Tranny Tunnel looks awesome. I am really enjoying watching this build

Cool, thank you!

This weekend was more welding, more grinding, welding some more, grinding some more. Oh, and a few patch panels...

I had a little time this weekend to work on my car. Yesterday I made a few patch panels to replace (big surprise) some thin/ rusted out areas. Today I worked on double/ triple checking my rear suspension and how it mounts to the car. With the car upside down I had placed the leaf spring perches back to where they were tack welded- and they were not square with the car. The holes, when looking across, didn't line up. So I made a full day out of mounting my axle upside down, connecting the 4 links and measuring again. This actually had some benefits as I needed to determine where my panhard bar mount would locate as well as the shock mounts.

Of course, as I went to roll the cherry picker and locate my axle- it just barely interfered with the rotisserie. Some 2x4's solved that.

I was able to measure again pretty much everything and the suspension is within a 1/16" of being equal. It is, I hope, close enough. I was able to trim down my perches as they can now sit better inside and I'll be able to weld them up the next time I work on the car. same for my panhard bar mount. That too required some trimming and modifying to fit right in my car. The shock mounts should be straight forward...

I think I'll be working on my friend's Delorean next weekend and the one following I'll be at the Monster Jam World finals (Vegas) for work. I hope to resume on this soon.

Did a little welding yesterday. I also drilled some holes in the frame and welded in tubes so I can install/ remove the lower control arms from the welded in perches. I also trimmed the DSE cross member for rear axle clearance and used the trimmed piece to extend the cross member to the end of the driver side frame rails. There was a tiny gap on each side and there was just enough material to finish them off.

Today it rained, and I had to go to work anyhow. Next time I'll do more grinding and it should look a little cleaner...

It looks great your doing some nice work.

Looking Good! :thumbsup:

Awesome work on your bird!!

Thank you, everyone!

Another weekend, more welding & grinding. I did install the gas tank brackets and I had to cobble up a tool to allow me to clean the metal along the frame rail and trunk pan enough to weld them together. I couldn't reach it with my grinders and sanders. I also removed the rear seat belt brackets and discovered yet more rusted metal. So I cut that out and patched it up.

Lots of hard work going into this car...and you are doing a great job. I will have to start calling you "Patches" due to all the rust patches you have made...Wow.

Nice progress. I know alot of it doesn't show like bolting on new parts but it will make the car structurly better then new. Nice.

That's looking awesome, keep up the good work :thumbsup: I did not see in your posts if you mentioned drivetrain. Are you going with a Pontiac motor? Something different? Undecided?

Thank you, Wayne! Yeah, it is a lot of I guess what some would consider mundane labor or just work, but I'm actually enjoying it. It's nice to see it slowly coming together.

I have a 2001 LS1 for it and a new T56 Magnum. The engine parts so far I have a set of LS6 heads, headers, reduced crank pulley, z06 MAF and a FAST 90 lsx manifold/ throttle body. Plans also include an aggressive cam. Not sure if I'm going to stroke it or add forced induction. depends on the budget. right now I'm the only one working so funds are really tight. That may be it for a while, who knows. I still have a lot to buy for the car.

Exhausted
 

I put a few hours in this weekend. I made a couple of patches (Brett would be proud) for my trunk to fill in the drain holes. I also ground down the gas tank strap welds and started making some channels for additional exhaust clearance in the floor pans. I hope to finish this one up next weekend. Then I can start making the rear drive shaft loop/ suspension support (this one is inspired by another build on this board) and I'll want to make an access panel in my trunk floor for the electric fuel pump/ gas tank. I did this in my last build and it was extremely helpful. It saves having to drop the tank to access the pump.

Nice progress.

Yep. Saw it in person and Im proud. Can't wait to see motor mounted and car on ground. I know I keep pushing... Im kind of a vissual person.

Keep up the good work.

Brett

I didn't post pics last weekend but I did finish up the exhaust cut outs. Attached are a couple of pics of how that turned out.

driveshaft safety hoop. well, part of it....
 

Also last weekend and today I worked on the driveshaft safety hoop. I made a quick sketch of how I'd like to build it and last weekend I bought more metal and roughed out the parts. Because my drivetrain isn't in and I don't have a driveshaft yet I believe it would be difficult to accurately calculate the range of driveshaft will travel, so I'm only making part of it now and will make the bottom half later when everything else is in.

