New Here, finally got my fish
Figured I would update this. Soon after getting the car, my dad ended up passing away. Ironically at the time of his death he was visiting his best friend, who happens to be the orig. owner of this car. Although a car is just a peice of metal, this car was the only thing that brought my dad and I together,due to him being a non functioning alcoholic. Thus being the reason why I went out to get the car from where it was being storedback in 2011. I decided that with all of the orig. parts that I have for the car and due to the rarity of the car and sentimental value, I would put it back to the way it left the factory minus some motor work and wheels. I went to NY and finally got the orig #'s matching short block in June of 2012 from where it was being stored, although the block is in awesome shape, i decided to rebuild the 340 that was already in the car, incase of a failure, the orig block would not be ruined. But needless to say, I now have the orig 8.75 489 3.55 rear, orig trans, orig block, heads,radiator,alternator,distrib, crank+rods, and starter as well the entire interior.
I pulled the motor and transmission out of the car in march of 2012 and then had the car flat-bedded to my friends body shop that same week. They were very slow and had began to strip all of the old lacquer paint within the next couple of days. Thankfully I chose to have the car restored as soon as possible, becuase lurking under the lacquer was surface rust. Although the car is 100% structually sound (trunk extensions/floors/cowl/trunk/roof/frame rails) my dad however made up lower quarters back in the day. The body work to get the body lines back was unbelievable, and suprisingly were holding up fine from 96'. We decided to put a lower quarter (marker light down) on the drivers and put half of a full quarter on the pass side, to ensure that i would never have to really worry about those sections down the road. The plan for the car is to fully jam out the engine compartment, inner fenders/rails, door jambs, trunk and the under sides of the fenders+doors, and paint both my hoods and the entire car Q5. My friend is also repainting my door panels while the doors are off and the car is there. Before priming the car we plan on pulling the windshield and back glass as well. I managed to track down a back glass on CL for $200, drove an hour to get it in MA, but couldnt pass up a 69' tinted back window that was in storage since 70' to replace my scratched glass.
While the car is in the body shop, I dropped off the 340 and x heads to have the entire shortblock gone over. They're going to hot tank it, re deck the block, stud the mains+line hone, new rod hardware, rebalance the rotating assembly, resurface the heads, figure out my comp. and my head flow rates and then have a custom roller cam made up as well as set the heads up for the cam.
I also got a set of M-body disk spindles to swap over to discs and 73+ adjust arms.
As for the interior, I have the seats all stripped, and will sand blast the frames and have them painted. Once that is done I want to get all new foam and upholstery front+back and door card inserts. I was able to track down a perfect dash pad for the car as well. I was searching all over to find a place to restore my dash pieces and stumbled upon instrument specialties, who does awesome work, and never knew that they are literally a 20 min ride from my house, so needless to say I will be bringing them all of my dash bezels/ radio.
The picture is old, and I havent been by in a while with work and school, but I'm told that the car should be in paint by mid Feb.
Figured I would update this. Soon after getting the car, my dad ended up passing away. Ironically at the time of his death he was visiting his best friend, who happens to be the orig. owner of this car. Although a car is just a peice of metal, this car was the only thing that brought my dad and I together,due to him being a non functioning alcoholic. Thus being the reason why I went out to get the car from where it was being storedback in 2011. I decided that with all of the orig. parts that I have for the car and due to the rarity of the car and sentimental value, I would put it back to the way it left the factory minus some motor work and wheels. I went to NY and finally got the orig #'s matching short block in June of 2012 from where it was being stored, although the block is in awesome shape, i decided to rebuild the 340 that was already in the car, incase of a failure, the orig block would not be ruined. But needless to say, I now have the orig 8.75 489 3.55 rear, orig trans, orig block, heads,radiator,alternator,distrib, crank+rods, and starter as well the entire interior.
I pulled the motor and transmission out of the car in march of 2012 and then had the car flat-bedded to my friends body shop that same week. They were very slow and had began to strip all of the old lacquer paint within the next couple of days. Thankfully I chose to have the car restored as soon as possible, becuase lurking under the lacquer was surface rust. Although the car is 100% structually sound (trunk extensions/floors/cowl/trunk/roof/frame rails) my dad however made up lower quarters back in the day. The body work to get the body lines back was unbelievable, and suprisingly were holding up fine from 96'. We decided to put a lower quarter (marker light down) on the drivers and put half of a full quarter on the pass side, to ensure that i would never have to really worry about those sections down the road. The plan for the car is to fully jam out the engine compartment, inner fenders/rails, door jambs, trunk and the under sides of the fenders+doors, and paint both my hoods and the entire car Q5. My friend is also repainting my door panels while the doors are off and the car is there. Before priming the car we plan on pulling the windshield and back glass as well. I managed to track down a back glass on CL for $200, drove an hour to get it in MA, but couldnt pass up a 69' tinted back window that was in storage since 70' to replace my scratched glass.
While the car is in the body shop, I dropped off the 340 and x heads to have the entire shortblock gone over. They're going to hot tank it, re deck the block, stud the mains+line hone, new rod hardware, rebalance the rotating assembly, resurface the heads, figure out my comp. and my head flow rates and then have a custom roller cam made up as well as set the heads up for the cam.
I also got a set of M-body disk spindles to swap over to discs and 73+ adjust arms.
As for the interior, I have the seats all stripped, and will sand blast the frames and have them painted. Once that is done I want to get all new foam and upholstery front+back and door card inserts. I was able to track down a perfect dash pad for the car as well. I was searching all over to find a place to restore my dash pieces and stumbled upon instrument specialties, who does awesome work, and never knew that they are literally a 20 min ride from my house, so needless to say I will be bringing them all of my dash bezels/ radio.
The picture is old, and I havent been by in a while with work and school, but I'm told that the car should be in paint by mid Feb.
