[Shiny]

Wow, you've been busy!

Congrats on making it all happen! That took some work!

We lived in Ft. Collins for 10 yrs before the job ended during the 2009 mess.

We then lived in Bothell WA for 9 years until retiring and moving to Montrose CO.

We decided to move back to the front range this year as we have one son in Boulder and one in Denver. We had no trouble selling our house but finding one is a different story!

Small world....

Mike

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Shiny

Wow, you've been busy!
Congrats on making it all happen! That took some work!
We lived in Ft. Collins for 10 yrs before the job ended during the 2009 mess.
We then lived in Bothell WA for 9 years until retiring and moving to Montrose CO.
We decided to move back to the front range this year as we have one son in Boulder and one in Denver. We had no trouble selling our house but finding one is a different story!
Small world....
Mike

Indeed!
Thanks and yes, it took some work but I think we got lucky
as well. No way did we think we would be where we are now back in the end of July when we made the first decision to sell our Boulder condo.

Looks like we will be neighbors at some point. We will have to meet up. I've never been to Montrose but was interested in looking at the possibility of Grand Junction. I could not get my wife interested in that side of the mountains at all so we locked in on the front range.

Originally Posted by dataway

Love the shop matching the house. Very nice.
I'd love to know who built the shop building if it wasn't the same contractor that did the house.

Thanks. The house was built in 2002 and the workshop in 2010. The people we bought the house from only owned it for 4 years so I don't have the info on who the builder was.

[roger1]

I found the A/C leak. What I did to do that was to remove the micron gauge and hook the yellow hose up to an air compressor with a fitting that I had to make. I put 90 psi positive pressure on it and I could hear where the leak was.
It was coming from his crimped fitting:



Why this leaked, I have no idea but no other good choice but to build a complete new hose.



The hose and fittings with the leak is #8 reduced. Since I didn't want to order the exact same parts again, I decided to go with the standard hose and fittings this time. This hose doesn't really benefit with the reduced size anyway since it doesn't have to bend much from the compressor to the condenser. Here is the new hose installed:



I do believe it has no leaks now but I ran out of time yesterday to pump it down for as long as I should. This photo that shows 440 microns was a few minutes after I shut the gauge valves and pump down and it did seem to be holding at that. But the owner needed to close up his shop for the day so I will go through this process again allowing for more time for both the vacuuming and watching after shut down. I also want to remove the fan belt so I can turn the compressor by hand to disperse the oil inside some.



The top install isn't complete yet but he's getting there. He says it's kind of a trial and error process to get the wrinkles out in the rear corners and takes a lot of time. He said at this point he needs to get it out in the sun on a hot day and that will allow it to stretch easier for the final adjustments. But we've had mostly cloudy and rainy days for the past week and cooler temperatures. Still rain in the forecast too.

[roger1]

The top is done and interior installed! I brought the car home this morning. 3 1/2 months total at the interior shop. He felt bad it took him that long but he had many unforeseen things going on that took his time away from my car. However, I had to be out of state part of the time anyway. Plus, I feel lucky that he will still do work for me since he's mostly retired and has been for 10 years or so now.
It looks great! I couldn't be any happier with it. Same result as all the other jobs I had him do for me over the years.

























So he had no lack of hot days here to put the car out in the sun to help him get the top hot like he wanted to. The all-time high for the City of San Angelo was 111° set in 1960. We tied that record on Monday and then smashed it with a 114° on Tuesday and backed it up with another 114° day yesterday. Needless to say, I'm glad I can finish the car up in my shop with the A/C on.

The list is not long. More color sanding, polishing, installing the trim and several little odds and ends. A few things mechanically too. I haven't finished all the setup procedures for the Edelbrock FI and I need to check the adjustment of the throttle valve cable. The 2-3 shift on the transmission seems late when driving in town normally. I need to program the Dakota Digital speedometer as well.
I will say that I am super happy with how the car drives. Ride is excellent as is the steering and brakes. Engine seems to idle and run real smoothly too.

[Mickey66]

It just looks great. I also like to thank you for posting those detailed photos because as I do my restoration/mod, some of the items, like the door panels, previously, have been very useful, especially when there isn't detailed information out there on how and where stuff goes. Are those window cranks the originals? I have 3 out of 4 of my originals and decided to buy the repo ones from Ames and the fit is terrible. I have to use a file to increase the inside spline area and its taking forever. Anyway, thanks again.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by kingbuzzo

lookin good for summer...

Thanks! I am looking forward to some cruzin.

Originally Posted by Mickey66

It just looks great. I also like to thank you for posting those detailed photos because as I do my restoration/mod, some of the items, like the door panels, previously, have been very useful, especially when there isn't detailed information out there on how and where stuff goes. Are those window cranks the originals? I have 3 out of 4 of my originals and decided to buy the repo ones from Ames and the fit is terrible. I have to use a file to increase the inside spline area and its taking forever. Anyway, thanks again.

Thanks!
I ordered all 4 of my handles from Ames and they fit fine. This is what I ordered back in December of '21, 2 of J133AD and 2 of F184KD. I did have to replace both door window regulators and one of the rears although I don't know if that makes any difference or not.

Originally Posted by Scarebird

Very nice, the almost lack of puckers in the rear corner has me envious!
I have not observed any better fitment personally.

Yup. The guy is really amazing. Although I don't think perfection is attainable with these tops, I think it's as close as it gets. He is 84 years old and probably been doing interiors for 65 of those. He did mention these tops are very hard ones to do and it was taxing on his body at his age. I am grateful he was willing to do it for me.

[Scarebird]

Originally Posted by roger1

...The guy is really amazing. Although I don't think perfection is attainable with these tops, I think it's as close as it gets...

