Current Progress

Most current changes in reverse date order.

April 20, 2008

I decided to take care of a couple of rusted areas in the 2 front fenders.  Both were behind the front wheel which is a pretty common area of rust on these cars.  I did the right side first.  As you can see from the first picture its pretty well rusted but contained, so I cut just the rusted area out and applied some rust proofing to the support behind the sheetmetal.  I then tack welded a new piece in and ground down the welds.  When the weather gets a little warmer I'll smooth the rest of the area with filler. I started to do the same with the left side fender.  The last picture shows a dented area on the quarter panel that I'll work on next.

The goal is to get the entire body smooth enough with filler to primer it and then start block sanding it with some kind of primer/surfacer to get it ready for paint.  Oh and I'm still looking for an HOOD, the one I got with the car is pretty beat up.

March 23, 2008

I got the tail panel and the fender back from the blaster.  I grinded and smoothed the edges and welded them in place.  I'll use filler to smooth the welds out and primer it next.  It looks a lot better than the old panel and I can now install the lock assembly and trunk latch now.  Next up is the driver side quarter panel and then work on the trunk lid alignment. 

February 24, 2008

I cut out the rear taillight panel and trimmed the new panel that I got.  I sent it and the right front fender to the blasting shop to get stripped and primered.  When these come back I'll weld the new panel in and move on to the other quarter panel. 

December 12, 2007

Finally got the right side quarter panel straight enough to primer it with PPG DP40 epoxy primer.  The paint didn't go on very smooth because of my spray gun and the fact that is was 40 degrees at the time.  The quarter panel will still need lots of work to get it perfectly smooth,  I wanted to get the rest of the car in a decent enough shape first. Next up is the tailight section.

The 3rd picture shows the section I'm going to use.  It needs to be cut between the holes for the taillight and welded into place.  The original section just had too many dents and ripples in it, and the section in the middle for the lock assembly is in real bad shape.

November 4, 2007

I've smoothed the quarter panel as much as I could for now with filler and I'll be primering it soon. I'll leave it for now until I get the entire body somewhat smooth and aligned, then I'll start with the the block sanding and preping for paint. I also got a new rear taillight panel to replace the one I have. The original one has a lot of dents in it and someone brazed in the holes for the trim so I'm going to cut it out and replace it.

July 4, 2007

Still working on the right side quarter panel.  Decided not to cut the section out.  I smoothed it out as much as I could with a hammer, stud welder, mig welder, and crow bars.  I decided to go ahead and put a coat of filler on (Evercoat Rage filler) on and sand it down.  The tape is where the body line is going to go. 

Oh, and the Lift I installed makes a huge difference in getting to everything. 

I plan to continue doing this until the quarter panel is roughly shaped out and move to the other side.  It's not nearly as bad but has a few dings.  After that I plan on working on the back panel under the trunk.  It's banged up pretty good.  After that the trunk, aligning it, and moving to the doors and fenders.  Slow, boring work but it has to be done.  I'll post updates on this from time to time. 

January 31, 2006

I finally started to tackle the body work, with the goal being to get this to a paint shop by next year.  First up is the lower right quarter panel.  It has some damage to it and was leaded at one point.  I melted it out and pulled out the dents with a stud welder puller.  I decided to cut the section out and got a patch panel to cover about 10" up and from the wheel well to the bumper.

December 1, 2005

I decided to remove the original Holley carburetor, which was leaking way too much even after I rebuilt it again and smoothed out all the mating surfaces.  I bought a brand new Holley 675 CFM Avenger model.  Yes it's not original in the least, but I wanted to get a reliable carburetor on it for the time being.  I'll get the original one restored in case I want to show it.  I installed it and it fired right up out of the box.

 I got a pair of buckets seats off of ebay since I didn't get any seats with this project.  They look kind of rough but I plan on recovering them and putting new mounts on them. 

