Hehe, had my first burnout today. We filled the brake fluid and tranny and I was able to drive a few yards. There is still a little bit of air in the brake system, but I'll deal with that another time. I can already tell it has way more power than before. Barely touching the gas makes the wheels spin . That wasn't before. I now have a properly tuned Rochester and in the past it was a Holley with vacuum secondaries. Pretty sure that makes the difference. Fun Now I'll install my electric fans and wiring harness.
Ok, working on the wiring harness. Is the front side marker ground wire supposed to go to the little screw between the headligths on the core support? It looks tight. I ended up elongating the wire.
You've done a great job so far, Stefan. Did you manage to fix the problem with the shifter? Goed bezig, man.
Dank je! Well, I used duct tape for now for the shifter. So it pulls the lever up when you press the button. But that's of course not a long term solution. Not sure how to handle this. For now I ordered a new battery. I still had the old battery, which must be 10 years old now. But it starts pretty difficult at the moment. Hopefully it's only the battery, but I'm not sure about the choke mechanism. The carb is new to me, and I have no knowledge about it. I have the divorced choke type, and at the moment the butterfly valve is closed, but more things are happening at the carb; fast idle etc. No idea if all that is ok. So the few times I could start it was without the choke.
I realize this needs an update. It's been 8 months since the last post. In the meantime we have moved to a new house with a bigger garage . But as everyone knows that is a time consuming endeavor. The latest month I was able to work on the car again, and I've done a lot. I've installed the dashboard, wiring harness, rear bumper, heater box, grille, lights, fuel sending unit, insulation on the floor, quarter panel windows, new tires and more.
Now I'm waiting for the painter to bring me the doors, deck lid and hood. He still has them. I cannot install the front bumper yet, because I have to remove 1 fender first. I forgot to install the heater box, so it has to come off first. Bummer, because it was painted like this after gapping the doors. Hoping to be done with it. But no. The interior will be repaired later on during the winter. I want to drive it a couple of times first. Front and rear windows still have to go in and then wheels and lights need to be aligned. Then it would be drivable. Only thing, I don't have all the weatherstripping yet. I got a set with some of them, but the ones going on the door between the door and window for example aren't in the set. So I should pick a dry day for driving
Glued in the windshields yesterday, with spacers, so the trim will fit correctly. Will do that tomorrow. Painter also sent an update. Won't be long anymore. Have an appointment in two weeks with a shop for wheel alignment. Would be nice if I can do that with doors, hood and decklid installed.
On the windshield, don't leave the spacers in. I found this out the hard way! The spacers will bind at some point and crack the glass!!
That's strange, because they're supposed to stay. And otherwise, I don't see how that practically should work. I used urethane, so first I layed a bead around the glass perimeter, then put the spacer on the glass in the bead and then placed it in the car. No way to remove the spaced at that point. And I actually used fairly soft fuel line, so I don't see any issues here.
Ok, so I have a small issue now. Just visited the painter who was finishing the final few parts, one of them being the trunk lid. A couple of years ago I sourced a replacement from a '68 for my '69, and now I found out that it has a few holes my old one didn't have: I'm talking about the three above the key hole. I think a "SKYLARK" emblem should be installed there? The one picture I have of this lid after sourcing doesn't show any, so apparently it was removed. What to do here? Painter is almost finished, so filling the holes isn't an option anymore. I have a '69 GS 400 which isn't original anymore, so I think I could live with "SKYLARK" and since I'm from Europe probably no one knows that's incorrect. I don't want to leave it open and just plugging doesn't look right either. Any other brilliant ideas?
No, I know. My original trunk lid didn't have these holes, but a few for the GS lock emblem. But the donor wasn't from a GS, but a 4-door '68. Apparently that one did have some sort of emblem above the key hole. Don't know which one though, can't find any image online yet with an emblem there. Most have them on the side, either "Skylark" or "Custom" or maybe even something else. I'm just looking for a way to use/cover those holes. Only photo I have of the donor:
Installed hood, trunk lid and doors today. I'm very happy with the result. Some of you might not, but it's my car.
