70 Stage1 Convertible

It sucks only being able to work an hour or two every evening after work. This day job stuff is getting in the way. I have about 2/3 of the hood left to buff, then on to round 2 of buff time.

 

Me thinks you are approaching that point wherein you have to make a decision....

 

I was well on my way until Covid F'ed my plan up for this season. Hopefully just one more year of this.

 

Buffing is complete. I couldn't resist throwing some bling on it..

 

about 6 weeks ago I ordered a windshield from Summit. It came this past week and I opened up the top of the box to make sure it wasn't cracked to pieces. Today, I got it out to clean up and get ready for install. Glad I did...

Big ol' chip out of the bottom edge...and no LOF logo OR date code like I requested. The description on the item on their website even states it has the logo. Time to cancel the appt with the windshield guy this Friday.

The side glass I got from Auto City Classic was nice...I think I'm just going to order one from them and hope I can get my $ back from Summit. I had that side glass within a week from ACC. It was 6 weeks from Summit...and not even right.

 

The chip.

I ordered a windshield from ACC today...it’ll be here in a week and a half. Summit hasn’t responded to my claim yet. And the ACC glass is $40 cheaper

 

I was wrong about the windshield from Auto City. It got here in 4 days. Getting installed on Thursday!

I painted the top frame parts and a few other black bits yesterday..

 

Windshield is in...and the replacement master came today, so I got the brakes bled and parking brake adjusted

 

Awesome thanks!

 

Convertible top frame is assembled and installed. Thanks to my buddy Mark who let me borrow a complete top frame so I could dissect and figure out how to assemble this one. Fortunately, I had 95% of the bolts and nuts for it that came in a coffee can. The others I was able to find in my bolt bin. Years ago, I parted out a 75 Olds Delta88 convertible and randomly kept all the bolts from the top frame. Totally different frame setup, but lots of pivot bolts were the same.

There is a complete fastener kit available for Chevelles, but it's $300. And lord knows if it even has the right stuff. Thankfully I was able to keep from finding out the hard way.

I now have an instrument cluster bezel and all the dash parts...I think that will be next. Possibly hanging the gas tank before that. I doubt I'll get anything done tomorrow with Father's Day..

 

George, if all you're doing is unbolting it, then you don't really have anything to worry about. Is yours assembled currently? If it's in pieces, I will do my best to share what info I have for bolt placement and part orientation. But if it's still assembled, then just document how it comes apart. My biggest issue was which bolts went where, because they were all just tossed in a can when it was taken apart 20 years ago.

 

I used this website to reference many of the parts and their orientation when assembling...

http://www.leftlanebrain.com/convertible-top-installation/

 

It's a new one from Inline Tube...no bleeders. If I can eventually find one to rebuild, I will do so. FYI, the first master from Inline would not gravity bleed out of the rear port. The second one bled correctly, but the lid didn't fit right and it leaked out of the back of the lid...and the hold-down wire was bent so that it wasn't even touching the rear dome. I swapped the lids and wires from the first new one and it works well. The lid is a little tough to get off, I think because the casting is rough around the edges on the cast iron. I had to beat the lid off with a rubber hammer when I first took it out of the package.

 

I got the gas tank and all associated connections with it installed. After some research, I went ahead and painted the US Steel stamping on the bottom of the tank.