My last part from Summit showed up today, from of all places their Atlanta, GA warehouse. It's an auger style "muffler". Apparently they're used a lot in circle track racing and I've read on on several forums when placed upstream of the muffler they help quiet down the interior drone of some performance mufflers. I have a single 3" exhaust with a 40 series Flowmaster. There's a ton of drone at certain speeds, so I'm hoping this will help a bit. I don't want to drive 2500 miles and be deaf at the end, lol! For $15 even if it didn't work I figured I wasn't out much.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...newparts02.jpg

Some updates- Camaro rear sway bar...

Once the rear suspension was all together I tackled the rear sway bar using the junkyard 82-92 F-body 7/8" bar. From what I can tell this is the same size dia. as the largest factory stock G-body rear bar, the advantage being it will be attached to the frame rather than to the lower control arms.

I thought for sure this was going to be a pain and require a bunch of fab work but I found just the opposite. I ordered an extra set of FRONT g-body sway bar links, guessing they'd be just about the right length. At my car's actual lowered ride height they are the perfect length.

With a mock up of everything bolted together I found it fit right up into the frame. Only mod needed was shaving down the side of the brackets for shock clearance (green arrow). Notice how they are positioned here, they need to go into the car like this, right and left accordingly.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ybracket01.jpg

With everything mocked in place I marked the spot to drill the holes using the existing holes in the brackets. Then I drilled a pilot hole through both sides of the frame rail with a 3/16ths bit. On the outer side I drilled a 7/8" hole with a hole saw to allow access to the bolt. I then drilled the inner hole using a 3/8" bit. A 3/8" x 1" bolt and nylon lock nut finished the bracket bolt in. The outer holes are plugged off using plastic hole caps from Home Depot. Pretty simple actually, the hardest part was lining up the bracket at the right angle.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ybracket03.jpg

In this final photo, (sorry it's a little dark) you can see where the bracket bolts are (green arrow) and overall fitment. Notice the angle of the bar to the link is off (red arrow). This is the only disadvantage to using the upside-down F-body bar, the angle on the ends is off. With the suspension dropped about another 1.5" or so, which is estimated ride height for my car, it's a lot closer to the right angle. This might be way off with a car at close to stock ride height though, you might be able to fix that with longer end links but I'm not sure how that may affect stability of the bar.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ybracket02.jpg

The Camaro poly bushings and brackets that mount to the rear were in good shape so I just re-used them. The Camaro axle housing is the same or close to the g-body so it was a direct fit. With the 9" the axle housing is a lot larger, so when I get to installing it I'll use some 3" muffler clamps and fab up mounting brackets.

So here's the end result- sway bar and brackets from the wrecking yard- $15, end links with poly bushings from Summit- $4.99 ea., and bolts, nuts, and washers about $3, so for less than $30 I got it all set up. With the bar flipped I don't know how that may affect handling or functionality of the bar, however as I mentioned previously having it backwards like this is common on trucks so the assumption is it must work fine. Track time will be the ultimate test to see if it will be just as good as an aftermarket set-up that runs 4X as much $. At the very least it will be better than the factory bar that bolts to the control arms and it's keeping me in line with building on a budget. More coming...

Here's some more fab work. I saw some examples of boxed lower arms on a couple cars on the forum so I did mine as well. The way I cut out the plate allows space for installing the sway bar links and frame bumpers.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ntrolarm01.jpg

Finally! After getting the front suspension together on goes the body with the energy suspension frame bushings. Been looking forward to getting this done...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...assembly01.jpg

Updates- It's been a coupla weeks since I brought the car home from school using my trusty '77 454 powered 2500 Suby. This is my first big block vehicle, we picked it up for a great price about 2 years ago, and it tows fantastically! The wagon spent the first 4 days on the trailer while I excavated all the crap I've accumulated out of the garage. Since the Race Nova has some naked body panels and the doors are off, I unburied my son's future 73 Nova and moved it out to the driveway for now, leaving a space to work on the wagon in our two car garage.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/Home01.jpg

I am humbled with having to go from a huge shop with all the tools and machines I needed, back to essentially a one car garage to work in, limited to the tools I own or can rent from Oreily's. I salute all you that are doing this everyday.

Swapping on the LS1 f-body front brakes turned out to be a bit of a pain, the biggest problem here is owning a "step bast@rd child" 79 G-body...

My on-line g-body research told me we share the same front suspension from the control arms out (except spring rate) as an S-10 truck. Knowing this I ordered a set of S-10 hubs made from cut down rotors from a guy on an S10 forum. They came with new seals and new extended studs, $110 shipped. Being under time constraints this was quicker and less stressful than trying to find a machine shop that could cut down mine. After hacking up my 79 spindles to fit the LS1 caliper adapter bracket and painting them and the S10 hubs, I found out I just flushed $110 down the toilet when I tried to assemble everything. My 79 g-body outer bearings were too big for the S10 hubs. A trip to the auto parts store later revealed the S10 outer bearings were too small for my spindle. At this point I was getting a bit frustrated.

After a big fail with the hubs I did a little more digging. All listings for interchangeable parts, a drop spindle for example, list S10 and 1982+ g-body as the same part numbers, but no one could explain to me why that didn't include the 78-81 cars. Further digging revealed the deal-

All 1973-1988 A/G body cars and non-sealed hub S10s have the same inner front bearing and seal, part # 6 for the bearing.

All 1973-1978 A/G body cars have the same outer bearing and spindle pin measurements, making the 1978 g-bodies, which are actually still called A bodies, the original bast@rd child. This bearing has a smaller inner dia than the 79-81 cars, bearing part #2.

All 1979-81 g-body cars have the same outer bearings, larger outer and inner diameters than the 1978 g-body and S10s, i.e. a larger spindle pin. The rotors for these cars also have larger hub diameters. This makes these cars the step bast@rd child. Outer bearing part #3. A 1978 or an 82+ rotor will not fit a 79-81 spindle. How dumb is that?!

