coppercutlass

Alright I did a little work tonight. I got the body bolted down and then I went ahead a detailed my engine bay . Tommorow I patch up the truck and the lower firewall where the fenders meet the body. Things should be picking up speed within the nexy half month or so.

TripDeuces

Nice work Copper. Feeling of accomplishment rules!
Are you going to drop the engine in between the mounts or take them off and bolt to block?

coppercutlass

I plan on taking them off I got new ones. Although I have installed engines with the mounts on with no issues.

coppercutlass

I was at it again today. I pre fitted the fenders and oh holy smokes do the fit great. everything lined up real nice. All that work paid off. Now I have to make the lower mount bracket since it is now non existent lol.







I had my dog inspecting my work. He kept saying it was "RUFF" but he kept playing that tune out all morning lol

Macadoo

Copper, I didn't know this thread existed. Thanks for the link. I got through the first page tonight. It's really fascinating watching you do bodywork. I'm looking forward to reading the rest. Good work brother!

coppercutlass

Okay so I got some work done this week. I patched up the firewall where the blower motor goes. I have been meaning to do that for the last 8 years lol. I also patched up the trunk where I had to cut it. I just riveted it on and seal sealed the edges. Nothing fancy here strictly function. I also made the lower mounting bracket for the pass side it was non existent . The welds looked really bad since my welder sucks so I ground em down and put some seam sealer on them. I also started to mock up my sheet metal for the interior. Since I run a fuel cell I need a real firewall to prevent the blast from coming in in the event I had fire. It will be covered up with some felt . I also dug out the drag radials and centerlines to have them mounted and balanced. I think track time is a complete possibility this year. I think by the end of this month I will start putting it al back together. I think im going to put body work off until mid September. Gotta get some track time in this year.











This is the lower fender bracket. Not my finest work but its out of sight and this is no show car.



Note the holes for the roll bars ., I decided to not go that route again since I do not plan on running fast enough to need them.




Just some old centerlines I have strictly for race use with the m/t drag radials.

coppercutlass

I got some more work done. I finished my rear firewall . I also have the fenders bolted up and lined up. Im very pleased with the fit and measurements I took. Nice and square . Assembly will be next. Paint well I have decided against paint this summer. IM going to do the body work over the fall and paint in the spring. I need to get the car to the track.

MDchanic

Nice.

- Eric

coppercutlass

Thanks eric. Im just plugging along and chipping away at the list. I know its not the most interesting aspect of car work but im actually pretty enthusiastic about doing all this and have bee pretty motivated lately for once.

67 Cutlass Freak

Those gaps sure look better than mine. Nice work buddy.

coppercutlass

I got about a solid 5hrs into fitting the fenders. I had to move the doors back , core back. I had the pull the firewall which was slightly pushed back from when I had crashed it . Its practice freakman now I know what to look for on your 67 when we go to square it all up. I also found out the glastek hoods are dead nuts on width measurements with the o.e. hoods. I got 56 3/4 in. between the fenders and both the steel and glass hood measure 56 1/2 in. Across so they are dead on.

coppercutlass

I got out to the garage and got some work done. Tommorow the bumpers go back on. Not very exciting but progress is progress. I plan on attacking my fuel lines Saturday making them all new again lol.

Macadoo

Copper, you're an artist man. Beautiful work. But we gotta' get you a better beer.
Really dude, nice work. And an interesting thread.

coppercutlass

If it cost more than 20 bucks for a 24 case I don't want it lol. I like my beer cheap and cold lol. Although lately I have had a taste for cheap Mexican beer (tecate) . No not corona that stuff is skunk **** .

