1971 Skylark Convertible 455 Lime Mist Project

Discussion in 'Members Rides' started by afracer, Jun 27, 2014.

  1. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    So, today I had to modify the Chevelle trunk to be able to go into the Skylark. It is unfortunate that the Chevelle trunk is different at the rear cross brace/rear body mount area, so had to drill out the spot welds and trim off the top part of the trunk pan. This rear cross brace rusts bad from the inside out. The rear most body mount on the driver side was rusted out where the cage but mounts so I cut a patch piece out of the Chevelle piece to repair that, which turned out good. Next will be repairing the driver side inner wheelhouse and prepping the rear seat pan area for replacement.

    Here's the dismantled Chevelle trunk and repairs I made today.
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  2. guyrobert

    guyrobert Guyrobert

    Great work!
     
  3. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    So, finally got some good progress, the rear seat floor pan is replaced...finally. After talking with my brother in law who is a body man, decided to try 3m panel bond on it. Used sheet metal screws to clamp it down and in place, used the excess as seam sealer that squeezed out when clamped down. After it dried for at least 4 hrs, removed the screws and welded the holes shut. Only used it on the front, will spot weld the rest. Little bit of a puzzle figuring out how to put it back together properly so everything lines back up right. The trunk pan is next and will not be fun working such a huge piece of metal. Broke open the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and treated everything that will be inaccessible after the trunk goes in. That stuff dries a lot faster than POR15 and doesn't lay down as nice, but looks like it'll do fine. Hope to test fit the trunk tomorrow. Also, I have been really pondering a color change to blue with white stripes with white interior instead. Decisions decisions...
     
  4. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Trunk floor is in, had to cut it to get it in, was too wide at the back to fit in. Fits really well unbelievably, seems everything is lining back up much better than I thought it would, which is always a plus!
     
  5. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Here's pics of the trunk and rear floor in. Still in the process of spot welding it all in properly, ran out of gas last night and had to get more this morning. You can see where I had to cut off the left side of the trunk to fit it in between the quarter panels/wheel houses and weld it back together using butt weld clamps. It fits back together much better than I thought it would be. Now comes the fun part grinding down the welds. Hopefully wrap up the trunk today completely and move on to the floor pans! IMG_20150623_194059.jpg IMG_20150623_193937.jpg IMG_20150623_193945.jpg IMG_20150623_194224.jpg
     
  6. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Trunk is finally completely done, so moved on to floor pans. IMG_20150625_213945.jpg IMG_20150625_214013.jpg
     
  7. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Finally got some headlights for the car that work. I bought a pair of H4 projector headlights to run HIDs, but the housing was too thick to mount into the headlight bucket. Found some new ones that work much better and they have halos too. Spent today working on the engine. We put a TA112 cam, lifters, and Cloyes double roller timing chain on it, and I spent today porting out the timing cover and doing the oil pump mods to it. The 76 455 setup is already set up much better than earlier engines in this area, but still needed some work. Have to order a booster plate kit this week to keep this low mile cover in good shape.
     
  8. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    New headlights are in, the LED halo on them is super freakin bright. I wish I could have found these sooner...a few months ago I bought a pair of nice projectors but they use a 9006 bulb which is low beam only. I will use them as fog lights where the 'brights' used to be with a 3000k HID bulb. The projectors I just got use H4 bulbs (Hi/low beams) so I will use them for the normal low and high beams with a 4300k HID kit. Should be pretty amazingly bright compared to how similar setups have worked on my other cars. My new degree wheel should be in today, so I'll get to work on degreeing the cam tonight hopefully. I made a piston stop out of a spark plug non fouler since I have the heads already bolted on. Hopefully I can get it done right...first time degreeing a cam! Once I figure it out I may go open up my wagon's 455 and set that one up too. When I put that engine together 13 years ago there weren't easy to follow instructions out there on how to degree your cam and I have learned a lot since then! I didn't even think it was much of a big deal to degree a cam back then!
     
  9. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Spent most of the day trying to track down a weird A/C issue in my Nissan 240sx. Eventually the degree wheel came in, a Mr. Gasket pro degree wheel, fit perfect on the Buick crank bolt. I went with a Cloyes timing set, which only offers 3 timing settings; retarded 4, OEM, and advanced 4 degrees. With it installed straight up, it was right at 111 with a 112 on the cam card. I tried 4 advanced on the timing set to see what it would do with measurements, and it bumped down to 106, so I brought it back to straight up...I can deal with 1 low, with ported heads it'll want to breathe better up top anyways. First time doing this, wasn't as bad as I thought.
     
  10. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Taking a much needed short break from the Skylark today to put some love into the Sportwagon instead. She's been a trooper and deserves it. So I got some stuff to redo the electric fans and am upgrading the alternator/external regulator to a 12si 100 amp setup...finally. The charging system has either been barely sufficient, or crap, with either the regulator or alternator taking turns crapping out after a few years and not a lot of miles. So we'll see how this works out. The Skylark has a new reman stock alternator, so I'll let that onebe for a while to see how she does, but will probably upgrade that one too eventually.
     
  11. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Got a Mr. Gasket phenolic 4 hole 1" spacer today for the Skylark. Hopefully it adds the torque everyone says it does, and at the very least should help avoid any heat soak or vapor lock on the carb. Need to go out and finish these danged floor pans already.
     
  12. afracer

    afracer Well-Known Member

    Over a year later and going slow. Picked up a new brake master cylinder for a 4 wheel disc brake setup (1980 Firebird) and Spectra EFI fuel tank that I will be putting a Walbro 450 lph pump into. The 455 I had for this car is currently in my 70 GS455, runs great for a smog engine but definitely not enough power for what I want. Anyways, thought I'd do a quick update. Oh I also got a rebuilt console shift tilt column to go in too. It will be a manual transmission car!
     

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