JCMC64

Oh...350 and 455 had same compression. I knew the compressions had dropped in 71' but did not know 350 and 455 were the same comp.

But why then are there 72' xxxx387 455 starters (like one in the pic I posted), and xxxx386 starters? What Ive read is 387s are for the 455s. I also read that they are hi torque starters.

JCMC64

Ive been wanting to take care of the roof for a while, so finally jumped on it.
P.O. did some odd priming around the rails \ edges of roof. So I went ahead and sanded entire areas of slightly surface rust on roof itself and then Por 15 the rails and the roof.

Before:






This is how I marked my headliner rods before I Powder coated them so I could tell which position they belong. Here two lines means 2nd from front, etc. using a dremmel.

Allan R

Jim, are you going to install dyna mat while it's wide open like that?

JCMC64

After:



Rear Driver side square hadn't had its second coat yet in above pic. Came out nice. Now they are ready for some fat mat sound deadening. Ive since put the headliner rails back on.

Found these door handles on a blowout. From my research I saw these Chevelle\El Camino handles also crossed over to 71' Cutlass handles so I took a shot on them for $20. Turns out they are exact in every way, except for the thumb handles themselves. Had to cut off the bended rod sizing them to my old handles. Wala, work perfect and saved $50+ bucks.

The chrome on this handles are excellent.

JCMC64

Hey Allan.
Yes...read the next post after yours. Going with cheaper version called Fat Mat - Mega Mat thickness version of it which is 70 mil Butyl type. Great reviews, half the cost.

Here are the finished door handles after trimming thumb **** rods. After cutting rods I polished the tips.

Old vs New

JCMC64

Ive been back in forth on what to do with the doors, fix them, replace them.
Then last week I found 2 doors not too far away with zero rust. Minor other blems, but no rust. So progress. These doors are getting incredibly hard to find. Ive been looking for year and a half with very little success. Every one had rust in one of the bad areas to a one degree or the other. Got them dirt cheap too. $75 each.


This is a great site to see...no rust along bottom edge. Both my doors have rust here.

1969w3155

Those doors were a bargain!

JCMC64

W3155- yeah they were. The dreaded upper door sponge area are also very nice.

JCMC64

Ive been doing lot of odds and ends that need to get done, tightening things up. Ive been experimenting on Dash lighting too. Ive installed a temp Dash insert as I can now drive car around few times a week, but still have lot of work to go on interior so I don't want to scratch up\ dirty up newly restore Dash insert.

So I got a handful of 168 LEDs (6k's I believe). WOW...what a difference from the the normal 168s. There are just no comparing them. So I even tried them out in the water temp\oil press\Voltage gauges, and man what an amazing difference. I also installed a temp Tach for same reason above. I will take more pics but here is a quickie of just the Fuel and Speedo before I did the tach and trio gauges. And this pic below was taken with full garage lighting on and dome light on in car, and old gauges (not my restored gauges I did earlier in this thread.) With LEDs, you really DO NOT need to restore the gauges inside. Plain old crappy gauges will come to amazing life with these LEDs



Check out the comparison on the two sides. Left side is LEDs, Right side and trio gauge below are stock mix of 168, 194 bulbs


Now check out the difference on a bench test between various bulbs in your run of the mill gauge that you always find anywhere with -194s, 161s, etc...you rarely find these gauges with 168s in them//and same gauge with 2 168 LEDs. Look how dull it is in the before picture...I have several of these gauges laying around. So I just grabbed any old one and threw in some LEDs as an example-

Before


After

RetroRanger

nice work on the door handles that will make a huge difference youll notice every time you open the door !!!

i like the LED replacement bulbs are those availible at the chain auto parts stores or did you order them ?

edit: schnikes I just checked amazon $10 for 1 bulb and advanced shows $13 for 1 .....I dont think Im ready for LEDS just yet LOL

Allan R

Jim, how well do the LEDs react to the rheostat? I'm thinking they would be awfully bright for night driving and I usually turn down the brightness for that. I'm just wondering how compatible they are with that resistor. Admittedly I think the appearance of the LED's is uber cool.

JCMC64

I never got a notice someone replied...

Retro- Thx. Im on an intense budget with this car, so I have to constantly be creative. Re LEDs- Most people get the inexpensive LEDs on Ebay. I got these locally through a hook up, so I got a great deal. These run $9 at Walmart normally.

Allan- You nailed it. Since they are diodes, its either on\off. The others on this site that mention LEDs didnt mention the Rheo issue, so I found out after installing them. I am looking into LED dimmers out there (like the AutoMeter one). Will post what I find out.

