[Bob Rutledge]

As Ollie said, no lugnut holes. Did the lugnut hole driller take the day off?

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by Bob Rutledge

As Ollie said, no lugnut holes. Did the lugnut hole driller take the day off?

I think he ran away when he found out these were going on a Pontiac.

I saved about $50/wheel by doing them myself - though I may not be able to use the steel inserts they sent me - requires a 1-1/8"Ø 90° countersink. I cannot find one. I may be able to build one or simply go straight shank lugs.

[Scarebird]

Car was shot in primer seal - next up block sanding...






...and some more sanding on the fenders.

[Bob Rutledge]

Looking good. Will be sweet once finished.

[Scarebird]

Subframe day!

Nick wants to spray mid next month. He wants to hang the fenders, etc. Original plan was to spray it in pieces and send back. Too much bodywork says Nick. I need to redo the subframe - would look like metric ass with nice bodywork and filthy frame. So I will strip it down and get it back to him to prime and paint.



You Mid West/East Coaster's may want to turn away. I decided not to gamble with stripped nuts and cut holes in the floor, then sprayed the bolts with AeroKroil. This stuff kicks PB Blaster's ass - and doesn't stink to high heaven neither.



...10 minutes later:





Rolled the assy onto a tow dolly. One would think people would keep their distance but some dope in a Mustang had to draft me the whole way back to the shop.



Off to Harbor Fright later to get one of those pressure washer sand attachment gizmos. Ordered new bushings, etc. Will reuse old B spindles from my Lemans and go 12" rotor since I already have them...

[Scarebird]

Things are moving pretty quick. Nick let one of the apprentices shoot the firewall. They use a Ford matte black on all of their black metal.



Next up for the matte treatment is the subframe, back from Sandblasting, Inc.



The A-arms did not make it to the blasters; pulling the bushings is not much fun with those specialized presses.



Ordered a new roller cam for this build. Was not planning on this but Nick wants to put the sheet metal on, so I will put the engine/trans onto the subframe and then install as a unit as the factory did.

[hurryinhoosier62]

Been using AeroKroil and Silikroil for years. Best penetrating lubricant there is,IMO. Project's looking good.

[Qball]

Great progress in a relatively short amount of time. What will the final color be?

[Scarebird]

71-72 Off white with T/A stripes.

[Scarebird]

arrggh.

wallet taking a wallopin' this week. Ordered new cam from Comp - they held the order because price went up from $335 to $395. Comp says their core cost went up,
$60? bull. Called Jeff at KRE and worked out a piece; 210°/220° 0.428 lift with 112° lobe separation. Cheaper too, should have called him to start. Of course the delay pushes me getting the subframe back to paint.

Got a bunch of stuff from rockauto.com and APE. Rockauto stuff was suspension linkage - mostly Moog except centerlink which looks crappy. I will visit the alignment shop and have them look at my old one and see if it is ok.

[Scarebird]

A Tale of Three Center Links...

The OEM piece had about a foot of crud on them, so I decided to replace. Rockauto had TRW pieces on clearance and were the same part number as the Moog pieces. I received it quickly and realized they were simply cast steel, not forged. Also, note the pivot opening - or lack of. The angles and bends were much shallower than the stock piece also. To rockautos credit they IMMEDIATELY refunded the purchase cost.



The Moog piece was supplied by Ames. Pretty close to the stock unit. I would love to know how to test the centerlink to see if they are good - usually they are the last thing replaced on a front end...

[Rack776]

Cool build so far, 2 questions, you said you got the car for free...you did get a good title for it too right?.....I had a friend who put a ton of work into a 65 mustang and the guy who gave it to him for $150 never got around to finding the title...PITA to get it registered in PA once he lost contact with the previous owner.

Did you post any photos of the rear roll pan and bumper mocked up?
I saw the photos went from a "rough idea" to in the body shop,
just curious how the final rear bumper/taillight idea came out.

The quickly render you did looks like it will work out well...kind of what Pontiac intended for 1970 with the wrap around window & chrome bumper.

I have seen guys take 79-81 T/A's and use the 70-73 front & hood with the 74-78 taillights and a 77-78 bumper and it looks pretty good, HPP magazine ran a story on one a few years back.

Good Job so far and thanks for motivating me to get some work done to my own cars.
Keep us up to date, cool project!
-Jason

[Scarebird]

Rack, yes I got a clear title.



More progress. Installed a new steering box. New linkaga to follow. Formed up brake lines. Dropped motor. These clamshell mounts are a PITA - I reamed out the holes to make fit but was a bugger to line up. We needed a drill with drive extension and somebody pulling the motor assy sideways to install.

TKO600 on final approach. Having the subframe on the hoist and sliding in with a cherry picker is the way to fly...




All mated up. had to mod trans support, no big deal.




This is a concern - this seems to be just a hollow hole - no connection to exhaust?

[2002Z4CSS]

The car is coming along nice.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

This is a concern - this seems to be just a hollow hole - no connection to exhaust?

No concern, weld up the hole in the manifold. the correct manifold gasket will cover the hole in the head. Yes, that hole is not connected to the exhaust.

Need any help, I am not that far away.

[Scarebird]

Finishing up the subframe.

Installed steering linkage, clutch linkage, etc. Went to put on wheels and forgot I went with 12" B spindles, so 14" rims don't fit... called Verdean and he had a pair of rims from an Astro. Had to flip one of the LCA bolts as it would interfer with the exhaust.



Lifted the whole assy with balking and straps, set down on tow dolly.



Ready to go to the bodyshop...

[Scarebird]

More progress:

Dropped by to see what was up with the T/A. They had the subframe attached, and some of the sheet metal hung. Definitely progress, seeing the 73 nose make the heart go pitty-pat. Sorry 79-81 guys.



Details of front end. One of the attaching brackets is missing and not repopped. I may make a run of functional replacements - see if there is a market for this...

[mike nixon]

Looking good

[Scarebird]

Just because the car is at paint does not mean the work stops...

Trying to get motivated to redye the dash. The plan is a tuxedo black, and cover the small crater on the front with a carefully cut Velcro "patch". This will allow the mounting of GPS, iPhones, etc right where it is needed . This will be pair with a nice 1-1/4" diameter hole with grommet in the are under the windshield for wiring.

My friend's 70 Camaro is taking a lot of time! This was his cousin's car - he inherited it after said cousin died in a diving accident. Dale had a 72 at the time and wifey said one or the other. He sold the Camaro, then later sold the goat too! His mother is battling cancer, so she tracked down the Camaro and gave it as a Christmas present to Dale last year. Now we have to shake ass to get it running while she is still with us...



I milled the wheels to take the supplied hardware (if I would have known how much work it was I would have simply bought them ready to go...). I needed to make tooling for the 1.125" diameter countersink and buy extra mills. Later we test fit it to Dale's Camaro - the forest green makes them look very nice!




My paint guy called, said we needed to talk money. This usually does not result in a price reduction: it did not, price went up 40%. But noting that this will have 250+ hours labor I am not complaining.

[66bonne]

Looking great !!

Jim