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Northstar Camaro Club Forum » Camaro Discussions » First Generation » Working on Shannons Car again.
Mitch, looks like a place to try, didn't even know about him. Maybe he has some good advice, glass, and seals! Let me know if you get antsy.
Today I continued on the quest to finish all drilling and pounding on the dash and firewall. Cut the vent hole for the center vent, the holes for the side vents, and drilled all the holes for the vintage air stuff under dash. Decided to do a trial fit on the vintage air evaporator to see what kind of clearance there is with it. It seems to fit pretty well, though two of the holes are way off, and I had to redrill them. They do emphasize keeping the box level. I got the drain routed as well. SHould fit pretty nice. I decided to grind off the curled lip from the factory hole, and to enlarge the area around the heater core inlet/outlet. This sucked, but should look a little nicer, and also keep from accumulating crap. I keep thinking about moving the computer off the inner fender well, but don't really see any promising options. Did have to pull the computer and the inner to get at the lip on the firewall. Got a bit done, and will keep pressing on I will definately have to do a bit of cleanup and smoothing on the dash, and get it painted really nice in the next week or so. I am going to start working on the clutch pedal and mod, as well as start filling in holes on the firewall. I still need to clearance the bulkhead connector for the new wireharness, and there is a TON of wiring to do and figure out over the next month or two. Here are a few pics form tonight:
I'd like to go one day next week. After my incident with the cut off wheel yesterday and the surgery tomorrow, I'm gonna be out of action for a couple weeks so taking a run up there would do me good. I need to price a new fuel tank and sending unit for the GTO anyway.
Seats just got here, they are pretty Darn cool! They look WAY more comfy than the stockers!
Here are a few pics, threw the driver seat in and the second gen console walter gave me to start getting a feel for what it is like.
THe instructions with the seats and brackets are worthless, and the wire for the adjuster is too long, but I got it together. This works out pretty well. The seat is about 1.5 inches to 2 inches higher than the old one, and has a LOT more support. I may need to swap the base bracket around to get it to slide back another 2 inches, we will see... The recliner adjuster cover is not installed..
Yup, they look good. Let me know if you need the mounting brackets back from the originals. I have a set in my car already...
Ummmm...........yeah, cut-off wheel. I was trimming the right rocker panel to fit yesterday and was swinging my arm to the right to set the grinder down with the cut-off blade in it when the cord got tangled and stopped. My hand slid up the grinder body enough to contact the spinning wheel and remove a nice valley of tissue/muscle the same width as the wheel about 3/16ths deep on my thumb knuckle. I spent 1 1/2 hours at urgent care waiting to get it pulled together and sewed up. At least it's the same hand as the carpel surgery tomorrow, so it can all heal at the same time.
Yikes! Sorry to hear that.
Good luck with the surgery Mitch, I've had my share of issues with my arms and wrists and it's not fun.
Looking good so far Aaron. I like those seats.
Done for the night. I pulled the rest of the pedal assembly, cleaned up a bit here and there, pulled the rear body harness, and did the cutting for the new fuse box. Pulled a lot of the engine harness, and started mapping out the routing for when it goes back together. Had to pull the other inner fender to cut the new hole for the bulkhead connector on the American Autowire Update harness fuse block.do that. Joy. Wiring is piling up around here! Did another fit of the evaporator and started working out console ideas. I will be working with a second gen console, it will work out great. Going to have to learn about fiberglassing or vinyl or something, still thinking. The seats work nicely and are way better. I have both mounted. Pics don't really show how much work went into getting to this point...
Well, got the engine harness off, and have started working out how I want to connect it with the new harness. Spent a bit of time on this topic, and will be spending a lot of time on it for a while yet. Decided to go ahead and try my hand at a bit more welding. I filled a few holes with mixed results. The first one I did was the best (one of the big holes by the heater core opening) but the one over the fuse box was a nightmare, it kept psitting and popping for that one. I also did several smaller ones in the floorpan from the inside. Trying to get the firewall weather tite before we get the dynamat on it. Did mount the Vintage air block off plates, and once the silicon cures, I will hit them with seam sealer just to make sure. Still need some serious practice, but welding is getting less spooky.
