I have the fenders all fiberglassed and the quarters have been body filled. The trim is off and paint stripped. I am happy with the trunk and the rims were sandblasted and painted Yorktown Blue for the dog dish caps.
I have the seats all cleaned and treated and every piece of chrome and stainless steel has been polished with billet for a beautiful shiie. Once the body work is completed I will install the new carpet and headliner. The AM radio is tuned and ready for cruisin. I have all the wiring and vacumn lines hooked up. The new 4 core Desert Cooler radiator is in and filled. I hope to have the engine primed and running the week of July 7.
Well the engine was fired up and the cam burned in on July 13, 2003. What a sweet sound. The exhaust is just the sound that I wanted, not to loud but one that will get the attention when stepping on the accelerator. There were a few unexpected things that prevented the process from going smoothly. The starter did not work and needed to be replaced and the original clutch on the fan did not work properly. But other than that it went well.
On July 14 I bolted the flywheel up to the torque converter and pumped up the transmission. Once this was done I drove it up and down the driveway. This was the first time that I had ever been able to feel the car roll under its own power. The curiosity of driving got to be too much one night, so Andy and I took it up the street for a drive. The look on Andy's face when the tires broke loose when romped on it was priceless.
I've gotten a rear bumper from the Bumper Boyz and have the back up lights cleaned. polished,working, and installed. I also mounted and installed the tires on the rims. I am running BF Goodrich 205/75R/14's on the car.
The car is in the body shop and is coming along nicely. It is being sprayed with a urethane primer and the final block sanding will be done over that.
September 4 the dash, door tops and interior was sprayed with admiral blue. Looks really good. The body work is done and the car will get its base coat on Monday September 8.
September 12 the car has been painted and is back home. It looks awesome! On Sunday September14th I began to put the chrome back on the car and installing the weather strip. I touched up the frame where there was any over spray. . I started with the rear of the car by pulling off the wheels to paint the wheel wells black. Then I installed the taillights, the GTO emblems, and the trunk weather strip. I then put on the wheel well moldings and rocker panel trim. The grill was put back on as well as the front bumper and hood scoops. The door weather strip has been installed and the most important piece of trim, the 6.5 liter badges.
The weather strip is a bit of a pain, because the window felts didn't match up 100% to the existing screw holes and when the window are rolled up all the way the felts would get caught on the window base and flex up. I ended up by drilling more holes and using flat head screws to secure the felts to the door better.
Once I got all the trim on, I then started the head liner. The head liner wasn't as hard as everyone likes to make it out to be. I still had the old liner with the rods still in it, so it was just a matter of taking one rod out of the old liner and placing it in the same holder on the new . I cut the material that the rods thread into till the liner didn't bunch up when pulled tight. I used 3M heavy duty adhesive on the head liner. I started from the back of the car and worked forward. I think that it took less than two hours to attached the head liner.
Once this was done I started to install the carpet. A good razor knife is a must. I then put in the sail panels, package tray and door panels. When I finished getting the trim on and the interior installed, I took the car it to get the front end aligned. Of all mornings for the carb to act up, it had to be the day of the appointment. I had the carb rebuilt, but it just never seemed to have a good low rpm idle. I even tried a different AFB on the car and this too had problems with the low rpm idle. Not sure if it was the bigger exhaust, bigger cam, or a combination of both, so I bought a new Edelbrock 600cfm with an electric choke. Man what a difference in every aspect. The car idles great and most importantly, it runs faster. It really puts you in the back of the seat when you open it up, even in 3rd gear it pulls hard.
I am so happy, I only wished that I had more time to drive and show the car. Oh well it has been a great time these past 2 years and I have finally completed it. There are still things that I want to do to it, but the main point was to get it road worthy this year and I did it!
