Thanks. Glad my project has helped you. Checking out all the builds on here is the best way to get inspired. It helps show that a lot the work can be done by anyone. I know if I can figure it, anyone can.


Haven't gotten anything done on the car, but still have a quick update. Last week I found a set of 73-74 doors on Craigslist. Unfortunately they were in Tacoma (south of Seattle). Talked the guy and he told me that they were in great shape. Took Friday off work and the step daughter and I hit the road. What I didn't realize was that apparently Friday is not a good day to travel as the traffic is horrible. Found that out really quick. Glad we decided to make a night of it and had already booked a room in Bellingham. Left at 9am and didn't get back to Bellingham until 7pm. Total round trip back home was 1100 kms. But he was right, the doors are in awesome shape and I traded him a couple parts and some cash. Worked out to $125 a side and they have glass and all the regulators. The ones that I had found in my province were going to cost me about a grand for just the shells. Well worth the trip.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010092.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010094.jpg

They still have the stock weather stripping on it

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010098.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010101.jpg

Very little rust. All surface rust

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010095.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010100.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010099.jpg

Even the stock decals on still there

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010104.jpg

That's it for updates on the car. The gentleman I bought them from has a huge 68-74 Nova parts collection and is always trading, selling and buying parts. He showed me some of his collection. He pretty much has everything you could think of. I think he said his storage shop was 20 x 40. He's also building a 68. I told him about the site, so hopefully we see him on here soon. If anyone wants his contact info, pm me. He was okay with sending guys his way.

I decided to do some work on the shop. For a while now, I have wanted to add cupboards in the shop. I had storage shelves, but it still looked so cluttered and messy. I picked up two cupboards a few months ago but never got around to putting them up. Princess Auto had some other ones on sale so I picked up four more. So the past 2 days I have been reorganizing my shop. Here's some pics.

Here's two before pics

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1000976.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010090.jpg

And as it looks now.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010105.jpg

I also added a spring loaded air hose reel. I'm going to move it a little higher though. It's a little too low.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010106.jpg

I'm still going to add one more on the left

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010107.jpg

If anyone's looking for new cupboards, the ones from Princess Auto are quite nice. And they were only $69 each. The Black and Decker ones were $99 each and they don't feel as sturdy. I added a bunch of screws to them and they feel way better.

Here's a few more shots of the shop

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010110.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010109.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010108.jpg

There's still a few things I want to do to the shop. Eventually I want to pull down all the interior walls. It's basically a 1/4" plywood and is cracked and has holes all over. Plus I hate the yellow. I'd like to redo all the walls with gyproc and paint it white. This summer I'm also going to get a new man door. Right now the door is an interior wood door. It's seen better days. I'm going to get a 6 panel steel door and add a dead bolt. The only problem is it's an off size (29 1/2" wide) so it will be a custom door. I would rather order the same size door cause if I went any bigger, I would have to cut the cement base to make it fit. Too much work. Hope to get some work done on the car next week as back to work tomorrow.

Geez Mike -- now to stay up with you I'm going to have to completely remodel the shed!!

Looks good buddy!

Jealous of the garage space, way bigger than mine! And love the doors, I want to do that once mine is up and running, the vent window-delete looks so much cleaner than '68-'72! Good stuff!!

-Joe

The cabinets look good in there. Nice score on the doors.

Thanks guys.

Last week I decided that I was going to put the new doors on and align the gaps. Since my car is a 68 and the doors that I have are from a 73-74, I need to take apart the 68-72 hinge and put the side that bolts to the car onto the door. The hinges on the 73-74 are welded on. I was going to use Goodmark hinges but I found out that they will not interchange with stock hinges. The pins on the Goodmark ones are smaller. So I sent Clarence (the guy in Tacoma) an email and have a stock set of hinges coming. I also now have a new set of Goodmark hinges for a 68-72 for sale. PM me if interested.

Since I could do the doors, I thought I'd start on the motor. First thing, out cam the motor and trans.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010116.jpg

I did some sand blasting a while ago, which as you all know makes a huge mess. I noticed on the scatter shield that I missed taping off one of the holes. I decided that since it was easy to pull the motor and trans now, I would do that and make sure that no sand got into the clutch.

