JohnnyO

8 Track - Now that's just funny.

Larry, Thanks for the tip. I might give it a shot. One of the 2 runs I noticed are under where the Master Cylinder goes so it won't be noticable when the car is assembled but I want it perfect. It is single stage paint that has been curing for about 10 days now. Might still be soft. I am pretty sure that the run is in the top coat not the surfacer. As stated above, I do have enough SS to repaint the entire engine bay if needed. Thanks again. John

I have your older sister here, #1366. She wears 920 Gold and she's getting a facelift now but should be ready by summer. Welcome to the board, pictures please. John

Merry Christmas all. Take care, John

I never bought it. I figured no replies on it there must be no interest. John

Thanks Ron, That is exactly the what I needed to know. I was pretty sure that it could be done just wasnt sure how. Appreciate the help. Merry Christmas... John

I had hosting with godaddy for my site and let the hosting lapse intentionally. If he renewed his domain name with them chances are good that his email will still work. My email still works and I didnt renew my hosting package.

Just brought the shell back home after getting the body work done and engine bay sprayed in single stage and noticed a couple of small runs. I won't be bringing the car back to get topcoated until March and wanted to address the runs before I drop the motor back in. Can I just sand these runs down and recoat with single stage or is there more to it? What grit should I use? Should they be wet sanded then dried with a heat gun? If I repaint it is there a posibility of it wrinkling on me? I do have enough paint to spray the entire engine bay a few times over. Any pro's out there that can offer some advice? TIA, John

Yes, that is exactly what I found. I also confirmed this with Carl and Terry. #1366 had black between the steel and paint in the wheel wells, but not the floor boards. John

My hardest part? Series 1 Lower drivers side door hinge. Ugh! Mine has a busted spring retaining mechanism. I am considering purchasing a complete 5/70 series 1 just to get the hinge. Anyone need parts?

I was quoted $350.00 each (front and back) complete in show chrome with some ding removal. This was from a reputable shop in St. Paul MN. I do not know what process they used but was referred by my father in law who had his 63 Chevy Impala rechromed by this shop. He wins best in class at nearly every show he attends and swears it's because of the chrome job. I will be ready (financially) for chrome in April. I will let you know how it turns out. Till then, it's paint and bushing work.

It looks like he didn't renew his hosting package. Maybe someone has an email address or phone number they could post here.

I recently stripped my car to bare metal. What I found under the floor pans and in the wheel wells was that it had a coat of thin black undercoating but it looked more like black paint. On top of that was zinc oxide primer then light grey surfacer then the finish coat of 920 applied kind of thin but enough to hold up for 39 years. I asked this question a while back in a paint thread I started and I think I received a reply confirming what I had found and that it was typical. Hope that helps.

Did you purchase "lowering" springs and struts?

Yeah, I thought that or maybe he was eating rice in the car and hit a speed bumpLOL

I bet he bought the Z with the second one. 3 1/2 # @ wholesale prices of $800/# = $2800 give or take. About going rate for a running project. Not that I would know.....

I found change, a single eyeglass lens, and lots of dried up rice. Even found some under the console and behind the dash. I thought the rice find was odd.

Gnosez, When I checked out your site I guess I didnt see the full rail. Damn, I feel like an idiot now. I really wanted to replace the entire rail while he was under there. John

Steve, they look great. I see why you were concerned with Charlies not being long enough. I don't think his were intended to go that far up but you made them work very nicely. Wish I had those skills. Did you replace those rails and pans after the top side was completed? John

I think you misunderstood something in the posts. Charlie's rails were more than long enough. I am pretty sure there is at least 6 extra inches on them so you can cut to fit. They do not include the very front part of the rail that is shaped like a triangle under your brake booster. This is not attached to the floor pan it is attached to the firewall and front frame rails. Your rails look good. John

The VIN # is HLS30-000067? Please confirm.

Update: So the drama continued until I said the hell with it and went with PPG Shop Line mixed in the off the shelf 23576 code. I had a sample of this and was spraying it on primed sheet metal. Me, being an inexperienced painter to say the least, had only put 3 - 4 light coats on. I wasn't happy with the color. My paint guy painted my valance corners for me so I could see the color and it looks great! I asked him why it came out so much better and he told me it took 10 light coats to get the full color! 10! I had no idea you could even apply that much paint. He said even though my coverage looked even it wasn't deep enough. I guess that's why he makes the big bucks. Anyway, it matches very close to the 40 year old samples I peeled from under the rear strut tower vinyl and the parts I have look great in the sunlight as well as the garage. He is jamming the body and painting the engine bay now and I will pick it up next week to reassemble the body and install the engine, fuel and brake lines and get some of the smaller under body items back in. I should be able to get the car back to him by the end of February for the topcoat. the picture is from yesterday. John

Makes total sense. I had my welder drill the spot welds out then he cut the old supports off just in behind the firewall. At this point he wanted to cut the new supports to to a point so he could "slip it inside" the front part (tension rod boxes). Then he would weld them in and grind them down. I said no. I had him measure, cut and butt weld them in place. Not perfect but it looks pretty nice. If I decide to put Line-X on it you wouldn't know it ever had work done. The floor pans themselves did take some effort to get back to flat and they are not perfect. A little wavy is the best way to describe it. He hammered and dollied it but with the stamped creases in the floor pans it was pretty hard to get perfect. I suppose I could have replaced the pans for a few hundred more at this point but I liked the idea of having the original rust free pans in there. My guy is finishing the jamming on the car this week and I will hopefully be taking it home before christmas for reassembly. I will jack it up and get some pictures when I get it home. I know this is getting to you a little late. For some reason I am not recieving my subscribed email alerts. Must look into that now. John

When I purchased the car last September it had been sitting since 1989. In the reciepts I received with the car (every reciept since new) I found the invoice for the exhaust system from F.A.R performance and it was dated 1986. Being that it was a California car I would imagine that the smog rail was moved over to the new header at that time. With most cars since 1975 having Catalytic Converters installed I would imagine that leaded fuel in California was not available by the time this header was installed but the smog rail was probably original and the white buildup was probably from the early 70's. The odometer difference between the 86 invoices and the last oil change in 89 was only 8000 miles. John

Manny, It looks like esprist has suggested just cutting them flush with the manifold. In my case they were bolted into the header just as they would with an exhaust manifold and I left them. I have the original manifold and on the next head gasket blowout I plan on replacing my E88 head with one of my E31 heads and the original manifold to get it all back to stock. I am not exactly sure of the purpose but I am pretty sure it had something to do with getting the leftover "smog" deep enough into the cylinders to effectively burn it. With that in mind, you probably wouldn't hurt anything by cutting them down and even welding them shut. This would give you a stock look with less of an impact from the smog gear. Maybe someone a little more familiar can chime in on the functionality of them. BTW, on the recommendation of posters to this thread I did clean them up. I blasted them while I was blasting the rest of the header. And yes, I was wearing a respirator.