Non Mopar business

A little off-topic in between.

Picked up an old Corvette I bought with a couple of friends. We managed to cook the fluids on the first ride. Some genius has installed an unmarked switch for the fan...ok unless the temperature guage can be switched off on the electronic eighties dash...so you would have to turn on the fan, but you can't see if the engine is getting hot...go figure!

The 'Vette is an '87 and it's fairly well worn, but has some sweet parts in it. The stock 350 has been stroked to 383 cubic inches and the car has a good reputation running the local quarter miles...Plans are to paint it navy-blue, sort of faded, to give it a vintage style WWII fighter plane look.

On go the graphics

Since it's january, the 'Cuda project is going into its second year! After watching a couple of episodes of overhaulin it's hard to believe this is taking so long but anyway...

Since the metalwork on the rear is finished, I've started with the graphics :-)

The panel in front of the door on the passenger side had to be built from scratch since the original looked like it had been hit by shotgunfire. I'm still amazed at how Chris does things, even the original circle stamping has been grafted on to the piece, I must admit I have no clue how that works. The new panel is even stronger than the original, it will take up some of the forces the additional bracing for the front suspension will pass on to this part of the chassis.

The passenger side lower windshield corner is also finished, it really looked rugged and it's a complicated piece as several panels come together here. One patchup piece I bought is incorporated here, the rest is built from scratch - very important stuff here, since the stiffness of the unibody very much depends on this area.

A small patch was also welded into the passenger side rear floorboard, the original piece looked good from under the car but after sandblasting quite a few very small holes became visible.

Two quarters make a half

Two quarters make a half and since both quarters are on the 'Cuda, half of the metalwork is done! According to Chris, who is donig all the work, the hard part is over with, all the rest is smooth sailing. There are a few patches to do on the firewall, the floors and around the windshield but nothing is nearly as complicated as the rear of the car, which was practically craftes all new. For a perfect fit of the rear bumper and all the seam surrounding it, the quarters and the valance panel had to be modified extensively, and it really shows.

I've seen many pictures of restored 'Cudas ans very seldomly do the seams under the bumper measure up so well!

The welds of the new body panels have been sanded down, the rest of the holes will be filled with lead before the epoxy primer is applied.

I can already imagine some fat rubber in those rear wheelwells :-)

Stuff before overhaulin'

Took some more stuff to the galvanic shop. Hoodhinges, the rings that go behind the headlights and the seatrails. I was a little worried about latter, as I could not take them apart completely and they are quite rusty as you can see. The guy at the shop said he thinks they can handle the problem and they should turn out pretty nice.

By the seat of my pants

Opend another front on the project, sit back, relax and enjoy the show...

I started to prepare the seats today. As you can see the seatcovers are not only shot beyond repair, there is also a difference in color between the front buckets and the rear bench. Both will be recovered in bright red vinyl from legendary interiors. To remove the old covers I had to cut about a zillion of those tough little wire loops that the covers are attached to the seat frames with. The seatback of the drivers seat also held a surprise: Another build sheet of the 'Cuda was revealed as I took it apart...

Rear quarterpanel

The passengerside rear quarter is on the car. It took some time because before the the sheetmetal could be welded on, the window mechanism was revitalized and tested for proper fit - that's a lot easyier with no sidewall on.

Some of the window crank pieces had to be remade from scratch as there are no new parts available, the window goes up and down cleanly, with a lot less friction than before.
The top pic shows the way the rear will look with the rear valance attached, cool car!

All the area behind the rear quarter has been treated with epoxy primer to prevent future corrosion.

The rear window crank turned out really nice...

New engine call out

Here is something that will really put the icing on the cake of the new engine bay. The new pie tin. It sits on top of the air filter and reads the correcht " SUPER COMMANDO" engine call out sign for the high performance 383 engine in a 1970 Plymouth.

It is secured by the wing nut on the air cleaner and is, inspite of being reproduction, a perfect fit.

As you can see the old pie tin is of a different type, reading "383 MAGNUM". According to my research, this engine call out was used on Dodge vehicles and not on Plymouth in 1970. I have no idea why it was on the 'Cuda, since the rest of the engine bay did not look as if anybody had changed any parts on it.