runt

I’m hoping to use this thread as a place to document all the repairs and restoration I am
doing to my 66 F-85 Deluxe.




I think a good place to start is with the cowl tag, which I’ve deciphered to the best of my abilities. It basically confirms what I can see and that I have is a 1966 F-85 Deluxe Holiday Coup in provincial white with matching roof, blue interior with bench seats, column shift for the 2 speed Jetaway automatic transmission, standard compression 330 engine with a Rochester 2 barrel carburetor. If anyone here sees something on the cowl tag or in the other photos that I might be missing or interested to know about my car, please feel free to let me know!



So my plan of attack is to get this thing safely drivable and take care of things that need taking care of along the way when it makes sense. The 330 runs, but I noticed a small leak from the carb, and so it will need a rebuild. The car came
to me with no brake pedal. I was told one of the wheel cylinders leaked out long ago and all the fluid is either in bad condition or completely gone from the system. The other major issue is the trunk and bottom of the wheelhouses. The trunk is in such bad condition I figured I had to start there as doing any other metalwork to the car before that didn’t make sense to me. So dropped the fuel tank, cut it out and order a new trunk pan.




Once the trunk pan was gone, I could see I would need to either install new wheelhouses or at least butt weld the bottom section of new ones I onto the solid parts of the originals. Because I don’t think I’ll be able to get the entire houses out without removing the quarters, I am planning to graft the bottom portion of new wheelhouses to the ones. I also discovered that the drop offs are in bad shape. I bought 66 Chevelle drop offs as they are the closest thing I could find, and will probably end up refabricating them to fit my car.

I plan to clean (maybe sandblast) the frame and underside as I go, so having the trunk removed gives me a reason to start doing that before I put the new pan in. I have the set up from MasterCoat, which is some kind of etching solution followed by a rust converter type primer and then a top coat. I’ll be posting pics of that when I get down to it.

In looking down at the gaping hole that was once the trunk, I realized it would be a great time to remove the rear axle, differential and rear suspension so that I can get them cleaned and coated and have more access to the frame for coating.


I disassembled the rear drum brakes and found them to be in not-that-terrible condition. Confirmed the once leaking wheel cylinder, and discovered the shocks are pretty new so that’s cool. Everything came out pretty easily accept for one lower control arm bolt that i could only get one nut off of and will have to be replaced. The control arms all moved freely in the bushings, but if anyone has a good way to check them to see if I should replace them, I’d like to hear it.

The rear is stamped “SA”, which is 2.73 as per CSM. Now that it’s out, I’m thinking if I should upgrade it or leave it and clean it up and reinstall it…

This car will not be a race car. I’m just looking to make it something that looks cool, is fun to drive and has a little get up and go when I want it to. I know the jet-a-way isn’t great and with the 2 barrel and the 2.73 rear end I’m think it’s going to be downright sluggish. I was already planning to replace the intake manifold and put a Quadrajet on there, and I’d love to eventually convert to a dual exhaust set up… All this said, should I upgrade the rear and if so, what are my options that don’t include replacing the entire rear axle unit?

69CSHC

Great cars, welcome aboard. My first was a 67, awesome ride. They are worth pouring money, time, and effort into. If they are keepers and you are all in.

Keep in mind the 330 does not benefit from the 4bbl dual exhaust swaps the way a 350 does...

The 2BBL 250HP 330 is maxed out as is. In order for the factory to see what the 350s did with those very swaps the 330 needed a cam change.

runt

Thanks! To be honest, I did not know the 2bbl 330 was maxed out HP-wise. I know the 330 runs well with a QJ, so it is one of the upgrades that was on my list from day one when I pulled the air cleaner and saw the 2bbl, but I didn’t really know it wouldn’t offer any added HP. The dual exhaust is mostly on my list for aesthetic reasons, but I also figured that might give the 330 a nudge. But I guess HP is the sum of more complicated equation and in order to be increased needs all parts of the equation to be increased, not just one or two.

Who knows… maybe by the time I pull the engine out I’ll be looking to swap the cam…

runt

Ive been spending a lot of time fabricating and welding on the rear wheelhouses. They aren’t quite finished yet, but I’m almost there. Last week I switched gears a bit to have the frame and floor pans sandblasted by a local mobile blaster.

Originally, I had planned to wire wheel everything between metal prep, but I’m glad I had it blasted. All the undercoating on the floor pans would have take forever to get off. I was a little nervous to see what might be under there and in the nooks and corners of the frame, but was pleasantly surprised that everything looked solid and totally clean. I have one small patch of pinholes in the floor pans about 3/4” wide. But that’s nothing I can’t butt weld a patch in to fix.

After the blasting, I cleaned everything off and sprayed it down with Mastercoat Metal Prep. It worked great to get all the flash rust off after the dustless blasting and got everything nice and clean and coated.



Next was the Mastercoat Rust Sealer which is a silver primer. Two coats. Very easy to apply with a brush and roller, and I’m sure a sprayer too, but I dont have one and I really don’t think I would have been able to get up under the body and rockers and stuff with a sprayer.




The topcoat is Mastercoat AG111 on the frame, which is a semigloss black urethane that is very sticky. Not so easy to brush on, but it dried pretty nice and I’m sure will really protect the frame. For the floor pans, I’m going to probably spray some kind of undercoating on over the silver rust sealer instead of the AG 111.




I still have to do the front suspension (if I decide not to replace the parts) and the crossmember under the engine, but that’ll have to wait until I pull the motor.

I also had some time this weekend waiting for the humidity to drop (MC cannot be applied in high humidity), so I tore the rear apart and started to rebuild with new gears and a Yukon locking diff. I’ll probably finish that one night this week.

For anyone thinking of coating their frame or floors or even sheet metal, I can highly recommend the Mastercoat products. They have great customer service too—I called twice with questions before I applied it and the owner Pat gives great tech support and is very friendly.