Ive been a little lazy updating the thread lately. Always doing something on her, but will try and update this week. I did put fenders back on for various reasons, one of them I decided to get OAI hood and need to test fit it, adjust fitment, etc. before paint. Get it all lined up first.

Still stalling on finishing the exhaust as Im back n forth on adding cutouts or not. One week Im full steam ahead on doing them, next week not so much. Im having bit of an issue finding honest exhaust guy down here I can trust to do what I want the right way.

JCMC64

Added more results from the LED tests, below is just a temp gauge setup till last stage of restore when I put final touches on everything:

Here is all Leds in old gauges that have not been restored. This is way brighter than than stock. Looks great in person. Color between Fuel gauge and Speedo is uniform. If I paint the inside of cases white, it would really perk up even more, but really isn't necessary. Good easy way to brighten gauges by just plopping in the LEDs with nothing else needed to do. (Note this is with one LED on fuel gauge not working, lower left bulb...had to tweak the bulb housing after pics, but still very bright with just two LEDs)


Now look it at LED test with my recent restored fuel gauge with inside painted sky blue like oems were. Way to blue compared to Speedo. So I think the way to go is- newly painted sky blue cases work best with 168s...If you paint case inside White, or leave older gauges alone, these will work best with LEDs:


So above shows restored fuel gauge with fresh painted inside sky blue, and older speedo gauge with nothing done to it. Bot have LEDs in it.

Terrible picture here, but very nice viewing in person... LED trio gauges:


Now the Tach which I painted sky blue inside to match rest of gauges (all detailed earlier in blog). This one is not as blue, and I guess its because the bulbs are so far back in the longer tach case and doesn't reflect as much blue as fuel gauge does:


SO this is going to be tricky to matchup everything if I go LEDs.
Couple of possible combos -
1, Speedo and fuel gauges- 168s\ tach- LEDs. This will help with the lack luster Tach lighting, even after I painted inside which did help. Its my idea is the tach bulbs are so far back in the much longer case, that the LEDs help brighten tach up to match the other gauges. (My conclusion on original restore\painting inside case of gauges was the tach was still lacking with just 168s).

2, LEDs on all, but will have to repaint insides of cases white if I want a whiter gauge set.

3, Leave as is with 168s, and when I put my restored set in, have oem tach little less bright than other gauges. Yes, Im a perfectionist!

JCMC64

Labeled the fuse box and all wiring harnesses under dash...Just saves headaches later. Used wifes label maker.





Put the fenders back on car with original oem bolts...I got a new period correct oem fender bolt set for final stage. This is to line up new OAI hood I got. Got hood from respectable local guy in Florida who molded it directly from an original 71 OAI hood. He said it isn't like the Parts place junk that he personally bought to compare his to. We'll soon see how it fits.

JCMC64

So the car is basically back to the way I got it in March 2012 minus the interior! But it aint the same car at all! WAY better...





There is temporary parts, fixes, etc all over the car until final assembly, a lot based on what still needs to be done. Like that ugly hose going from intake to the water pump. I need to install A\C system first...Tape on wheel well holding brided line- I need to take fenders\ wheel wells back off again later so not going to ruin new harness clips, etc. for now. Finish Oil cooler mounting, need the evaporator installed first, etc etc. Temp fixes everywhere like this waiting for other projects to be done first.

JCMC64

Almost 2 months since I last posted. Im so far behind updating as usual.
I tell you what, this project is getting heavy on me! I cant believe how much energy and motivation I had, and for so long... now Im feeling it. Its a real grind these days. But I push on.

I lightly blasted the battery cable tube and installed freshly powder coated tube mount...





I got the exhaust mocked up with various pipes I got from different sources, including some SS cutouts.


Had to cutout section of pipe back to X pipe junction piece first using chain pipe cutter. I cutout just barely into the stretch
opening so I would have plenty of room for new pipe to slide into.

JCMC64

Had to do some calculating, adjusting, mocking up, take it back down again, to get it all right-




Hooker collector to first section



Install Cutout




Then just repeat on other side



Now its tight and mocked up. Just need to get it tweaked a bit here and there then get it all welded up.

JCMC64

Ive been working a lot on my doors. Two new ones, and the old ones. Stripped all the doors down to nothing. Then I removed two door skins off two of them, and decided to put new door skins on.
Goal is two fix 3 doors perfect and save one for down the line. One door is too far gone. This is my first time doing this...no guts, no glory.