Looks good, Aaron. I have a piece of copper with magnets on the corners to put over open holes like that to give the weld a back. Makes closing them up much easier. If it's popping and spitting the weld, it's dirty and needs to be cleaned better. After I do the paint removal, I spray the area with carb cleaner to remove residual grease/oil contamination.
My ct surgery went well and I don't have anymore discomfort than what I already had with the thumb gash, so it's manageable. The doc was a little surprised when he saw the thumb but said he could remove those stitches too when I came back in 10 days for the ones he put in....
Hey Mitch, I sorry to hear about the grinder bitting you. hopefully it heels up quickly. I also hope that your surgery went well and that you are on the way to a quick recovery from that as well.
Aaron, nice work on the car. Things are looking really nice so far. It looks like you are getting the handle on the wedding too. I know that is one thing I need to work on a lot. LOL!! Things look like they are coming together nicely so far. I'm anxious to see how it all come together and of coarse see the finished product. I had a great time working with everyone this last weekend on it and can't wait until the next tech session to help get it to the next phase. How do you like the AC and power windows so far? I'm thinking about adding both of them options to my convertible when I restore it. I noticed that Mitch mentioned the parts place in Isanti and that you guys where going to check with them for your glass and a few other parts. I've worked with them to purchase the glass in my SS/RS 396 Camaro and they where great to work with. I also bought some seat covers through them for my convertible and had a great experience. It was something that was a special order item (not stock) and they called and kept me posted on the progress which was really nice. I believe that I dealt with Dennis so you might want ot ask for him. Good luck with what ever your plans are for this weekend on the car and keep us posted. It sure is fun to see things coming together. Catch you later. Jesse
Getting better at filling holes. Have found that the grinder hides all ills! Spent a good amount of time grinding down the floor. Between flapper wheels and wire wheels, you can do a lot of clenaup in a decent amount of time. Did discover that the seam sealer turns to black dust that gets EVERYWHERE! I scraped, cleaned and primed. Floor is looking good except for the area we need to cut out in the driver pan. Glad I bought the bigger pan, the rot goes higher than I thought it did, moving about 3 inches up the toe board. Her is the passenger side all primed:
The first pair of holes that I welded form both sides. Tacked a plate from inside the car, and then filled from the engine side. Then went back in and ran a bead around the plate!
More holes:
Almost done grinding the flor on the driver side in this pic, it doesn't show as well as you would hope in the pics though:
Noisy, dirty, and sometimes a big scary, but overall I am very please with how things are progressing. My neighbor and I are going to do the rubber coating on most of the floor (obviously not the section to be cut out) and try and get most of the dynamat done this week. Then I can get started on installing things for real. I do still need to snad the face of the dash and paint it as well... Never ends!
Making good progress, Aaron. Wish I could work on my car but the hand is quite tender from the surgery. Already a huge improvement with the numbness and pain.
When do you want to go to Isanti ? The weather looks better after tomorrow. We can talk at the meeting Tuesday too....
Are you going to the Gopher Engine tour on the 13th or just working on the floor ? I have a Chevelle club meeting at Corvette Specialties that day and am delivering a rear axle to another member there, so I won't be at the Camaro tour.
It took three days, but the floor is starting to look like something. GOt the rubberized truck bed liner stuff down today, that stuff STINKS! Between this an dthe etching primer, should not get new rust issues. Can't believe how long this has taken. The dynamat should adhere to this really well though. Also dropped the doors off to drill the holes for the power window wiring. I did break down and spend way to bloody mutch on the correct wire pass throughs for the 67. They fit nicely, but the doors have to come off to get the hole saws in (2" and 1 3/8"). I obviously haven't bothered to seal the section of floor that is getting cut out, and once we are ready to cut I will grind the area to weld. Here are a few pics, and yes I used primer to mark my hinges!
Finaly got a chance to post, Mitch dropped by with a plasma cutter, and we played!
We also picked up smoked glass for the car!!!!!!
Have you gotten the last piece off the body mount for tomorrow ? I forgot if you said whether you are going on the tour.
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