All 1982 and up g-bodies and S10s have the same outer bearings, using a smaller outer and inner bearing diameter, i.e. a smaller pin. Outer bearing part # 34. Everything seems to swap between these two vehicles.

On another note there were also wiring and a few other changes between 81 and 82 g-bodies. :hand:

At this point I had to still track down a machine shop to mill down my original rotors. Ended up costing me $133, not including new seals and extended studs (which I had previously already installed). Oh well, I guess I'm your g-body owner's friendly neighborhood guinea pig, lol! Once I got the new hubs made, everything went together easily with new bearings, races, and seals.

Here's a photo that illustrates to you g-body guys the changes to the factory spindle and the cut down rotor hub...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/brakes01.jpg

And with all assembled...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/brakes02.jpg

With the wheels on...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/brakes03.jpg

and what folks will see as I drive down the road, lol! ...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/brakes04.jpg

Funny how even though the 12" LS1 rotors look gynormous compared to the 10.25" g-body rotors, they still look too small in the 17" wheel. Dang it, now I gotta switch to Vette brakes with 13" rotors when I get to Georgia, lol!

Got my 1" bolt on spacers from TonySS. He used to have them on a Malibu g-body wagon that had the same wheels I have. He made me an awesome deal, Thanks again Tony! These spacers were built by Fred at http://www.wheeladapter.com/

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...elspace001.jpg

Before the rear spacers my 5.5" backspacing wheels looked a little too tucked in and the front track width was a little wider than the rear. The photos don't illustrate really well just how goofy it looked but here's an idea...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...eelspace03.jpg

After installing the spacers- My car will be fairly low so I rolled the fender lips. I had my wife jump on the bumper and it has to compress about 3" before any contact up inside the fender well. I think they'll work out great.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...eelspace02.jpg

Always glad to help Ben..

Finally, an update-

I got the wagon together and packed it full and packed my father/son project 73 Nova full and loaded it on a car dolly for me to tow with the wagon. We also packed my 77 Suburban full, and my little import commuter car which we loaded on a tow dolly for my wife to tow, and headed for Georgia. The trip went relatively easy. It was very long and somewhat boring. My car only averaged about 11 mpg and the Burby averaged about 8 mpg so we burned through a lot of gas and a lot of cash. Overall the trip was right about 2,000 miles.

The wagon ran great, only problem I had was one of my Lakewood Drag Bags blew out before we even got out of Utah. The fender lip gouged the right rear tire a little, but a quick roadside fender lip mod took care of that. Unfortunately the Burby's 454 started burning a little oil along the way, but it got us here and still runs fine. I've been wanting to go through that motor and slip it into my 74 street/ strip Nova anyway so now I have a good excuse. I'm thinking the Burby will get an LS swap now before my wagon does. We'll have to see how things pan out over the next 6 months to a year as we get settled in here in our new life.

Working at Bulldawg Muscle Cars is great. I've been here about a week and a half now and have been working on a 69 Pro-Touring Camaro and a 70 Cuda that's getting a late model Hemi swap. I think there's a bright future ahead...

I have a bunch of final wagon assembly photos I need to post up but I haven't found the box with my camera in it yet. As soon as I do I'll get this thread updated. There's still a long way to go on the car, so there will be plenty more...

Couple photos from the road trip from Utah to Georgia. First photo was in Colorado, second was in Kentucky I think. Notice on the roof of my Daewoo is the new sub frame for the Nova, lol...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ovars/Tow2.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ovars/Tow1.jpg

Ok everyone, I finally found the box that had my camera in it so I'll be posting more of the build items real soon. BTW since I had to sell my 5.3 to help fund the final items to get the wagon ready for the trip I'm looking into bigger inches options for the swap. There was a guy with a euro style Monte at LS fest that I heard has a basically stock LS1 with a truck intake that was running high 11s. Is he on this forum?

For now, here's a teaser of where it's at right now...

I was playing around with a can of orange spray paint for some stripes on my temporary rattle can semi gloss black paint scheme a couple days ago. The driveway at my new home made the perfect photo opportunity...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...4shotsmall.jpg

Nice driveway shot - looks bitchin.

Thanks man, I appreciate that.

I love these projects. Build what you have. Do it all yourself. Makes it totally unique.

Youre an inspiration.

Your a brave man, glad ya made it safely, what's your overall impression of the wag or was it hard to tell being that it was loaded down?

There are some great details and ideas in this car. Welcome to the south!

Thanks everyone!

OK, finally I have some spare time for updating, going back in time to Utah and the front suspension assembly...

This shot shows the Speedway Motors circle track "spindle savers" installed. Not sure they're necessary but they're a little extra inexpensive insurance and should eliminate any potential flex in this area.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../spindle01.jpg

...and my custom front 10mm thick, hub and wheel centric spacers for the front wheels. Next to them is the universal 3/4" spacer I used with the GTA wheels. With the custom ones there's no slop in mounting, so there's no driving vibration caused by the spacers getting offset when mounting the tires.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...spacers002.jpg

I measured, re-measured, and repeated the process several times to be sure I had something that would fit without issues. It paid off, there's barely room between the caliper and the wheel but it keeps the wheel/ tire assembly neatly tucked under the fenders and now there's no rubbing while turning.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...spacers003.jpg

After I got the front suspension done I moved to the dash wiring to get the later model steering column and switches installed. The main reason for swapping these was because my 79 column was damaged pretty heavily when the car had been stolen and I really couldn't stand not having wiper delay.

I did a lot of research on this and read that it was kind of a pain to swap these over. I was a bit nervous about the whole process but once I got in there what I found was that it was a relatively very simple swap. Anybody with an early g-body could do this...

First off, the steering column wiring is almost exactly alike between my 79 and the 85 Cutlass columns. The 85 column had some sort of additional plug near the bottom that took a little research to figure out. It went into the engine computer and after a little debate on the g-body forum and a bunch of research with different wiring diagrams I finally found it safe to assume it was a simple gear indicator switch and I could leave it unplugged in my car. My guess was correct, it didn't affect function at all.

