I think it might need a new bearing hub!

[chopped39]

Save that car. That is different and very cool.

 

[Brad Zeidler]

Stayed home today. I decided to finish up the brakes just to get some boxes of parts out of the car in preparation for doing the floor. I got all new stuff for the back brakes incuding all of the parking brake cables and even 1 new backing plate that NAPA still had in national inventory. For $25 bucks I figured why not, Probably the last new backing plate ever so now the car will stop. It doesn't go yet but it's better to be able to stop and not go than to go and not stop, haha. Tomorrow night out comes the rusty floor so I'm finally getting my motivation back. I really want to get this on the road at some point this coming summer. The exhaust will be another challenge becausethe early X bodies 80-82 have a different floorboard and the steering rack is mounted to the firewall and not the cradle. The front exhaust originally runs down and around the front of the oil pan/under the timing cover and y'ed together shortly before the cat. Needless to say I do not have the exhaust manifolds but I looked at many of the 60 degree V6 manifolds and I think I'm going to use 2 left manifolds from a 88-92 3.1 Fbody. With the 4 speed manual I have much more room on the back side than with an automatic.

 

[Brad Zeidler]

The passenger floor piece is almost ready to be welded in. The drivers needs to be replaced from the front all the way to the rear footwell. Even the crossbrace/seat bracket rusted away. I didn't save the original seats but even the front of the left track on the drivers seat that bolts to the floor was rusted, that's how far this car was sitting in the dirt.

 

[Rivical]

Hey Brad, Glad to see you resurrecting that ole Omega! I'm sure you'll do as great a job as you did on the 2+2! It's definitely a unique low volume car, and in about the same shape as the 78 Super Coupe I've had sitting in the back corner for oh, 20yrs now... Only thing... Is the 85 Shelby just the same sort of storage shelf that my Super Coupe is?

I didn't comment before, but as far as making a new flare, it's not that hard. If the other guy won't let you pull a mold offa his while it's on the car, it's still not too bad. Make your replacement area from expanding foam and shave it to size and glue wax paper to it for a smooth finish. Then you can make a mold right on the car, which eliminate warpage that a loose flare would have. You can use plaster of paris, or 'glass. Be sure to spray PAM or some other nonstick oven gunk on the car first, except for some places where you intend it to stick and hold the whole mess of mold on the car, where you'll have to pry it off of. That will give you a rough mold that you can bondo and sand to finese the mold's finish before pulling a new whole flare from it. Then after making the new flare in 'glass from your plug, it's just trial and error fitting till you grind the thickness of the whl lip and body mating surface down till it fits. By using some wadded up resin soaked matting in the areas where you've figured out the mounting studs are(if it has em) you can drill and install your studs into the new flare when you've finished test fitting and marked the hole locations from the back with a Sharpie. Hope I did a good job explaining that, but if not PM me and we can talk on the phone to get it clear. Cuz your right, with such a limited production item, finding specific things like that is gonna be a needle in a haystack.

Oh, yeah, never seen a bearing that bad! But had a diptard ring me a Ranger last week that I had to torch the remains of the outer whl bearing offa the spindle cuz it'd welded itself solid!

 

[Brad Zeidler]

And of all the things I needed to see or come across in my search for parts........ Man, this really has the gears between my ears turning. For Sale : Fageol Supercharger and manifolds & carb

 

[chopped39]

Wow! That would be very cool. I never saw a charger like that. Imagine popping the hood and seeing that.

 

[Brad Zeidler]

Passenger floor is done. Not too bad.

 

[NJ Torque]

Hot damn........

 

[MNcarbturbo]

Looks great! I wish I had a 2 post lift in my shop.

BTW, Ill be taking the firebird for car-craft this summer so if your bringing the Dodge Id love to park next to it and show off a pair of RWD L67's. Ohh, and I finally started working on those manifolds I bought from you.

 

[charlief1]

Looks a lot better Brad. How much more is left to go?

 

[Brad Zeidler]

I've got a ways to go yet. Saturday I went back out to the yard near St. Cloud that has the 4dr 81 Omega and I took the dash and the rear bumper fillers so now I have all the rear filler panels to replace mine that were dry rotted and/or warped beyond recognition. FYI, they also have an AWD Pont. 6000 SE. It's missing the engine/tranny but the driveshaft back is all still there.

 

[Brad Zeidler]

I've decided to grab the stuff from the AWD 6000 so I'm going to do the AWD swap. Of course I'm still going to want to do it with the manual transmission so I have some research and more questions ahead of me.

 

[Brad Zeidler]

Almost ready to put in the drivers floor

 

[Brad Zeidler]

Aha! GM did build a test mule with the AWD and a manual tranny, but htey put it in the twin turbo Beretta. http://www.v6z24.com/jbodyforum/beretta-twin-turbo-all-wheel-drive-t116680.html Scroll down and you'll see the Hot Rod article showing the underside. There's also a link with some pics but he never put it up on a lift to get some nice shots.