[Steve Barcak]

Glad you are making progress with the 60 Jim. Lookin good, keep us posted.

[marks73ta]

Hey Jim, I love the '60. I saw your block at Pauls last time I was down there. Paul is impressed with the thickness of those blocks. Keep the build going. Still wished I was building a '60 versus the '63. Mark L

[Gas455]

This is the back of mine.



Also...being the Canadian/Australian model...
It has the 59/60 Chev Dash in it...which I reckon is much sexier.
If I bought a USA version...I would do the conversion in a heart beat.

I bought some 59 Caddy tail lights for mine about 10 years ago...but they haven't made it onto the car.

This is Lance's car...hard to tell in the pics...but he has the chrome moulds removed along the fins.

[twooldgoats]

They're both beautiful! What kind of suspension mods do they have to get them so low? I've been thinking about pearl paint on mine or flames. Will probably just paint it the Cameo Ivory first, then add flames later. One step at a time. I need to get it on the road.

Jim

[MOJO Catalina]

Very cool '60's boys..

Check out what this guy did:




A bit different but I frikken love it!

[Engine-Ear]

Originally Posted by U47

Jim, have you ever thought about installing a 59 instrument cluster??

I like that idea, too!

[twooldgoats]

I didn't know it would fit until it was mentioned up here. It would have been easy since the whole instrument panel was missing when I bought the car (along with all the dash and engine wiring). However, I bought a '60 Pontiac instrument panel on eBay and, since I'm cheap by nature, I decided to stick with it.

Jim

[twooldgoats]

Originally Posted by MOJO Catalina

Very cool '60's boys..

Check out what this guy did:




A bit different but I frikken love it!

I couldn't do without the quad taillights, though. IMO, they're one of the defining elements of a '60 and my favorite styling feature. Like I said above, I changed my '63 LeMans into a Tempest, because I like the quad taillights.

Jim

[twooldgoats]

Lots of great '60 customs coming out of the woodwork. I love it! I'm starting to get back into this project again. Picked up the TH400 and torque converter last night. I'll get the engine later this week or early next.

Jim

[MOJO Catalina]

Originally Posted by twooldgoats

I couldn't do without the quad taillights, though. IMO, they're one of the defining elements of a '60 and my favorite styling feature.

Jim

Yeah, you're right.. That convertible looks like some type of Olds from the back..
I have thought about rigging my tail lights up so that the backup lights are the directional signals (arrow shaped) and that the round ones are the brake lights (higher up on the rear).

Maybe some day..

[Engine-Ear]

Originally Posted by MOJO Catalina

I have thought about rigging my tail lights up so that the backup lights are the directional signals (arrow shaped) and that the round ones are the brake lights (higher up on the rear).

Cool idea!

[Gas455]

Originally Posted by twooldgoats

They're both beautiful! What kind of suspension mods do they have to get them so low? I've been thinking about pearl paint on mine or flames. Will probably just paint it the Cameo Ivory first, then add flames later. One step at a time. I need to get it on the road.

Jim

Mine is riding on the bump stops...has been that way for the 13 years that I have owned it...don't think the springs or shocks have moved. When driving the car....you bounce around like a mexican jumping bean.
Next year...I will be raising the car up a little to get a better ride...and maybe a better weight transfer at the track. I love them low...but want a better ride quality. My Caddy is dropped low aswell.

I have gone through quite a few mufflers...wearing them out. I now have scrape/scrub plates welded to them to prolong their life.

[twooldgoats]

Gas455, maybe a simple low-rider style hydraulics system would give you the best of both worlds. I've picked up a few low-rider magazines in the past to check it out, but it looked a little complicated and expensive. As far as I know, no one makes dropped spindles, etc. which would be the right way to do it. I haven't looked lately for lowering kits, though.

Jim

[blueghoast]

I think you can get a air ride system very reasonable.?



GT.

[twooldgoats]

New parts arriving. I picked up my TH400 and converter from Hughes. It looks like all the pieces of the puzzle will fit together. The converter snout fits in the hub spacer and I previously checked that the hub spacer will work with the crank register. When I ordered the kit from Wilcap, they custom made the hub (no extra charge) to fit the larger register of the aftermarket forged crank instead of a stock '60 crank. The adaptor plate will fit over the original dowel pins on the '60 block and it has two dowel pins of its own that will fit the TH400. The Wilcap kit looks like a quality piece. It included a Mopar starter which can be mounted on either side and also included all the various bolts and nuts needed to make the conversion. It will work with either a BOP or Chevy bolt pattern. I decided to go with a BOP pattern. The only modification necessary to the TH400 is to drill out the two top bolt holes from 3/8" to 7/16". The adaptor plate adds about 3/4" to the overall length of the engine and transmission.

I pick up the engine from Paul Carter at Koerner Racing next week.

Jim

[MOJO Catalina]

Wow, that's some beautiful stuff... I especially like the "either side" starter idea..
What's that entire rig cost?

[twooldgoats]

It wasn't cheap. $575 for the kit (adaptor plate, crank spacer, solid flex plate and all the bolts and fasteners) and another $135 for the Mopar gear reduction starter.

Jim

[Poncho60]

Referring back to post #25, I'm fairly certain Pontiac did some styling exercises for the 60 models where the backup lights were on the top of the rear fenders. As far as the comment about the "Olds" goes....1960 is the year. One thing that's always puzzled me is why the two custom 1960 Bonneville "elcaminos" were fitted with a third taillight on the rear gate.....to me it actually clutters up the design....but that's just me. The job done on both of those is out of this world...I think.

[twooldgoats]

More progress to report on the '60. We finished the preliminary work on the carpet install today. I say preliminary because there are a few wrinkles, but I think sitting in the Arizona sun for a few days will eliminate them and allow the carpet to settle into place (if the sun ever comes out here again). If not, I may have to trim a quarter inch or so off in a couple of areas for it to fit just right. This was the hardest carpet install I've ever done. The rear half was no problem at all, but the person that put the front half together had to be drunk or on their last day of work. The jute pad was glued on the underside all wrong. It was doubled over on itself and the two sides didn't align at all. In addition, the rear edge of the front half (which has a binding sewn on to provide a finished look) was WAY off. We had to remove the binding and trim diagonally to get it close to right---five inches off the passenger side tapering to 0" off the driver side. Then we laboriously cut the jute padding off with razor blades. I then glued the jute pad to floor and layed the carpet piece over the top. It needed five inches or so trimmed off each side and a couple of inches off the passenger side on the top to be close to right. WAY too much work for what I paid for the carpet.

Paul, my engine guy, was under the weather for a few days so I probably won't take the engine home until late in the month. That will give me a lot of things to do. In the mean while, body work beckons.

Jim

[twooldgoats]

Still waiting on the engine (sorting out the deeper '60 pan and oil pump pickups), so I've been really productive with the bodywork. I've worked with the long boards to establish the quarter panel line (after taking off the original trim pieces and welding up the remaining gaps left by the trim). I'm just about ready for spraying the DP90 on the bare metal, but that will probably wait until after I get the engine and trans in and the new trans cross member made.

I decided to try a "floating" grill by bolting panels I made up over the grill lines on the sides where the turn signal lights used to be. I'll probably add some small circular lights to take up some of the large expanse left. I'll paint it all body color including the headlight rims in order to emphasize the grill shape. It's a little hard to picture at this point, so I'm looking forward to getting primer on all the pieces so I can see better what the finished front end will look like.

Jim