NTMD8TR

Shouldn't need to have the notched covers. Thanks for the compliments. Yeah we are already having a great time with the build.






We got the exhaust in today and the A/C parts should ship out tomorrow. We now realize what happened with the starter brace. It appears that the previous owner had starter problems and instead of having it rebuilt, he just bought a new one. Problem is that the new one was for an automatic. Which meant no hole for the brace and he just jerry rigged the return spring back up. So we found a starter housing and drilled and tapped it for the brace. Fits up great now. We are building the new starter today, just picked up all the parts so we can do it at the office during the rain storms. Hopeful to have it finished today and get it put in and start on the exhaust tomorrow. Either way it should be a fun weekend with playing Santa Clause and Hunting and building the car.
Merry Christmas everone and be safe

NTMD8TR

Ok guys, we received the exhaust and the compressor for the air conditioning. We fit all the exhaust up and assembled it. Now I will tell you straight up front it was expensive. But Gardner exhaust said it would be right, all the way down to the factory hangers and bolts including factory instructions. And they did a fantastic job. It fits perfect, looks great and simple to install. Factory correct. They will be getting a thank you letter. Also, the compressor, dryer, and POA valve were awesome too. Here are some pics of where we are and we are definitely going to fire this thing up before putting the body on it. But for now, yall have a happy new year and enjoy the pictures. The engine pictures do not show but the we do have the a/c compressor on the engine now and the belt.

rob1960

Awesome!!!!

NTMD8TR

Ok guys its after new years, we got the seats back from being covered and the door panels. We are about to put the fenders back on the car and take it to our friends house to start the body work on the quarters and get that done. The seats look great. So do all the panels. I will have pictures of everything tomorrow. We have been working on fixing the dash. We have all the broken plastic repaired so that's a start. Almost ready to send the gauge panel and gauges off to be re done. Also I'm looking for a red steering wheel so I can get color sample to send off to have our steering wheel completely re done. We took the steering column apart and started cleaning those pieces up to be painted and put back together. It seems the lower bearing is easy to find and the upper bearing is the one they don't make anymore. I found a Chevrolet dealership in Texas that had some still in the parts bag. That was awesome. We also got all the belt system on the engine so that part is also ready. I will post a bunch of pictures tomorrow.

oldcutlass

Look forward to the pics.

Eddie Hansen

Absolutely awesome, the exhaust looks great. Are the tail pipes chambered?
Thebwork so far is terrific

NTMD8TR

Thanks Guys, Yes the pipes are. They are 100% Factory correct. It was expensive but Gardner Exhaust did an excellent job. All the way down to the hangers and all. Ok here come the pics. They are of different things but that's the body with all the A/C cut outs done and welded in and the new quarter with all the spot welds drilled and with a little more cleaning, ready to be put on. Once we start with the body work we will take pics removing the old ones. Also the dash where we fixed the broken plastic and got it re mounted to the dash pad.We will be using a different dash pad other than the one in the picture. We actually have a better one than that, but while we were fixing the plastic we decided to use that one so we wouldn't mess the other one up. Also the belt system all set up and tightened up. Hope yall like them

NTMD8TR

Here are the seats, We've go the door panels and back panels boxed back up so I didn't get those but I will get some pics before we put them back in the car. Got the shifter sent back to Hurst for a re build and will call Just Dashes tomorrow to get the dash pad sent off. Also gonna call Turn key restorations to talk to them about getting the instrument cluster re built. From what Ive seen and heard, they do good work so if anyone has anything else to offer, I'm all ears. Thanks guys

NTMD8TR

Story of my life... Looking for a red steering wheel for color match with the restoration. Look for 3 months and nothing anywhere. Check e-bay atleast once a week plus other places and nothing. Finally get the paint and my wheel and a picture and box it up and send it off while out to lunch. Get back to the office piddling around and low and behold, a red 1966 steering wheel has magically appeared on e-bay and it was entered while I was at lunch. That's some funny stuff right there.

Larrys'66

I just found your thread this morning and really enjoyed seeing your build. My interior is red too and I should send it to get freshened up like yours while it's out of the car. I hope to get the exterior repainted the original Target red soon. Thanks for the inspiration to get out there to keep wrenching keep up the great work.