The 69-72's have a single floating trimstick.

As far as I can tell these were done in a fixture at the factory then transferred to the car - not a process easily replicated!

I have not seen your top's level of work here; none of the local talent seen to do tops worthy of the price they charge.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

The 69-72's have a single floating trimstick.

As far as I can tell these were done in a fixture at the factory then transferred to the car - not a process easily replicated!

I have not seen your top's level of work here; none of the local talent seen to do tops worthy of the price they charge.

That's exactly what he said. He calls it a floating bow. And had to be done on a fixture at the factory.

[Scarebird]

Very nice, the almost lack of puckers in the rear corner has me envious!

I have not observed any better fitment personally.

[MUSLCAH]

I imagine you’ll tuck those seat belts in....

[MUSLCAH]

And I really like the ( No raised white letter ) look !

[roger1]

Originally Posted by MUSLCAH

I imagine you’ll tuck those seat belts in....
And I really like the ( No raised white letter ) look !

I hadn't thought about tucking them in like that. Thanks for the photo. I may do that.

Yeah, I like the black wall look better too. These Coopers are RWL but I turned them in. They are designed with that in mind though as the black sides look exactly the same except without the white borders on the letters. I did brush black epoxy prime on the white letters though so they wouldn't show when looking underneath the car. The SPI primer stays fairly flexible so I think it will stay on there but time will tell.

[Andretti]

Everything is looking fantastic. A perfectionist just like you and now I can understand why you didn't want to tackle that part of the restoration. With the very warm weather there maybe they'll be less wear/creasing on the top when lowering/storing/raising. Have you actually pressed that switch yet?

- that door fitment turned out great, so much better than stock.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Andretti

Everything is looking fantastic. A perfectionist just like you and now I can understand why you didn't want to tackle that part of the restoration. With the very warm weather there maybe they'll be less wear/creasing on the top when lowering/storing/raising. Have you actually pressed that switch yet?
- that door fitment turned out great, so much better than stock.

Thanks for the compliments!
Yeah, upholstery work is not my thing and never would have considered trying it myself on this car. My interior guy said he put the top up and down about 5 times just to make sure everything was good. He and I did it together once so he could show me how to be careful while doing it. We put the boot in place to and attached the snaps to make sure that was all good too. Haven't done it again since I got the car home. He did say don't leave the top in the down position any longer than necessary. He said he's always recommended to customers to never put the top down but smiled and said he knows that's not what's going to happen.

I've been working on the car a bit here and there. I color sanded the entire car using those polycarbonate sanding blocks by Linear Blocking Tools I bought. As you might recall, much of the car was already color sanded but I didn't get the urethane wave out then. The new sanding blocks worked well. I believe I was able to remove all of it. I used the blocks with 800 grit followed by 1200 grit and then ended with 1500.

I started some polishing on the rear of the car and so far have the trunk lid and both quarter panels completed. I did some experimenting on the process and what I find works really well is doing 2-3 passes with a denim pad on the rotary with Menzerna 400 compound. Then 2 passes with a wool bonnet on the rotary with the Menzerna. Then 1 to 2 passes with a microfiber disc on the orbital with Mequiars 205 Ultra Finishing polish.
I'm posting this first photo of the trunk lid full-size to show a reflection of the trees and sky on the top of the trunk lid well:



Here's a couple of the left quarter panel I completed polishing today:

[Greg Reid]

Awesome shop/garage space.

[roger1]

Originally Posted by Greg Reid

Awesome shop/garage space.

Originally Posted by bluejudge

Wow that was a lot in a few weeks. Good luck with everything Roger, and glad you posted all those pictures and took the time to show us all your 69 Conv. Restoration. Thanks, Marc.

Thanks guys.
Yes, it was a lot. We are still a bit shell-shocked because it all happened so quickly.

Btw, all that stuff in the workshop belongs to the previous owners. Nothing in there will be left behind. Next time we see it, it will be totally empty. The previous owners are leasing back from us for a short time in order for them to get moved.

[dataway]

Love the shop matching the house. Very nice.
I'd love to know who built the shop building if it wasn't the same contractor that did the house.

[Tarl]

Just gorgeous

[roger1]

So I'm back in Texas from spending time at the new house in Colorado. And back on the car as of yesterday.

Good news, bad news from yesterday. First the good news:

I drove the GTO down to a shop that does paintless dent removal. That's all they do so the guy is a real specialist. As you may remember there are 3 low spots on the hood that bother me. The hood was a real challenge for me since it was covered in hail dings and had a couple of other places where there was slight damage on the surface.
He said he believes he will be able to fix them. He said he will probably scratch the black paint on the under side. I told him no worries on that because it is no big deal for me to do a bit of spraying to touch them up.
He said he's pretty booked but probably would be able to get me later in the month. I'm fine with that since I have to re-shoot the doors and can keep busy with that while I wait.

Now the bad news:

On the way home from the shop, I started hearing a hell of a noise coming from the rear of the car whenever I let off the gas pedal. I nursed the car home and immediately put it up on jack stands to inspect. It didn't take long to find the problem. The yoke on the differential was all sloppy! So, that would mean to me the pinion bearings are toast.
I bought all the new parts including gears for it and then paid to have it assembled. I bet it doesn't even have 50 miles on it yet. The machine shop I used to assemble the engine recommended the guy to me for the rear end assembly. He said just bring me the rear axle and I'll have him come pick it up and assemble it for you and bring it back. So I never met the guy that did the work and don't who he is. I will start out by calling the machine shop guy on Monday and see what he advises me to do.

[Shiny]

Darn would be a word.

I'm sure you were freaking out but sounds like it could have been worse.

Hope you get it resolved quickly.