- The obvious update to this diary entry is the hood! Yes, it's finally on the car, but definitely not without its struggles. Turns out that I didn't have the fenders and valence/header panels on square. Oh joy... So, I spent all last Friday loosening the entire set of front end bolts to shift the fenders over and make the hood square. That finally worked though, and the hood would lower into place with a mostly even gap around the sides!
- I'm not quite done with the hood yet though. I've decided to get a new set of hinges and springs (which are supposedly still available new from GM). Doing so will allow the hood to go up and down a lot easier than it currently does. Right now, it's really tight. And it doesn't quite want to sit all the way down on the driver's side. I'll fix that though! :)
- Here are some more pics:
- I have done quite a bit of other little work in the last few weeks as well. First, I discovered that once the hood was one, the air cleaner did NOT fit. Joy... So, I had to locate a drop base (had one, thankfully! :). But, it hit the Lokar throttle cable linkage. But, it turns out that Holley makes a 3/4" air cleaner spacer, and it was PERFECT for raising up the drop base! :) Problem solved... I have about 1" of clearance to the hood at the closest point, so I should be fine.
- Next thing you will notice if you look closely is the valve covers are different. I replaced the push in breathers with a set of screw-on breathers with baffled tubes. This will make oil changes a little easier, and I moved both breathers to the rear of the covers to help hide them a little. I'm very happy with how that turned out!
- There is one more thing that is different on the motor now from previous status pictures. Think you can figure out what it is?! :)
- Here are the motor shots:
- I also discovered that the Martz chassis Wilwood calipers came with a racing compound that is dusting like crazy! That's great for the track, but not for the street. So, I ordered a set of street pads for the Wilwood calipers. I've only taken one short drive so far, but they seem to dust less and not squeel, which is nice. :)
- I've done a bit of work on the interior also. I added the power window switches which I purchased a while back. Unfortunately, the first time I installed them, the relays weren't getting enough current to really run the windows up. So, I ran a new wire from the battery to the relays. Problem solved! :)
- Also on the interior I finally wired up my Vintage Air evaporator wiring. Well, all but one wire anyway (another one that needs to go to the battery, UGH!). Hooked everything up, flipped the switch, and I have air moving! :) I tested out all the mode positions, and each vent gets air when it is supposed to. I've made that job sound WAY too easy though... Getting the capillary tube into the top of the evaporator when you can't see what you are doing is a REAL pain in the butt. I highly suggest you install that piece before you do the final install of the evaporator. Or at least don't have the dash pad in the way!!!!
- Here's a pic of the Control Panel in place in the car. Pretty cool, eh? (thanx Dad!!)
- Oh yeah, I managed to finally get the FAST ECU mounted/hidden. I'm pretty happy with how that has turned out as well! :) The interior is cleaning up nicely.
- I'm going to finish the interior wiring this week, including hopefully hooking up the inside light. I'll install the seatbelts (oh yeah, I purchased a cool set of 5-point harnesses from G-Force) as well. That will just about wrap up the work I'll do on the inside. I'm planning to have the headliner installed by someone else. I'm also going to look into a 4 or 6-point roll bar in the near future as well. Once I get all this done, the car is going on a little road trip to repaint the driver's side door, and possibly re-clear the hood. We'll see...
- The last thing for this update is insurance, but it's definitely not a minor point. I've spent the last 2 weeks trying to establish insurance on this car. What a MAJOR pain this is becoming! It would be easier if I weren't attempting to assure a fairly high value for the car (I have receipts for even more than I'm trying to insure it for though!). I've spoke to about 6 companies so far. One completely rejected me, one is stringing me along for more and more information, and the other 4 are in various states of requesting information. The one thing that is apparant is I'm going to have to have an appraisal done. Oh joy... I have a feeling that I'm going to end up disappointed in the appraised value. We'll see how that all turns out. You know I'll keep you posted! :)
