Well I'm stuck in the middle of trying to get a bunch of stuff done and I can't get anything finished. I've got most of the brake lines done, but stuck on a lack of fittings. Got the fuel lines run, and again I need to make a huge plumbing list. Cant put the glass in the tailgate, cuz I have to remove the tailgate to install the seal, and I'm not going to do that with the glass installed. I went to take a bunch of parts to zinc plating today, they had some overspray on them from the paint shop, and the zinc guy told me I had to have all that stuff stripped off. So all the parts are clean now and then I got to take them back to the plater. (I'm not gonna complain about having to clean the parts for the price I'm getting)
Can't put the engine in, cuz I have to rebuild the transmission first. They have to go in as a unit. Waiting on the rebuild kit from Hanlon Motorsport, hopefully I'll have that next week. Last t5 I did only took me 5 or 6 hours so this should go pretty quick. I also got to hit the Chevy dealer and order the flywheel bolts. And I got to double check my clutch, while I know I have a new slave cylinder, I'm not exactly sure the clutch kit came with a throwout bearing. I remember looking at it before and going, I don't think all the parts are here. What was really kind of upsetting is the sachs clutch box has an exedy clutch in it. Oh well, that should still be fine. I can't start putting the doors together, because the first piece of trim that has to go on I'm pretty sure it's stainless? But it might be aluminum. Either way there's scratches in it and it's pitted pretty badly. So I have to take it to my polisher to see what he can do with it. I can replace it with a new piece, but then I would have to buy two, they're 90 bucks a piece. I want it to look right, but I also got a ring in the budget at some point. This is the molding that goes in the top of the door. Now the molding that goes in the side window is aluminum, I have to double check those and make sure they're good. I'm pretty sure they are and that they can be polished. They are originally polished and anodized. Same with the drip rail trim. Drip rail trim is for the most part unavailable. However somebody is re-popping them. And they are not cheap. Last I looked it was $600 and that was in pounds not dollars, you have to buy a while set. I'm pretty sure all that trim is good enough to polish and anodize. I don't want it to look weird with old and new pieces, so it's all going to have a consistent finish all the way around because it's a complete line all the way around the windows from the drip rail trim down the door molding and the molding for the side window. I have new b pillar trim because the originals are damaged. So it's kind of an all or nothing deal unfortunately. We wont talk about the vent windows and the glazing I tried to redo. I hate doing vent window glazing it's such a disaster. And my first attempt at these did not go so great. So I have to get new glazing, and try different technique. I watched a couple YouTube videos and I got some new things to try
I can't put the side windows in, because of that molding, and because I have to glue some vinyl to the b pillars and the top inside part over the wheel well. It's one of those things where the material goes up and over the lip and then the seal goes on. And since the interior of this car is being changed to autumn leaf (a pleasant orangey tanish brownish?). I had to get a complimenting vinyl to match the new color of the seats and all of the interior panels. On a side note you order a deluxe panel kit which has 8 panels, and it doesn't have the stupid sail panels. The sail panels are usually the ones that are completely falling apart because they always get wet. But no the kit doesn't come with that lol. Fortunately I have one sail panel that's still intact enough for me to make a template off of, because they're just mirrored it shouldn't be too hard to do. I don't know if the autumn leaf interiors had autumn leaf all the way around, or if they still did the gray sail panels and headliner or what. So I have a really nice chestnut brown to go with the autumn leaf, and a sweet tan / beige suede headliner. This is going to look killer when it's all together. But I got a lot of work to do to recover the capping rails for the doors and all of the other bits. And then we come to the dash. The ugly padded dash that I stripped. I have to weld up the holes in the dash, and I talked to a really good custom upholstery guy I worked with on a big bus project. I need to make a lip that goes on the top of the dash to cover the attachment studs and to make it look like it's actually finished. The original material / padding that was on there had that lip, so I need to recreate that. It's also one of those things that help prevents the gauge lighting from reflecting on the windshield. See these dashboards with the padding removed, and if you don't do anything to them and just paint them or recover them they really don't look finished. I have ideas on how to do it but I'm just not confident enough, and I'm also weighing my time and trying things and failing and making a mess and needing it done and what that's all worth. It's my same conundrum with the wheels, I love the way the stock rostyle wheel looks, but do I really want to spend all that time refinishing them? No, so it's getting new wheels. Same with a dash, it's not going to be cheap, but it's going to be right the first time and proportion well and I have the utmost confidence in that. And then I'm just going to cover it in black vinyl. At this point I've kind of written off making much profit. I don't know what I was thinking of getting, haha. If I had a car that didn't need paint and body, I'd be miles ahead right now actually. But in that sense, the cars that have a quick cheap respray, the underneath is still all original aren't bringing the big money anyway. Anyway the way the market is on car prices who knows. I'm pretty confident I won't lose any money on this project. But I don't think I'm going to make much at all. I'm hoping I can get some press coverage on it maybe from one of the talking heads, but who knows. I will say you never know who you're going to meet and where you're going to meet them. I've got a lot of good attention from this car so far, it's a unique build, it's something I've done from the ground up. So I'm eager to showcase it. I definitely want to spend a little time with it and enjoy it, I think it'll be pretty badass
But anyway I appreciate all the comments guys. I mean that is the reason we post this stuff up to give other people inspiration and ideas and to hear hey that's awesome I love what you're doing. It's nice to hear, and with everything going on it's just nice to hear. More pictures soon I promise
So that's where everything's at. Not a lot of pictures right now cuz well not a lot to actually getting accomplished. I'm going through the calipers right now, some pitting inside of them, but nothing that I'm really worried about. I have brand new pistons and seals so as long as everything goes together smoothly and they don't bind or leak we have no issues. If they do then I can get rebuilt calipers pretty cheap. But I've already got the bits to rebuild these so I'm just going to do that. And then depending on where I'm at with parts I still have to go through the seats. The seats I don't think will be too bad I have all new webbing foam and diaphragms for the seats in addition to new fabric. So the only thing that I think's going to take time with that is to clean and possibly having to paint the seat frames, I don't remember how much you can actually see. I really just want to get the engine in it, one to get it out of the way and two to make it look like I've actually done something. A lot of frustration, but a lot of stuff is moving in the right direction.
Some of these paragraphs are definitely out of order, I'm sorry for that my phone is not cooperating with me and this website trying to get things cut and pasted in the right way, it's late and I'm tired that is all. Late night rantings of a tired tech