hey Louie I just wanted to let you know that I got my rear suspension back together today. I boxed the lower control arms, replaced the uppers, all poly bushings, I installed the CC501 Cargo coils plus a 1.5 inch spacer up top. added a sway bar and installed Bilstein shocks. I am very happy with the stance and feel of the rear suspension. I have about a two finger gap between the fender well and the top of the tire. I measured 27 1/4 inch from the garage floor to the center of the fender lip. Thanks for the help man.
Glad your happy! I got my 501s a few days ago but have yet to open them. Tomorrow I am going to clean up some suspension parts and get the ball rolling from there. Post up some pics of your car and show off the new stance!
Update: My original fender met its fate through poor welding (story for another day) So I picked up a used one from Hector (CARHEX1) here on the board. Hector is excellent to deal with. :TU: We knew it was going to need a patch based on the pics Hector sent us. I will only upload a few of the pics I took, but if anyone is interested, I will upload all of them showing a step by step process to amateur patching. We also had to patch a small part of the bottom of the fender: It doesn't look pretty, but it is 100% solid and should last a long time. We slapped on a little fiberglass and here it is today: Up next is to straighten out some dents in the front of it, sand the fiberglass, and epoxy it. Then we will start block sanding it and go from there.
Update, After some sanding, dent straightening, epoxy primer, more sanding, more sanding, and finally more sanding, the fender looks like this: We have been working on patching some spots in the trunk, update this weekend
It's amazing how fast time goes by. In August I will have owned this car for 7 years! This car has been with me throughout high school and college. I graduate in May. For the last two years it has pretty much sat untouched. The front clip is off, along with the interior and rear being out. More projects have come in and out of the door, but now it is time to finish this one once and for all. We bought new quarters for it about a year ago. The doors, and front clip are very close to being ready for paint. Hopefully we will be back to work on this in the next month or so.
This one rises back to the top of my to do list. Over the past couple of weeks I've focused on getting the drive train finished. I had my T-400 rebuilt by a local shop. The owner is 82 and still going strong. I cleaned and painted my rear end that is currently off having a posi installed. I wasn't ready to tackle that job and just wanted it done. Dropped it off a week before the 4th. He said it would be done that Thursday. Well here we are over a week later and it's still not ready. I'm going to make a stop up there tonight after work. Next, mounted my 245s to my front rims (no pics.) All four tires are properly mounted and balanced. In summary, I plan to have the full running gear installed by next weekend and then the car comes to our business garage where we can install the wheel houses and quarters. After that, it's block sanding and ready for paint. My goal is paint by August 23, which would mark the 7 year anniversary of owning the car.
Thanks Jim and Jim! The rebuild is stalled currently. The 2 bays that got toasted are fully rebuilt and functional. The two bags that only suffered minor smoke damage still need to be cleaned, pressure washed, and re painted. Our contractor is currently building a house. We are also extremely busy so it's all a matter of finding the right time. Speaking of time, I spent close to three hours cleaning around and under the '70. It has been disassembled in the same spot for close to two years. You don't realize how much stuff you pile on it until you dig it out. The rear end will be done tomorrow night. Hopefully installed this weekend!
It's alive! I forgot how good this car sounded. The rear end installation went nice and smooth. Buttoned up some stuff to get it "road worthy", and drove it about a mile to our repair shop where we will do the quarters and get it ready for paint. I love the stance with the 275s out back and the CC501 rear springs. The front end should get a little lower with the front clip back on and the car will sit perfect. Back on the ground for the first time in 3 years Free at last
Ditto, just sandblasting the underside frame will warp your hood. Don't ask how I know......Jim Tapatalk User
Still plugging away. Below are some updates from the last couple of months. I moved 2 hours away from the car(s) back in the beginning of September. The slow process has become slower, but at this point I just want to get it done right. I can't believe it's been 7!!!! years restoring this car. I have grown so much since I bought this pile. It's been quite a ride. It's interesting to think that this car has been around for 1/3 of my lifetime. Without getting sappy, below are some pics of recent progress. Warning: it's boring work. We'll start at the back end. Up first is the rear filler panel. Underneath it, we anticipated rust. Fortunately, it was all surface sans two pin holes on the right side. I spent a long time wire wheeling all of the rust out. It has since been treated with a rust inhibitor. The new filler panel has been placed, but it is not welded in yet. It was a relief to see a solid/rust-free package tray and rear window channel. I was nervous a leaky window and vinyl top would create problems. A moment of weakness here. We have a crude patch panel fabricated that includes part of the weatherstripping channel. Will include final pictures of how that repair turns out. The only form of any type of rust on the floorpan lays in the passenger rear of the car. the underneath of the floor is spotless and properly undercoated, so all we had to do was wire wheel the surface rust out and properly treat the metal. Some shiny new motivation came in the form of an impressive shipping crate Finally, it was time to put the rebuilt trans in. This car will need to move in and out under its power during the winter. There will be days when the bay it sits in will be needed to work on business related repairs. The long-tail 400 currently in it is not correct for a-bodies, and leaks out fluid as fast as you can put it in. This also marks the completion of the complete drive train/suspension overhaul. Final build: 455 bored .30 TA 284-88h cam Iron Stage 1 heads- no porting Everyday performance 800 CFM q-jet Edelbrock performer intake TA performance 2.5" exhaust TH400 trans w/ mild shift kit JW 9.5" converter 3.23 8.5" posi rear (rebuilt) Stock front disc brakes swap BB springs 1.25" sway bar 1" rear sway bar (need to install) Factory boxed lower control arms (need to install) Moog CC501 rear springs Front tires: BFG 245/60/15 Rear tires: BFG 275/60/15 It should be a blast on the street when it's done and tuned. I don't think it will see any track time. Next steps will be finishing the rear filler installation. Then onto the quarters.
Looks great. Body work will be easy for you guys. Make the Most of the holiday and get started on those quarters! Keep us updated.
I thought I had updated this more recently than November. We have been focusing on getting the jams perfect before tackling the quarters. My dad was supposed to paint the rockers and door jams... pics tell a different story. The RF fender is painted enamel. I decided to go BC/CC. The passenger door came out great, the driver door has a mishap in the reducer mix and will need to be resprayed. Next up: assemble the front clip for final fit and finish, then onto the quarters.
The “every couple of year post” 10 years of this project down! This was my first car that I bought at age 15 on August 23, 2009. I bought my first house on August 16, 2019. Once the move is mostly completed in the Fall, I plan on finally finishing the car.. time will tell as evidence by previous posts in this thread. The last set of pictures I have on my phone are from June 2019. One quarter is done.