Sand on top of the trans

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010117.jpg

There was only a small amount of sand in the scatter shield. It may not have caused any problems, but it's the peace of mind thing knowing that it's all been cleaned out

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010119.jpg

Got the motor back on the engine stand

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010122.jpg

First thing was to pull the stock crank pulley. Of course my SBC harmonic balancer puller wouldn't work, so I bought 2-3 jaw puller. I'm sure it will come in handy again

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010123.jpg

Since the threaded rod on the puller wasn't long enough, I put a bolt in the hole where the crank bolt goes and used it to set against

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010129.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010128.jpg

Pulley is off

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010130.jpg

Took the stock timing cover off. This is what the VVT system looks like

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010131.jpg

Close up of the VVT cam gear and sensor

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010136.jpg

Took off the oil pump

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010134.jpg

Had to take off the tension on the stock timing chain tensioner

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010144.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010145.jpg

Pulled the cam bolt. Here's why they call it a one bolt cam

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010141.jpg

Took the timing gear off

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010147.jpg

Took the cam plate off

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010148.jpg

In order to get the cam out, I had to take off the rockers and remove the push rods. Nice thing with this motor, once the bolts are removed, they all come out at once

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010151.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010152.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010153.jpg

I put the cam bolt back in place to use it as a handle. I also found a neat trick online. Turn the cam over a few times by hand and it will lift all the lifters up. To keep them from coming back down when you're pulling the cam out, you can put some 1/4 dowel into the holes to keep them from falling. I didn't have a dowel so I use some 1/4" round bar.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010154.jpg

Next thing I had a pile of parts that I had removed

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010156.jpg

Time to put the new 3 bolt cam in. I used three of the valve cover bolts as a handle on the front of the cam. As recommended by Comp Cams, I used their install lube

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010157.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010158.jpg

And it was in

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010159.jpg

Cam cover back on

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010160.jpg

Timing chain and oil pump back on

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010163.jpg

After I put it all back together, I realized that I used the wrong bolts on the cam. I have ARP bolts that I'm going to use instead of the valve cover bolts that I put in there. I've also decided that I'm going to replace the stock timing chain tensioner with a LS2 style timing chain dampner. I've read that there are pros and cons to both. I talked to some guys who leave the tensioner on and some that replace it. The reason I decided to take off the tensioner was that in some rare cases, it falls apart and some of the plastic falls into the motor. So I called GM and got them to bring a dampner in. It won't be in until later this week.

Here's a close up of the tensioner

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010149.jpg

Here's the dampner that I'll be switching it to

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...69/dampner.jpg

I also decided that I was going to take a shot at degreeing the cam. This also meant taking off the heads. I guess since everything else was off, I figured taking the heads off wouldn't be a big deal.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010164.jpg

I bought a cheap degree wheel and mounted it to the crank. I also tried to use my dial indicator and made what I thought would work as a piston stop.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010167.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010165.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010166.jpg

After spending a few hours trying to degree the cam with the setup I had, I realized that it would be much easier if I had a proper degree kit. So I ordered a Comp Cams LS degree kit today. Hopefully will be here next week. This is the kit I ordered: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCA-4942/ Not from Summit, but a local place.

Since I have to wait for the dampner and degree kit to get here, I thought I'd swap the valve springs.

The ones on the left are the stock and the ones on the right are the new double springs that I'll be using

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010177.jpg

Finally got to use my new Crane valve spring compressor. It can also be used with the heads on the motor

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010170.jpg

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010171.jpg

It's very easy to use, just take a ratchet and turn the nut

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010172.jpg

Remove the valve locks

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010179.jpg

Loosen the nut and remove the tool. Then take the springs off

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010173.jpg

First I had to take off the stock valve seats and seals. I just used a pair of pliers and pulled the seals off. They come off quite easily. Just turn them a bit. The stock ones are one piece. The new valve seats are separate from the valve seals

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010174.jpg

New valve seats and seals place. Installing the new seals was alot easier than I thought it was going to be. I put some oil on the inside of the seal and on the head where it sits. I then used a deep socket, I think it was a 12 mm one, that sat on the metal part of the seal. I then tapped the seals into place. Once they are in place, you'll hear a thud sound. You'll know it when you do it and they are in place.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010176.jpg

Here's the tops for the valve springs. The stock ones are on the left

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010184.jpg

And the new springs are on. To put the new springs back on, just have to do the same as taking the springs off.

http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/d...9/P1010183.jpg

After I got both heads done, I called it a day. Tomorrow I plan on installing the rocker trunion upgrade kit. I'll post pics once it's done.

looking good! :thumbsup:

Great Update Mike.

Thank you for all tips and photo's