[Andre]

Here is the chassis with the Pypes 2.5" x over system installed. I opted to have the joints welded instead of clamped. The fit is excellent. The shop will come back and clean up the weld areas and paint with some high temp paint.

The driveshaft was powdercoated in clear, low gloss, but that seems to give the metal a different appearance than the original. In a points judged poci show, I'd be losing points all over the place.

The red/white stripe are correct for the 4 speed driveshaft I believe.. Probably the same as the 2 speed since it is the same unit

[Andre]

I took the cowl vent piece out into the sunlight to take a look at what the color looks like in full daylight under natural lighting. It is very bright to say the least, and would probably be fine for a droptop pimp mobile.

[Tripower455]

Andre, that car is looking awesome..... Watching this thread is like watching my restification....... in fast forward!

[Showbizkid]

Originally Posted by Andre

I have a decent '66 Catalina Station Wagon. {snip} Runs like a top, and seems to have more appeal to the average person on the street. I'm not sure why that is.

I know why. Because we all grew up with 'em, and now we never see 'em!

There's an old guy round the corner that has a white '65 Tempest wagon, all original, that I have lusted after for years. Just a 4-door with a 326 3-speed column-shift, but I want that car. Why? It's cool

[Andre]

The engine has now been put through the 20 minutes of cam break in at 2500. Unfortunately the center carb, which has just been rebuilt has given up the ghost. I wasn't there to see it, and frankly I'm glad that I wasn't.

I'll be heading over to the shop to take another one over there tonight, and hopefully I will have some more pictures to post.

[Tripower455]

Originally Posted by Andre

The engine has now been put through the 20 minutes of cam break in at 2500. Unfortunately the center carb, which has just been rebuilt has given up the ghost. I wasn't there to see it, and frankly I'm glad that I wasn't.

I'll be heading over to the shop to take another one over there tonight, and hopefully I will have some more pictures to post.

What happened to the center carb? There really isn't much in them to go bad that can't be replaced, barring a cracked bowl or cover........

[Andre]

He took it apart 5 times. I suspect there must be a hairline crack somewhere. The last thing I want is a gas fire, so I won't take any chances. It was shooting gas up through the venturis

[Bryan Jensen]

Andre,

Jusr wanted to say your chasis is looking KILLER. Sorry about the comments I made, I realized a little while after that there are all walks of life in our hobby. Sure, mabye a car this is all done by someone else (unless it's totally out of your league) isn't what I would personally do, that doesn't mean it's that less of a car, and at least it's a Pontiac.

In my GTOAA Chapter, there are probably a dozen or more guys like you. They're all my friends...but I realized I'd be shunning them all if I thought like I did before. P.S. this one guy's got this killer 70 judge covt. pretty neat.

So my apologies, looking good but on your next project it might be fun to set aside some time off work and wrench around in the garage. I think it's fun and rewarding to me at least. Might not be to all but I think a Saturday when you walk in from the garage into the house covered in 40-year old who knows what is a good day spent to me.

PS, if you check out the link in my sig...you can see how our frames look almost identical. I'm right about where you are now, chasis is all done and the body is at the bodyshop almost all done, but it's taken me about a year and a half to get what took the shop a few months.

Bryan

[Tripower455]

Originally Posted by Andre

He took it apart 5 times. I suspect there must be a hairline crack somewhere. The last thing I want is a gas fire, so I won't take any chances. It was shooting gas up through the venturis

That sucks! A gas fire would be bad!

Maybe it's something easy like an incorrect or dried out gasket?

Possibly a clog in the venturi cluster somewhere?

[Andre]

Hey Bryan- Thanks for the kind words. We all say stuff that we don't really mean. Very often I have typed something here, and completely rewritten it.

I have actually turned a lot of wrenches on Pontiacs. Now granted, I was the king of disassembly, and not reassembly, but with strong air, I could tear a running GTO down to a body and frame in about 16 hours.

As we speak, I am doing little upgrades on my driver '64 convertible, but it is nothing all encompassing like this project, though it may be in a few years.

Last night I went to the shop to deliver the new vent window frames (chromed pot metal portion only), that I had gotten. I heard the fit was excellent, and the chrome on them was very nice. Previously we had gotten other sets replated out of the country, but for $210 retail, these beat going to Brazil significantly.

I didn't notice my car sitting anywhere, so I headed over to the paint booth. Sure enough it was in there getting painted. I watched through the peep window for about what seemed like a half hour, but was probably only 10 minutes.

I was amazed that the distance between the paint nozzle and the body never seemed to vary very much.
The paint was applied in horizontal strokes, then vertical strokes, then diagonally one direction, then diagonally in the other direction over each panel before moving to the next panel. I didn't know too much about this, but when I asked about it later, it was explained that the horizontal motion laid the paint down, then the other applications were more of a dust coat.
This is apparently important in metallics to get the metallic to lay down evenly.

I also noted that the gun was equipped with a liner in the cup, I was told that not only does this make for easy clean up, but also it allows the gun to spray in any position including upside down without sucking air. There is more to this setup than I am explaining, but that is all I remember

It was all very interesting, but somewhat tedious, as this just the third coat out of a possilbe 5, not counting the clear coat.


I couldn't take any pictures very well from outside the booth, so there isn't much to show right now.

[Andre]

Here are some pictures of the painted body. The color is not depicted quite right due to the lighting etc

[Tripower455]

That looks unbelievable Andre!

It's a great feeling when it get's to this point!

[Showbizkid]

Andre, after 20 years of ownership, you must just be jumping up and down right about now! What a gorgeous goat!

[goatseeker]

Andre, the paint looks gorgeous! That car is going to sparkle when they get done wetsanding and get the chrome on there!

[Bryan Jensen]

Believe it or not guys, I'm just a baby step away from where Andre his on his car....it's almost ready for paint at the bodyshop...but I keep forgetting ym camera when I go over there

[65Tiger]

Andre,

Looks great! Is the color what you expected it to be?

I can't wait to see this thing put together.

[Pecosbill]

Andre: The car is looking really good. I hated to read the part about where you said you could tear one down in about 16 hours, as that must mean the rebuilding part must be the real time consumer. I'm still in the taking-apart stage on my 64 and if it's taken me this long, it will be my heirs who likely finish the project.

Bryan: It's a major sign of maturity when a man can admit that he said things that he shouldn't have and an even bigger sign of growth when he has the ability to apologize for those words. Congratulations on moving up another step on life's long ladder.

[Andre]

It is definitely the color that I expected it to be. This color shown in the picture does not look quite like it does in reality.
I can post the ratio by weight of STANDOX paint that the computer generated to mix this paint. As I mentioned earlier, it was derived using the special body shop camera and computer software. The software found a color, and then added tints to it to match Tiger Gold.

[Andre]

It has been several days since I posted, so I just wanted to bring everyone up to date. Since the car was painted, it is now going through the tedious process of wet sanding and polishing. This will be accomplished before the body is reunited with the frame. There are no pictures to show of this nasty work.

[karl emerick]

andre,
you are truly a serious pontiac guy and a credit to the hobby. thanks for sharing your progress.

karl
it's the details that will give pause...