1840cc 66 Roadster Build

[notoptoy]

Looks great, very beefy!

[Gregs672000]

Looks great! Do have a few of those isolators on hand... the exhaust gets hot enough to degrade them over time... I know by experience!

[S Allen]

I do have a couple of spares. Cannot wait to stress test them.

S

[Curtis]

What muffler is that?

[S Allen]

One the exhaust guy ordered to fit. I can go back and ask him for the details.

S

[Curtis]

One the exhaust guy ordered to fit. I can go back and ask him for the details.

S

Or call... Is there a brand on it?

[S Allen]

Curtis,

The muffler is an AP brand part number AP 709005 1.75 inlet/outlet offset 12" long. It is from the MSL line of mufflers which is their jobber muffler line. Used to be Borla but was bought out by AP. I am sure it will sound just fine.

Steve

[Curtis]

Thanks. I'll be interested to see how quiet yours is compared to mine. Mine is straight through with the wall perforations. I have a feeling it will not be as quiet as I want.

I may have seen this one and ignored it because of the offset thinking it was too much. Maybe I'll order one, less than half what I paid. It says it is for a Pontiac Grand Prix which I used to own.

[S Allen]

Got a lot done regarding the body today. Removed the last six bolts holding the body on. Removed the following--seats. both doors, headlight buckets, front turn signal lights, rear tail lights, reflectors, all side trim, trunk handle and lock, front and rear bumpers. Snapped off three bolts on one of the head light buckets, Also snapped off a couple of bolts while removing the doors. Will need to drill out and tap. There was electrical tape covering the roll bar. Took me a while to get all of that off as there were multiple layers. The carpet is in really good shape but I will need to remove it to do some repairs cleanup to the interior tub. Someone glued it down. Will put dynamat in and then replace once repaired. The lower door trim was pop riveted on as well as the door threshold. Going to need to pull the body off of the old frame so I can cut out the cracked trunk floor. Probably will wash it real good so I can start on fixing the cracks and dents. No pictures.

Steve

[S Allen]

Got the rest of the bits removed from the body. Power washed the engine bay and washed the body to remove any contaminants. Removed the body from the old frame and got it put on the body cart. I started grinding away on all the bad spots that were visible. There is quite a bit of bondo but that is not too surprising. Will grind out and use my weld a puller to put some studs in strategic places so I can use less bondo. Looks like the car was a beige color, then green, and finally sora blue. Will keep it sora blue as I like the color. A couple of pictures.

old-frame.jpg

body-on-body-cart.jpg

engine-bay-cleaned.jpg

body-stripped1.jpg

body-stripped2.jpg

body-stripped3.jpg

Steve

[S Allen]

I am knee deep into body work. It is going to be a lot bigger project than I had initially planned on. Isn't that always the case. Project creep is real. I was going to take care of some minor issues and do a respray. I have found far too much bondo to do that. So, I am taking it down to bare metal to start the process all over again. Using a propane torch to remove the bondo. It was almost a full inch thick on the front valance. Fortunately I have a front valance I had picked up from Mike Young last year. Got the tub pretty much stripped and cut the hole out in the tunnel for the 5 speed. Going with a different color as well. This car was originally silver and then green and finally sora blue. So, there were three coats of paint plus primer. It is not going to be silver. A few pics from the last week.

5-speed-cut-out.jpg

tub-clean2.jpg

front-end-bondo3.jpg

bondo-pile.jpg

bondo-rear.jpg

bondo-pile.jpg

There won't be any more updates until I get some primer and paint on the engine bay and the trunk. I am not painting the inside of the tub as I will be sealing it with rust bullet. Fortunately the body is in pretty good shape other than the excessive use of bondo and the cracked trunk floor.

Steve

[S Allen]

A little update. I had the hard to get places on the doors, trunk lid, fenders and hood soda blasted. Then I used a surface conditioner tool to clean up the rest. I shot the interiors with two coats of epoxy primer today. Turned out real good. Will need to scuff them with 600 before I top coat. The doors are in excellent shape with no rust out spots you usually see.

The bondo removal is just about 100% complete. I swear there was 30 plus Lbs of the stuff in the back end and both quarter panels. Drivers side quarter looks pretty good. The passenger side has had some major repair at one time or another. I need to use my Eastwood Surface Conditioning tool to do the final cleanup of the bondo. Tomorrow I will drag the tub outside and do some blasting on the engine bay, cowl and door jambs. Once I get the tub all stripped I will hang the fenders, doors, hood and trunk lid to get things lined up so I can pull any dents and get the panels straight before I begin applying a thin layer of bondo. There were places on the quarters where there was 3/4" of bondo which was way too much. Making progress but it is tedious work. Pretty happy with the body as a whole.

both-doors-primed.jpg

hood-trunk-lids-primed.jpg

drivers-side-quarter-stripped.jpg

pass-side-quater-stripped.jpg

Steve

[notoptoy]

Looking good Steve. Your progress is amazing, you really just continue to knock things off the list in never ending fashion!

[S Allen]

Body stripping continues. I got the engine bay, door jams, rear end and quarter panels stripped yesterday. I bought a dead man valve for the Harbor Freight blaster and it works really well. The only thing left is the inside of the tub and the trunk area.

engine-bay1.jpg

engine-bay2.jpg

engine-bay3.jpg

rear-stripped.jpg

drivers-side-quarter-stripped1.jpg

sand-blaster.jpg

Steve

[Curtis]

What media are you using?