I like Lee in the way they approach building these boxes. They are all new, and de...

I also had to split the crossmember in two so that I could drop the crossmember without lifting the trans up much. I did not want to create a real tall tunnel, so this seemed to be the best bet.

The tunnel needed a section to the left of the shifter relieved in the metal to allo...

After cutting out the template, I then positioned it very carefully on the da...

I have done a few of these, and the process is as follows. First determine the position of the seat belts. It helps to have the seats installed, and a friend to hold the belt at various heights to determine the best location for the belt on the b pillar.

I am 6' 2", and not everybody will want their belt as high as I do. But, I absolutlely hate it when I wear a seat belt and it cuts into my neck. By taking the time now to correctly position the top mounting point for the shoulder belt, you will reduce the...

First off, as I disassemble this cluster, I will be making sure that I now how each screw goes in. There are three or four speciality screws here and it is important to remember where they go.

During disassembly I noticed that the ignition switch, light switch, wiper switch, and cigarette lighter all have a metal bracket around them for grounding the circuits. It does make sense since the cluster housing is plastic and they will not ground to the plasti...

After installing the drivers seat and a dummy steering wheel, I put the column at what feels like a comfortable position for me. Since I am 6' 2" tall, I put it as close to the dash as it would go and still look correct. With the seat in its normal driving position and the column tilted in my favorite spot, it feels exactly right.

Then I marked the ...

I sent the frame to be blasted. Got it back and sat it on jack stands to do some repair. There were two body mount holes that had been enlarged from rust. So, I cut those areas out, and fabricated new 1/8" (11 gauge) steel patches to replace the damaged areas. The tricky part was to make sure that I had the holes in the correct place. Time will tell.

...

So, while we are using a hardtop quarter panel, I will cut the quarter lengthwise just above the outwardmost body line in the quarter. This will keep the quarter factory fresh. Follow along as we dig into this Chevelle and burn some metal.

Prior to removing the old quarter panel, I spent about three hours getting the door alignment just the way I wanted it. I had a pretty consistant 3/16" gap all the way along the door/quarter e...

We started by taking off the rear end components. I took the rear out as an assembly, then took off the control arms afterwards. Much simpler. I just roller the rear end out from under the car, still on it's wheels and tires.

The I cut all of the old brake and fuel lines off. Since we...

On one of the body mounts behind the RH rear tire, the cage itself had rusted beyond repair. Although the mount itself is fine, the cage will be rebuilt. I made it out of some left over metal from another project. I measured the cage on another frame mount, and used those specifications to fabricate a new one.

The two mounts that attach just unde...

You will notice that I checked with dimensions along the top opening to assure that when I go to put the glass back in the car, that everything will fit properly. This is critical to the operation of the glass.

I started off by grinding off the edge of the door skin, then removing the old skin. Then I used a spot cutter t...

So, we are cutting out the bad spots and fabricating panels to replace them. You can see the pics of what we are doing. ...

First off, I created a carboard template to use to create the patch panel. I utilized the shape of the rear panel to create a matching shape in the patch panel. I found that a part of my jack stand worked well to provide the correct radius to match the factory radius of the panel.

After creating the patch, I then sanded the paint off the panel in the area where I was working. Then I use dykem to color the area where I wanted to cut out for the panel. Using the patch panel as a guide, I used a...

First I need to cut out pieces of metal in the door to prepare for new metal to be welded in. I don't like to fabricate oddball shapes, so I square the holes off to make it easier. Once a patch is made, then the corresponding amount of metal is removed from the door.

Then it...

Notice that we utilized coleco clips to hold the panel in place for welding. I could not get along without these items. They were adapted from airplane building tools for use on auto bodies. Great tool.

...

The beginning of this job has us drilling out numerous spot welds from the gas tank brace, and along the back and the trunk d...

This is going to be tedious work to get it done correctly, but much better than having to try to repair the dented trunk lid that came with the car. I will show how we get the script correctly located so as to use the original letters.

Prior to welding up the holes for the letters, I taped some paper over the area, then "traced" the hole pattern for future use. I may end up trying to place the letters on the back panel of ...

