malibru

Well it will never be a Pebble Beach show winner, but I don't think it came out too bad. Some minor glitches here and there, but I used a body/paint shop that does a good enough job for my budget. I have kids...so I figure there will be inevitable dents/dings anyway

I've got a lot of trim, interior, and other work yet to do. Hell I can't find the brand new door/trunk lock set I bought five years ago. I've been collecting and storing parts so long that I've lost track of them! (Well, it's possible I hid some boxes from the wife...)

malibru

Ooops, had trouble adding these

RetroRanger

That looks pretty tight! My boss is dyeing to paint my car, but I know better I'm still working on the mechanicals and by the time I finish there would definitely be some new dents scrapes and dings in the fresh paint...so I'll wait on that. Yours looks really nice.

I'm in central mass.

Magna86

Looks great. I love blue cars

oldcutlass

Looks great, what more you can ask for? It's all one color and shiny.

malibru

And now, the wife can no longer complain about the ugly old light green monster in the garage! So yes, I'm happy just to have one nice solid color that shines!

71rocket

Looks good.

therobski

64 F-85 post car , very very nice!

malibru

Well it's time. Seven years this month that I've owned the F85. Must really dig in and get some work done. The smallest things take so long, but are satisfying. The wife asked me the other day how I could enjoy being cramped under the dash, dirty, sweaty and swearing at the wiring harness. I explained that each part of a project like this may not be fun, but each part you complete gets you closer to the final goal. Which I hope will be the fun part! Guess you just can't explain what it is to work on your car.

cleaned up my instrument panel with new paint after an hour or so of taping and removing switchgear. Came out much better than it was for a 50 year old car!

oldcutlass

Came out great

nonhog

Dang! Looks great.

therobski

Very nice our dashes could be twins! Great job...

RROLDSX

Beautiful, what color is that?

Cman7713

What color is that if you don't mind me asking. Kind of reminds me of Tahitian Turquoise which is one of my favorites.

stan 65 cutlass

car looks awesome, time to get back to working on mine someday

Allan R

Color looks fantastic! Really nice work on the dash too.

Shiny cars go faster too!

malibru

Hey guys thanks. Rob, our dashes do look identical. I was very glad no one had put extra holes for switches etc in mine. Much cleaner that way.

For those who asked the color is a 66 Chevelle color, Marina Blue (this is a Dupont version). There was actually some variation between 66/67 from my research. Either way I couldn't go back to the original green the wifey woulda murdered me. My paint and body are not perfect by any means. Some fish eyes and dirt specs for sure. But the rot was cut out of quarters and fenders and new steel welded in so I'm hoping it will last. It won't be seeing any more New England road salt that's for sure.

I'm working on welding up brackets for my bucket seats and then positioning my floor shifter. I'm 5'7" but had my 6'4" friend come over the other day to mock things up. The seats are Procar lowback buckets and the sliders allow for quite a bit of travel.

If anyone gets these seats, I would save the $75/each for custom brackets. $10 in 1 1/4 angle is working out well for me, and the height is more then comfortable for me. Actually, if you are on the taller side you would need to cut off one or two mounting holes on the slider brackets to get the seats low enough. The brackets have tabs with three elongated holes stacked up. I'll try to take pics of anyone needs a visual.

malibru

Shiny cars go faster....love that line Allan!

therobski

Im getting to the stage where I need to weld in the seat brackets for the bucket seats.( I had to replace the complete floor and all the braces that hold the floor pan. Here is a link that may give you some ideas unless your past this stage.

http://www.superchevy.com/how-to/interior/1404-how-to-install-amd-1966-1972-chevelle-bucket-seat-brackets/#ixzz3ANCV2TFF


I did hear also that sliders make the seats set to high, Im interested to see how yours turns out with the angle iron

therobski

Malibru can you send me pics?

malibru

Here's the angle welded in. I'll get some pics of brackets and seats mocked up for you later.

malibru

I will work on some better photos for you and try to post them up tomorrow. I'll be replacing the factory steering wheel (appx 16") with a 14" wheel so that will give me more room. I can tell you that my 6'4" friend had to recline the seat back a bit so his head would not hit the roof, and that's without headliner! But when you see the slider brackets you will see what I mean, could definitely work the die grinder and knock off 3/4-1" I think.

