Some pics of engine. When I went to drop off the engine the builder told me to tear it down as much as possible. He said it would save me 2 hours of labor charges at $90 per hour!. So I did it in the back of my van

 

it is really progressing nicely looks great, what are you doing to the motor? just freshening it up?

I saw my short block last weekend waiting on the cam, heads should be done this past week,


keep us posted bro

 

The motor is getting a total rebuild. Polishing and balancing original crank. Boring it from .030 to .040 over, 10:1 forged pistons, .540 lift cam, roller rockers, HV oil pump, 7qt pan, Edelbrock aluminium heads, torker mani and holley 750 dp carb. Cant wait to drop it in!

 

Im hoping progress picks up because Im gettin spring fever! Here is a few pics in spray booth, about to be primed then block sanded

 

A few pics of re-upholstery

 

beob, seems your picking up steam now, seat looks great, body is also coming along great.. thanks for posting pics, it is getting us all going!!!

 

Body is finally painted! I didnt go with the original trophy blue, this is slightly different. The stripes are a metallic whitish/silver.

 

Congrats on the progress, she's looking SWEET! Love the color. Blue's my favorite.

 

Nice job! I like the 70 hood on it. That color combo is going to be sharp.

My windshield opening has the same rust issue yours did. How'd you, or the body guy, go about repairing that? With patches or did you replace the entire upper dash section?

 

Looking real good Beob

 

Nice color combo Rob! Maybe Bellmore before the end of the season!

 

Looks Phenominal!!! Love the color!!

 

Thanks for the compliments guys. Car is now back in garage and begining to be reassembled. There is still alot of undercarriage work to be done. The car might see Bellmore by August If Im lucky.

 

Thanks for comps, I have seen one long patch for that windshield section, but my welder opted to just cut the rusty section out and make a patch with sheet metal. I also like the 70 oai hood especially because I believe its an original, it has a steel frame.

 

You're welcome.
I saw that patch as well after some searching. Most ads say it's only 2 inches wide thoguh and my rust goes a little further than that. Not sure it would be worth replacing that whole piece and still have to patch the spots it doesn't reach. I'd like to see one in person. I can't tell if that piece has just the one break in it or two. If it just has one break and is just an L shape, then you'd still have to deal with that long curved break. And it would be a butt weld at that.

On the 70 hood, I've heard you could put one on a 69 by modifying the core support/hood latch. Just curious how much trouble it was.

 

Were just getting past a major work slowdown for the past 2 months. When the car went into the body shop the resto man took on a side project. Hes just about done with that now and Im not too happy. Hes a nice guy and is doing good work so Ive accepted the fact that it will take longer than expected. The under carriage has been painted with body shultz and new gas tank, fuel and brake lines and disc brake conversion are in. The engine is STILL in the shop! Its been over 5 months and Im very annoyed but trying real hard to keep my cool. Im just finishing the bucket re-upholstery and then will start polishing all moldings. Rob

 

Rob
if you don't mind me asking where on the Island are you and who did the body work and paint?

 

Im in Plainedge, Vinny the resto man did all the sheet metal work and express auto body did the body work and paint. They are in Babylon under the train tracks. Rob

 

I finally finished all of the re-upholstery, the buckets were a little tricky. I cant seem to get the power motor for the drivers seat working. Does anyone know if replacement parts for the power unit are available? Got the re-chromed bumpers back, cant wait to put them on! Thanks, Rob

 

Trunk and conv top frame are painted. Fender wells are in and bumpers are on (still need to be aligned).Maybe it will be done by the first snow!

 

Lookin' good Rob!

 

Looks great Rob, hope to see it at a local show.

 

I finally got my engine back from the shop, the only problem is that it is still in hundreds of pieces! In over 6 months very little has been done. I finally got to see the block yesterday and it was completely bare! This guy has been jerking me around the whole time. Every time I called to check on it he said it was progressing. Last week he said it completely assembled and was ready to be fired up. When I went to the shop to drop off the carb and starter I requested to see the engine, he then told me he f***ed up. He said he had my engine confused with another and promissed me it would be assembled by tommorow. When I went back today nothing was done so now Im looking for another engine builder. IF YOU LIVE ON LONG ISLAND DO NOT USE WILLIAMS ENGINES OF FREEPORT.!!!

