[Speargun]

I started a build thread on another site a while back and now that I'm getting closer, I figured it was time to move it here and update it.


Feb. 6 2012

What I have been working on the past few weeks.

This is what it looked like after sitting, uncovered, behind my shed for 12 years.







This is a few years ago when I dropped it off with my body guy.












And this is what I got back from him.

[Speargun]

This is where I actually start working on the car. It's been sitting in my garage for a few years now as I just never found the motivation to get much done on it.

A few months ago I decided it was time to get to work so I started by cutting out the floor pan. Having never done any type of body work, this was a little stressful at first.

I started by torching out the floor, then I came back, drilled out all of the spot welds and removed what was left.
Shortly thereafter, I learned that tendinitis in your forearm can make you squeal like a little girl stung by a bee when you turn it just right! :'(















After 3 or 4 months I decided that the tendinitis wasn't going to go away completely so I suited up, grabbed the grinder, and cleaned up all of the spot welds.





Once all of the spot welds had been ground down, I welded up the holes left behind then ground that down too.










Then I found this spot on the drivers side toe board.
This calls for major surgery.





Luckily I had a donor part in my shed.







After grinding with a little primer on it.

[Speargun]

Now it's time to prep the one piece floor pan to go in.
A Harbor Freight air punch/flanger for $40 saved me from drilling about 200 holes. I considered it money well spent considering the tendinitis hasn't gone away.

Here you can see the holes I punched for the plug welds.







Here is the floor pan set in the car.





The underside of the floor pan clamped to the rocker. I later added self-tapping screws to all of the holes to clamp the parts together and prevent warping.



Now the fun part.... welding!














On a side note: Hot molten slag in the ear canal will definitely make you come out from under a car in about 0.04 seconds! Nothing like the sound of ear wax cooking. :P

[Speargun]

UPDATE: August 2013

I finally got around to bolting the rear end back under the car and then installed the front sub-frame & frame ties.
Once that was done it was time for the new Global West, tubular, upper & lower control arms, QA1 coil-overs, spindles, & disk brakes. Throw on some tires and this baby rolls around for the first time in quite a few years.





The copper colored stuff is anti-seize compound. By adjusting the two lock nuts at the bottom of the springs, I can raise or lower the front ride height.








==========================================

I decided to try my hand at re-building the steering column instead of buying an aftermarket column.
This is what I had to work with. It looked like a family of mud dobbers found a nice, cozy, place to build a home.




This is the upper bearing.








This is after some sand blasting and a coat or two of Krylon.





And here it is installed in the car.





The wood on the steering wheel that use to be on the car had dried and shrank leaving 1/4" gaps at the joints all around the wheel. After rubbing the wood with boiled linseed oil every day for a week or two, the gaps closed up. Unfortunately the chrome was toast, so it got sand blasted off and I'll be painting or powder coating it later.






==========================================


Test fitting the fenders.






I'll add more later......












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[Speargun]

May 25 2015

Loaded on the trailer to go to the body shop.

[Speargun]

July 30 2015

At the body shop.

[Speargun]

August 26 2015



The new bumper

[Speargun]

October 15 2015

Blocked & Primed

[GT182]

Tendinitis or not, you deserve kudos for attacking that mess and saving it. I bet it gives you that nice warm fuzzy feeling seeing in primer and at the paint shops. Congrats on sticking with it.

What color is it to be painted? Can't wait to see more.

[RocktimusPryme]

I hope to be not far behind you. Im out of town working for the next month and a half. But I have some money saved, hope to attack body and paint when I get home.

[esahlin]

Great Job! Keep up the great work. You're almost there. I had a similar amount of work on restoring my 68FB. Took me about 10 years.....still not quite done. I painted it myself and I can understand losing motivation (sometimes life gets in the way) and leaving it in the garage to rest for a while. It will be worth it.

[Speargun]

Since I can't edit previous posts, I'll have to backtrack a little down here.

When I test fit the fenders, the drivers side had a huge gap at the door so I had to add some material here. At the widest point near the middle, I ended up having to add 0.4" of metal.







Ground down and cleaned up.



It's not real clear here, but at the bottom where the body line angles back in, the fender stuck out too far. I had to cut a "V" on the back side, bend the bottom in to follow the body, and weld the back side to hold the shape.
The passenger side had to be done too, but it wasn't near as bad.




When it was done, MANY hour later, the door gap was nice and even from top to bottom.

[Speargun]

The body mount holes in the frame had seen better days...

[Speargun]

One of the other things I did was build my own motor mounts. I didn't want to go with solid mounts and I didn't want to have to put a chain or strap on the engine in case of mount failure so I came up with my own design.

Click here for my motor mount build thread.

[Speargun]

Some of the one piece floor pan install pics are above, but here's a thread I did on that.

Click Here for my one piece floor pan install thread

[Speargun]

Here's some misc. engine porn.

455 +.060
Scat H beam rods
BRC pistons
E heads
Hyd roller cam
Lunati SS 1.5 roller rockers













Playing dress up







Working on pushrod length.



I finally decided to go with the PONTIAC valve covers with a spacer.





Block bottom filled.





Robb MC starter





Playing around with the Warrior intake and a Dominator.




Here's where I modified the cooling system.
I might have to add a Tee in the back so I can use the heater.

[Firedup6975]

HOLY brought back from the dead Batman!!!!!!! that's just freaking awesome!!!!!! Get ER done!! and keep posting the progress. You DA man!!

[Speargun]

October 17, 2015

Base coat shot. Still wet.




















And with clear coat.

[PunchT37]

Damn man, good job saving that car. 67/68 birds are my favorite. Waaay cooler than 67/68 Camaros.

[RocktimusPryme]

I like that color, always been a fan of dark blue