[HWYSTR455]

VERY nice gentlemen!

.

[Formulajones]

Thanks Mike. Was a big hurdle to get this part done. All the parts arrived so we were able to finish this week. Was down to just the frame. Dad had replaced a bunch of the suspension 30-some year ago (ball joints, tie rods etc...) The only original suspension pieces left were the steering box and pitman arm. So I was able to clean and reuse a lot of that stuff as it was still nice and tight. Control arms are new tubular with poly bushings, and the coil springs are a new set custom made from Coil Spring Specialties in Kansas. They are custom made to provide a stock ride height taking into account the weight changes made over the nose (aluminum and fiberglass parts) but the springs are also designed to store a lot of energy to help the front end come up on launch.
Everything else is painted and ready to bolt on so it should go fairly quickly from here. Still waiting on the intake and valve covers from the powder coaters but that won't hold us up from assembling the car. More pics soon.

[68azbird]

With all those lightweight fancy parts you guys got now you have to give me 2 car lengths and the break.

[GTO JONES]

Maybe 1 1/2 lol.

[Formulajones]

He asked me what you were running Mike, now he's trying to shorten up the distance, lol.

[Formulajones]

Engine is in, most of the front end assembled. Still waiting on the intake and valve covers to come back from the powder coaters.

Should make the Aug 4th-6th show, but will probably be without a hood.

[grivera]

Looks great and coming together nicely

[NeighborsComplaint]

Wow!

Wish I had 1/10th of your paint and body skills! Nice work.

[Formulajones]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

Here's another quick shot. Spent a lot of time (and surgery) getting the front bumper just right. It was never perfect from day one and it always bothered him. I'll have to spend some more time on the grills but that's easy stuff, so it's good enough for now and for the most part back in one piece again.

When the intake comes back we'll fire this thing up and pull it outside for better pics.

[Formulajones]

Couple more pics.

[Formulajones]

Well the car was ready to go (minus the hood) to hit the show Saturday with the front end alignment scheduled for tomorrow but as luck would have it, tragedy struck.

Yesterday the RobbMC starter decided to fall apart. The starter pinion gear just......fell off. My father sent this picture into Robb hoping he could send a couple of parts down so I could fix it. Turns out he only offers a repair service that he does himself so the whole starter has to go back.

The good news is that he took one look at the picture, said that gear should have never fallen off and that it wasn't assembled properly with Loctite that he uses on the splines. You can clearly see in the pic there was never any Loctite on the splines, and both 3/32 brass balls that secure the gear just fell out, leaving the gear along for the ride getting beat up by the flywheel. Realizing that, even though my father has had this starter for 3 years and should be well out of warranty, Robb offered to fix it on his dime, even though I just wanted to buy some parts to repair it myself.
So just wanted to say Robb stands behind his product and I'll continue to use his services. Unfortunately the car is down until the starter comes back.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by Formulajones

.. but will probably be without a hood.

Ah, don't tell me he ran off with that now!...lol
Car looks fantastic.

[Formulajones]

LOL

I thought age would slow him down but I can't catch the little booger.

[Formulajones]

Few more pictures with the powder coated intake and valve covers. Air cleaner is a temporary deal until I get the hood finished. Dad made a magnet decal and put it on, what a comedian.

After we installed a 68 his/hers shifter he couldn't resist putting a Hurst emblem on the decklid, lol.

It's ready to go if the starter didn't spit the gear off of it.

[blue71ta]

Very nice. Your dad should be proud.

[J.C.you]

what hydro boost unit did you use?

[Formulajones]

It's a new unit from an ebay store along with the bracket for the A-bodies. I can get the name if you like.
The hoses we had custom made locally so we could run them inside the fender. The master cyl was simply reused, and I bent and made all new brake lines to run them all underneath for a little cleaner appearance.

[Formulajones]

Finally got it running again

[HWYSTR455]

Don't tease us, post a clip! Heheh!

.

[Formulajones]

Finally got it up and running again. The starter still isn't right. But we hope it starts enough times to make the front end alignment appointment Friday. The extra shims Rob recommended just destroyed the gear worse than before. It still starts for now, but it sounds awful, lol. Decided to just pull it off the lift for now and get it to the front end shop, already cancelled last weeks appointment because of this deal, don't really want to keep doing that.
We'll deal with the starter again afterwards when dad decides what route he wants to go.

Anyway here are some pics of the car finally on the ground. Stance turned out pretty level. Very happy with Coil Spring Specialties, they pretty much nailed it with the specs we gave them. Got the his/hers shifter swapped in, back drive linkage is back in place so it has back up lights for the first time in 48 years, lol. I'll get the hood done after I get caught up on some other things around here.