Next on the list was to swap the headlight switch wiring. The 79 dash had the typical push/ pull headlight switch with the dash light dimmer activated by turning the knob. The junkyard 85 Cutlass switch is a push button with a separate wheel that adjusts the dimmer. I think just this alone will give the interior a cleaner more modern look.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...htswitch01.jpg

Here's a photo comparing the wiring for the newer switch and the 79 wiring. Notice they're the same.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tswitch02a.jpg

I pulled the pins from the 79 switch and trimmed and spliced them into the wires for the 85 switch. Pretty basic wiring here.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ashwires02.jpg

The process was basically the same for the wiper wiring, wherein the wiper switch is now on the column rather than on the dash. I did this back in August, so if memory serves me right, the 82+ g-bodies got a re-designed wiper motor that has reversed polarity. To do this steering column swap YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST SWAP TO THE NEWER WIPER MOTOR TOO. On the right is the wiring from the column, the left is the 79 wiper switch. The main difference is the green delay wire, which needs to be wired directly to the green wire coming out of the newer wiper motor rather than spliced into any dash wiring. On the switch in the photo you also see a black and white wire that is the light for the 79 switch. I left this unplugged and eventually conveniently spliced into it as the power and ground for my aftermarket gauge lights.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...dashwire03.jpg

Pictured here is the 85 Wiper motor mocked up. One of the motor's mounting tabs, upper left as pictured, did not line up with the 79's mounting holes, see how it is offset about 3/4". Simply drilling a new hole and using a nut and bolt solved that issue. Everything works great, and having the switch on the column and using the delay system has been really nice.

Also pictured here is the later model master cylinder. The 79 came with a small bore iron unit. While at the junkyard I picked up a booster that accepts the later 1 1/8" aluminum master. I ordered the new master from Oreily's, punching an 85 Monte Carlo SS into Oreily's online website search for the part number. Unfortunately the factory g-body brake proportioning valve is mounted down on the frame right next to the header, kind of a dumb place to put it. When I install the disc brake rear axle I'll update all the lines, eliminate the factory valve, and use an aftermarket valve located away from the heat.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...astercyl01.jpg

Installation of the newer column did require one slight mod- the mounting plate was mostly flat and the 79 firewall curves back on the lower right as pictured. A few light taps with a hammer curved the plate to match the firewall contour and all the bolts then lined up fine. As I said before, overall this was an easy install.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../column001.jpg

Once all the wiring and fitting it in place was done, I prepped the ugly brown 85 steering column by hitting it with 320 grit paper, then a quick once over with wax and grease remover and I rattle canned it with semi gloss black. My Grant steering wheel replaced the goofy factory unit.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../column002.jpg

Here's the final install. I'll be keeping my eye out for a column from a floor shift car here in GA, as I never saw one in the junkyards in Utah...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../column003.jpg

Unfortunately I had to sell the 5.3 LS engine to help finance all the small stuff you don't think about when putting a car together. I kept the headers though, and will most likely be doing a 6.0 instead. Got a few other things the car needs before I can take on that again. In the mean time...

With the column done I turned my attention back to the engine bay. Remember the broken 406 from page two? I finally got around to seeing what I was up against after the valve spring broke.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../piston01a.jpg

Really there was no major damage. The valve licked the piston putting just a tiny dent in it, but nothing more.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/piston01.jpg

Another problem I found was that the factory harmonic balancer started to have issues, a good portion of the rubber ring was missing.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...balancer01.jpg

This motor had about 70K + miles on it but the cylinders all looked good, it doesn't burn oil and holds between 50 and 60 lbs of oil pressure so I decided to just clean it up go over the top end.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/piston02.jpg

To make sure there wasn't any damage to the cam I pulled it out and inspected it. No damage found so I reinstalled it with a new double roller chain. Then the cover went back on and I added a new balancer. Sitting in a dark corner I've had some heads I experimented on about 15 years ago when I was learning how to port heads. They're just generic GM 400 heads but with the gasket match, improved port flow, blended bowls, new guides and a fresh valve job, this motor was a perfect reason to dust them off and pull 'em off the shelf. I threw those on with the Proform airgap dual plane intake and the new 600 Summit carb. I painted the top end of the engine semigloss black while the bottom end was VHT "Metallic Copper" engine paint. I designed and had printed some stickers and applied a couple to the valve covers. As of 5 months later the stickers haven't been affected by engine heat and still look new.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nestickers.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../engine003.jpg

The cap is not one of those correct-a-caps, I simply bought a universal set of MSD wires where you make them to your own desired length and carefully set them up in a clean way. Here's the specs on the motor...

.030 400 small block Chevy, stock crank and rods with ARP bolts
high pressure oil pump and aftermarket pump drive
8.7:1 Eutectic pistons and plasma moly rings
Comp XE268 cam with true roller timing chain
ported factory heads with 1.5 /1.6 roller tip rockers, Comp's cam matched springs
air gap dual plane intake with Summit 600 Vac secs carb
factory HEI with Pertronix "Flame Thrower" upgrade kit and MSD wires
Hooker full length headers
Moroso alternator overdrive pulley, factory crank and water pump pullies

It's a pretty mild and basic budget build, though I'm guessing it makes about 300-325hp and 400-425 ft lbs at the flywheel. According to Comp Cam's online dyno speculation, it's torque peak should be right around 2200 rpms. Out driving it sure pulls hard from 2200 on up to about 4500, which is perfect for autocross. It'll do for now while I hunt down a decent 6.0 LS donor...

Here's one issue I had with the engine, the Hooker headers. I had a well fitting set of Hedman mid length headers on the car before but wanted the slight advantage of a basic long tube so I went with the Hooker name. Hooker doesn't have a specific G body part number, but rather the catalog lists this generic part number as one that "will fit" pretty much any GM chassis, including the listied g-body. I should've been skeptical at that, these headers are total crap. The tube alignment at the flange is off, the oval rather than round holes at the flange don't line up with the gasket at all and look like they would be a flow restriction, and worst of all they don't fit a g-body chassis without modification. In hindsight I should've sent them back, but instead I messed with them to make them work. What a pain it turned out to be.