 

Rob, If you are looking for someone, you can use my guy. He's doing the motor for the vista right now! Although, I will admit, he isn't fast either. Says getting pistons are very difficult right now, no matter what engine make...

 

Citcapp, As someone who has done a number of projects, it sometimes takes alot more time than we first figure. You're not a youngster, maybe alittle less a youngster than I, I don't know. I've done some timely builds, when I had dead-lines, and the best builds I've done were w/ no dead line and when I'm able to sleep on the project and take my time. Now days, I like to enjoy every miinute of each day, and appreciate each bolt I turn and do it correctly, then when I'm done, there are NO questions as to whether or not I did this or that correctly and completely. When the project is done, and it's all correct, the time it took is part of the beauty of it.

 

Your absolutely right Jim. My best work comes from times when I want to be working on a project. As soon as I get tired or frustrated I stop right there and continue later. Although I am paying someone to do the majority of the work, I never gave him a deadline. I understand his family takes priority, but on the other hand he does have an obligation to finish this car in a reasonable amount of time. He originally told me it would take 3-4 months. I would have been very happy if the car were done in double that time! It has now been almost 10 months and its about 75 percent complete

 

The car is looking great.

 

In the past 2 months little to no progess has been made. The resto man is now avoiding my calls and not returning my messages. I paid a surprise visit to his house and found my car out of the garage with 3 feet of snow on it! This is the last straw. Im calling a flatbed.

 

Oh my gosh! You're a smart man to keep a watchful eye and take control. Good luck on the remainder of the restoration.

 

Man I am sorry to hear that!!!

 

I am sorry to hear about all the delays with your project. When I was getting the Delta painted a few years ago, there were delays, and I also ended up finding it sitting outside of the shop covered in about a foot of snow.

 

Rob, does he still work there? You might want to think about going there and "asking" them how much to finish the car! Ruffle the guys feathers a little!

 

Yes, that exact thought crossed my mind. But, I knocked on his door and finally got to speak to him. I told him I cant wait any more and Im going to have a flatbed pick the car up. He was upset and said he still wants to finish the car. He apologized and promised me the car would be back in garage this weekend. He also promised that in the next 2 weeks he will make decent progress. So I didnt call the flatbed just yet. I dont mind slow progress but no progress gets me a little bent out of shape.

 

Yes, thats my car under that snow drift. 50mph winds have a tendency to blow snow into every nook and cranny. Being that this is a fresh restoration I was a little tiffed.

 

Sorry to hear about you bad luck. Hope it works out. My engine goes to the builder today, him and I will have a long talk about schedule and expectations after reading your nightmare. My last engine build took about 1 month at the machine shop and blew both head gaskets within two weeks, they did honor the fix but I am using a different builder this time

 

It sound like he's upside down & he needs to get some money out of you. That's a good place for you to be in.

The guy doing mine said it would be 6-8 weeks & he had it nine months. I started visting him every 2 weeks or so about 6 months into it (on the pretense that I had to drop something off for him). The more I visited the more progress he seemed to make. I suprised him two or three times & every time the car was inside so I was happy about that. I never actually gave him any sh*t for taking so long but he sure knew I was interested. When I got the car back two weeks ago there were a few minor things that he never finished but I can live with them. One is a pretty bad run in the clear that he missed. I'm sure that he'll fix it.

 

Thanks for all the supprt support guys! The engine is finally starting to progress. It is fully balanced and was begining to be assembled when they ran into a problem. I will post pics and explain later.

 

During the fiasco with the first engine builder I acquired a set of Eagle H-beam connecting rods for free. The crank was in along with 2 pistons, when they gave it a spin, the wider H-beam rods hit the bottom of the cylinder. Everything had to come out and the cylinders have to be notched out where the green mark is in fourth pic.

 

This weekend has past and once again the resto man did not return my call. I went to his house to find my car still outside covered in snow. I knocked on his door and this time got to speak to his wife. I told her I cant get in touch with him anymore, she said "niether can I". Then I asked if he still lives here and she said "not really". So, my car will be outa there asap. The hard part will be trying to gather up all my parts in his garage.

 

Sorry to hear that. You need that car out of there ASAP. The last thing you need is have your car over there in the middle of a domestic situation.