[70UglyBird]

So quarantine has helped me find my passion for working on cars again. I finished a couple of my modern cars project and I think I'm ready to start going in on the 73 which has essentially sat for over a year and before that it was rarely driven due to overheating, stinking up the garage, burning through crazy fuel.

I have a forged 6.0 shortblock with ported LS3 heads and REALLY thought about throwing that in. But instead have been doing the following:

SD Ported D Ports
New grind stump puller that is supposed to be work well with my Holly EFI
Holley EFI Terminator
Holley Electric distributor
Light Harland Sharpes
New Smith and whatever pushrods
ARP studs etc
CFV Serpentine system with new style PS pump black
New DSE steering box and cooler
After a long wait but nothing like I've read about set of black ceramic coated Tribal Tubes
Rebuilt stage II GTO T56
Mcloed RTS twin disc clutch
Ricks stainless restomod tank with Gen5 camaro fuel pump module

The guy helping me work on it ran into a snag getting distributor in so it sat for probably 9 months. So I yank the motor last weekend and was able to get the distributor to seat after messing with the drive and working it a bit.

Next up start cleaning up car from sitting including the engine bay. amazing how crappy all the NEW stuff starts to look after it sits forever. Engine I'm going to get together and take to an engine dyno for tuning and just be cool to get numbers like that.

Figured I'd start a good old fashioned project thread and try to keep it going so appreciate feedback. I have 4 more months of WFH and would love to get this thing running this summer\fall.

Took a few pics, please ignore the garage mess. Now that I have it out that is my next project, get the garage picked up again after a number of other projects.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Subscribed

Going to be a wicked machine.
A lot of Really Nice hardware.
Definitely keep us updated and good luck with your forward progress.

[72projectbird]

Sweet!!!

Should be a killer build. That engine is looking snazzy!

Nice C6Z too!

[1965gp]

Love it- look forward to watching the build

[70UglyBird]

Thanks! I need all the motivation I can get! I've had the car for over 10 years and and its come a long way...the hard way. Had a few people do work on it thinking that I had more time than money and a lot of that money was wasted. Including threatening legal action to get it back at one point. The mechanic I have working on it is a friend of mine that comes over on the side to help with it. He is probably the only reason its not LS, just because I know them well.

So I woke up this morning with the intention of cleaning up the garage and my ADD kicked in and cleaning did not seem like fun on fathers day! So I started degreasing engine bay. Again seeing wiring that I spent a fortune to have done looking like ass I might be trying some rattle can love with it, Its amazing how trashed it gets just sitting in shops and garages

Cleaned up OK but am going to start looking at scuffing it up for paint and doing something with the wiring..Probably going to add Vintage air to the list of to do. Seems like a no brainer when the engine is out.

[70UglyBird]

Did I mention my ADD? So the engine bay is a little much so I figured I'd see how the paint cleans up. It looked pretty rough from sitting and shop rash. Its at least 12 year old single stage PPG BLACK. I bought it from a painter at a high end shop that I think just threw it together. So he could paint but didn't go all in and just laid down a very thin job to get it to look ok. Did the following:

- Cleaned with Adam's waterless wash the passenger side, mostly just garage dust on it.
- Clay barred. Again pretty quick car has maybe 5 to 600 miles on it in 10 years.
- Tried White finish pad and finish Menzerna polish...Looked OK but need more aggressive 2 stage polish.
- HIt it with an Orange cutting pad and Intensive Menzerna polish twice over.
- Hit it again with the finish and white pad.

Pretty happy with the results. I could get it better but its not a show car and with the paint as thin as it is and its the hardest paint I've ever tried to polish. I always wondered what people meant by hard and soft paints and now I know. I haven't messed with single stage single rubbing compounding and turtle waxing my dads 1959 el camino as a kid I am pretty happy with results although a little perplexing seeing all the black paint on pads!

[70UglyBird]

Finally unboxed the ricks resto mod tank and put together the 5th gen camaro fuel module with vaporworx mods. Also finished buffing and sealing passenger side. Came out nice i think im going yo just have rockers painted...no desire to go into paint jail!