First off I gasket matched them a bit, radiusing the ends as much as I could without taking too much out of the weld.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../exhaust04.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...headers001.jpg

Then I had to bang on the driver's side lower outer tube to clear the lower control arm. I didn't want to affect flow too much so I only dented it in about 1/4", but it wasn't enough...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...aderfit002.jpg

I then got up underneath and trimmed the control arm mount several times until the header would finally fit without touching the frame. I had to whack off a pretty good chunk. Remember the braces I made for this area? Yeah there was no way they'd fit with these headers either. I didn't want to remove the bolts to get them out because I was under a time constraint and removing the bolts meant that the control arm, spring, and shock would have to come out and be re-installed, so I simply cut them out. I was pretty disappointed to have to do this.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...aderfit001.jpg

All in all I was very disappointed with them. I guess you have to buy Super Comps instead of their street header to get any sort of quality and decent fit. Boo on Hooker for being a big enough company to produce a decent product but rather to cut costs puts out garbage. I certainly wouldn't recommend them for anyone with a g-body.

Here are my trans and power steering coolers. The trans cooler came off a parts truck I bought for some parts for my Suburban, and the ps cooler of a 90's Caddy in the junkyard.

The factory tranny lines had been worked and re-worked, so I decided to start over and bought some straight tube and some fittings and bent some new ones. These tuck up close to the block, cross over to the frame near the fuel pump, then follow the contour of the frame towards the radiator support, passing under it near the mount bushing. From there they curve back up and over to the cooler, which is mounted to the Buick Regal radiator support X bracing. Ideally the electric trans temp sensor should be mounted in the pan, but since I didn't have a welder for a bung at home I improvised a little with some old fittings I had on hand. It does the job for now, and I just assume the trans is a few degrees hotter than the gauge reads.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...anslines01.jpg

After cleaning thoroughly and repainting it black, the ps cooler was fairly easy to make work. I had to re-bend the factory metal tube to go the direction I needed, but mounting worked out perfect by using the front triangulated brace I made. I trimmed a hole to match the cooler in the bottom of the plastic factory fan shroud so the fan actually sucks air through it. It worked out great for just a few bucks from the junkyard.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ercooler01.jpg

My 14 year old son started to take a bit of interest here, so I had him clean and prep the engine compartment braces I pulled from a junkyard 75 El Camino. He did a great job with them, and went on to help me with some other things for the rest of the build. This did something to him, as we arrived here in GA he's really gotten into cars and we've started working on one of my Novas I decided to give to him. We should make a lot of progress on it this summer. http://www.pro-touring.com/showthrea...ght=tangermean

These braces fit great, they already had nuts welded on one end, so all I had to do was drill two holes in the cowl panel to make them work. Here's a few fitment pics... Again, a very cheap alternative to aftermarket.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...derbrace01.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...derbrace04.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...derbrace03.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...derbrace02.jpg

In this post I wanted to share how I fabricated a way to effectively seal the carb to the hood on a really tight budget using some really basic materials.

First off, I had this bucket laying around. You can buy it from WalMart for about $6.00. Mine was well used and had a crack near the top so instead of trashing it I went green and recycled it. :) There are several designs of these buckets, so make sure to get one that is fairly rigid and has a large enough base to allow the air cleaner to breathe well.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind01.jpg

Step one is to cut a large hole in the bottom, about 12" in dia. Then cut the bottom away from the top, in my case it was about 5" tall from the bottom.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind02.jpg

I then grabbed an old "flat" base 14" air cleaner bottom I had laying around which came on an old parts car. I've seen several of these in junkyards over the years. I used a metal blade on my jig saw and trimmed the center out, creating a large flat washer that had a 1/4" turned up lip on it making it plenty rigid.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind03.jpg

I then placed the ring upside down under the plastic tub bottom, then placed the base for my Summit 14" dropped base air cleaner on top of the tub and used 4 fairly flat self tapping trim screws to hold the sandwich together. Rivets can be used too, but I like to keep things easy to change later on if need be.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind05.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind04.jpg

Here it is at this point mounted on the carb....

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind06.jpg

For the seal I got some 1/2" thick foam with scrim backing to the length of the dia of the tub from the local upholstery shop. The ends were sewn together to make a round doughnut of foam. I then carefully cut the foam in half length wise so I could fold it in half. You have to be careful to not cut the scrim backing as this keeps it as one unit rather than two foam rings stuck together.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind07.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind09.jpg

Here it is slipped over the base. The second photo shows it after some black interior paint. The hood holds it in place and it works great. Yeah, it's sort of rednecky, but for the most part the foam covers the ugly base and gives it a nice clean professional look for cheap cheap.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind10.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../cowlind11.jpg

My factory tank had a lot of rust in it, and over the course of driving it a couple years before tearing the car down it had sprung several small pin hole leaks that I patched with gas tank patch kits from auto parts stores. This was only a temp band-aid so I got this new gas tank from Rock Auto for the rebuild. Their price spanked everyone else. A g-body forum member warned me after he saw that's where I bought it from that he had bought two of these wagon tanks from them and neither fit. I found this was the case with mine too, the filler tube wasn't even close. Luckily sheet metal flexes easily, and a few careful tugs and test fits on it, it lined up fine. I then pulled it back out, installed my sending unit and it was good to go back in. The factory fuel line was pretty rusty, so I custom fabricated the fuel line using a roll of 3/8" aluminum tubing from Summit and mounted it with some insulated clamps. The line was carefully routed away from exhaust in the front and rear, something of a problem with the factory line and a lowered car with headers.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...fueltank01.jpg

Finally the car was ready to fire up for the first time. I didn't let it run long as there was plenty more to do, but it was pretty exciting to hear it run after 8 months and a complete disassembly.

