[marks73ta]

I tackled building the back seat area platform frame. I'm going to use wood shelving to make the the platform, split it in half and hinge the halves so I can open them for storage. Then it will get matching carpeting. The back fire wall sits right on top of the rear angle and will get screwed to that. The back fire wall will get some sculptured foam and leather like material. The sculptured relief will be the Pontiac V crest.





Mark L

[marks73ta]

I made the back seat platform that sits on the framework I made. Cut out the doors and still have to mount the hinges. I also cut out the rear side panels for the side walls. I have some black leather like material that I'll be covering the doors, the rear side panels, the rear metal bulkhead panel, and the extended dash overhang. I bought some floor underlayment for the door and rear side panels bases which is 2.7mm thick and really easy to work with. Only problem is it tends to roll up (won't stay flat). That is not a problem with installation to the car because they will get srewed in. But it may cause headaches while I'm trying to glue the foam and the fabric to the panels. Guess we'll see.
This is the platform with the doors cut out.



The platform with the doors sitting back in place.



The platform with doors and the drivers side panel installed without upholstry.



More to come as it progresses. I ordered the Hedman shorty headers yesterday. They are back ordered but will be drop shipped about mid month. Then I can start the turbo placement and install.

Mark L

[60man]

Getting it done Mark....lots of work going on there...
My favorite plan is.....When all else fails......."I'll just wing it"....

You plan on installing any roll bars or cage? Just asking...

[marks73ta]

Hey Troy. No bar or cage right now. With the 3 speed it won't ET well anyway so I won't be getting it on a track soon. I'll just enjoy it on the street and get all the bugs worked out. I've got both a TH400 and a 4L80 I can build for it. Once I do one of those then I'll get a cage in it and get more serious. Right now I just want to get it on the road and enjoy it.

Mark L

[Jack Gifford]

Originally Posted by marks73ta

... With the 3 speed it won't ET well anyway...

Maybe not. But I'll never forget watching Hayden Proffit nearly yank the front wheels of Mickey's Super Stocker when he slammed second in the three-speed, at the '61 NHRA nationals. Admittedly, the strength of the HD 3-speed was Mickey's motivation for the choice.

[marks73ta]

If I were running a supercharger I would be more apt to run it, if I invested in a proper/better clutch system. But the spool up of the turbos are better suited to an auto/trans brake higher stall combination. I had the full manual TH400 in my Trans Am and I did not mind the shifting all the time. So the 400 I have would be full manual and the 4L80 would also be full manual. Running the 4L80 manually all the time would save spending big bucks on an E-shift controller.
But, I just want to enjoy the 3 speed manual for now. Plus, the V-gate should help the 1-2 shift under power too, if the clutch will hold it, the shift should be rather dramatic as well.
Jack, sure wished there had been more/better videos of those days. I would love to see and hear those cars when they ran back then.

Mark L

[marks73ta]

It hit 110 today but, Janet bought me this new towel that you wet and just lay over your shoulders. It feels like shammy material and holds on to the water slowly letting it evaporate. It really works too. I just got done with working for about two hours and with a head band to keep any sweat out of my eyes, I was not much uncomfortable. Surprised me. You still feel the heat on your body but your head stays cooler and it allows you to stay much more comfortable. I even got some stuff done!!!!
I bought a roll of insulating wrap from Home Depot. It's the metal foil with a plastic bubble wrap like layer and a second metal layer. I just put a layer of it on the underside of my rear package shelf metal cover and glued it down. The top of the shelf will get covered in the leather like material I bought a while ago. I cut out a piece to cover the front side of the rear firewall bulkhead piece for the rear seating area, but have not glued it on yet. I'm debating on using it on the rear as insulation and on the front, under the leather material as an upholstery cushion, to give the upholstery some depth. I took the dash extension that I built and glued a layer on it of the insulation to also act as an upholstery cushion for the dash. The dash has to be rolled over the edge to give it some softness and then glued along the bottom side. Then it will get a cover of the leather like material over that. We'll see how that turns out.







Mark L

[twooldgoats]

Glad to see you're alive and making progress. Do you have a swamp cooler in your garage? I have one in the garage and one in the house in Tucson and it makes it not too bad no matter how hot it gets (though I know we average five degrees cooler than Phoenix down here).

Jim

[BruceWilkie]

Lookin good Mark... An old chamois makes a great sweat band... We finally hit our first + 90 day...long overdue... unfortunately it will be hotter for awhile... but at least not as hot as you guys... Hate it when sweat drips on something I'm workin on... Winter is worse... my nose drips when it gets cold...yuk!

[marks73ta]

Nothing good comes from anything dripping from orifices, lol. Jim, I do have a swamp cooler that my son used here when he was staying in the house (before we permanently moved down). But I have yet to use it. That shammy/towel really worked well though. Plus I can probably use it to dry the car, HA!!

Mark L

[marks73ta]

This is a pic of the dash extension with the ends trimmed, rolled under, and glued down.



Then I'll trim and pull the rest over and glue it down to cover the whole dash extension. Then the material will get glued and pulled over the panel in much the same way?? Hopefully I can get it to look decent.

I pulled out the rear firewall and decided to insulate the backside of it to help with heat and sound plus insulate it from contacting any metal and rattling after installation. I had to do something to make sure it follows the contour of the panel so I found everything I could that would lay down and hold the insulation down.



