70 Stage1 Convertible

It's always nice to have a part that still wears the original paint. The doors on this car are original, and still have original paint on the jambs. I will be taking it to the auto body supply guy and seeing if he can take a picture with his magic camera. Hopefully that will be enough.

There are easier ways, like just going to autocolorlibrary.com and ordering straight through them. The base colors are usually really close in color. I've used them several times now. The base paint is not the highest quality, but if you use a good quality clear over it, you're in good shape. The drawback of the more inexpensive base is that it requires more product for the same application. Mix ratios are 2:1, as opposed to 1:1 for a higher quality base.

 

Santa came today with a pile of parts!

I made some progress on assembly, but not a ton. Santa didn't come until 4pm. I basically had everything ready to go beforehand, so I didn't miss a beat when they did come.

Tomorrow, all bushings are pressed in, and hopefully this weekend I'll have the chassis on the ground.

 

I pulled the front upper control arm bits out and started fitting them together, and found out that the "faux" rivet kit from TPP for the upper ball joints is a total joke. The heads are so small they go nearly through the holes in the ball joints. Oddly enough, the size of the heads are correct if you install them upside down...but that's contrary to the idea of having the look of riveted ball joints. So I took the bolts that were supplied with the ball joints and ground them down until they resembled something like what was on there from the factory. Great...next!

The big convex washers that came with the shaft kit for the upper control arm bushings had a gold cad-like finish on them. I'm pretty sure these were just zinc or silver cad originally, so I just took them to the buffer and zipped the gold coating off. Magic!

 

I am nearly ready to get this thing back on the ground. I just have the front brakes to install. I ran out of steam and time this evening...so tomorrow morning I'll pick back up.

 

It's back on the ground now. I took photos before putting on those lovely 30 year old whitewalls and rusty 14" rallyes though

When I was installing the brakes, I screwed up and installed the left and right brake adjusters on the wrong sides. I went to do a preliminary adjustment and ended up tightening the adjuster all the way in...causing me to disassemble both sides to swap them. That's what I get for not double checking.

Brake and fuel lines will be here sometime mid week. In the interim, I'll bring the body back in and start getting that ready. I don't imagine it'll take long to get it cleaned up and ready for paint. The doors and fenders are in pretty good shape, with the exception of two creases in one of the doors. I have a suspicion that the fenders are "flat tops" and will need some help there. Trunk lid is nice. Hood is exceptionally nice, but I'll have to make the spring disappear on the bottom side.

Maybe end of February to see some color?

 

Thanks for the tip, Frank!

 

All stock rubber bushings.

Thanks!

 

On to body work!

 

I started on the doors and trunk today while waiting on setup time for the body shell. I don't have any fun in-progress pics except this one of the trunk lid. The paint lifted as fast as I could brush the stripper on...never seen it work that fast before!

So, since this is a Skylark trunk, I am going to need a stencil for the GS emblem holes. Anyone know of a source?

 

Mostly, yes. I'll use an air file for some of the big stuff, but I'd say 80% is hand work.

 

Second round of super build...

I haven't been working much on this the last week or so, due to the new building needing my attention before certain things are completed. But I got a few hours in this afternoon after doing some wiring out back. I'll continue on the building wiring for now while I let this cure. I might pull the fenders down and start messing with them...

 

I was able to get all of the fuel and brake lines installed this morning....except the two small hard lines that connect the front brake hoses to the wheel cylinders. Apparently, those are a separate item in the "drum brake line kit" from Inline. WHY...I have no idea. Other than that, all hard lines are installed. The chassis is in the house garage right now...it's fun running back and forth from garage to garage because you need a tool.

 

This is what I think is the last round of polyester primer...famous last words, I know. Started blocking with 180 and gave up for dinner.