Larry

NTMD8TR

Well we took the car to our buddies house and started assessing the situation. Some parts and pieces looked good and others not so much. Dad and his buddy worked on it while I was at the camp Saturday and Sunday. Got the Rocker cut off and the new one kleeko'd on. Then they cut the quarter panel off and when I got home sunday afternoon, We started putting and placing it on. Finally got it matched up good and found that part of the inner fender bent way out of shape. Good thing we have a good on one of the parts cars. Looks like tomorrow I will have to take some time off work and cut a car up. Here are some pics for now. Its starting to come together. Also Found a pristine original fan shroud. Plastic is in great shape and no cracks. Also found a really nice horn button for the original wheel. Going to put the Original red wheel back on the car. It had a wood wheel on it and that's gotta go back to stock.

Eddie Hansen

Holy 70s looked like someone flared that rear wheelwell. maybe for slicks? . Anyway the replacement quarter looks great. Is that factory brazing? I ask because as I am stripping the trunk on my project, I find bits of brass here and there and it looks likenits from the factory, ? But I didnt know they used gas welding?


As for taking a day off work to work on a project? For shame what are you thinking!!!!

Exactly what the rest of us want to be doing

NTMD8TR

Ha ha ha Eddie. No I didn't get to take a full day off of work. Being self employed has its advantages. We only took time to cut the piece we need out and get it done. That is the stock inner fender well. Its completely weird, the left side well is nothing like the right side. Dad however did leave after lunch and they put the new inner fender well in and started welding it up. I got there after work today and worked on grinding and cleaning metal pieces. The brazing is factory. it is all over the car, at all the wide gaps. Atleast it is easy to grind. Here are some pics from todays action.

Eddie Hansen

Looks great my friend very nice... thanks for the brazing answer... as I mentioned I find it here and there and the choices are leave it redo it or grind it out cause you cant mig it? Anyway not a big issue. You guts work fast too

costpenn

Excellent work all the way around. Love the way those SS1's look on your undercarridge.

Ranzan

do you think a blowout could have caused the wheel well damage ?

NTMD8TR

The only reason that they brazed it was because the gaps were so wide and to save time, they brazed it as most body shops and factories could braze faster than weld. It was simply a time issue. We will be welding ours back. Most people tend to braze it back to keep to the originality.


Thanks costpenn we are working at it.
Ranzan, the car was wrecked on both sides. Looks like an insurance job possibly early in the life of the car. They hacked up the quarter and didn't fix the inner fender well. So we did and we will put the new quarter on it as well.


Larry, here is the pic of that shifter that I've got.

classicmuscle442

Nice work, tagging along.

NTMD8TR

Its been a while since my last post. With hunting season and having the flu, things have been a little slow. I haven't taken any pictures lately but we do have the passenger side quarter and rocker panel on the car and welded up.


I would like thank Larry Moyer "lemoldsnut" for the awesome parts I received today. I got a great Hood and Driver side quarter which we will start this evening drilling spot welds out and getting ready for its installation.
If you need any parts or knowledge, call Larry. He is a great guy can't say enough good things about him.


I should have some pictures up this week on our progress. I hope to get kicked back off on it and stay there until it is done.

NTMD8TR

Ok guys Here are some pics of the last bit of progress we are on. We replaced both quarter panels complete at the factory seams. We also replaced the filler panel and straightened up the right rear inner fender. These are the pics of that work. It was a lot of welding but very well worth it. The driver side quarter at the filler panel had a bad hole so we made a piece from 3 different quarters. It took about five hours of welding and grinding and massaging but it fit perfect and so does the back glass. It is all welded and no glass or bondo anymore.

NTMD8TR

Got the body put back together for final inspection before priming. We set all the gaps and photographed for final assembly. This way we know where we were when we put the car together.

NTMD8TR

Ok, We disassembled the car and built the rotisserie. Got the car mounted and then came the hard stuff. We completely sanded the car down. Air sanders and DA sanders are awesome, but the entire inside and underside along with the fire wall had to be sanded by hand. We started Saturday morning and sanded for 12 straight hours. Then started again sunday morning and finally finished around 11 AM. Next we wiped the car down with acryli-clean and she is ready for her bath in epoxy primer. All said and done, The primer was put on just in time to see the last have of the race this weekend at Las Vegas. It will be a little bit before the next installment. Now comes the brutal task of the body work. Its a 60 year old car so after all the dolly work we are still going to have to wipe a little bondo but it should be very little. We also got all the factory wiring harnesses back from being reworked and the stainless trim from being fixed and polished. Now most all of the interior parts and pieces are done with the exception of the dash pad and instrument cluster. That along with the steering wheel should be here sometime in april or May. I hope everyone is doing well

oldcutlass

Awesome work, I wish I had that kind of talent.

