[DeanBenson]

Hello guys. I've been reading your posts for almost a year now. This website is a tremendous asset to us all. I'm restoring a 64 LeMans convertible. I thought I took plenty of pictures during disassembly. Boy was I wrong. I went to bolt the first piece on the frame and ?????? Which way does it go. I hope it gets easier on the next piece.

Here's my simple question. There will be many more. Which way do the lower control arms go on? Slot to the front or little round hole to the front? Seems like they would bolt on fine either way.

Here's a pic. Thanks any help. I really want to get the wheels back under this frame.

[John V.]

Dean, I'll be curious if anybody else has a good answer.

I cannot be certain that my lower rear control arms were positioned as per the factory install because I am not the original owner and the rear had been swapped before I bought the car.

When I pulled mine off, I did tag them for orientation.

My LH arm (driver side) had the round hole to the front. My RH arm had the oval hole to the front.

The factory illustration found in the MPC does not show the round & oval holes, however it does provide a clue. It depicts the RH arm and shows the bushing installed from the inside (car centerline) side of the arm.

Doesn't depict the LH arm but you might guess that the intent was to orient them both so that the flange of the bushing was closest to the car centerline on both sides.

And I think that is how mine were oriented. Assuming the flange of the bushing presses in from the side of the arm with the formed "socket" and protrudes thru to the "receiver" side that is just a flat opening.

I think the socket is on the flange side of the bushing because mine show the evidence where the original bushing flange cut into the high spots on the outside of the arm on the socket side.

Correct me if I am wrong please.

Like you, it seemed to me they could go either way and wondered why mine were oriented reverse on each side, but after going thru the above, maybe they had a reason to orient the bushings and that is why my arms were reversed side to side.

I plan to reinstall mine as they came out. BTW, mine is a '64 GTO convertible built at Fremont in Nov. '63.

[DeanBenson]

Thanks John. I agree with your entire post and the bushing orientation. I'll install mine the same as you describe. Thanks again and get ready for question number 2.

[DeanBenson]

Well I made a little more progress. I hope to have the car painted in the next few weeks. I painted the trunk, wow what a PITA, no matter how much I cleaned it, there is still dust/dirt/crap in all those nooks and crannies.

Now I'm stuck, where does the body color end and the black start? I'm talking about inside the top well, above the wheel houses and the place where the convertible top frame mounts. Should I paint it all black, half black half body color based on the pinch weld at the top of the wheel housing? Then mask a line somewhere across the top front of the wheel housing before the frame mounting area? Does anyone have pictures of this area on their car. I realize a lot of this will never be seen but I'd hate to have the top down and then be looking down behind the rear windows and see a bunch of mismatch colors/primers and crud.

Any help or pics? My email is dean.benson@att.net

Thanks
Dean

[pfilean]

It's been years since I had my 64GTO so my memory is probably faded but I thought all that area was body color overspray. There was a fabric "skirt" that the top went into when it was down and the fabric kind if most of that area. Then the interior side panels that protected the top mechanism covered some of it.

[Hammertime Mike]

Dean, I'm getting ready to restore a 64 LeMans conv. So your thread will help me too. Mines been through the mill. But there is still some areas with the original blue. I'll take a couple photos of the well area and post them.

[John V.]

Like to see others myself.

Dean, mine is originally Pinehurst Green. Sometimes difficult to distinguish bare metal from the green.

Mine is still sitting (forlornly) disassembled. It had a color change Maroon repaint and then red primered over the repaint. But hidden areas that have been exposed by my disassembly remain original Pinehurst Green. So pretty sure the areas you are asking about are as original (but now some rust and lots of dirt added to the mix).

However my top is stacked in the well, and the well cover is (mostly) in place, so not easy to see much to help you. 99% sure my well cover is a replacement, think that's been discussed before. But not much has affected the well coating. Inside of trunk was painted maroon, but still evidence of the Pinehurst Green pops thru. It was not primered over, so still Maroon inside the trunk.

Looking at your pic, first thing I note is the paint on the top edge of the sheet metal behind the seat back.

That checks out with the Pinehurst Green paint on that same top edge of mine. The rear edge of it is also Pinehurst Green. Difficult for me to see down into the well. Haven't tried to see from the trunk side. I can recall seeing Pinehurst Green up in there, but to what extent I'll have to look again.

Behind the seat back, looks to me that panel was left in red primer (I believe original, not related to the primer job done on the exterior).

Top of wheel housings seem to have been painted somewhat like you've done, but this where it is difficult to judge the transition from Pinehurst Green to unpainted. If I had to guess, it looks like it may have stopped about in line with the top edge of the seat back panel. If I was guessing, any paint from there down is unintentional overspray.

The mounting brackets for the top cylinder seem to have been painted black top to bottom.

The side panels themselves seem to have a lot of red primer showing.

My interior is Black, so the exposed portion is Black, haven't tried to see the delineation point.

The close out panel is hot dipped galvanized and a sealer was used in a band around the edges after it was installed.

The cylinders don't look to have been in place when the mounting brackets were painted, but looks to me they got hit with overspray possibly from the sound deadening stuff sprayed thru the opening before the close out panels were installed? It looks thick splatter, not how paint overspray would look.

I'll try to get a couple pix to show all this over the weekend.

[Hammertime Mike]

Dean, I took a some photos of the well area of my 64. The light blue is the original color. Hopefully this will help. Mike

[DeanBenson]

Thanks Guys. The pictures and descriptions help. A lot. Thanks again Dean

[John V.]

Best I could do. Not real pretty. But maybe useful to you.

[DeanBenson]

Thanks again for the photos. I'm pushing to paint this week.

I have a rust free Tempest deck lid that I want to use. Can someone send me measurements on where the 2 holes are drilled in the right rear corner for the Lemans/GTO emblem. Distance from the right edge and up from the bottom. I'd like to drill them now in primer versus in the paint. I think I can figure out the lower trim holes but if you have those dimensions to, that would help.

I'm heading back to the garage for another day of blocking......