I am going to use Aircraft Stripper to chemically strip the paint off. Got the outside of the lid done today. Tomorrow, I will get to the underside. It is kind of hard to make sure that you don't get stripper under the inner braces on a trunk lid, so I will probably just use 80 grit and sand it clean. During the sanding process, I will also sand the outside to get a ...

Remove the screw at top of vent window. pic 1.
Remove nut from bottom of vent window (adjusts the tension on the vent window). Pic. 2.
Watch as you take apart the bottom spring, etc. There is a certain order to the gaskets. The fiber gaskets are designed to be at the middle of the pack. It is to provide a smooth surface in which the window will pivot. See pics 15 & 16 for correct order.
Drill out four rivets: (pic 5 & 6) Two at the pivot point for the vent window on the top of ...

2-18-04 We will weld these inner fender holes up and finish them and make it ready for primer. There were also holes in the radiator support that our customer wanted filled. There are some after pictures of the inner fenders and the rad support to show our progress.

2-19-04 Today we filled a hole that somebody had "punched" in the firewall. It looks like they took a...

So, we are going to convert one.....Here's how I did it:

Steps:

1. Remove Shift Lever by driving pin out.
2. Remove turn signal lever by removing screw.
3. Remove three turn signal switch screws.
4. Remove wiring cover on shaft of column by removing specialty push in fastener.
5. Remove “bell” from steering column shaft.
6. Pull wiring through top part...

I took the distributor apart by taking the cover off the gear section where the fuel pump and tack drive resides. Drive the pin out holding the gear. Then drove the pin out holding the oil pump gear. Then took off points, condensor, retard springs, and then pulled the shaft out of the distributor.

When taking the distributor apart, make sure to watch the shims under the drive gear so ...

That is our goal on this car. We are replacing the pans and doing the body work to the sheet metal on the bottom of the car so that it will apprear as though this solid floor came from the factory. It will require hours of fitting the panels to correctly fit them with a "butt joint".

By using a butt joint, we will have a very fine seam that can be worked and hidden. Plus by ...

I first started by removing the hood, fenders, inner fenders and one door. Believe me when I tell you that this car fought shedding it's clothes! Many fasteners had to be cut off. No big deal since I always use new fasteners anyway, but it sure does slow down the beginning of this job. Hopefully, that will change soon.

This car was a virgin. It has been untouched since leaving the factory! Still ha...

Taking the pump apart, it is important to notice the "clocking" of the fuel pump outlets. We marked ours with a magic marker to indicate the inlet & outlet points.

Dissassembly was pretty straightfarward: Take out the screws holding the pump together. Then remove the diaphram, punched out the two one-way valves, then cleaned everthing to spotless conditions.

The challenging part of the disassembly was taking the fuel pump push rod arm out of the pump. Once I took the pin out that hold the arm in pl...

Let's see if we can't fix that potential problem. The pictures will show the restoration going on in our shop now. Today, we took the unit apart, bead blasted the outer case, and painted the case with a "hammertone" paint. This paint leaves a textured finish that was used in many cars over the years. We purchased our paint through Eastwood. Their website is http://www.eastwoodco.com/

If your partic...

We were short two of the cables, and had to go searching for them. They are available reproduction, but we were lucky enough to find a complete set in excellent condition. I bead blasted them to clean them, then blew out all the glass beads.

Then the cable was lubricated with oil and worked b...

We installed the panel, cut a small "X" where the holes are located, then drilled a small hole through the door panel for the arm rest screws.

After that project, everything lined up perfect. We had to go chase down some arm rest screws (#14 X 1 1/2 long and a #8 X 2/4" long) prior to i...

Check out the pictures closely. You will notice that we installed Dynamat inside the door for sound properties. I also placed dymat and dynaliner under the cowl areas, the inner quarters, and the underside of the dash/cowl area. In essense, the complete interior. NOTE: It is extremely important to have all surfaces p...

The 60's cars had the popular interior vents that had a mechanical pull cable to open and close them. When new, they worked pretty well. In the hot summer days, you could open the vent to blow cool outside air up your skirt.