First 406 start-up

Not long later I had all fluids filled, the carb adjusted, and the car running great. At this point I was running out of time to get ready to move across the country very quickly. The car was crazy loud inside and I wanted at least some degree of creature comfort for the drive so I addressed the interior, sort of.

Original plans were to get a new complete dash cover, new carpet kit, have the seats reupholstered, do some custom work on the nice factory door panels I found in the junkyard, and replace the headliner. However most of my remaining budget had been spent getting the car to this point so I had to temporarily improvise. I couldn't afford dynamat so I found some foil lined mat at Lowe's. Cost me about $40 for enough to do the whole floor. All in all, I'm not sure it really helped much. Really I just need a different muffler to begin with, lol!

I didn't want the interior to look stupid or have the sun reflect off it while driving, so I broke down and decided to spend the $9.00 at Walmart to buy one 3x5' roll of that ultra cheap crap automotive carpet. Of course it wouldn't contour to the floor very well so I put to work the training I got during my internship at Kirkham's Upholstery in American Fork, UT. BTW Utah folks, they do great custom automotive work http://www.kirkhamupholstery.com/.

First step was covering the trans tunnel. Where the shape and contour changed I made a few cuts to help it lay flat...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...carpet0012.jpg

Now onto taking what was left over from the roll and fitting the floor areas...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet002.jpg

I used my kids' sidewalk chalk (lol) and calculated where to make pie cuts and sew together...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet008.jpg

This is what the bottom looks like after sewing. I used my wife's Kenmore home machine with a wide stitch and a denim needle...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet003.jpg

To make everything look nice and finished I used some material I had left over from another project. I decided to trim it with a hidden stitch. This is a relatively easy process. First I cut a length of material roughly 2" wide. You line this up on the edge of the TOP of the carpet and sew the length about 3/8" inward.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet007.jpg

Then you simply fold that trim material over itself and snug under the carpet. Very carefully sew the length right in front of the trim. The stitch gets tucked down against the edge of the trim and the pile of the carpet hides the stitch. It's virtually invisible and looks very clean...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet006.jpg

This is what it looks like on the back side...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet005.jpg

Here's the final product. One 3x5' roll barely covered the front floor area. On the outer edges the sill plates covered the rough areas. I used pro-grade interior glue brushed on to hold it all in place. For a little over $9 plus a little time, it looks a bazillion times better then the thrashed factory carpet which has long since gone to the land fill. Some cheap $15 black rubber backed protective floor mats topped it all off. Eventually it will be replaced by an aftermarket carpet kit, but it was good enough for the road trip and has held up great so far....

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../carpet001.jpg

For door panels, my car had some real winners from the factory. They were light blue and pretty puffy. These photos were taken just after I bought the car. The lower plastic used to be the same shade blue as the vinyl. Eeeew! :)

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...oorpanel01.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...oorpanel02.jpg

I found a great grandpa fresh 4-door Cutlass in the junkyard. This car had a broken diesel motor, but it only had 79,xxx miles on the clock and it literally looked like an old man's car. Even smelled like that aftershave they used, you know, like the smell in those old school barber shops. I grabbed all 4 door panels from this car. Too bad they were red, so I put Roman to work again, and he did a fantastic job prepping and spraying them with interior black paint. Eventually I want to do custom panels but these really look great for now. Below is a shot of the first red panel after painting black.

Earlier in the year I bought a few yards of black headliner material from the local fabric store when it was on a great sale. I had hoped to get it in the car for the trip too but I just plain ran out of time so it's in storage back in Utah for now.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...oorpanel03.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...oorpanel04.jpg

Finally I'm now driving the car, after much tribulation trying to resolve the overheating issues previously discussed. The goal was to have at least 200 miles on it before our 2000 + mile trip. Luckily outside of the cooling issues the car ran flawlessly.

One last thing to do before the road trip. Out of necessity and for protection from the elements I needed to cover all the areas where I started working on body work. Although still a bit rough I think my car is pretty cool considering all the mods I've done to it, and having it look this way I thought did it a serious misjustice. I also felt just spray bombing it with a little primer here and there wasn't gonna cut it. Poor ugly duckling...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint01.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...prepaint01.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/Wagon003.jpg

At this point the budget was all but drained and most every penny we had left in savings would be going towards the trip, so my original plans of spraying it in a booth with epoxy primer was out of the question. An old boss I had used to brag about how he spray bomb painted an old Mustang and it "looked like a real paint job". I always thought he was nuts, but for kicks I wanted to see if he was for reals. I had the fenders off again for some reason so I grabbed one and a can of Rustoleum semi-flat rattle bomb and after prepping the fender laid down a couple coats. I did a light first coat, let it tack, then laid down a fairly heavy coat with about a 70% overlay. Much to my surprise the paint laid down pretty nice! I painted the other fender and had the same positive results. "Hmmm", I thought, "I could do this..."

I decided to go to Walmart and pick up a couple six packs to get me through this next adventure...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint03.jpg

About $39 in paint and some tape and old news paper later I went to work. I first sanded the whole car with 320 on a da sander. I then blew it all off with an air gun, then wiped the whole car down with clean water and a wet rag, drying with a terry towel and the air gun. Then it was wiped down with wax and grease remover and finally a tack cloth. Lastly I bolted the fenders and hood back on thinking I could just blend the paint. This all took the majority of the day and the sun was heading down.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint02.jpg

After some dinner I put my painter's mask and some music on and went to town starting at the driver's front door and working around the rest of the car right there in the driveway. By now it was fairly dark, and with darkness comes lots of bugs. I swear they're drawn to the smell of paint! This was the first, it landed on the a pillar. Man was I mad to see it. Then one after another... I gave up counting at 12 and just kept spraying. A couple of them really pissed me off so I sprayed over them to really "seal" their fate, lol. All in all I think it was like 32 total bugs in the paint. By the end my son and I were laughing, "There goes another one..." Luckily most of them didn't really sink into the paint much and the next day after the paint was set they come off with a finger tip rub not leaving behind much damage to the paint surface.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint06.jpg

Some action shots of my fine painting equipment. I know for sure it came out so nice only because of the classes I had just gone through at school...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint05.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint04.jpg

Here's the end result. Not too bad considering the way it was done. I wish I had had time to straighten the body but I'll get to it in due time...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint08.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint09.jpg

I decided to leave the roof white. I figured the paint up there was fine, it would save me some time, and I wanted the car to have a bit of an old school look.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/paint011.jpg


The final exterior job was to apply a couple stickers.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...sticker001.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...sticker002.jpg

It rained the next afternoon, which made some cool photos. Roman took a few. I really like this one and the one above...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/paint07.jpg

So here's my thoughts about spray bombing a car. If Hot Rod mag can house paint a car with a roller, then why not spray paint one, right?

