Project Fool's Gold

[ParkerRS]

Finally I got around to taking a few more pics today. This is the body as it left my garage.



After blasting and a coat of PPG DP50 I carried it to my friends Brad and Shane at Thunder Vally Customs. They have sanded the bottom side as well as wiping some welding pin holes and seam sealing the weld joints.

The trunk floor will get some modification to help clear the exhaust as well as patch a few thin spots next. I'm using a Rick's stainless tank which I had built 1" deeper than stock as well as 2" wider. The front corners of the tank are clipped at an angle to provide exhaust clearance also. I'll get some pics of the tank once the trunk floor is done and it's mocked up.

[ParkerRS]

The only rust problems were between the door opening and wheel opening which is common on these cars. We are patching these areas.
Right side


firewall being prepped for smoothing, the holes were welded up on the left and wiped, still need to be finished and sanded. The lip between the cowl and firewall was cut off and the cowl smoothed up with a wipe. The right side has had all holes dressed down and prepped for a filler plate to be attached when we drop it off the rotisserie.


The qaurters look great except for the small patches shown above.

The sad news that really pi$$es me off is that the blaster screwed me! Evidently he let a new guy with no experience blast the car and consequently damaged my smooth roof with no filler in it. Now the roof feels like a washboard from being shrunk and stretched in different areas. After two nights of lying awake thinking about it and haveing a long pow wow with my body men we've decided that with the caliber of this build that wiping 20pounds of filler in the roof just will not cut it. I ordered one of the new Dynacorn second gen. roof skins today from NPD. Less labor and a better repair overall it just gripes my a$$ though that they did this.

[ParkerRS]

Well I finished tearing down the 07 LS2 last night to the bare block and got it ready for the machine shop once all parts are here. The pistons, rods, bearings, and rings arrived today.

The crank should drop ship from Callies next week and I'll be ready to machine and build the bottom end.

[Autokraft]

Motor jewelry

[ParkerRS]

I went by Thunder Valley Tuesday afternoon and got to help Brad swap the bad roof skin that the blaster messed up. They shrunk and stetched different areas of the roof when blasting and made the surface like a washboard. The skin wasn't as bad to change as what I thought it would be. The front windshield area and the rear window area are spot welded, as well as at the qaurters. The rails above the side windows are wrapped and pinched just like a door skin. So all in all not too bad, the worst part is that the inner skin is glued to the outer every sqaure foot with a big dollop of seam sealer. You need some very long pry bars and a hammer and you can tap the outer loose from each dollop and it comes off, this is the step that takes patience and care so not to damage the inner.





New skin trimmed and in position.







It took about 3 hours to do this with two of us but the welding still needed to be done so figure a couple more hours for that and finishing.
More to come soon.

[thedude327]

Project is looking good !! Other than finishing roof, and trunk is there much to do before painting?

Paul

[ParkerRS]

Originally Posted by thedude327

Project is looking good !! Other than finishing roof, and trunk is there much to do before painting?

Paul

I still have several small body mods coming as well as gapping all openings and roll bar, then prime and block. After primer I'm mocking up the entire car including interior with mods. Then I'll break it down and take it back for paint. I ran into several things on my last project where I wished I could break out the welder or cutting wheel but it was already painted. I'm trying to avoid that situation with this one. Thanks for the compliments!

[98ssnova]

The roof looks good. Thats sucks they screwed it. Do you know when it will be in color.

[ParkerRS]

Hopefully by early to mid summer. It depends on the parts suppliers. Some things have taken up to 7 months to obtain while other suppliers have shipped the wrong items even after multiple e-mails and calls. I think I'm jinxed when it comes to obtaining correct parts in a timely fashion. I waited two months for the crankshaft and when it arrived it had the wrong reluctor ring, after 5 e-mails and 4 phone calls Geez! The only good luck I've had with parts so far have been through Frank at prodigy and DSE, both are great to deal with.

[wayne70]

look's good Tommy.To bad you had to install the new roof,you know there won't be any rust jumping out of there later.
If it's not in the paint shop in May we would like to see it when we come up for David and Tammy's event.