But, give those vents a few years and they start...

While I would like to say that is the reason we are rebuilding this Covette master cylinder, it is not. Until such time as I can find the correct master cylinder for the 60 fuel car we are restoring, we still need brakes in the meanwhile. Rather than spend $60 on a reman, we decided to just redo ours.

Once you see how simple it is, you may decide to do your own...

---Door weatherstrips
---Hood bumpers
---Door bumpers
---Glove box bumpers
---Door locks with rubber gaskets
---Trunk lock with rubber gasket
---Door handles were previously installed
---Accelerator pedal
---Clutch and Brake pedal pads
---Parking brake pad

No real secret to doing this stuff. We use "gorilla snot" adhesive made by 3M, which is available in the original yellow, and is also available in black. Black is easier to use because any that oozes out tends to blend into the gasket appearance...

After cutting the corrrect pieces from the donor frame, we are now ready to begin cutting, grinding and cleaning until we have good usable metal upon which to weld our donor pieces. The RH side was not rusted into the frame rail. Just the outermost layer was rusty. The outer layer was a thin (20 ga.) piece tack wel...

After stripping the rear end, I put three heavy coats of urethane high build primer on the axle tubes. After block sanding the tubes, I put one more heavy coat of primer, blocked it again, then was ready to paint. I mixed up some single stage black with 33% flattener in it to replicate the factory chassis bl...

The nut is housed in a "cage" that allows some adjustment to get the bolt in, but still retains the nut so that you can tighten it. The nut is a 7/16 square shape to allow it to catch the corners so you can tighten it.

If the rust is so bad, it can even damage the cage. I had one of those where I had to fab...

The first item of business was to get rid of the rust so we could see what we really had to do. Media blasting took care of most of this. Once we were able to finally see metal again, it was evident that there were many problems with these fenders.

Both of the back ends of the fenders had been bent upward at some point. Somebody just bent them back down and kept driving. The fronts where ...

The fins were worked to get the straightened first. This was accomplished with a number of tools. I have an old set of chisels that I have rounded the ends to help in repair of items like this. I also use these same tools in straightening stainless and aluminum trim. Very handy. It took a long time figuring out how to straig...

First off, all aluminum trim is clear anodized over polished aluminum. To fix dents, then polish, you must get the anodizing off. Just go to the store and get some oven cleaner. Pick out your favorite brand. The stinkier, the better it will work.

I put on a very heavy coat and let it sit for around 25 minutes. Then I coat it again, then immediately use some scotchbrite pads to take off the coating. Once it is a dull grey you are r...

This is a very minor job, but is often overlooked when doing a restoration. After being installing inside the transmission for many years, this o-ring seal tends to flatten out on the outer diameter of the seal. When it does this, it loses it elasticity, which can delevop into a seeping of trans fluid.

We had a customer have an inspector look at a car for a potential purchase. This car had a frame off restoration, but...

Having figured that out, we ordered the correct switch. Prior to assembly, we installed a new lower bearing. These are discontinued now, an...

Install Subframe-had to slightly enlarge one hole in body to allow bolt to go through.
Enlarged one hole in mount for sway bar.....drilled slightly off.
Installed power steering rack. Bushings go in from rear on PS; then spacer; washer on bolt before it goes into the rack.
Installed upper control arm. T bolt goes in from underside of arm.
Serrated part of cross shaft goes toward frame.
Installed Lower control arms. Washers go on outside of arm.
Installed sway bar per instructions using heim joints.
More to come a...

There is one large hole where the case mounts, two smaller holes where the heater lines ran through the firewall, and another larger hole where the fan was located. In addition, there were about six mounting holes that needed repaired. Rather than cut several repair panels, I elected to enlarge the hole to encompass all of the firewall box holes in one panel. The fan hole was treated seperately.

In a...

I first sanded the area with a small sanding disc. Then I cleaned out the hole for welding. The I made sure the surface was level with the surrounding metal. Once I was happy with that, I welded up each of the approximately 16 holes in both rockers.

Then I used a trick that a lot of fabricators use...I cut down the weld beads with a cut...