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Tunnel ready to weld back in !
I started getting the tunnel ready to weld back in today. First fabbed the little transition piece at the rear.
https://i.imgur.com/VdWLOJnl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/hN3BE80l.jpg and weld it in and grind smooth. https://i.imgur.com/u0QNUSdl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/oyGqksrl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/jkxHAnWl.jpg I spent quite a while grinding the opening to set the gap and about an hour welding all the factory tooling and cleco holes closed. https://i.imgur.com/IConLfRl.jpg Tomorrow I will weld it in and hopefully get all the welds cleaned-up. https://i.imgur.com/y0DHLe1l.jpg |
Nice work. Are you planning to incorporate the center console into the tunnel design?
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I just need to figure out what to do for cup holders because I am doing the Power Tour in 2017!! Scott Quote:
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I see. Thanks. For cup holders, you could just go with those ones that hang on the door. They still make those don't they?
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It's coming out nice, great job.
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I had a pretty productive Saturday and Sunday. Beautiful weather and yard work got in the way a little, so there wasn’t quite as much progress as intended, but almost done with the tunnel. Before tacking it in I finished the little doubler ring that the shifter ring will screw into. Seems like a simple part but I had to match drill all those holes and radius the inside corners. This will be removable in case the threads get stripped. I made it out of 10 gauge material to stiffen the large opening. I think this is going to work out well. https://i.imgur.com/DP4fR0bl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/4chf0vgl.jpg Went around the whole tunnel and tweaked gaps and then tacked it all first of course. https://i.imgur.com/YHEWJnRl.jpg At this point it is about 75% done. https://i.imgur.com/vDTL7NHl.jpg The welds are mostly clean on the left side and about half on the right. I decided to weld it in without pulling the front clip out. I covered the transmission with a blanket and used an old piece of galvanize sheet to protect everything from weld splatter. That worked OK but not having access to the bottom really hurt when a problem area needed a few hammer blows. I will finish any pin holes and rough spots when I get it back on the rotisserie. When cleaning up I reached down to pick up my creeper and grabbed a handful of this magnet that had latched on the bottom and cleaned the floor of metal filings and snipped wire pieces. It scared the heck out of me because it felt alive and one of those metal pieces poked me. I didn’t know what had a hold of me. https://i.imgur.com/vqCXH89l.jpg That's it for now. I am really looking forward to installing the rear sway bar and Vintage Air setup next. Anything new at this point sounds great! |
I decided to take a short break from grinding and install the rear anti-roll bar. It is a pretty easy piece and bolting things on is way more fun than grinding. The instructions are fair, but not many pictures. First match drill pilot holes using the brackets and drill out to the right diameter.
https://i.imgur.com/s4a13GHl.jpg I didn’t have the required 15/32 or 17/32 drills (and none of the hardware stores did either). I had to carefully grind to fit the correct diameters and snug for the Rivnuts. DSE gives you this nice drill bushing to match the frame rail inner holes. It worked pretty well and I only had to slightly oval two holes, probably because the frame rail isn’t exactly square. https://i.imgur.com/4S43BlSl.jpg There is also a tool included to install the Rivnuts. You could make this but it is nice that it is included with the kit. https://i.imgur.com/szVAsT9l.jpg Install all the Rivnuts and make sure the center holes line up and the frame brackets are done. https://i.imgur.com/VF96Lual.jpg https://i.imgur.com/KXQtG4Sl.jpg I installed the bar and swung it into place. There were actually 3 minor issues that I didn’t expect. 