A couple things to watch out for. First off is obvious, don't paint it at night in the driveway. Second look at the fender in this shot. Spray paint doesn't blend at all. I should've masked off the already painted fenders.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...r/paint010.jpg

To avoid dry spray I had to keep it wet and move from one panel to the next very quickly.

The new paint was close by so as one can started to give up the ghost and spray funny, even if it still had paint in the can, I'd quickly grab a fresh one and keep moving. I used 7 cans for 2 overall coats. The first coat was fairly light, the second quite heavy. I only got one slight run on the whole car, and by morning it had mostly sank in so I didn't even bother trying to fix it.

Holding a spray can vertically yields great results. Holding it horizontally, well, not so much. I sprayed the hood on the car and I tried and tried but still got some slight tiger striping. Even after 3 wet on wet coats. Bummer. Over the last 5 months it's faded just enough that it's a little harder to tell and looks fairly smooth.

Overall, Rustoleum gets 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Pretty much after painting I was done with the car other than hooking up the radio and trailer wiring. It had been a very mad thrash since school got out and overall I was content with the results. There is soooo much more I wanted to do with the car, but a new job and new life awaited on the other side of the country and we had to get rolling.

Originally I had planned on heading to GA alone and working for a month or two, saving the $ to move the family and all our belongings. The way it worked out I had several set backs on the car that ended making reassembly take longer. Luckily everything went south while still in the driveway rather than on the road trip. Because of all the set backs and getting down to the bear minimum of savings because I wasn't working between school and GA, we last minute decided to throw most of our belongings in storage and pack what we could and head out as a family.

This got real crazy. We have 4 kids ranging from 4 to 14, 2 dogs, a cat, and 2 parakeets. How do you take everything you need in a couple vehicles and drive away? Trust me vehicles got packed, then unpacked and repacked again. I wouldn't wish our method of moving on anyone, lol.

We packed our little Daewoo commuter wagon with all the important papers, electronics, sewing machine, and whatever else would squeeze in. I could barely fit in the driver's seat enough to drive it up onto a tow dolly. Once it was strapped down I added my 73 Nova's extra powder coated sub frame and my mountain bike to the roof. In true motor head fashion I couldn't leave them behind. This was attached to my Suburban, which was filled with boxes of clothes, some food storage, and other important belongings. Notice in the photo how much the rear sags, yet this is a 3/4 ton truck that has a normally fairly high stance. The back was packed tight and full to the roof, with only enough room for a 2.5x2.5' square with only about 15" to the roof behind the back seat where the two medium size dogs and cat slept. The back seat had several boxes between the two younger kids, and the floor was filled in the front where my 12 year old daughter sat. Her feet resided on the dash for most of the trip. The middle of the front seat was reserved for maps and a large box of snacks, paper towels, water, etc. and the bird's cage. My wife, who normally doesn't like driving long distances, had never towed before, and doesn't like driving in unfamiliar places was a real trooper to run this rig.

My wagon was lucky enough to bring all the left over junk. Things like brooms, mops, vacuums, etc. were visible through my back windows. How embarrassing, lol! Roman rode with me. The entire back was jam packed and junk food and lots of Mt Dew was packed in, around, and under the front seats. Attached out back was my 73 Nova, which was also completely packed full with all the parts I had to put it together. It was heavy enough that even at 40 lbs in the rear tires and with air shocks completely full it looked like a low rider with low air pressure in the tires. On the back of the Nova was a bike rack with 3 more bikes, and there was another small bike and my little rolling mechanics seat attached to a tow bar that was bolted to the front of the Nova. I tell you it was a nutty sight.

Here's a photo of Roman, you can see how tightly we had things packed...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/tow5.jpg

Here are a couple more photos along the way. Before we even got an hour under way climbing up the hill towards Park City I had one of my drag bags pop, which dropped the car low enough that the tire would scrub on big dips and bumps. It tore up the right rear tire a bit but some road side redneck engineering got the fender lip rolled up. I crammed a hammer handle up between the sheet metal and tire and had my wife drive back and forth a couple feet until there was enough space to clear the tire. It made it the rest of the way to GA sagging on the right side but the tire didn't rub any more. :)

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/tow4.jpg

This photo was our first stop, just outside Denver, CO where we stayed overnight. Didn't I say it looked crazy?

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/Tow2.jpg

Overall the car ran great. The toughest part of the trip by far was in Utah and Wyoming, those up hill mountains just killed me. The car was already running rich and in some places running full throttle in 2nd gear just to maintain 30 mph on an uphill climb did wonders for my MPG average. There was one particular hill I used 3 gallons of gas in 5 minutes of driving. Running a bit rich you suppose? Look how black with soot the chain is behind the exhaust tips, lol!

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/tow3.jpg

With the Dan Howe fan shroud the engine stayed right around 190 degrees for the entire trip, although through the mountains the trans got up to 250 degrees a couple times and hovered around 210-230 for most of the trip. Normally it runs around 190 on longer trips.

