I agree Troy, vinyl tops do look good on certain color combos. The first '68 442 I restored back in '79 was saffron with a black top & I loved how it looked! My buddy Brian's '70 W30 post looks just awesome with the black top over the platinum silver after Thorntons got done with it back in '13!! Right before I bought my current '68 in '12 there was another turquoise one for sale on e-pay that I almost bought. It had pretty much every option available(but it was an auto trans & I really wanted a factory stick), it had a black top that just killed it!! I like mine so much more without the vinyl top!!!

 

Nice looking W-30! Are you going to be at the Aliance show this year. It is on my to do’s for shows. I haven’t had a car there since 1989. I’ve been there a couple of times the past 4-5 yrs.

 

I plan to go to Alliance this year. I missed the last 2 yrs due to other projects,weather etc. Hope to see you there this year Troy

 

Hurtful

Just kidding. Different strokes for different folks. I was never a vinyl top guy but mine has grown on me over time. I thought about taking it off when it was painted but its in great shape & it wasn't in the budget. It did stop me from doing the wing however. I don't like wings & vinyl tops together. Too busy

by https://www.flickr.com/photos/158535685@N07/, on Flickr

 

Starting on the interior. What is one of the important items for the interior? Music of course.




I wanted to put 6x9’s in but I didn’t want to recut the 6x9 holes in the package tray, as I had it repaired at the body shop. It was really hacked up bad, when I got the car. I did not want big speaker grills in the package tray either. I had thought about using two original speaker grills with the one over the rear defroster, but still didn’t like that option the best. Legendary had a perforated package tray option, when I did my interior, so I ordered one of those.

That brought up the next problem how to mount them. This is what I came up with. I bought a Piece of 10Mx24 All thread. Fender washers with 1/8 inch hole and tested my welding skills. I drilled part way though the washer to create a pocket, and welded a 2 inch long piece of all thread to it.






I gave them a quick coat of paint. Put them in the holes in the package trays, another flat washer on the bottom side with a nut to hold the stud in place. 1/2 inch speaker spacer, speaker, and the final nut to hold everything in place. I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.

 

Here is what you can use next time, and its factory fit too.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F350568213482

I actually removed a few of those above when installing 6x9s on my car.
I didn't end up using those on my 6x9's though, ...and I also used a dremmel and with surgeon like skills lol, cut out that middle section of the speaker holes that blocks the sound a bit, but also keeping with the exact radius of the holes.

Then used a fine file to file the edges to look like it was made that way.👍

 

I had seen those, but they were not long enough to do what I wanted. I did not want to cut out anything. Been there, done that in the past. With the spacers the speakers do not hit the metal in the middle, and one would be hard pressed to say any sound is blocked. I purchased some Memphis 6x9’s, and they sound great! Both my son and I were very impressed with how these sounded.

 

This past week end my wife and I drove the 442 about 2 1/2 hours to make it to the Good Guys show in Columbus. There are still a few things I am working out, but I was happy with the overall trip. Here are a few pics.

 

Awesome, congrats!

 

Beautiful!

 

 

Very nice. If I was to do my W-30 again I would have used the SSI wheels also. I was going to and even had (still have) the wheels. Not sure why I didn't use them

 

Do you want to sell them Eric?

 

Thanks again all!! I am having an absolute blast driving it around!! It was cool to go to Good Guys as a participant instead of a “civilian”. LOL.

Adam-get er done! It is sooo worth it!

Eric- SSI are the icing on the cake. I don’t think I could go back to the SS2’s. I didn’t realize how much difference they really make.

 

I know how you feel, I only drove mine 700 miles but that 700 miles was worth all the work for sure! It was the best 700 miles I had driven in any 70-72 car.

 

I will let them go. They are 1971 date code but still correct for 70. The chrome (more like brushed chrome) areas are still good on them. The black areas of them need repainted. 4 are good to restore but the spare has rust pitting on the rim section. How far are you from Kings Island? We will be there sometime in the next couple weeks. I would like $300 for them if I don't have to ship

 

I'll send you a PM

 

Amazing transformation... I saw this car before he bought it and was thinking of buying it as a donor for my 70 442 project. Glad to see it went to a good home and someone completed it

 

Thanks John,

It was, is, and continues to be a labor of love!

 

Well,

I thought I had a good plan on certain things to avoid extra work, but a last ‘‘tis but a dream.



1) The water temp gauge quite working, actually the needle
has fell off and is inside the gauge. So shipping it back out.

2) The radio, which I had converted to modern tech that included Bluetooth. The Bluetooth is not working. Back it goes. Radio works really well. Hopefully the Bluetooth work work when it comes back.

3) I purchased a refurbished tilt steering column a couple of years ago at Homecoming. I am surprised no one dinged me for the “Grant” steering wheel. I have the correct wheel and went to put it on this week end to figure out that that one of the shafts in the sterling column is 180 degrees off. When the upper shaft’s chisel mark is at 12 o’clock the lower shaft is at 6 o’clock. This also explains why the turn signal is not canceling as the horn tube, which is located above the two bumps to cancel the turn signal is at the 5 o’clock position instead of the 10 o’clock position I am now looking at the my options as outlined in the article below. My inclination is to go after the quick fix as I do not want to tear the steering column completely apart.

 

Sorry about all the issues you are having Troy.

I bought a refurbished tilt column too but haven't installed it yet. I hope I don't have the same experience.

 

Rick,

You should be able to look at both ends of the steering column. 1) Check and see if the lower shaft as a grove all the way around where the intermediate shaft bolt goes to help clamp on the splines, or if it is just on one side. My understanding is that the “newer” columns, (I am not sure if this means after 70 or not.) only has the grove one one side. This is the way mine is, and thus the column shaft, intermediate shaft rag joint is only to go on one way.

If your column shaft is like mine, only one position for the intermediate shaft to be; then there should be chisel marks on each end of the shafts. They should be clocked the same way. If they are you are good as far as that part of it goes. If they are 180 degrees off you are in the same boat I am in.

Also, it is my understanding that the ignition switch is different between the tilt column and the regular column. If your refurbished column did not come with the switch, you might check into that as well.

Best of luck.

 

Another item on the small items to do was to change the faceplate on the heater a/c control. Unfortunately, someone glued the bottom **** on. I removed the Allen screws from all the *****. The switch and upper control know came right off. Bottom one was stuck tight. It would not budge. I even tried a small board wrapped in cloth to use as a fulcrum, to pry it with a small flat blade prying tool. It would not budge. I then decided to pull the control out. MAW ( I really thought I was done with these. lol.) change it out. I had three others as spares. The spare that had the next best less rusty, the rotating vacuum valve was not working well as the others. Thus, here is where I am now.

 

After about 3 hours of disassembly, clean up, and reassembly. It looks better and operates the way it should. I didn’t want to make it perfect, so I didn’t blast the plate and levers. I really wanted to keep the surfaces where the levers slide and rotate as flat as possible. That is where I spent the most time in clean up. The action is quite smooth, I am happy with the results. Here are a coupe of pics. (Not exactly a before and after-just a comparison)

 

Beautiful!