Monday, December 11, 2006

First off: LOTS OF IMAGES! I'm sorry to the Dial-up users out there...

Man, its been a while since I updated... Mainly because I keep leaving my camera at the garage where i'm working on my car. Lots of stuff since then, but mostly just me collecting parts, blasting, repainting , and such. I really need to start bolting everything INTO the car soon, since i'm running out of room to put all this crap! Once the front subframe goes back together, i'll have a lot more space. Right now, its scattered all over the place, and the only thing I'm still waiting on is new springs before I can bolt it all back together.

Ah, the unholiest of unholy... the Pedalbox. I've already yanked the heater box, and rebuilt that, so I may as well do the next-nastiest thing...



Yeah.. this is gross...



Everything Blasted and painted with Zinc Primer...



...Then coated in about 15 layers of Plasti-coat Laquer.



I also decided to re-paint and re-assemble this whole set-up



Brake booster after blasting



It recieved the same Zinc Primer treatment as the pedalbox



While laying soundproofing, I decided to dig up some suspicious fiberglass int the passenger side floorboard. What I found did not make me a happy camper. Water had seeped between the 'glass and the floor and pock-marked the whole pan with rust. The drain plug was particularly nasty. Also, the fiberglass must have been 1/2" thick in some places. The plate there is aluminum, riveted onto the floorboards... At least that wasn't rusting any time soon.



So... Everything got dug out, cut out, and wire-wheeled down to bare metal.



New filler plates have been made, and are awaiting welding.



This is what the rest of the (solid) floorboards look like. This is a material called "FatMat" I bought on Ebay. Same stuff used in the famous "Stella" restoration. I highly recommend using a heat gun to get this stuff to stick extra-well. So far, I've been very pleased with it.



Last weekend, my engine was finally completed! Many thanks to Jeff for helping me unload the thing at my garage, and getting an engine stand for me on such short notice... As for the Engine itself, the only things that remained the same were the block, crankshaft, and the aluminum head casting. All other components have been replaced. 284 cam, 9.5:1 pistons, and I've got a brand-new 38 carb waiting to be dropped on, as soon as I carve out the intake manifold. Sexy.



Shot from the exhaust side. I have a 2-piece supersprint header that will eventually take up residence here.


So much more to do, but getting that engine back was some serious motivation.