My plan is to paint my brackets black, and when I install my carpet it will only be 8
1 1/2" slits in the carpet to allow the angle bracket to poke through. I will still have access to the bolts if I need to pull seats in the future.

therobski

In one picture, I laid the drivers side seat brackets on the floor according to factory specs. You can barely see them in the picture. Then I mounted the shifter right behind the hump in the floor tunnel. You can mount it to much farther forward. Seems it was almost a natural fit. I can take more pictures if you want.

malibru

You will notice I had to cut out the factory bucket seat brackets, but mine had been chewed up and re-welded to the floor pan by previous owner anyway. And don't inspect my welds too closely....no nice stack of dimes there. I'm using a MIG but no shielding gas just flux core wire so between that and heat settings it was not a pretty job. Floors are much thinner gauge than the 3/16 angle. That and I pretty much suck at welding. I'm better at brazing with the flame wrench and an old coat hanger!

malibru

Ok Rob, I see what you mean. Yes it does seem to fit well there, I will have to sit in my seat again and see where my hand falls comfortably. But I may mount it where you did as it really give the most solid spot I think.

Thanks for those photos!

therobski

My after market floor pan is molded a little different than yours. The front of the shifter body is almost even with the front seat bracket. I don't think its to far back for manual race shifting do you? Funny were almost using the same seats too.

therobski

Also note:the shifter handle moves maybe a 3/4 inch at a time when your manually shifting it. Your not rowing like a 4-speed...

therobski

Here's some more pictures. When I put the seat brackets where they needed to be, I removed the bucket seat out of my 67 442 in all the way up position and set in the 64. So you see I think the shifter is about where it needs to be. Also seen where the Cigarette lighter was I installed an re-charging outlet! And the volume control houses my 12volt off and on switch for AC compressor. Both switches will light up in blue LED when your turn on the lights

therobski

Malibru disregard the seating position in the last pics with the blue buckets, I remember I had to send the shifter back they gave me the wrong one for my 200R-4, the first ones are correct.You can see the two shifters are not the same, sorry.

malibru

Ahhh I see what you're talking about. Yep caught the different shifters, looks like maybe a bandit? I have a quicksilver, so it will operate like yours in ratchet mode with very little movement. I mocked it up again today and think I will mount it forward of your location, but only 2-3 inches. I will have to use spacers in that forward "valley" and I'm sure the plastic housing it comes with will not reach the carpet. Will have to get creative. Your shifter is "race" and has no other cover, correct?

So funny...I will install a USB charger port too but have to decide on location. In another car I used some "blue-sea" ports that have covers, amazon has them and they are marine use with rubber covers. No smoking for me so that charging ports are a better option!

And you won't believe it, but my factory old AM radio was fried so I gutted it all and will leave just the face plate to fill the hole. I'm going to use the factory on/off volume **** to control something. Simple wiring on two poles to control on off and I can wire it to a relay to handle the amps. Maybe use if for electric cutouts? I figure that way when you "turn up the volume" it will be real!

malibru

Rob here are the photos under my procar's. Yes, similar seats and probably the same setup on the slider tracks. If you look you will see the tabs with three horizontally stacked mounting holes. Quick work with a die grinder would take the lower one or two off to lower the entire seat. But, with your factory style floor brackets with bolt threads protruding you may need a different setup.

If you had similar sliders you could heat up the tabs, bend them into an "L" shape and then bolt them down if things lined up. Or if you by the adapter brackets they may line up perfectly with the factory studs. But if you are taller than about 5'10" I bet you'll be cramped for space....

Again excuse the poor welding abilities here

malibru

And no, for race shifting I think you would want the shifter closer at hand. I think it will be great for you.

Is that a push button switch in the second radio **** hole, for the a/c? Looks good!

BTW, what is your gas pedal setup? Lokar? It may be easier to install aftermarket cable operated versus the factory linkage setup. Is that what you did? I'll be running a quickfuel carb with standard holley linkage setup...

And, I started a "major build" thread today as a place to post updates and pictures. I'm not sure if that's the right place or thing to do but I'm still very much a newbie here!

14" wheel installed today....