Stripped doors and de-skinned. I know there are correct tools for this, and I considered buying them first...nah! It went pretty smooth for most of the tack welds. Many were brittle and came up pretty easy. The rest I used the dremmel to carefully cut through the tack welds. Just time consuming, and careful attention.



After removing door, start attacking the door skin tack welds.

JCMC64

After de-skinning door, I cleaned up all residual tack weld mess on door frame with dremmel tool. Came out great. Then got some donor door metal to fix up bad spot on 1 original door. I then reinstalled doors to check that the door curves line up right with the body and fenders curves.





I have one bad spot under hinge to clean up on this particular door (actually working on 3 doors at same time)





Just getting it all ready for someone else to weld in

JCMC64

One of the new doors had only one minor spot to clean up







I will pick the best hinges and get them blasted. I ordered an ILT hinge resto kit to redo the hinges. ...then I will prime them.

JCMC64

I also picked up some 15" SS rims. 2 looked good already painted silver, other two just needed some touching up to look good. But only two nicer ones came with tires that were good...so I stripped and painted two of the 14" SS to match temporarily.

These are temp rims\tires for now till I figure out what I want to do later down the road. At least I got rid of the Yellow Submarine look of matching body and rims...TOO much yellow!
I can live with this temp look for now.

Cleaned up 4 Clean center caps, and put new emblems on them.

JCMC64

Rims Before:



Rims After:







HAS A LITTLE MORE MENACING LOOK TO HER!

JCMC64

So my son is all into weight reduction in his cars...he is into AWD suburus rally cars.
He is REALLY into it, always talking about rotational weight, etc. etc I get sick of hearing it sometimes. But guess what...Im catching what he has! With all this weight reduction in this car now, she screams with just a mild build. Its a blast to drive like this. I really get it now what he is always telling me. Lighter, LIGHTER!!!


Coming pics, non oem buckets Im trying out, along with console install. (I don't know about that console now, how much weight is that?!!)

oldsguybry

Yes lighter is better . With how much it will cost for me to re-do my car , I will probably be getting rid of it now . I can hopefully get one already done down the road .

oldsguybry

BTW , great work !

JCMC64

Note to remind myself to list here all the weight reduction done.

Complete A/C delete
No front wheel wells
Interior gutted
Doors gutted and no door skins
No hood/ hood hinges
Dash removed
alum water pump
No front bumper / bumper mounts/ braces
Alum intake installed
No running lights/ front turn signals

deejai35

Your weight reduction reminds me of an episode of Top Gear. You are doing some great work on the car. You make it look easy.

JCMC64

Thx guys...this all temporary as Im restoring the car...but since its a total restomod, I will look to shave weight everywhere I can. Im efven willing to give up some functionality to keep weight down. I didnt start out like this, but thats where Im at right now. This restore may just take a totally new path!

Thx Nick....! (my son )

orismedic

A fiberglass hood would help a lot with the weight.

orismedic

actually just with a quick look around on the net you can find fiberglass bumpers and trunk lids and fenders too. I guess it all depends on how much you want to cut weight.

JCMC64

Medic, yes... I got a OAI hood already. There is thread here somewhere where a guy did use glass fenders and bumpers, cut a lot of holes in his rad support, etc. He said glass fenders were major pita to line up right. (Thread may be on different website, but it is cutlass).


Here are some pics of console and buckets going in (coming this week...need to download a ton of pics)

JCMC64

So I want to put in non oem seats in because my back cannot handle the stock seats. I'm 6'6" and 270lbs. The early stock seats always screw my back up, even when I was younger. I have thought about using the 04-06' GTO seats so many use for upgrading muscle cars to, strongly leaning in that direction. But I have a full set of below seats available now. So one day I just went for it and decided what the heck, lets throw them in and see what happens just as a test, get some firsthand feedback in a-body bucket seat upgrade.



Needed to bend the mounts flat-




These buckets are slightly lower than bench seat...but the real test is when its in the car, how it feels.

Amazingly two of the four mounts work with the stock floorpan bench seat mount holes, but seat isn't aligned right with the steering wheel. This will be ok on passenger side, but as I thought, Driver side will have to be repositioned to line up with steering wheel.

JCMC64

Since Im going to replace the floorpan in the seat and foot areas, I don't have to worry about extra holes in the pan. I had to do a bunch of adjusting, mocking up, readjusting, seat in and out of car...but she is locked in tight now as a temp seat. I have since thought about another way to install seats using varying methods. I am thinking ahead for the day when new floorpans are in, to make it as simple as possible. Currently I have moved bucket seat mounts back 6 inches, just like I did with Bench seat. Used spacers, and unique mounting setups to make it work. I can now move on to Console conversion\install. I needed a bucket installed to get position of the shifter right.