NTMD8TR

Ha ha ha I don't think that's called talent. We just cut and weld and then grind A LOT. The main trick is not to force too much and don't get the metal too hot. AND take your time. When you get mad, just walk away for a while. Its definitely been a fun and learning experience.

rob1960

Nice to see your latest!!! Looks awesome! Wow what an incredible job on the body work!! That's going to be one beautiful '66 when done! I can do pretty much anything mechanically but I wouldn't even think about taking on major body-work like that! My hat's off to you!

NTMD8TR

Thanks Rob, Its actually a lot easier than you think. Its just a lot of work and welding and making sure you do things slow. Don't try and force things. We are actually learning a lot as we go. Replacing things from the factory seams is a lot easier than putting in patch panels. When you do those you can warp things really easy. But when you replace at the seams you are welding back to the factory points and it is easier not to warp things. Just make sure it fits. The main problem is drilling out the factory spot welds. That is a pain. But all in all, we are extremely happy with how it is going so far. Its starting to get there.

NTMD8TR

We worked this past weekend on the doors, fenders, and hood. Our buddy who is painting the car is getting oh so close to spraying red. I think we totaled the passenger side door but that remains to be seen. Right now we are doing a lot of sanding. Let me tell you, hand sanding a hood takes time, patience, strong hands, and a lot of sandpaper. Here are some pics of how the body is coming along. I think it looks pretty good so far.

tru-blue 442

A labor of love for sure, nice work. She's looking good.

RandyS

Looking very good!! Can you tell me how you made the joint at the top of the PS quarter where the quarter meets the roof panel? (under filler now).
Thanks,
Randy

NTMD8TR

Thanks Tru Blue 442, It's definitely a labor of love. If it were a job, I think we would have already stopped doing it. But we are trying to do it right and also take it farther than any body shop or joe blow off the street would do. There's nothing half way done so far and we aren't about to start now.






Thanks Randy, it's coming along. The joints at the roof and the quarter were spot welded back in the same way it was done at the factory and then all the welds were sanded down, we didn't grind them. Next it was epoxy coated and then we put dynaglass. When it eventually cures, it is harder than the steel itself. But you have to fill it and let it tack and cut it before it hardens or else it will rip 24 grit sand paper apart before you even make a scratch in it. I hope that answers the question. If you have any others just ask, I'd be happy to lay any knowledge I have on ya. We've started at the ground with this one and its definitely been a learning experience.

RandyS

Wow, you're not kidding about doing it right! I'm jealous. Seems like fitting a puzzle together to get the quarter in, on, under, around all the stuff involved.......lol. Curious why you sanded the welds rather than grinding?

My442

Thanks for posting.


It is great that you take the time to give us inspiration.....

NTMD8TR

Sanding the welds is actually less intrusive. Using 80 to 120 grit sand paper puts less heat in the steel. As you introduce heat to the metal it makes it do crazy things. So that cuts down on the heat. Also, grinding actually cuts too much metal at one time and gets hot and leaves grooves. If you sand it with a DA or air sander, it cuts less and leaves it a lot smoother. Also when you grind you cut too much metal from around the weld as opposed to sanding with the small discs you only hit the spot weld.
I hope that explains it. My dad could probably explain it better.


Thanks, Ronnie

NTMD8TR

Anytime. I just hope that yall could learn from our mess ups or knowledge that we may come across when we ask a question. But So far I have enjoyed the comments and knowledge that I have received with posting this build so far.

NTMD8TR

Well guys, Its been a while since my last post. With turkey season and being sick and getting hurt, I haven't been on the site. So here we go. Since my last post, we have gotten the car painted and just re introduced it to the restored frame. We are extremely proud of how it is going. The steering wheel came back and it is a perfect match to the paint so that is awesome. We had to get a new passenger side door for the car. While doing the body work and setting gaps we found a major discrepancy and found it to be better to start over with that part of the process. Here are some pics of the progress.

RandyS

Great progress - looking very very nice! Are you going to pre-paint a bunch of oil filters like the one on the engine now?........ lol - J/K. I like the use of the carpet to keep from scuffing the frame!

NTMD8TR

After getting her put back on the frame, its was time to take her outside for some pictures and let her feel the sun for a little while.

NTMD8TR

Ha ha ha, yeah Randy we are going to have to do that. After we get everything done, we are for sure going to have some places to touch up on the engine so we are leaving that filter on until its time to drive so that we don't have to worry about overspray on the filter. It is definitely getting replaced. I knew someone gonna see that first thing!!!

tru-blue 442

Beautiful work guys!

Larrys'66

Randy

Your build is really amazing! That is one lucky '66, I thought I was treating mine pretty well but you guys take the cake. It looks like you gonna make cruise season after all!

Larry