  Now I'm basically piecing it together with the old parts enough to get it on the road...of course not legally.  I took it out for a brief ride a few weeks ago and it ran great.  The valve covers were leaking a bit, and I found out that I have mismatched wheel on it, 15" and 14".  I plan on putting the rally wheels I have on my 71 on this one when I get my new 17" American Racing TT's. 

May 10, 2005

Well it finally started after many, many attempts.  Click HERE to listen to a .wav file of the 396 coming to life. 

It took me a few months of working through some of the issues that come up after I turned it over for the first time.  I hooked a oil pressure and coolant temp gauge up to monitor everything.  The oil pressure was good (75 psi)  and there were no leaks but I wasn't getting any spark.  Turns out the points had corroded a bit after sitting for so long.  After getting that taken care of and statically setting the timing I decide to hook up the fuel.  Since I didn't have a gas tank yet I ran a hose over to a 5 gallon gas can. 

I then tried turning it over to see if I could get fuel at the carb.  I had a leak at the accelerator pump and the secondary bowl was puking gas everywhere.  Turns out the sealing surfaces were warped from the bead blasting when I had it plated and the secondary float wasn't set properly.  Minor consider I'm working with 40 year old parts. 

Finally I decided to go ahead and fire it up.  I took me awhile to get it running.  I was worried that I was in danger of wiping out the cam as the proper procedure for cam break in is start it quickly and get it up to 3000 rpm's for 1/2 hour.  It started up and sounded healthy.  No leaks but lots of smoke which worried me.  But it cleared up, most of it was probably the oil that I put in the cylinders over the past few years to keep it from rusting. 

Next step is to get the shifter linkage adjusted and taking this thing out on the road.  I'll need some minor things like a fuel tank, and oh yeah, a seat.  Stay tuned. 

February 23, 2005

Got the oil filter conversion installed.  Now I can start preparing to pre-oil and start the engine.  I modified an old distributor (ground the cam gears down and cut off the top so it could fit in a drill) and installed it.  I then started pouring oil in and noticed it dripping from the right side valve cover.  It turns out the bottom right side bolt was stripped  was loose and needs work.  I'm going to heli-coil it to allow me to use the original bolts.  Hope this works, otherwise I'll have to drill it out and tap an oversized thread in, which will look weird.

I've installed the battery support and bought a cheapie battery to use until I can afford an original style one.  I hooked the battery cables up and will try turning it over soon.  Won't be long before I fire her up.  I'll try to get a sound file of the big moment.

February 11, 2005

Got the fenders and stuff back from the blaster, and I got the radiator back too.  The radiator looks great so I installed it and the radiator support, and the inner and outer fenders.  I also put the grill and support on.  Looking like a car now.  Photo's below.

I'm working towards starting the engine really soon, I just have a few things to take care of first.  First, the threads for the oil filter canister bolt are stripped, so I may go with a new oil filter conversion for the time being.  It's not original but at least it will work.  Second, I need to find a way to pre-oil the engine.  It's been sitting for about 3 years and I want to make sure I don't damage anything.  I may have to modify an old distributor to turn the oil pump but not turn the camshaft.  Third, I'll need a fuel tank, of course I could just unhook the hose at the fuel pump and put it in a bucket of fuel.  I want to drive it pretty soon after, so I might just spring for the tank. 

I'm also working at getting the clutch/brake pedal assembly and M/C installed.  With that and a steering column, I should be able to drive this thing...Oh and maybe a seat too.

January 5, 2005

I sent the fenders, hood, trunk lid, doors, radiator support and misc. parts to the media blaster to strip and primer them.  In the mean time I installed the brake lines, rebuilt the pedal assembly (photo below), and sent the radiator out to get re-cored.  I had bought it off of Ebay a few years ago.  It's an original Harrison radiator with the correct part #.  The only thing its missing is the finger guard on top.  I took it to Lauman & Sons in Lansdale, PA who will disassemble, media blast, reassemble and paint it the original gloss black.