We took it fairly easy, my wife wanted to keep it at or below 70 mph. This was about 2000 rpms for me. I wanted to go a little faster, my car felt better cruizing around 2200-2300, but a happy wife on a road trip is a good thing. I figured my gas mileage when we got to my in-law's place in Wichita Kansas, right about 10.5 mpg average for the trip so far. The Suburban was right about 8.5 mpg, even in all it's girth with a 454 and TH400 backed by 4.56 gears. I was a bit disappointed by my mileage but figuring I was hauling my car with about 500 lbs in the back plus a 3400 lb car in tow, plus the weight of the dolly, I guess that's not that bad. Outside the air bag fail we had a relatively easy going trip, not one other problem along the way.

This next photo was in Kentucky I think.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/Tow1.jpg

After the second day we got creative and realized that a trip to a grocery store for Lunchables was just as positive an experience as a happy meal for the little kids. Way to keep the kids happy and save money too haha. In using this method I discovered the fine art of manifold baking. Frozen egg rolls, deli sandwiches, hot dogs, yeah they heat up real nice wrapped in foil and placed on the intake for a couple hours. :)

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...nator/tow6.jpg

After 6 days, visiting with family in Missouri and Kansas and a whole lot of gallons of used up gas, we finally made it from the Salt Lake City, UT area to Acworth GA. A couple key things that made the trip fun for me- spending a whole bunch of time with Roman, something we didn't get much of prior to this. Laughing as we'd ask each other at the end of a day of driving if our hearing was still muffled because of my ridiculously loud car, goofing off with my family in Super 8 motels along the way, visiting family, and getting a ton of compliments and thumbs up on the car along the way.

I've been so busy with work and with family since we got here I haven't done much to the car. I did change the oil and wash it not long after arriving. I also decided the black was too plain. One day after worked I grabbed some masking tape and paper and my VHT engine paint and had at it. I call it the anti what everyone else is doing stripe. I purposely put it on the rear 1/4 rather than the front fender and I varied the width of the stripes instead of having them symmetrical. Just doing my part to blend in while being different.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l.../stripe003.jpg

Ive posted this shot before but I like it so much here it is again.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...4shotsmall.jpg

I still drive it every day no matter the weather. It gets better mileage now that I'm not towing anything, and it's amazing how much more power I have at low altitude. It finally feels like it should.

I went to a local warehouse district and video'd the car to check how much body roll it has. It was pretty clear that the one tire fryer nature of the open diff limits how hard I can pull a turn. Still it stayed pretty flat throughout. The car shows up about 10 seconds into it...

body roll check

With no traction we decided we couldn't really see what we wanted so we had a little leg stretching fun instead...

One tire fryer

In September Roman and I took a Saturday and ran up to Tennessee to watch the Run Thru The Hills pro-touring event. Man was that cool. Both Roman and I are stoked to get more involved. I should be racing there this year.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/RTTH-1.jpg

We also were able to attend Detroit Speed's open house in North Carolina. Wow what a facility!

I have since swapped in Varishock adjustable shocks and CPP rear springs I got from Doug "SicMonte" out back. Wow, what a difference in tightness and feel. I still need to get the front shocks in.

Besides getting the posi 9" into the car, the next mods include widening rims out back to fit 315-35s. I swapped the 275s up front and drove around a few days. They fit great with no issues. I did notice doing this that the front steering is off set. Notice how close things are with the 275s. On the front it clears the front right frame rail just fine at full lock, but the front left just barely makes contact. The right rear barely makes contact while the left rear isn't even close. Basically the car appears to turn more right than left. Is this because of a whack job at the alignment shop?? Or is this normal for some reason? Anyone else have this issue? Seems that the centerlink isn't really centered with the steering box? Photos...

Front right-

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ront275001.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ront275003.jpg

Front Left-

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ront275004.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ront275002.jpg

We had a 345-30-19 at the shop so while I was swapping the 275s to the front I tried it on the car. Oops, just a bit too wide, it's touching the frame on the inside and sticking out about 3/4". Now if only I had wider fender flares... buwhahhahaha evil laugh....

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/345001.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...tor/345002.jpg

Oh well, I'll guess realistically I'll just stick with "little" 315s out back...

Another thing I discovered on accident while swapping tires- While I was building the car at school a lot of folks asked me how I thought my frame compared to a Schwartz frame in strength. First off my frame was free with the car and I spent a couple hundred dollars making my own bracing and boxing it. I understand theirs starts at around $10,000, but I would say that's fair considering the engineering, materials, and labor involved. Not including the roll cage I probably added a hundred lbs to my frame while Schwartz shaved off a considerable amount of weight. Realistically there is no comparison and it's probably not fair to compare my frame with theirs.

But one thing Schwartz (and all of us too) likes about their frame is that it's stiff. A and G bodies are known for having factory frame stiffness comparable to cooked linguine. Although again I say it's not fair to compare, while pulling the rear tire I noticed the jack, although placed in the back, lifts the whole side of the car like theirs does in their marketing video. :) This photo is not staged or rigged, I found this out by accident and at first it freaked me out a bit. The door opened just fine in this photo. I think if I placed it correctly I wonder if I might be able to jack 3 tires off the ground at once with one jack, I'd like to try that sometime...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...or/Jack001.jpg

Here's a shot of the single adjustable shocks I got from Doug. Thanks again for the great deal!

The shock body was a bit larger than the stock replacements I put on there temporarily, and that required a slight trim on the rear sway bar link bracket. Doug suggested setting them in the middle at 8 and adjust from there. The ride is a bit stiff now, but not uncomfortable. I did notice a huge decrease in rear sway on quick turning. Nice! One of the front ones had the dial broken off so I'll be sending them back to get fixed up before installing them.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...erishock01.jpg


Here's a photo of the 275-40-17 on a 17x9.5 with 5.5" backspace on the front. Fits great! I wish I had just done 275s all around in the beginning so I could rotate them, but I originally thought a 255 up front would be better.

