[Verdoro 68]

Looking good, Mike! I love seeing the progress and the care you've taken.

[sdbob]

Glad for you. My automatic SD the 'first' time full throttle 2-3 shift at 5400rpm scared me it was so firm and the acceleration!!!! I can still feel it.

[mgarblik]

Just in time! The engine and transmission have been successfully installed in the car today. Just ahead of our first predicted snow for the year. We are supposed to get a few inches of the dreaded white stuff tomorrow night. Weather was perfect today, sunny and around 60 degrees. The engine went in first without a hitch. Then the transmission from underneath. No "rat bites" and everything went into place like it was supposed to. Now some fun stuff begins for me at least. I will spend the next 3-4 weeks as time permits installing all the "engine stuff". Also there is no wiring from the firewall forward, so that will take some time. Here are some pics from today. Had help from Steve and Stan which made the install go much smoother.

[mgarblik]

Some additional pics.

[HWYSTR455]

Dang that's sweet! Very nice work!


.

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

Some additional pics.

Nice work.
lifts, I am in the market for one and now doing my research. Just sent off the deposit for a 30' x 60' shop with 12' ceiling in the middle.
Going to be one nice man cave foe me, Pontiac Land !

[mgarblik]

It's been another 4 months since my last post. Still working along on this car when I have a chance. We had an extremely cold winter and there were periods of several weeks at a time I couldn't afford to keep the shop warm enough to do any meaningful work unfortunately. But whenever I could, I did get out there and work a few hours at a time. I will post some pics in the coming days. I have the engine wiring harness installed and mostly tested. I have the front wiring harness installed . The headlights, turn signals, marker lights, valance panel have been installed. The EVAP canister and plumbing installed. Headlights and trim installed. Ran into a few unexpected snags and big expenses. The radiator, which had been in dry storage for 40+ years failed it's pressure test and had multiple leaks and rot so severe, I had to recore it. Was very surprised by this as it looked fine externally. It's a 4-core unit for heavy duty cooling and cost quite a bit to restore. It looks nice now and should function just fine. I was able to save all the ID tags. The next snag was the plastic fan shroud. I had an NOS GM replacement but the superseded part looked nothing like the correct original. That launched a huge search. With help from the forum, I located a pretty decent used one in MI. Made arrangements and picked it up. It had some scrapes and scratches and a small broken area. I was able to graft replacement parts from the other shroud to this correct one and spent way more time than most would believe cleaning it in preparation for careful refinishing. I am very pleased with the results. I would give it an A A-. The radiator and shroud will be installed tomorrow.

From there, I need to get it moved to my lift for under car wiring, gas tank, fuel lines, trans cooling lines, modulator line and exhaust system. Still hope to start it up in 4-6 weeks. I have to admit it has taken much longer than expected but it starting to get exciting now. Stay tuned.

[mgarblik]

Here are some pics of winter progress Pic 1 headlight/bezel install Pic 2 front end less grille Pic 3 clear coating OE lines and other misc. parts Pic 4 clear coating trans pan and some OE exhaust parts Pic 5 Battery, washer, belts, Alt, PS

[Mrpontiac1013]

Is your car for sale

[Jack Gifford]

What'd you do Mike- pay attention in class?

[mgarblik]

I try to learn something new every day. This numbers matching stuff and really trying to be faithful to OE parts whenever I can is new and challenging for me. If this car wasn't so original, I would not have gone the route I'm on in many areas. Most notably the incredibly restrictive exhaust system and the stock cam choice. Trying to match bolt head markings, exact colors and hues is pretty tedious and not my typical way of doing things.