- Before I start this update, I want to say a few words to those of you out there who affected by this week's tragedy. I consider myself extremely lucky that no one I know personally, nor any of my close friends, have lost anyone to this extreme act of cowardess. However, I know that many of you have, and for you, I am very, very sorry...
- On to the update. It's about time for another one I suppose. This one is all about the little things. There are MANY of them, and I've knocked out a few that have been lingering for a long time...
- Rear window - Well, the idiots who installed the front and rear glass on my car managed
to do both in such a way that I couldn't put the molding clips on the rivets. Joy... So,
I cut out the rear window with help from a friend, so that I could get the clips and the
tulip panel (piece of metal between the glass and trunk) on.
Thankfully the window came out without any damage to the red paint. Unfortunately, the nicely painted black metal strip at the bottom of the window wasn't so fortunate. So, I hand touched it up today, and now the rear glass can go back in. But not before I install some 6x9 speakers in the shelf! :)
- Door alignment - Both of the doors on the car were out of alignment, to the point where neither would close. I had a friend help me, and we learned the ways of door alignment on a 2nd gen Camaro! After about 30 minutes with each door, they now close perfectly, and all the gaps are as good as they are going to get. I'm very happy about this! :)
- Power Windows - Hmm... These things are going to drive me nuts! I hooked them up to a battery charger, and they creep up and down. I'm going to go ahead and wire them to the switches and hope for the best, but I'm not too optimistic...
- Trunk and spoiler - In my last entry, I said that everything was painted in red, and that the white stripes were sprayed. I found some motivation one day, so I sanded and buffed the trunk lid, tulip panel, and rear spoiler pieces! I've attached all of them to the car, so from the rear it looks most complete. And I must say, it looks awesome! :)
- Fuel Lines - One of my big hindrances in the goal of starting the motor is the fuel lines.
I'm running -6 braided stainless for the supply and return, and I have a Paxton inline fuel
filter as well. The problem has been how to mount the filter. I knew it was going to go on
the passenger's side rear frame rail, but I didn't have a good way to mount it...
This past weekend I managed to find a perfect solution! At a big car show in Charlotte, NC, I found a Hot Rod vendor who was selling a floor mount for generic steering columns. It was 2" in diameter, and had 2 tabs, one on each side, to mount to the floor. PERFECT! So, I purchased this mount and brought it home. I crawled under the car tonight and discovered that if I removed one of the tabs, the other was sufficient to hold it, and it fit exactly where I want it to. I'm quite pleased.
I would have completed the fuel lines, but I need two more AN fittings that I again don't have. I'll order those tomorrow and hopefully finish up the lines this week.
- Battery Cable - One more hindrance to starting the motor is supplying power to it. I purchased a battery relocation kit from Detroit Speed and Engineering to mount the Optima Battery in the trunk, and a set of battery cables from a place which Kyle recommended. Only problem now is routing the cable to the front of the car. I plan to drill through the trunk floor and snake the cable toward the front with the fuel lines, but I don't have a hole-saw large enough to drill for the grommet. Another purchase for the coming week...
- Radiator - I installed the Griffin Radiator this weekend.
I was wanting to somehow screw it directly to the radiator support, but I can't find an easy
way to do so without welding brackets to the side tanks, and I am not going to do that. So this
weekend I purchased a chrome upper support and the rubber supports, and the radiator is now in
place. :)
Unfortunately, the radiator hoses I purchased are the wrong size, so I have to return them and get a larger set. Hope I can find them...
For cooling, I'm using a pair of 12" electric fans which will be controlled by the SEFI8LO. It's not a gorgeous setup, and I'm not using a shroud, so we will see how well this works out.
- Heater Hoses - Another looming problem was the electronic servo that mounts in the heater hose
line for the Vintage Air heater system. The Gen II systems
are all electronic and require this valve to stop or allow the flow of hot water to the heater
core in the evaporator.
I didn't really want this to have to be in the engine compartment, but my heater hoses inside the car was already bent at sharper bends than I wanted them to be. I decided to take a chance, cut one of the lines, and spliced in the servo/valve. It looks like it is going to work out ok, but the real test will be when I put some water through it. :)
- Ignition Box - The decision has been made, finally... :) I'm going to use an Accel 300+ with the
MSD coil (who says I'm not equal opportunity! :)). The Accel box is much smaller, and I've mounted
it up under the passenger's side fender, below the original heater fan hole (that hole is sealed,
but the box is too big).
On the coil, I'm going to cut out a custom bracket to mount it to the Edelbrock Victor Jr. manifold, where the original coil holes are. That way it will be hidden behind the Holley throttle body. Should work out nicely! Only problem is the 300+ wires are about a foot too short. Figures...
- Ride Height - Oof... It's still low... Sat the car on the ground again, and the headers are just
plain low! I'm looking now into other header options. I might go with a set of 3/4 length headers,
but I can't seem to locate a set that are 1 3/4" primaries. If anyone knows of any, please let me
know!
I pulled one of the coilovers off and adjusted the spring location about 3/4". But for some reason I honestly can tell that it raised the car. I'm going to pull it off and try again, taking some measurements to make certain that the adjustment is affecting things...
- Steering Linkage - Yet another looming issue had been my steering linkage. I knew I was going to
have to make a custom setup with the Martz subframe and rack and pinion. Unfortunately, my Hooker
SuperComp headers complicated things even more! :(
So, I ordered a bunch of items from Borgeson U-Joints and figured I would make something work. I was hoping to use a coupler to extend the column shaft straight down, and then use 2 u-joints to make the bends. Well, try as I might, this just won't work... :( So, I'm going to have to use a 3 u-joint setup, necessitating a support bearing on one of the shafts. That means welding a plate to attach the bearing too. Woo hoo! More welding practice. (can you hear the sarcasm???).
- Seats - Just for the heck of it, I was going to mount my passenger's side seat tonight. I had purchased a set of bolts for this purpose about 9 months ago, and they have been patiently sitting on my workbench ever since. So, tonight, I pull out the awl, poke some holes, and start screwing the bolts on. Much to my surprise, the bolts which hold the seat frames down are only 5/16" and not the 3/8" bolts which I had purchased!!! I'm really surprised about this. So, another trip to Lowes tomorrow to buy some grade 9 5/16" bolts for my seats!
- Had enough yet? Phew! I had a busy day today! :) Some of this was accomplished in the last few weeks, but
I've been traveling as well, so time has been limited to work on the car. Upcoming in the next few
week, I plan to finish the fuel lines and battery cable, hook up my Speed Pro computer for the first
time, fill it up with fluids, cross my fingers, and turn the switch! Think I'm nervous? You better believe
it! I can't wait to hear this thing roar to life! ! !
I'm also going to order my stereo and speakers tomorrow. Planning to use a Pioneer Premiere DEH-P630 CD player/head unit, and a set of Infinity Kappa 693.3i 6x9 Speakers in the shelf. I'm contemplating a set of a/d/s 346iS Separates for the front door panels, as well as a Rockford Fosgate Punch Power 600.5 Amplifier to drive it all and give me something for the future subwoofer.
It's starting to come together, finally. There's a lot to do before that first maiden voyage, but I can ALMOST see the end coming closer... Stay tuned... :)
