G-body 25.3 SFI rebuild

[10secBu]

It's been a while, so I guess it's time for a little update. Still waiting for the car to be painted. Some of the detail work of the bumpers, trim etc has taken longer than expected. I'm told the car is in the booth, should be taped up tomorrow and sprayed in Tuesday.

On my end, I got off my butt this weekend and started cleaning up the engine & transmission. They were both in the car during alot of the fabrication and came home filthy dirty covered in grinding dust & metal grit. The transmission wound up having rusty water stains on it from the one time the car sat outside on my open trailer in the rain.

Anyway, both are pretty much cleaned up, doing some detail stuff on the front of the engine cleaning the accessories, etc.

 

[10secBu]

Stopped by the body shop and the car is now wearing a shiny new coat of paint. Hope to be able to bring the car home next Wednesday.

Not the best pics being from my phone, but should hold you guys till I get it home and begin cleaning it up and assembly.

 

[Squid4life]

Beautiful color, and looks a mile deep. They did very nice work. That motor looks pretty killer too.

 

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Two quick shots of the car sitting out in the sun which I haven't even seen in person yet.

 

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Thanks, anxious to get going on assembly here sometime next week when it comes home.

 

[10secBu]

Well, it's finally home.

Still don't have the hood, decklid & bumpers, but that won't stop me from getting some assembly done.

 

[futten]

just a question why dident you weld the hole left after the heater box shut or the round holes for the rubber that holde the wires for the door electronics? cool build though looking forward to seeing more pics

 

[10secBu]

just a question why dident you weld the hole left after the heater box shut or the round holes for the rubber that holde the wires for the door electronics? cool build though looking forward to seeing more pics

The holes in the door posts didn't bother me seeing the plastic plugs. I intentionally left the firewall plate bolt-in so I could access the back side of the dash wiring if needed. Also, when welding a sheetmetal panel that large, it usually warps to some degree which looks like crap IMO. The firewall is not painted, but powder coated like the rest of the chassis. To smooth any warpage, body filler would have had to been used and then the firewall painted. I wanted everything up front left in powder coat like it is.

I did get rid of the stock ugly firewall bolts and converted them to #10-32 stainless button head screws.

 

[motorhead]

Sounds like a case of form follows function to me... that and if you make it too nice you won't want to touch it.

 

[10secBu]

Got some work accomplished last evening and this afternoon.

That's the good news, but I do have some rather disturbing news.

Last evening I found the doors in the way so I lifted them off for easier access. I hung most of the parts in the basement, but needed help to hang the doors, so I backed my truck out of it's bay and layed the doors on a packing blanket. This morning I headed out to gather some supplies and when I got home, not thinking of course, opened the door, drove in with the truck and proceeded to drive over the drivers side door.

Our driveway is uphill and with as high as the truck sits, you really can't see anything on the floor as you pull in. Stupid mistake on my part, can't believe I did that.

Somebody kick me.

Called my body guy, he said bring it by Monday and he'll see what can be done with repairs. It looks nasty in spots, but it still fits the car perfectly, so I think it's salvageable. Fingers crossed.

 

[10secBu]

Door damage pics.

Top of door outside.

Top of door inside.

Bottom of door outside.

Bottom of door inside.

 

[futten]

oh man that sucks with the damage

 

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[futten]

cant be easy to crawl over and rivet all that without denting one of the sheets

 

[10secBu]

cant be easy to crawl over and rivet all that without denting one of the sheets

I either reached through the door openings, or the quarter window openings. During fabrication, all the holes were drilled/punched to 1/8", but 1/8" rivets take a slightly larger hole (#30 drill), so every hole needed reaming to install the rivets. Time consuming no doubt.

 

[motorhead]

We all do bonehead things... it makes life interesting.

Car looks great!

 

[oldsracer]

Quick question, are you running manual brakes or is it electric. Im only asking because im not sure if manual brakes can stop a monster like that:biggrin:

 

[Squid4life]

This thing gets better and better every update. Really loving the carbon fiber looking "anti scuff" plates or whatever you want to call them on the tubes. This is an amazing car!

 

[10secBu]

We all do bonehead things... it makes life interesting.

Car looks great!

thanks, still licking my wounds over that deal, but gotta let it go, fix the damage and move on.

 

[10secBu]

Quick question, are you running manual brakes or is it electric. Im only asking because im not sure if manual brakes can stop a monster like that:biggrin:

Have run this brake setup for a couple years now. Manual master cylinder, Strange Engineering Pro Race 4 wheel discs. Stops great, but I use the chute on all tracks except MIR (long shutdown) to keep from having to hit the brakes too hard.