Macadoo

Negro Modello, now there's a good Mexican beer. I fall asleep after the first one so I want it to be good, lol. Moosehead is about the best there is IMO. I like salty suds

coppercutlass

I friend of mine got me hooked on woodchuck hard cider and guiness. You do halfna pint of guiness and a bottle of the wood chuck in a glass . Freaking amazing. I'm not the biggest fan of dark beers.

coppercutlass

Well Friday my dad and brother came over to help me install my bumpers. They are on but it was bittersweet. My curiosity drove me to just pull my plugs out and take a peek into the cylinders. I found coolant in a few cylinders. I think It was just crappy head gasktes. Im never using mr gasket brand anything ever again ! I tore the engine apart and checked everything. Bearings are all in great shape. Considering I beat the living snot out of it last summer on the street everything is like near new. So im cleaning some things and putting on some good quality fel pro gaskets on it and bolting it all up . Hopefully next weekend I will be putting the engine back together. Didn't dent the wallet I had parts lying around so just labor. Here are a few pics.


although the head gasket failed or I messed it up with the stupid copper spray or just not a good sealing surface. The rest of the engine is great. Its a nice feeling when something you built comes apart and it's still holding up and it gives me peace of mind once im ready for the track that everything is still holding up.

coppercutlass

Well the engine is pretty much ready to be put together I went to rocket racing performance yesterday to address a cam bearing issue that was caught just in time. Nothing alarming just new cam bearings. I need a new cam since the one I had seems to have run out. Today i washed the block at my dads shop then when I got home I jacked the car up and started my fuel lines. The repairs we did to the frame seem to have paid off already. I didn't realize it but when I jacked up the car I left the rear jack stand one notch higher the front section of the frame rail never touched the frame. Its pretty rigid now. I can also open my doors when its jacked up and the door gaps do not change. Im pretty stoked about that. All I need to do to hit the street is wrap up the engine have my trans inspected along with the converter . I have to fix my door and primer them since I had to spoon them to get my gaps where I wanted them between the fender and door. I think the goal to have the car wrapped up by mid august is very achievable .

coppercutlass

Alright so im waiting to get a new cam from howards so the engine has been put on hold ., but I had other things I could do so I attacked them this weekend. I started to re do some re wiring for my distributor and gauges. The I decided to do the body work on the door edges. I chiped the paint and cracked the filler while I spooned the doors to get a nice looking door gap. The car originally had ghost flames I did. unlike most people who do em in clear I did them with color for a pretty neat effect. Well since I want to put off the rest of the body work and paint until next fall I had to do something so it would atleast look half decent.




You can see the flames in this pic. this is an old one. Disregard that red light on the light beams lol.










Don't worry about that can of flat black that was to touch up the edge of the fender where I chipped it . I primed it with a spray gun.

coppercutlass

Thanks joe . Im going to keep that cam in mind . Im shipping the defective howards cam which we checked for run out and it had .006 so I hope they make good on their end and replace it.

coppercutlass

Its been a while since I posted. I ended buying a new lunati cam one of the voodoo series biggest cam I could run 522/539 lift I wanna say. I also had the transmission I rebuilt inspected and the guy said I was good to go everything was good. I just set out my tq. converter to be inspected and it checked out and the stall os between 2900-3100 which is perfect. Today I started to set up my gauges and wiring .

coppercutlass

So i have been having the itch to put the engine back together. I woke up early went out to the garage before it got hot out and assembled the short block. I think by next weekend it should be ready to run im just waiting on the cam to get here from lunati .










I wasn't to worried about cleaning the carbon build up on the pistons i cleaned off what ever came off by wiping it with a rag. i was not looking to make them look new like i did last time.

coppercutlass

Ok so today I got a little work done on the engine. yesterday was my b day and I got my camshaft finally. I installed the cam, timing set, heads , valve train components , I could have finished it up but I was a little unclear about the timing gear set ., the cam sprocket had an odd little mark but the piston is a tdc and the lobes are on the base circle so I think its correct. I also left my valve lash tool t work which is odd because I don't use it there lol. I didn't have my intake gaskets so I will fnish it once I get the rest of the stuff. I also got my tq. converter back from torque converter technology in villa park il. All I have to do is break the engine in and install it all. Here are a few pics .











Just for ***** n giggles lol

coppercutlass

Ok so I degreed the cam in and I assembled the engine and this weekend I will be breaking in the engine thanks to 67cutlassfreak. He went above and beyond the call and built a really nice engine running stand so that I could break in my engine . He wanted one was in no rush but he busted his butt and het it done and I cannot thank him enough.



