Update. Sorry about the delay in posting- I've been on vacation and the car sat idle for the last week and a half. I made good progress before I left and in the last few days. The engine compartment wiring is complete- I bought a new engine harness but was able to reuse the front light harness. I cut the old wire wrapping off, cleaned the fittings and re-wrapped it with new vinyl harness tape. Looks like new. I forgot how hard it is to wire the starter solenoid! My fat fingers don't work too well. The radiator is installed- had a new core mated to the original tanks by a local shop- the tanks were in good shape. I painted the fan shroud and radiator top plastic support with Krylon plastic paint- Satin Black. Came out ok. The remanufactured Quadrajet and fuel lines are installed. The radiator and heater hoses are installed. I went with Tower clamps on all as I've heard some guys had leaking issues with the spring-type clamps on the heater hoses. The headlights are original T-3 from Lectric Limited. The trans cooler lines are installed- from Inline Tube. That's about it for now. I'll post more as the engine compartment is finished and I start on the interior.
Update. The power brake booster and the rebuilt master cylinder are installed, along with the brake lines to the master cyl. The engine compartment is basically complete now. I installed the new gas tank from the Parts Place- GM34 made in Canada, eh. Real nice unit. I fought and fought the new mounting straps, but I won with the help of my floor jack and lots of choice words that made me feel better while on my back fighting it. I even remembered to tape the fuel pickup wire to the top of the tank first- notice P Glade's cool tank pad on top. Nice piece- I bought it about a year ago and it's finally installed. I talked to Tony R. today and told him my story of fighting the tank install and he said, "I plan to use a longer bolt to get them started, then install the correct bolts after the fact". Great, now you tell me Tony :rantI should have thought of that myself) Word to the wise when installing a new tank. I started on the interior this past weekend- running the wiring harness and prepping for the instrument panel install. With everything pre-installed on the freshly refinished bezel, it went in pretty smoothly-- after I found out I had to loosen and drop the steering column for it to fit. I replaced all the bulbs before install- hope they work! I rebuilt the clock with a quartz movement from Instrument Services, Inc. Nice unit and nice people. I hooked up the heater cables and all the wire connectors- thank god for little green tags I put on last year when I yanked out the harness. The dash pad is original- it survived all these years unscathed- luckily. I hooked up the battery and the headlights work, the wiper motor makes wiping motions and the washer makes pumping noises- even the horn works. That's why I installed the orig, cracked steering wheel- to test the horn- and maybe to steer when I take it around the block in a week or so. :laugh: Bumpers install is next. They are recrhromed already- just have to blast and paint the mounts. Then the interior work will continue- window install, then the top pump, etc. More to follow. Thanks for reading. Randy
Lookin great Randy! Are you going to restore the steering wheel yourself? If not, a local body shop would probably do it fairly reasonable. They may not want to tackle the horn button emblem though. The red always seems to fade! That's a hard piece to restore.
Todd- I'm going to try to restore the wheel myself. Looks like a lot of labor, but maybe a good winter project. If not, I have a really nice ralley wheel from a later model Skyark that will work- it won't be correct, but it will look good. The emblem may be tough- you're right about that. It's really not that bad as it is, though. Thanks for the post. Randy
Great job as usual Randy. As for the wheel it still looks good. I myself like the sporty look of the Ralley Wheel.
Randy, Nice to meet you in Columbus. It was a great show even though it rained on Saturday. I'll have to make it over and see your car before the snow flies.....p Lon
Thanks Lon- likewise. Just send me a PM when you want to come see the car- be happy to show it to you. Randy
Randay, I just got through reading your thread here, and I'm in complete awe! Your car looks amazing, and I can't wait to see more.
Eric- thanks very much for the good words. I have some recent pics I'm getting ready to post to update the project status. Randy
Sorry it's been a while since I posted an update to my project. I've been working on the front end and the interior. As many of you know, that takes TIME. I was very lucky to find a really nice 68 grill last year during my initial part's searches. I spend about 2.5 hrs masking it prior to painting with Duracolor low gloss black. It turned out nice. Once the grill was installed, we put on the front bumper (thanks Kevin ) Only one small scratch in Keith's beautiful paint job- oh well, it had to happen. I'm sure there will be more before I'm finished. Joe will work his magic and make them disappear. The front end is essentially complete now, with just some tweaking left. I assembled the rear, side trim panels that I got from Legendary. I carefully bent back the orig staples on the hard curved piece and reused them by laying the new cardboard backing on the staples and pounding the staples thru the cardboard, then re-bending them- it worked great as the staples are very stiff. The gluing went ok and the panels look nice in the car after test fitting them. The front door panels are complete and ready to install. I had the long arm rest bases re-chromed by Mr G's in Texas- they do great work. I drained and refilled the convertible top motor with tranny fluid and it still works great. I reinstalled with new rubber mounts. I have also installed the new driver's door glass and windshield from Auto City Classic in MN. I had the glass date coded to match the other original glass in the car. I had a local glass guy install the windshield as I figured if I did it, it would leak. The experts make it look easy- and hopefully, dry! Last Sunday was a big day- I filled the rest of the fluids and put some 93 Octane Amoco in the tank, plus a few ounces in the primaries. I figured I had run out of excuses, so I fired up the 400 for the first time since rebuilding the engine last Dec. It chugged a little, but quickly caught and ran as great as it did on the test stand at Gary Paine's. It was music to my ears to hear the new exhaust for the first time. It even moved on it's own power out of the garage. I'm still chasing leaks in the brake line fittings, but the emergency brake works fine!:TU: I'll post some more updates after I test fit and install the top and adjust all the door glass- and finish up the interior. I still have to polish all the stainless trim (not looking forward to it) and install the correct 68 rear bumper that's out for rechroming now (thanks Scott). Randy
Randy! Looks great! How did you prep and paint your intake manifold and valve covers? Did you use a high temp primer or just paint the bare metal with Buick red? Thanks!
Excellent Thread! Keep up the hard work too I just love the body lines of the 68-69 cars, and that red looks awesome! Keep posting!:beer
Todd- I bead blasted and painted them with about 4 coats of Duplicolor DH1608 Red. That's the 1200 deg. paint. No primer. Hope it holds up! Randy
Sounds like that should work! I'm having my covers dipped and then I was planning to paint them with Krylon Buick red on the bare metal. That paint is only rated up to 500 degrees so I hope that will be enough heat protection.
