Having personally done one myself, I can attest to the fact that there is a TON of work behind each of these photos. The car is progressing quickly, but only because of the guys busting their arses to do it.
Here is the timeline; April 28th, Bought the car. Started cataloging the parts needed, and started purchasing parts. May 26th, Official date when work started on the car. Chassis put together and car taken to Nick's shop. Sept 14th, Projected finish date. Time duration, 16 weeks from date work started on the car. That leaves 6 weeks to go from today. Like I said before, no pressure here. Duane
Hey Duane, I'll be at Das Awkscht Fescht this weekend, if anything I should look out for ya, let me know. Mike
Mikes (I like that one.) I think I'm ok so far. Here is a pic of the 1st part that got bolted to the car, the driver side door. I think both doors are on now. Hopefully it's all downhill from here. Just got another care package from James Weinmann, including the headlight escutcheon, cigarette lighter assembly, emergency brake cable-floor pan hooks, and the front wheel opening molding screws. We have been swapping the screws for years, he had the fronts and I had the rears. Duane
Last couple of nights work, other then polishing glass, which is just as much fun as watching paint dry. It seems like it takes forever to get any where. Anyway I have been working on the speedometer lens. I could not save the old one. I tried but the scratches were too deep and there were a couple of chips in it as well.............so I started working on the one from the spare instrument bezel that Gene Hill gave me. The lens was pretty nice to start with, so I took it out and started polishing it. It came out really nice but there was a problem. My car is a 4-speed with a speed alert, and the lens I polished was a regular speedo for an automatic............so I needed to do some magic. I cut the sides off my original lens and used it as a template to locate the exact hole placement for the speed alert. What I did was drop a 9/64" drill bit in the "clock" hole and then placed the "template" on top the polished lens. This way everything was exact. I then drilled a 1/8" hole in the polished lens, through the hole in the template. This not only located the hole, but made sure I would not damage the new lens. The hole was slightly too small so I punched it out to 9/64" and it worked fine. Then I opted to cut a piece out of the original lens and super glue it into the new one where the PRNDL was notched out for the automatic. This made the lens stronger plus would keep any dust/dirt from getting into the speedo. You can see the "patch" on the finished unit. Below are the pics of what I did. In the one pic after I drilled the hole I angled the template up a little so you could see it. Enjoy. Duane PS. I will gladly share the template with who ever wants to use it, just as long as I get it back. There might also be a lunch involved but.....................
Nice thing about 68/69 gauge cluster is all floor shift are the same regardless of trans because the shift indicator is lighted, unlike 70+ . #Stepchildrules
I have these for those Qtr Seals That's a bad picture of them, but they're black phosphate - tiny built in washer. (They were included in my Interior Kit)
I saw that to. I've only seen Black throughout the years but I'll be the first to admit I'm still learning things after 30 + years so . . . . .
Guys, I changed the rag joint bolt to black, and I am glad I don't have to keep looking for those little screws. Thanks Todd. Got 2 more Care Packages yesterday, one from Ajesh with a perfect Radio bezel in it, and the other from John Usinger with a perfect under steering column trim bezel. I need to get back with these guys and find out what I owe them. Nick now has the paint booth and the shell, doors and fenders all washed and ready to go. The doors are aligned and the fenders were checked for fit. The car is now in the paint booth and is basically ready to paint. I also see the holes drilled in the left quarter for the GS Emblems. He is doing a few little touch-ups on the hood and trunk lid and then early next week "It's show time". Duane
Adam, Yeah I can't quite figure out how he did that. Looks like he bolted something to the ends of the rotisserie. I think he's planning on shooting the car like that. Duane
Nick/ Duane, when you have time can you take a pick of how you mounted the fenders up there. Really like that idea
Yeah, Nick said he plans on putting the hood in front of the fenders and shooting them all at the same time. I think he is going to paint the bottom of the trunk lid and then put it on the car and paint it. He also picked up the block, crank, etc and is waiting for the pistons to be "clearanced" for the valves. Yesterday he put the front brakes together and was working on the Chassis. (This car came with the big Aluminum front drums and larger wheel cylinders.) Me, I just keep on cleaning parts. Due to the rain yesterday I was prepping the old front and rear door panels for the new ones. One of my pet peeves is seeing the Inside door fuzzies being installed with pop-rivets. It's fine for the drivers but not for what I am doing here. The inside fuzzies on the car were nice so I am reusing them and will be making my own staples. It's a PITA but will look good when done. Today is clean up chassis parts day. Here is a pic from Nick. Duane
Just as an aside, when Dave Kleiner painted my GSX, he also laid out all the body panels as they would be placed on the car. If you think that it's important on a metallic paint, imagine how important it is with pearl.
