Wow, this post is awesome! I'm guessing/assuming your in the military (or at least that was the vibe that a got from one of the posts, plus, there's your avatar), so what's your mos? Just curious. You're car is looking awesome, and your posts are nice and informative...kinda like reading a magazine. Anyhow, keep up the good work, and good luck! Romy
Thanks Romy, I am a 13F (Field Artillery forward observer). I am glad you are enjoying my post, I hope that others will follow in my footsteps, I am sick of seeing Chebbys and Fords in Car Craft. I will post more soon.
Thanks Skyman. I saw a write up on doing the flush fit a couple of years ago in one of the car rags. As I remember, it was both a simple solution and quite a bit of work. Lots of trial fitting, welding, more trial fitting and some custom glass work. Of course, this was on a Camaro instead of a good car but it really struck me. I'd be very interested to see the write up when you are done. I am really enjoying following along with your project. Thanks for taking the time to put all of this out here for us to see.
I'm working on a 71,also trimming drip rails off i considered doing away with the front and rear mouldings.I talked to the glass guy that comes by my shop and picked up black windshield moulding that u can use1 of 2 ways.Cant decide if im gonna use it or not though.
cpk71, go trimless.... Be different. It is the little details that really make a car stand out. Be sure to re-weld the drip rails after you shave em, I have seen them "flex apart" after paint before, don't want to let it happen to ya. Did anyone happen to catch "Overhaulin" tonight? They did a 67 skylark. To bad it had a Chebby 350 in it, I really liked (some) of their ideas. That show gets a huge thumbs up from me!!!
Dash continues Ok, sorry, these pics are a little hard to see, I got my new instrument cluster back from the air conditioning shop today. Based on my template, they cut and bent the new insert. It obviously needed a little trimming and tweaking to fit correctly, but I got it mocked up and ready to weld. Then.... The trigger on my welder broke!!!:af: Oh, well. It isn't like I am in a hurry or anything. So here is the template and panel
dash This is where the real work came in. This will be filled with an 18 gauge polished aluminum panel with Autometer Phantom (white faced) gauges. I needed to trim some of the bracing inside the dash to clear the gauges, and allow for room to mount the panel on the half inch "tabs" of the insert (for future maintenence). Took me about an hour of slicing, then an hour of welding new braces (or adding to the other side of an existing brace to compensate for the trimming around the inst. cluster). Here is the basic fit, and look of the new dash. (All smooooooooth).
$@@@ And on that note, I close another busy day at the shop. But I will leave you with this.... The shiney mountain of metal below is all my bare metal fenders, doors, and of course, all steel 3" outlaw cowl induction scoop!
Congrats on the progress man. We're all watching this thing come together. :TU: I bet if you documented it really well with pictures and a short (and a long) writeup, you could probably sell this off to a magazine and get a little extra money to help out with the car.
Thanks Cody. I go from excited to depressed weekly on this thing. some days it seems so close, and some days so far from being done. I've stuck with er this far though.
rear window OK, the pile of sheetmetal is now in etching primer, and initial straightening work has started. The rear window is now a perfect fit. How I did it.... I used a filler called All Metal, which is supposed to have the strength of sheetmetal when cured to build up the channel. First, I started raising the height of the channel until the window sat completely flush with the body. After that, I built the channel "in" around the window to a 1/16" gap all the way around. Once I had the basic fit, I used Rage Gold filler to get the edges perfect, and smooth any imperfections. Here are some pics.
Latest updates I got my hoodscoop ready to weld today. (I am using an Outlaw 3" steel cowl induction scoop from The Speed Center). I started by placing the scoop on the hood and trimming the edges to fit the contours of the hood. This scoop is 53" long, so covers most of the hood. I left about a 1.5" overhang on the rear edge, and trimmed it to match the angle of the windsield. Next I pulled the scoop and sprayed both it and the hood in Dupont etching primer, followed by Chassis black on the underside. The hood also got Chassis black in the area the scoop would cover (to keep it from rusting). Then I placed the scoop back on and measured very carefully. I centered it by measuring from each rear edge to the outside edge of the hood, and measuring each corner in the front to the forward corners of the hood. Once I was sure where I wanted it, I outlined it in marker. To get a solid weld, I needed to grind the welding surface back to bare metal, so I did, following my outline. Here's a pic.
Gauges Now, my fuel pressure and voltmeter will go under the scoop, so they can't be seen from outside the car, but easily read by the driver. To do this I had to weld a panel accross the center cowl vent (to mount them), and remove the center rear section of the hood for clearance. Once the hoodscoop is in place I will fabricate a brace to strengthen the rear edge of the hood again. Here is a shot.
