I’m long over due for an update - been crazy at work and haven’t had a chance to focus on the car much over the last month. Kurt continues to make nice progress on many little details. I’m headed to Eau Claire on Friday for a visit and will have some additional photos. In the meantime, here are some updates:
We got the exhaust back from ceramic coating and installed - turned out great and tailpipe locations are exactly what I was looking for.
Kurt got the headliner installed as well - turned out awesome. It’s a charcoal suede and looks fantastic. You can see the color variation in the suede in a couple of the pictures. Kurt has great attention to detail and the install looks great - nice and tight. The polished screws in the sail panel trim piece have been replaced with black ones - just didn’t have any at the time the picture was taken.
I’m installing a pretty cool rear view mirror - has a HD camera on the front of the mirror that can record out the windshield onto an SD card. Not as high tech as the performance data recorder on my ZL-1, but still pretty cool. Also, the mirror connects to a rear mounted camera that is mounted in the rear bumper just above the license plate that serves as a back up camera or as your rear view mirror, if desired. The camera is hooked to my reverse lights and turns on when the car is shifted into reverse. The mirror surface is the screen and the image from the rear camera then appears on the entire rear view mirror surface. When driving, if you would rather use the rear camera as the rear view mirror, you just press a button on the mirror itself and you can toggle back and forth between the mirror and the rear view camera. Pretty cool tech for a ‘63 Chevy II. This photo shows the mirror waiting to be mounted to the windshield once the windshield is installed. Clamps are to keep the headliner in place while the mirror dangles from the wires that are routed up above the headliner.
Speaking of windshield, they tried to install it on Monday, but we were sent the wrong trim. I purchased an excellent set of original trim for the windshield and rear windows since the reproduction trim never seems to fit correctly. We had the trim powder coated black to match as closely as possible the rest of the trim on the car (we didn’t want to paint this trim as we knew it would get marred during install). The glass shop got the windshield in and Kurt noticed that the trim was about an inch short. Turns out that sedan trim is about an inch shorter than hardtop trim on these cars and we obviously got sent the sedan trim by mistake. We worked it out and received a correct set of trim today, which immediately went to powder coater so the glass guys can install on Friday. Looks pretty good from 10 feet away...
Not so much from up close...
Kurt painted a black band around the interior side of the windshield and rear window. You can see it in the close up photo above. It’s a nice detail and will allow us to place RFID antennas for the keyless entry system on the underside of the glass without being seen from the outside of the car.
Side glass is now complete with all weatherstripping, sweepers, roof rails installed, etc. Turned out great, but we ended up having to make a bunch of calls to find the correct channels for holding weatherstripping in place for the roof rails. Nobody makes reproduction versions and originals were hard to find. Ultimately got some, but took way more time than expected, and just another example of why it always seems to take way longer than expected for a project like this.
We got the emergency brake lever mounted up as well - works awesome and will tuck in nicely next to the seat bolster. Will have leather boot made to cover that will match my seats.
Stereo wiring all buttoned up as well...
Wiring all completed for power door locks and power windows, and all works beautifully. Switches will be mounted in center console - theee switch panel, the two outside switches are left and right windows and middle switch is power door lock. The power window switches have express up and down modules wired into them - Kurt laughed that there are twenty separate wires all fed together for the windows. Looks like a rats nest, but will all be covered by center console.
Cool little detail for A/C lines - black anodized and charge ports built in to the manifold making for cleaner look and much easier when charging A/C system.
Pedals and linkage in, along with Clayton pedal covers, as is stering wheel column with aluminum levers for turn signal and tilt.
Kurt was going to finish install of gas pedal, digital dash, headlight switch and wiper switch over the next couple of days. Hopefully, I’ll get some pics of those on Friday, as well as pics with front and rear glass installed. Have a great week.
Brian
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Brian Hobaugh SCCA National Tour June 2014
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It's like a ball of yarn unwinding, that has no end... Author DKz Garage
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