Had to get creative and make front console bracket. Used very flexible drywall framing to design a template, then got some thicker gauge steel to mock up a temp brkt to get the ball rolling. (I got repop console mount brkts on order)


Did allot of similar adjustments as the bucket mounting, lots of getting it right. Have to move shifter, which require undoing linkage, which required a repositioning of entire guts of shifter to make it all work, including taking off shifter cable, etc, etc. PITA!!!
I marked the floor pan as best I could (after lots of repositioning) as to where console and shifter should be. I looked at tons of pics of 442s, and got lots of measurements of other threads on C.O. In the end, you just got to jump into this project and adjust as you go.

JCMC64

Had to re bend front console bracket as although the bracket I made fit perfect, the screw holes did not line up. I did not want to drill holes in pan up front on tunnel yet especially with a temp brkt. (And you just know as soon as I drill it, I will need to move it again!), so I did a temp job securing bracket with duck tape. Its holding like concrete, good enough for now.
Made sure it was level first using a level (not pictured).



You can see here how far back I have to move shifter back for the console. I knew this going in when I originally installed Hurst Ratchet shifter, but I needed to mount the shifter back then pronto to finish all the mechanical projects. Couple extra holes in shifter mount plate is no big deal...the mount plate can stay as is.



Temporary install-



2x4 works for now as rear brkt...just guessing here.

Allan R

Jim,
I like the door flow through ventilation and the total RAM AIR concept at the front of the car.

re: fibreglass fenders? Talk to 'coppercutlass'. He's a body guy and has a set (that he's selling) on his cutlass so they're already lined up and tweaked.

I'm starting to lose track of what your goals are for this car. Hmmm, maybe you need some lightweight wheels too, leave out all the glass/regulators and use lexan, add ground effects, straight pipes with no mufflers, roll cage with no interior, just drivers seat...remove the dash pad and extra lighting, lower the suspension another 4"......and paste all kinds of sponsor decals over the body?

Naw, I think that's something you can do on your NEXT project.

JCMC64

Wise guy...

Id definitely be interested if I hadnt have so much ahead of me $ wise in this project. Im scraping bottom of barrel right now for this car

And whats wrong with this? I dont see your point...
Actually im rigging a hammock seat system instead of drag seat for more weight reduction...2 lb seats!


Yep, I agree

JCMC64

Check above post for bucket and console updates

So I got the bucket mocked up to setup the console and shifter, and now that is all done, going to install rest of the seat package just as experiment. What do you all think of the seat layout? Obviously if I went this route instead of GTO setup, I will get the seats recovered in black. I kinda like this modern look. Every one likes it in person so far.





The blue tape and black markings is a mock up of Dual Gate shifter top plate...it is where the opening is on the plate for shifter arm, so I wanted to line up ratchet shifter with these marks. Not that Im using it that top plate, as the front part is not the same size as mine. But I wanted this way in case I come across a moddable top plate in the future. For now I am playing with several temp solutions for a top plate. ( made my own template according to my needs and testing different type finishes.)



Pass side installed

JCMC64

Rear seats installed (temp)

JCMC64

PS-Back seat is at least half the weight of original. Super light.

JCMC64

As Im knee deep into the interior, I wanted to start playing around with some trim designs. For the gauge plate, Im trying different things. The gauges having black face plates, I wanted to try some test to create more contrast than the woodgrain. I have a brand new 71' OEM wood grain, but it is less than inspiring. I think the wood grain looks best if it is used on the dash gauge plate, dash insert and the glove box too. Having it on just the gauge plate looks kind of dull to me. I have 4 of these gauge plates, so Im going to experiment. First is to carefully peel off the woodgrain, and paint the base plate a matte silver. (I will also paint another one in chrome like original later, which is a little bit cheezy looking to me... If the dash insert trim is in silver like original, why is the gauge trim chrome?)


Then I painted old worn out wood grain metallic silver. So now I have two colors to compare. The metallic looks better to me. I also am considering a brushed aluminum faceplate, and similar. Will have to get those made though.





Here is New OEM woodgrain look.


Here is what matte silver looks like


Comparison between the two




Now the gauges really pop against the silver faceplate. To me this gives the gauge area some life up against the black dash. This is just matte silver. THIS IS ALL JUST TESTING! Not finish product.