Well back on the 55. Thought about letting the thread die, as its not 100% hamb friendly.. but reviewing it, there's a lot of good info on here that should get updated and added to. I've had it wrapped up for the last year, kind of got burnt out and sick of it. Parts pricing has blown any hopes of a budget, I don't have swap meets around here to get parts, so I just forgot about it for a year. Blowing the dust off.. In an effort to get some motivation I figured I will just run it in primer for awhile and start installing the boxes of parts I have taking up room. I installed the trim on the bottom of the window. I think it breaks up the drab of the all black. I noticed I forgot to drill the holes in the drivers door.. Headlight buckets, signals installed. I thought about adding backing plates but the fiberglass is so thick in that area, I don't think it is needed. The car didn't come with most of this stuff so buying all the light assemblies and stuff has been killing me. Taillights installed, I spent a lot of time getting the gaps out during body work, they aren't a perfect fit, could have spent days on that, but good enough is sometimes good enough.
I talked the kids into rolling out the sound deadener with a promise of some ice cream, I got the better end of that deal. I want this to be a pretty good street car so it has to be a good road tripper and daily driver. Eastwood sound/heat for the main floor, and cheapy kilmat for trunk and roof.
I stripped the frontend and painted the firewall and inside the hood chassis black. This eastwood stuff just looks great. I also splashed some on the dash. Before priming I shaved most of the firewall, I don't think I mentioned that earlier. I added the required holes for the steering column and brake/clutch M/C. I really didn't want street rod smooth, but instead a factory stamped look. I don't think I showed the hood latch before, I added a striked at the top of the engine bars and use this, works pretty good. The handle is hidden behind the grille. I left the flat on the bottom, tried on my dash trim and column. Looks fancy.
Finished up the brake lines, all stainless, wilwood reservoir and pedals. Between the K-line brake flare tool and this straightener, brakes lines are actually pretty fun to build. Installed the rear discs just like two lane blacktop lol.
I finished up lots of other odds and ends, did some horsepower stuff and other off topic stuff. Installed a new areomotive fuel tank, that hits my panhard that I spent so much time on haha. Still have to problem solve that one. One on topic thing I did was pick up some buckets. I really wanted 64 SS buckets, these came up close by and are actually 64 pontiac buckets. I'm pretty sure other than the cover they are the same. I used a level across the doors to get one setup and mounted straight and level. This seat color is awesome, I really like the aqua blue/green thing. Might actually stick with that color for some door panels and rear seat. Also it compliments the cheap gold grant wheel I picked up. A little splash of color to go with the flat black. This was the mount I came up with, the legs were all wonky from the factory. Pretty hard to build adapters off of. Turns out the mounts side to side after I was done had to be a little different as well. Also I had to add a small spacer under the back rest stop on the drivers because I couldn't figure out why it reclined so much more that the passenger. The base was level but the back was just leaned more back. After a lot more messing around than it should have been I got them done. I will pull them later when I redo the seat to pretty them up a bit.
Look at you posting up build thread updates!! I hear you on parts prices!! Just gross. Keep up the good work brother
Probably not a huge amount more going to get done this year. I have tapped out the budget for a while. I have a new areomotive fuel tank to finish up installing. It is a factory sized tank, and hits my panhard bar. So with that I have to remake my panhard that I spent a lot of effort designing and making... such is hot rodding. Brakes are done, short of an ebrake. Steering is done, minus a dash column mount that's on its way. Run some fuel lines, engine fuel system and some other stuff. I had a custom driveshaft made from Bears Performance in Canada, 3" chromoly with 1350 joints. Did a lot of checking with the critical speed calculator because it is a little long. Should be stout and do the trick. With it I also installed a new yoke and pinion seal, so trans and rear end are done. If I had the engine running I could basically drive it around the block.. That is kind of the plan for next year, maybe get the mechanical done depending on budget. Then start on wiring and all the accessories. Probably be another 2-3 years until its truly road worthy though.
Yeah, I wasn't going to, but reading back through the thread, this poor car has come back from hell, and I probably shouldn't let the thread just die, even if its for my own documentation. It actually blows my mind I did as much as I have on this thing. Not sure I'd have the fortitude to do any of this stuff again. haha.
I actually considering building my car with an LS (I secretly love the LS) and going a blasphemi style build. Please keep updating us! Love the content!
What an incredible build. So glad you have not thrown in the towel. Not many of us can see a project like this all the way through so keep going. I agree the green/turquoise interior would be rad against the black paint.
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