Its been an amazing summer. This is the most I have ever been motivated to get something on this car done and in the time frame of about 5 months I did a lot of work . I hope the hard work and patience pays off.




Anywho the engine is all assembled and I mocked up my pulleys . My water pump I think was too long so the pulleys don't line up I had a crank pulley shim and one water pump shim so that I could get atleast one set of grooves lined up which is all I need. I then shimmed out the alternator bracket which worked out good but I now have to go behind the bracket to tension the belt which is no big deal to me. The water pump could use a coat of high heat black and the pulleys too. I haven't uploaded any pictures in a bit so here goes. The goal is to hit the drag strip in a few weeks if we break the cam in with no issues.










Here is a pic of the pulleys. You can see the drivers side alt bracket . I was trying multiple set ups to see what would work best.






Here you can see the shims which I used as mock up for the bushing thickness I needed to properly set the alternator up.

johnnyjaws

nic work yea im restoreing my car 2 sometimes u need to get away from it for a few days u start pickinging out little things that need to be fixed and it get overwellmining

coppercutlass

I usually hit it hard on the weekends and do little things during the weekdays. The first time I restored this car I did it pretty much only on Saturdays for a year and a half.

twinjracing

What I did with my alt when it was to short was buy the MR Gasket double pully. or as I finaly did get the right water pump. It is shorter and then everything lines up right. I could get you the casting numbers of it if you would like. other then that it looks good.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Mr.+Gasket/720/6809/10002/-1

Octania

There are three water pump lengths to choose from. You can do a lot better with a little effort. Maybe a database of water pumps and pulleys to help decide what you can use?

twinjracing

I know with mine it was a stock one for a 71 supreme no ps, no ac 350 4bbl

coppercutlass

I'm pretty sure I need the shortest pump but the bushings don't bug me and this water pump had the cast impeller which I think is better ? . This is actually the best pulley alignment I have ever had. I always had issues tossing belts at high rpms hopefully this cures it. I never ran this set up before I always ran the A/C style brackets and pulleys . This is the first time I installed the non ac pulleys with the non A/C alt bracket all together and I screwed up on the pump but I got it lol.

twinjracing

As long as your happy with it. My tossed belts till i went to aluminum deep grove pullys.

67 Cutlass Freak

Well last weekend copper brought his engine up to me to break in the cam. I built a running engine stand for this purpose. Things did not go too well. The engine stated running hot and the upper hose blew off at the adapter. We should have waited until we had the right hoses in hand and we should have ran it without the thermostat. I ordered the right hoses, yanked the thermostat, and today things went a lot better for me. We both learned a valuable lesson, and I'm glad that neither of us were hurt any worse. We have a couple minor oil leaks to adress, but that's why we did this. To find out before it'sin the car. Engine sounds real healthy. I'm sure Copper will have it installed in no time.

coppercutlass

Thanks dave. I really appreciate it. There was mistakes made but I always broke my cams in the car and the running stand process was new to me and you. Atleast you got that figured out and finished breaking the cam . Can't wait to get it flying down the strip.

OldSoldier

Late to the party but that engine looks great!

64Rocket

When you degree a cam, it is best to do with only one piston in. So much easier to turn the crank and a lot more accurate.

Gene

coppercutlass

Well I finally got my @$$ out to the garage . I installed the engine and tomorrow I install the trans. Over the weekend I plan on wiring it all up and all that "fun" stuff lol.

twinjracing

Sounds like a lot of fun. Well get it done.

coppercutlass

Got a lot done yesterday . I hit my snags so I gotta try to figure some things out .

MDchanic

Lookin' good, Copper!

I like your authentic factory "heat delete" "plate."

- Eric

coppercutlass

That plate holds a soft spot in my heart lol. It was the month and year I was born and the last time my dads pontiac was on the road until this summer 25 years later. It was my uncles back then then my dads 10 years later. I regret spray painting it. I'm tempted to gently clean the paint off with out screwing the tag sticker up