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Now that I am finished with my 4 year hardtop project, I figured i like being broke so decided to tear into my white convertible. Frame off well underway. Quarter panel were butchered by some hack, but that’s the worst part. Floor almost perfect, fenders, a little rust, hood has some front damage and someone took a grinder to it, but overall not much metal work. Putting hardtop quarters on a convertible is no easy task, but my body guy is really good - a lot of attention to detail.
Drive train is ready - Marc Remmel built SBO stroked EFI, TH400 from JW performance and a 3:91 built by Brian Trick. This is going to be a fun build.
Before tear down Floor after POR15 A-lot of massaging, but really nice fit
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Looks like you're making some great progress. Glad to see you're keeping it stock... That beast will be a lot of fun per miles when completed!
Got the chassis to my house to strip blast and coat. I bought my suspension and steering parts. I wanted the QA1 kit, but buying parts separately was cheaper. I like UMI control arms, went with QA1 coil overs and Wilwwood brakes. Should go together nicely
Lots of progress over the past few weeks. Chassis painted - I could not find anyone willing to come to my house to blast the frame as it wasn’t a big enough job so I did it myself I used the Eastwood SCT Contour with 40 grit and their 50 lb blaster. It sucked, took me all day, but surprisingly came out nice. I coasted it with Eastwood rust encapsulator plus and then summit semi gloss chassis paint. I am really pleased with the results. Suspension is coming together, I am prepping the engine to go in and got some color on the car. It was white from the factory so went back with white, but not the OEM color. UPOL Raptor under the body came out nice.Still a ton to do, but it’s finally starting to move.
Ok this build is becoming a PITA - much different than the last one. I’ve had more damn do overs and parts mismatches it’s killing me. The latest and I need some input if the transmission crossmember and mount. The block is a 350 DX, the transmission is a TH400 and the engine frame mounts and engine mounts are for a SBO. I have a summit cross member that is for the convertible.They are made by G force and I used one on my hardtop and it fit like a glove. This one caused a 2” gap between the trans mount and the cross member. Summit verified the cross member is correct for the convertible. I contact G force (they were really great) and just so happens they sell a 2” spacer because they have had this issue before. No problem, I buy it, but something tells me my geometry is off. Have a look at the pictures. The trans pan looks like it’s slopping forward and the rubber passenger side mount looks off. The drivers is solid and looks fine.
Got the bottom all buttoned up, was waiting for my driveshaft. Shoutout to Denny’s driveshafts. Great to deal with and realistic with lead times. I ordered in Aug and he advised it would ship in Nov as they are swamped. Sure enough Nov 1 it shipped. Fits like a glove like the others i have bought from them. Now on the the rest of the electrical. First time with EFI so decided to mount all with my fan and shift controllers in the cabin. Will get covered with my console. I am not sure about heat so am thinking about adding a few small fans. Anyone do the same.
That beast will be a lot of fun per miles when completed!
