CAMARO UPDATE!

Today's work included mocking up the wiper motor and arms, 

as well as the beginnings of the Vintage Air AC system. 

Both required removal of the cowl panel.

The wiper motor takes up a fair amount of real estate on the firewall, but luckily its just to the side of the engine, luckily not interfering with the valve covers or coil.

Odd things people do to get the job done.  Here an engine kill switch was glued in....

Masking tape holding the speed wiring harness together -

And then, upon removing the steering wheel...



                                                                 I found washers taped to the steering wheel button...

Hopefully it'll all go back together - and work - by spring!

Everything gets upgraded - including the 46 year old center dash speaker!

Under the dash, I used the included template to drill holes for the AC unit

 

                                                Next up - quarter and door windows!

Camaro Update!

Worked hard on the Camaro today...first getting more parts organized and pre-assembled

Then pre-assembling the various parts, in this case the wiper system. 

Original Equipment was all removed when someone "shaved" the firewall...

At least now the owner will be able to see if caught in the rain!

Spent quite a bit of time on the rear end re-assembly as well - 

Belwo I'm cleaning and re-installing all the parts that came off for paint:

Here I'm using #00 steel wool  to shine up the chrome

The lenses all got progressively sanded with 600, 1500 and 2000 grit, using Fine Cut polish

 This one was damaged at one time, but most of it came out using the above process. About half way done here -

If I say so myself, this is how a quarter panel edge should look after being welded to the end panel! Too often this seam disappears under weld, or worse - filler - during the repair

 Same with the quarter to filler panel - 

Tell me that's not FIRST-PLACE SHOW-QUALITY work!!

On another note, I downloaded this Pa from Trmec, which calculated the final angle of the drive shaft - ensuring its in the safe zone taking into account the engine/trans and the rear pinion angles.

You lay it across machined surfaced of the transmission and rear end, as well as along the drive shaft - 

And it tells you if something needs to be moved, so the U-joints aren't over-stressed, often showing as a vibration while driving.

Seized engines and A/C

When you work on cars because you love them, you end up doing weird things with your weekends. For example, I went out to a farm yard last weekend and picked up 2 seized flathead engines, over 60 years old, that were pulled from some old farm implements - paying over $300 for them, including lunch and gas. 

Since that time, I've been playing nursemaid to them, spraying  them down withWD40, pouring my special mixture of ATF and KLEEN-FLO  in each cylinder - hoping and praying that deamon of rust hasn't welded the rings to the cylinder walls!

After that, I got a start on the AC system for the Camaro. Like any good automotive engineer, I read through the instructions, then followed them precisely, wanting to be sure everything was done properly. 

 Of course we all know where that can lead.....exactly....

I ended up having to take it apart again  in order to get it mounted! 

Once I undid the fist 30 minutes ( no charge ;)), the condenser was installed

Followed by the dryer and assorted bracketry

I'm sure glad I learned one thing as an older adult : winters spent

working in the shop, building show cars sure beats the HELL 

out of sliding downhill bouncing off the snow on my ass!!

Dynamat instalation Don't forget to click the advertisers links!

Fairly straight forward - fit, spray both sides, glue, tape the edges.....just takes a lot of time and is hard on the knees!

                      Sure looks like it'll do its job!

Camaro - trunk and floor prep

The paint turned out absolutely georgeous!  color-sanding leaves quite the mess, so I spent an hour cleaning buffing compound (and residual clear) out of every nook and cranny!

After wipeing with water, I used a Wax and Grase remover to clean it for paint, also removing some errant tags from the new sheetmetal -

 
After cleaning that stuff off, I prepped the trunk area in order to spray trunk-paint on the floor, wheel wells and inner quarters.

This is what it loked like before - 

Mid-way....

And after a few coats. Of course it'll all be covered with Dynamat and carpet....

The main compartment was treated to the same cleaning, then the Dynamat was laid out in order to check sizing....

Check the piece for behind the kick panel area - it's about 3" too long and 1" too wide...so trimming is required.