A big thanks goes out to Brett (67zo6Camaro) for taking some time to slice the parts out with his plasma cutter. That saved me a lot of time and clean up, not to mention cut off wheels and a big dusty mess to clean up. I bent the strips by hand with my vise and then welded it up. I also cut more tubing to make sleeves (same method that I did for my frame rails) for the bolt holes/ bottom half. I'll drill the correct size holes when I determine which fasteners I'll use. I was lucky enough that the 1" tape was the right size so I could cut the tubes relatively clean without a lathe. I welded the top areas and then drilled some holes on the bottom to plug weld the sleeves to the bottom. I didn't want to fill up the inside of the holes with weld...

I was able to tack weld and start welding the bracket in this afternoon, but I still have more welding to do. for some reason I am plagued with contamination when I'm welding this. I sanded, ground it down, welded, re welded, etc. Just one of those days, I guess. I won't be working on tomorrow as I have volunteered to help out at the Edelbrock car show tomorrow at their hq in Torrance. I think I'll be driving the Hot Wheels '66 GTO there. I'm looking forward to that.

Thats a nice set up. Your thinking of a lot of thing thst are after thoughts to most others. I looks good!

Thank you, Wayne. I think it helps having had a a project car or two before. It's always an evolution. I'm sure the next one will be better than this.

That, and I'm not in a rush to get this done. The process of building the car is just as much fun for me. I'm doing my best to not put myself up against tight schedules/ deadlines, etc.

I had a few hours today to work on the car, so I finished up my top half of the driveshaft safety hoop, and worked on my gas tank access door a bit.

I still need to get some hinges and a latch/ fastener for keeping it closed.

The top part of the driveshaft loop came our great. The access panel will save a lot of work if you need to get to the sending unit later on. Nice.

Progress is awsome with a lot of nice touches. Keep up the good work.

Great progress on the car. I am going to borrow you floor trimming for the exhaust.

Thank you, everyone! It means a lot to receive the kind words.

I spent some time yesterday finishing up the fuel tank access panel. I purchased a hinge from Lowes and modified it. I welded the hinge to the door but not to the trunk. I used some buttonhead allen screws and welded some nuts on the underside and used one larger one for securing it shut. I plan on using some type of weatherstripping to help seal it and prevent any vibrations or exhaust leaks. I also trimmed the allen bolts to length. they are untrimmed in the pics.

The metalwork is for the most part there, but it will need some bondo/ prep work to get it to a "show" status..

Great build

rear window drainage
 

Thank you!

This afternoon I completed a couple of small projects. I welded in the inner seat belt brackets to the trans tunnel. I also built some drainage tubes for the rear window channel. As we all know these first gens like to collect water at the base of the rear windows so I added some drainage tubes to the corners to allow water to drip through. I'll attach rubber tubes to these and have them exit through the wheel wells (when installed)

front wheels
 

I had a couple of hours today so I borrowed my old wheels from my neighbor, Brett, to see how they would fit on my car. Well, they didn't. It's a good thing I am planning to use a different wheel. I was thinking about the American Racing 200s wheel (17x9.5 front) and (17x11 rear). I like the retro look, but I need to talk to someone who knows about these wheels. If they're crap or won't clear the brakes I want then I'll need to keep looking. But this was a good lesson to see and determine the sizes that will fit and what modifications I'll need to do to make these work. I knew that I would need to modify/ rebuild the inner fenders but it looks like I'll be notching the frame rails, too. Hope to get to that next weekend...

When I was a kid I wished I could fit tires like that on my Z/28 in the rear never mine the front.

They'll fit your car now, yes?

BTW- those pics I posted today are the incorrect offset. The wheels would barely turn like that. I had to space them out a good 2" or so. They also tuck in way too far, imo.

Frame notching
 

This weekend I notched my frame to make room for the 17x9.5 rims to fit in the front and have a full range of steering. To keep my frame from becoming fragile, I reinforced the frame inside with 2 ribs on each side. I was able to recycle & re use my old corssmember plates I had cut from the frame when I modified it for the LS engine. I also added two tubes on the passenger side to provide additional support for the idler arm. I also feel good knowing that I've already reinforced the frame in this area in preparation for my engine mounts. With the tubular mounts installed they will box this area in so I think with all this in place the frame should be OK.