I think the widest I've ever seen up front on a g-body is a 285. I was looking at my frame and wheel/tire set up on Saturday and I can't help but figure that it won't take that much work to put 315-35s on 10.5" wheels up front. Something I'm going to have to really think about for the future...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...275front01.jpg

Finally an update!

Things weren't quite what I expected in Georgia so after looking around I found an opening and was hired by Speed Tech Performance recently as a creative director and fabricator in the shop. Craziest thing is it brought me back to Utah!

Needless to say I'm loving it here! Speed Tech relocated from Western Canada to St. George, Utah in November 2012. When I came out to interview it was like coming home, even though it's about 4 hours away from the Salt Lake City area where we used to live. My wife has family up there so at least 4 hours is closer than 2200 miles away!

Thought I'd share a few photos from my road trip. Last August we packed as much as we could fit in our vehicles and headed out from Utah to Georgia. This time we were a little short on cash so I came alone in April, and headed back end of May to bring my family back. Much like the first time I towed my son's Nova project with the wagon.

I got started pretty late in the day, which may have been a bad omen, but was hopeful to get to Kentucky before stopping. When I got into Tennessee things didn't go so well. after climbing a large hill/mountain shortly beyond the Tennessee/Georgia line my right "drag bag" airbag blew out on the way back down the other side. As you may recall from earlier posts the right airbag blew on the way from Utah to Georgia. I guess these things are for spring rate adjustment and preload only and just weren't meant to help carry weight. This trip I had all my tools in the wagon along with other belongings so it was quite heavy. The car dropped enough that it rubbed the tire pretty badly in the couple seconds before I got off the road.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps7bf97236.jpg

With the wheel off I got up inside the inner wheel well and beat it with a hammer to get some extra clearance. Here you can see where it was rubbing.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...psfd09f272.jpg

Back on the road it wasn't long before the left bag started to slowly leak down and began to rub on that side on bigger dips and bumps in the road. At my next gas stop I used some redneck engineering and crammed my jack handle up into the wheel well and inched the car forward to bend up the fender lip.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps7ad8ee66.jpg

Normally my tires are close to the body and don't rub at all, but the extra weight pushed it over the limits.

Around 8:00pm I pulled into a Walmart to grab a couple items. When I came out I noticed that my turn signals weren't working. I went out back to check all the wiring and found that with my exhaust in the middle of the bumper, it got so hot back there the exhaust melted the wiring and fused the two halves of the plug together into one big blob. So I spent some time repairing that and replacing several fuses, and decided to call it a night and grab a motel room.

So I got the motel in Tennessee and camped out for the night. I thought for sure I could get an early start and make some good progress the next day. Not so...

About an hour out of the town I stayed in, just past the "Bucksnort Rd." exit I heard a noise from behind me and looked in the rear view mirror to see the tow dolly tire was smoking. Nice! I pulled right over but before I could get to the side of the road the tire came totally unglued! It was my first blowout ever. It also blew the light off the fender in the process.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps4fbdb814.jpg

I called Uhaul and they put me on a three way call with the closest Uhaul account service station, which was 45 minutes away. He was a nice gentleman but I had to laugh to myself as he sounded like he was probably wearing overalls and a straw hat waiting to get home to that fresh batch of white lightning he brewed the night before, lol! It was also funny when he said to the uhaul rep after she asked him to send help to me, "well that's a long way, so as long as it's ok with Uhaul we'll run a tire out there." I'm thinking, uh yeah, I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with a blown tire, sending someone out would be a good thing. It was Sunday, so they had to call in one of their employees in to bring the tire, so 1 1/2 hours later the guy pulled up in the service truck. He did a great job getting me back together fairly quickly and said the tire on the other side was low on air and that's probably what caused the blowout. They didn't look all that low to me but what do I know. I had to sign the bill, the service call not including the tire was $250. Glad I wasn't paying for it. The Uhaul rep that helped me on the phone stayed in touch the whole time with phone calls and texts until I was back on the road. I've heard a lot of bad about Uhaul, but I'd have to say overall they all did a good job.

So now I'm back on the road and finally get to Memphis. Anyone ever traveled through there? Their idea of road signs, or lack of them, wasn't funny. I got all turned around and ended up lost downtown somehow. While getting gas I was a little concerned about the tire that was still rubbing sometimes on the driver's side so I pulled the wheel and got the hammer out to beat the inner wheel well on that side too. Glad I did, that west Memphis and into Arkansas has the worst roads I've been on for a long time. Another funny thing about Memphis is apparently they don't believe in making left hand turns at intersections. I found myself going into parking lots to turn around so I could get on the roads I needed to. What a pain that was.

Needless to say when I saw that welcome to Arkansas sign I was relieved to put the two day nightmare of Tennessee behind me. Here's a shot at a rest stop in Oklahoma I think. you can see how low it was without the bags working...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps219bda04.jpg

I stopped at a rest stop somewhere in Texas. I liked this shot shot, this building was cool built into the hill with a huge star in the wall.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps7921c168.jpg

Another cool stop was a gas station IIRC near the New Mexico/ Arizona border. Inside the gas station was a huge car collection area. Neat stuff in there, cars and paraphernalia. They even had several large screen TVs playing old automotive based TV commercials. Really neat place, free to browse around and a nice break from driving. One of the few places along the way that reminded me I was traveling route 66.

This was my favorite of the items on display. Looks like an old Chevelle magazine ad. It says it all.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...psd8049dcf.jpg

This was my favorite car on display. I really like the lines of the early 50s Chevys, and this shade of green was awesome. Dual carbs on the 6 banger and a BEAUTIFUL white interior. Super nice.

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps237abea8.jpg

Some more cool stuff...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...pscc7b73e0.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...ps42e95f73.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...psccba5cdd.jpg

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/l...psd1c8bc1c.jpg

Ben,
Good to hear an update from you and glad to hear you're settling in nicely with Speed Tech! I'll be in Bonneville come September, maybe we could meet up!
Ah yes, the adventures of driving a hot rod cross country! Always gives stories to tell and the little hidden joints you come across are usually interesting!