1. With the rear housing dropped down (normal weight off wheels) the bar pivots up and it was too close the outside of the upper 4-link bracket. After scratching my head I decided to clearance the edge a little because the rearend is always hanging down like this. I did a little edge touch-up with a black Sharpie. It looks fine. https://i.imgur.com/yFRKxLIl.jpg 2. Stop collars on the inside of the support bracket keep the bar from sliding around. However they were too tall to fit between the bar and the mounting point on the 4-link bracket. I just decided to make some spacers under the pivot points. If something better comes along I will try it but they will probably stay there. You can also see the spacers under the pivots in the photo above. https://i.imgur.com/2ZAXyhjl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/bg1uwAql.jpg 3. There was no work-around for the third one. With the rear housing dropped down the upper 4-link drops down onto the anti-roll link arm. I am not sure if I caused this somehow, or if it is normal. Obviously won’t be a problem with weight on wheels, but I had to put a piece of plastic tubing in there to keep lots of metal contact from occurring! That will be a pain if I always have to remember to do that when the car is jacked up. Any ideas please let me know what you have done to fix that. https://i.imgur.com/1r0bGSIl.jpg Overall I am pretty happy. If I were to do it over again I would buy the anti-roll bar earlier in the process and fit everything before powder paint. I am pretty sure my upper 4-link brackets are slightly too wide on the axle housing and that would have been easy to fix with it all tacked before final weld. Here are a couple of overall pictures. I really like the DSE anti-roll bar design, it tucks in nicely and looks really robust ! https://i.imgur.com/tF220khl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Q2gpdfPl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YOgMjttl.jpg After having some fun with the anti-roll bar kit it was back to grinding the passenger side tunnel welds. Feels good to have the tunnel raise out of the way. https://i.imgur.com/cHwyJ6Gl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/OU3HRYpl.jpg I straightened up a little and grabbed the Vintage Air unit for a quick check. https://i.imgur.com/qSixFUll.jpg I am going to see if I can make a bracket that supports the unit a little better and avoid those holes that go out into the cowl area. Also looking to see how much of the stock glovebox I can salvage. The plastic piece that comes with the kit doesn’t leave much glovebox and doesn’t look nice in my opinion. So hopefully a few weekends will get the V/A unit installed and then I can figure out where to go next. |
Starting A/C Evap. Install.
It was beautiful in Phoenix and hard to get out in the garage with yardwork and such. We will get our first 100F days this week, so it was a scramble to get all those lingering outside jobs completed. In spite I got a little done on the A/C evaporator install. I guess there is a heater in there too but we only talk about A/C in this part of the country.
I started mocking up the bracket with some welding wire about Wednesday and it really only took a short while to see what the bracket would look like. https://i.imgur.com/vVWSyuyl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/fkWIH0Fl.jpg I started planning how to make this and within a short while I realized that the fabrication was going to waste a lot of my time. I ordered up the DSE bracket for a 69 Camaro, figuring I would be able to make some small mods to fit my 67. The DSE bracket showed up Friday and I did a quick install on the V/A unit. https://i.imgur.com/EKKcNIYl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/QWcmpRgl.jpg It fit very well on the unit and I put it up under the dash to see if it would work at all. The 67 doesn’t have the center brace that the 69 has, but I will make my own. Overall it looks to be positioned pretty close. https://i.imgur.com/o3oFNlWl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/znHzcyil.jpg I took the staples out of the old glove box and started cutting it to see if I could make a cardboard glove box even work. Overall it seems like I will be able to pull this off. The box tapers toward the center of the car and I will lose a couple inches of space on the left side. The owner’s manual and tire receipts still fit. https://i.imgur.com/DzL25h8l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/f26Gbisl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/znHzcyil.jpg Bought the bulkhead as well https://i.imgur.com/h48sAFTl.jpg Thinking about installing this in the firewall just to give it a little custom touch https://i.imgur.com/WLodyILl.jpg I put the ashtray and heater controls in for mock up. It looks like I may need to shorten the bracket and move the whole thing to the right to gain just a bit of ashtray clearance. I am trying to avoid things that rub and will cause squeaks and other annoying sounds. I will play with that this week and see where it all ends up. |
Nice work there!
Looking good there .... did you opt for the upgraded VA controller or you still using the OEM controls? I'm thinking of using a delete panel and digital controls when and if I get the VA unit, not a top priority right now!
Good to see the 69 bracket fits the 67 w mods. Keep at it .... |
Great work, and very detailed posts with lots of pics. Keep at it.
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