[IMG]I had a hard time getting the clear to lay on even without getting overspray or dry spray problems. The trunk area is so large that the spray just hanhs in there and settles down and leaves a uneven look. I had some satin clear in a can. So, I tried a test spot and when I felt safe that nothing would lift I gave the whole floor a coat with a brush.

Next on my list were all of the lines on the motor and transmission. I started with mocking up some lines so I could order the material to make them.

I added a new Holley fuel pump for a little more fuel flow.

I made my own vacuum line out of some ss line that a friend had laying around.

New SS transmission lines installed.

New fuel lines installed.

The car had the incorrect rear end in it that was only held in with two bolts. It was wedged in and was to wide. Again I had a friend who had a 1968 f-body 12 bolt rearend that I bought from him and installed. I had to buy perches,axles, and bearings.
12 bolt rearend.

New axles, installing studs.

Drilled everything out for one size larger u-bolts.

Installed new bearings and seals.

The parking brake assembly was next. This should have been an easy install but it was far from it. The upper mounting bolt was broke off in the dash so it had to be drilled out. I tried to drill out and tap the original size but that did not work so I had to go one size larger. Which meant that I had to drill the bracket out a little larger also. Once installed the swith that activates the parking brake light would hit the AAW fuse box. I grabbed my dremel and sanded down a section of the fuse box that stuck out for no reason.
Before sandblasting and paint.

blasted and painted.

I know it's hard to tell but I did the two tone paint on the pedal. The factory had raw metal and a satin black. I went with flat black on top and satin on the bottom.

Finally installed. New pedal pad,handle, and installed the front parking brake line. If you look real close you can see where the switch is close to the fuse box.

Looks awesome. Hurray up and finish your car so you can start mine

Very nicely done up to this point. Keep the great progress up! I need my own garage so I can start mine some day. Maybe when you are done and can borrow your garage for say 2 years!!!

Very nice, I hate to say this but I cant wait till winter so I can get started back on mine!

Coming along great. For aftermarket gauges, those look very nice.

Nice work, looking forward to the next progress pis`s.

Thanks for the compliments. More pics to come as soon as I'm feeling better. I was the lucky receiver of a staph infection in my right leg.

Very nice on the progress. Hope you're feeling better soon, that's nothing to mess with.

Really like the gauges, they look great. Doing a great job; keep it up!

"This should have been an easy install but it was far from it. "
--> LOL, this sounds familiar; it always is!

Nice work!

Started my next project. Taking off the old mouse infested rear seat covers and fixing the old rusty frames.

I had to weld in new metal down this complete side and also in the back.

Here is some of the rusty metal that I had to replace. It was to thin and would have broke over time.

I have around ten hours into removing the old seat covers, welding in new metal where needed and wire wheeling the frames all down. After they were cleaned up I applied a coat of POR15 to the frames.


New seat covers on and sitting in place.

Starting to put the car back together to make sure everything fits and to find out what I might be missing.

velly interesting!

but not funny??

Nice job Rob!

Thanks, I hope I can get a lot more done this coming winter. Way to many things to do in the summer with the family and fall is far to busy getting everything put away.

You do great work Robert! Your a very patient dude.

where did you get the oil filter adapter?

Thanks, patience comes hand in hand with little money. LOL

I bought the oil filter adapter from Classic Industries when I purchased the long branch manifolds.

I see it's been a while since any updates were posted. I did not get done half of what I wanted to accomplish this winter but at least I did work on it some. I started with the back seat. A wet mouse nest is more than likely what rused out some of the rear lower seat frame. I had to make pieces and weld them in.
Here is just a portion of what I cut out and replaced.

One corner fixed.

More repairs.

All repaired and painted woth POR15 and top coated with Hammertone paint.



New seat cover installed and sitting in place.

Next I started on all of the front end brackets and rear bumper brackets. I don't think there was one bracket that did not need some kind of work. They were either bent,missing,stripped,broken weld nuts or the holes were made twice the size to help with adjustments.
I have over four hours into getting these straight alone.

I guess they had a hard time adjusting the front bumper. Some one used a torch to open up the holes.

I started fixing all of the holes.


All welded in and ground down. Hand filed the one bracket until they both matched.

After fixing all of the brackets I brought them to a good friends house for some satin black powder coating.






Seat brackets.

For the Pontiac Purists you might want to turn away now. With that said I wanted a stock looking but a more performance orientated shifter. I used my stock two speed shifter and a early 70's Pontiac Lemans shifter. The body of the shifters seem to be the same from 1968 to 1981 in all GM cars. The only two differences that I could find were that the feet change per tunnel of the car and 68 only had the neutral safety switch on the shifter.
All of the brackets are spot welded on and have alignment pins. So I drilled out 12 spot welds and changed the feet from my 68 shifter onto a 70's shifter that had the ratcheting option. I also had to change out one other bracket for the neutral safety switch.
Here are some of the brackets that I removed.


Welding brackets back on.

Side shot.

Neutral safety switch bracket (68 only)

Its nice to have friends with talent! Looks like you have a bunch too!

I installed the wiper arm assembly. I'm not sure why but both mounting points where the wipers go on had a plastic sleeve under the splined tip. It's not sealing anything but I figured they were there for a reason. I sed some shrink tubing that had the glue inside. I cut them down to length, heated them up and srunk them down to a nice tight fit.
[

I made these wood cribs to help with working under the car but also they put the weight right where it needs to be so I can also mount panels and work on gaps.

Here's what I plan on doing with my AR500 wheels. making a special adapter mounting washer so the PMD center cap will fit and stay centered.

think how much more you could get done if you gave them kids some Vick formula 44D say around 5PM LMAO!

Those wheels look great!

Thanks!! Now I just need to finish them off with some black center lugnuts.

Too bad somebody wasn't selling a set of those...

Next up, bigger brakes on the stock front spindles and drum hubs. Note: you need at least a 17" rim. kore3 has templates that you can print out and check to see if it will fit.

First I started with a set of stock drum hubs. I ended up getting four of them. Two of them were free minus the shipping. So, now I have an extra set.

The first thing on the list was to get the face of the hub turned down and add a 45 degree angle so the C6 corvette rotor will fit correctly.

Next I ran a thread chase down all the threads, removed the seals,races, and bearings. Then gave them a quick sand blast.


A little primer and brake paint and then new seals and bearings.

Next I removed the dust shields and caliper brackets.

Next up will be buying a kit from kore3.com to mount the C6 corvette brakes on the car. I will post more after I buy the kit.

New 13" brakes installed.
New KORE3 brackets.

New calipers.

Old and new rotors.

Installed.

New brake lines and brackets.

Master and adjustable prop valve.

I just love theese posts. Again, awesome job

Finihed the spacers to lock the PMD caps in place.



I just need to add a little longer stud and a lock nut.