That firewall will get a layer glued on the front also. It will act as an upholstery cushion under the material. But I'm going to try to cut out a Pontiac Crest (V) in the center of the panel and try to do that relief thing that upholsterers do. Where the V is cut out I'll glue the upholstery material directly onto the panel. We'll see if it works?????

Mark L

[marks73ta]

I've been working on wrapping the dash fabric over the edges and gluing them down. So far so good except I tried using some lightly clamped wood spreaders on the underside of the dash extension to hold the insulation tight to the contours of the under side of the dash. In doing so, I collapsed some of the air bubbles in the insulation slightly. I don't think it was enough to pop any bubbles but it did distort the surface a little. But that little bit is really noticeable once the fabric is glued down over it. I'm hoping it will resume shape over time but if not, at some time down the road I'll pull off the fabric and insulation and redo it. The other problem is the insulation ends up with a light rippled surface. Following the rows of bubbles inside the insulation. Of course you can see the ripples slightly in the surface of the dash extension. It may also smooth out over time and heat cycles, if not again, I'll have to pull it and replace it. This is the top surface with the ripples.





This is the bottom side with the edges glued and waiting for me to finish laying the rest of the fabric down over the bottom of the extension, cutting it to fit and gluing it down.



This is a 4X8 sheet of wall insulation that uses foam and a thin layer of metal foil on one side. I'm going to use this on the rear bulkhead/firewall for the cushion under the upholstery fabric. Then I'll cut out the Pontiac crest in the middle down to the metal. I'll lay the fabric over the insulation and tap it down into the cutout onto the glued metal.



If it works well I'll us it for the cushion under the fabric on the side and door panels too. Possibly adding cutout reliefs to the side and door panels as well.

We'll see how this all works out. Mark L

[gtofreek]

Looking good Mark! Can't wait to see it run!

[BruceWilkie]

Hey Mark... we use plenty of that stuff on the rat rods... it works very well for padding and keepin interior cool.

[marks73ta]

Bruce, you mean the harder styrafoam board or are you talking about the bubble wrap stuff? Mark L

[marks73ta]

Me too Paul, me too. I know you put a lot into it so I know it's important to you also. Mark L

[marks73ta]

Continued to work on the back seat area. I put on a layer of material directly onto the rear bulkhead metal instead of using any cushion. Simple glue and fit. I've glued the material to the package tray over the bubble cushion. And I put on a layer of bubble cushion on the seat bottom. I've assembled them all into the car temporarily to look at fit and finish. The parts all work well together and look good. Simple but good. I still have to cover the seat doors and then do the side panels. Just got way too hot to continue.





The flap of material up by the top edge is a flap that will go down over the top seam, to cover the attachment screws where the lip of the package tray lays over the top of the rear bulkhead. It will get a better finished edge and then velcro'd in place.

I'll get the doors covered tonight or tomorrow and then start on the side panels. I need to order a headliner soon, then I can get a lot more completed.

Mark L

[BruceWilkie]

The foil backed sheets Mark... The leftovers make good knee padding on the concrete.

[marks73ta]

I have a better use for the cut off insulating foil sheets. I'm going to wrap some around my stupid head. Crawling in and out of the interior several times putting in the packaging tray, the rear bulk head and then the seat bottom, I must have hit my head 6 times. Yup. Glue some foil to my forehead, that ought to make me more careful, LOLOL.

Mark L

[marks73ta]

Hit it early today to get stuff done before the heat hits. When my son was living in the house before we made it down here, he had used a nice evaporating air cooler and it has been sitting next to the garage. Yesterday I dug it out and set it up. Had to clean it up nice, filled it with water, and fired it up. Darn thing works pretty well. Cools you nicely while standing in front if it but does not really lower the temp in the garage. But it is a nice thing to use. So until the humidity goes up it will help me work more in the garage. HOWEVER. It's heading for 115 mid week next week and I don't think it will help enough. I think I'm going to have to wait out the heat this time.
I finished upholstering the back seat base doors. I took the side panel top metal forms and upholstered them. I was having problems with the adhesive keeping the upholstery stuck around edges. So I went to good ol' Pep Boys and bought some black plastic edging trim. I went all the way around the package tray and decided to glue down the front flap and use the edging trim to clean that edge up and use it to hold the upholstery on around the edge. This has added a nice little accent stripe across the top of the upholstered bulkhead expanse. This is what it looks like installed. Also the bottom platform for the back seat is laid in and the doors attached.





You can see the black trim across the upper area. In the pic you can also see the top metal form all upholstered and I used the black trim there also to continue the black stripe around to the side and doors. This is the side top form with upholstery and trim attached. I'll do the same on the door panels.



I will add the rest of the side panel after I finish upholstering it. Right now I just have the bubble insulation on it. I think it's going to all look pretty nice and simple but clean when it's done.

I also completed upholstering the dash extension and just put it in place to see how it worked. Some how I hurt the surface of the upholstery and it has a stain of some sort on the top surface. So I might have to redo it altogether. I'll probably do it with foam instead of the bubble so it should turn out even nicer. But it did not turn out all that bad for a novice upholsterer. Read that as a guy with no skill and no tools for it.



Next will be the door panels.

Mark L