Here are some additional pics of the passenger side.

I also spent the day today applying the KBS coating to my axle and underside. I had previously purchased their 3 step kit. It looks like good stuff and they'll sell it to me here in CA. (Eastwood won't sell their rust encapsulator to CA residents anymore) It's a little glossier than I wanted, but, it's the bottom of the car and it'll eventually get dirty when I drive it.

I'm no engineer but as usual it looks very well done. The bottom of the car and rear look great.

Thank you, Wayne! Wow, time does fly. I'm still alive. I had a last minute trip to Hong Kong and China for work for 2 weeks (3 weekends, though), and now it's a month later. I was lucky to get 3 days this weekend to work on the car. I took it off the rotisserie and put it back on the body dolly. I also set the engine back in and mocked up a little more accurate tube layout for the engine mounts, as well as roughed out my adaptor plates. I had bought some in a kit, but I'd like to take advantage of all the bolt holes on the block as I'm locating my engine farther back. I'll draw up a pattern in Illustrator and use it to trim out the plates to give them a little style. I have something in mind... I also bought some DOM tubing today and dropped it off at a local tube bending shop to have parts of it bent. I'll also need to purchase a tube cutting tool so I can make some clean cuts for welding.

Since I'm on hold for that I started to mock up the rear inner wheel wells as I'll be making my own mini tubs. I have the driver side set up, now I just need to slice up a strip of metal and start fitting it in place. Fortunately for me since I'm going to flare out the quarter panels I'll need to modify the outer wheel wells too. This will allow me to correct any imperfections/ errors I might make on the inner wheels wells.

It might be a few weeks again before I get any time to work on this. I am booked this weekend, and the following will be my anniversary. Summers sure are busy...

awesome work so far. ill be tuning into this project on a regular basis for updates.

somehow I missed posting pics of my pvc tubes mocked up...

I was able to get a little work done this weekend on the driver inner wheel well mini tub project. First- I got the tubes for my motor mounts back from the pipe shop that bent them. Since there was a price minimum, I had them bend a couple extra just in case. 2 are bent at 37º and the other 2 are at 45º. Even with that I still over paid. Time to buy my own pipe bender... I'll start that project after I receive my pipe notcher from the Eastwood co.

So I was able to weld up the strip of metal I cut to fit the inner wheel well and have it roughly welded in place. It fit pretty well. I had only one area that bubbled out on me and a quick slice to the side fixed that. I still need to go over some areas and then do some trimming on the inside, but all in all I'm very happy with the result. I also made a frame rail piece that follows the contour of the mini tub- wow, it was amazing how much that strengthened up the back end of this car. It's been in pieces for so long I have forgotten what a solid car feels like. Every time I'd roll it in and out of the garage it would shake and rattle like jello, and it's finally doing less and less. A good feeling of accomplishment...

Next weekend is our wedding anniversary so I won't be working on the car.

Nice job it looks great.

Thank you, Wayne!

This weekend I was able to resume on the car. I was able to finish up welding the driver side inner wheel well and I started the passenger side. I ran out of welding gas today so I was not able to finish welding it. I'll have to do that next weekend. I used the remainder of the day today to start cutting the tubes to make my engine mounts. I had to shim the body dolly and then shim the engine to get it centered and level, but the lesson I learned today was that I should have located the car in the garage farther so I could shut my garage door without disturbing it. I didn't- so I will have to do all that again next weekend.

The last pic I took shows a gap from the tubing to the dr side frame rail. When I position the tube correctly, that gap goes away. It was the only pic I had in this view...

This past Friday and Sat I worked on my car. I was able to finish up the passenger side inner fender and get some progress on my engine mounts.

I was able to use my new Eastwood tubing notcher and it worked quite well. Of course, it makes a big mess as I'm using a lot of oil to keep the blade cool.

It took a lot of grinding, test fitting, grinding more, etc. to get them to fit. I first welded them with that "worm bead" and it looked more like gummy worms, so I went over them with spot welding for a cleaner look. I also made some gussets for added strength. Now all I need to do is make the plates that connect to the tube I'll use to trap the engine mount bolts.

What's funny is the pvc tubing I used still fit. I guess I made them accurate, or consistent, to my mock ups...

I also need to make a little more trimming for the engine before it goes back in.