doctahouse

Next area is the doors. I ordered in door skins from Cars Inc. I really thought it was the cheaper way to go instead of buying complete new doors. Landed, the skins were $600cdn. New doors are $1260cdn, if ordered off Golden Leaf.
The body lines are good. After getting the gap and fit up as close as possible, I looked down the body and there is a big dip at the door jam. The quarter is good but the door itself is out. The other problem with the Cars Inc skins is the profile of the bends. They didn’t bend them sharp enough to give crisp body lines. I said screw it and ordered brand new doors. The huge amount of time it’ll take to make this right just isn’t worth it in my opinion.

Before having to slide the skin towards the quarter.





When some help from an experienced body man, the quarter needs to be sucked in at the center of wheel house to even out the lower quarter. Once I start working on the inner wheel house lip, I can suck it in so the straight edge will sit flat along the entire lower quarter pan body line instead of being a teeter totter. This will make the quarter 100% but the door will still be screwed.

doctahouse

The floor pan is now out! Just the corners need to be drilled to remove them. I thought about patching in pieces but for the cost of new halves, I’ll replace it all.



The outer rockers are in excellent shape. The inners however are pretty rotten. I had 60” piece of 18 gauge cold rolled bent in a 90 so I could replace the inner rocker. The end was rebuilt to mimic the original.





This will need some rebuilding before the rocker can be welded back on.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Sorry to hear about the door skins. Were your originals too bad to save? A friend of mine discovered the same thing with some aftermarket quarters. I'm lucky in that I have parts I cut from other cars so I can use OEM external sheet metal for my 61 but the floors will be aftermarket. Since no one makes 61 parts that will be a benefit for me in the long run... yeah right.

doctahouse

The doors were full of bondo and lower corners were rusted out. I've tried to find some quality original doors for the last few months with no luck. Canadian winters are hard on cars!!

It good that you were able to find some parts cars. A friend of mine picked up a 59' Impala rag......good luck finding sheet metal for that car

doctahouse

My drivers side is rotten pretty good. It'll be a lot more work to get it looking good. I couldn't find any repo pieces for the very front rocker piece so I've had to rebuild a new one. More pics to come soon.

doctahouse

doctahouse

I was waiting for my sheet metal parts to come in...... So, in the mean time, I started on the rotisserie. Built it loosely from the plans on this site.
http://members.tripod.com/~mopar_roadster/...rotisserie.html















Trial and error on this one. The first thing was the pin mechanism. Too small of a diameter pin and split where the roll pin attached. So, used a 1/2 diameter one. Works, but not really a huge fan. Might use a garde 8 bolt instead. The second problem is when I went to spin in all the way around, the windsheild post were too low and was hitting the cross tubing. So I jacked up on the rams......went to spin it and took out the ceiling lights. My ceiling is too low for it to go all the way around. Oh well. It is also fairly heavy in some spots but can manage.

doctahouse

Frame is all sandblasted. They did a really good job for only $150. The rear mounts will need some help.

doctahouse

Pressure washed the motor all off. I couldn't do when I bought it...too cold.




And the rest of the parts are back from another sandblaster. Sure is nice having clean metal.



Stock 95' Impala gas tank. Using this style as it will fit in between the frame rails and is sumped, baffled etc.


Stock fuel pump


Old clip and harness


New clip and harnes plug, much better design.

The fuel pump is all together now. Pretty simple install. The retaining clip the holds the yellow plug was bitch to get on. If anyone does this, use a 1/4 drive, 13mm deep socket and tap it into place.


Lines were trim back and flared at a 37*. I will be using a corvette fuel filter/regulator setup. It has a 3/8" fuel line input, 5/16" return and a single 3/8" output. This will allow a single 3/8" line to the fuel rail with no return line needed.

doctahouse

The bright work I had by Mr. Impala came in today....very nice work for anyone interested. Still waiting for one more box, thought that since they were shipped out together, they would arrive together? Maybe tomorrow.

doctahouse

The engine wiring harness came at the sametime as the chrome goodies, like Christmas around here lol. It was purchased from ls1wiringharness.



Since my engine didn't come with a ecm or mass air, I ordered them with the harness so everthing would check out. The ecm was also flashed with the vats deletes, emissions, rear o2 sensors, tire size, gear ratio etc.



I HATE butt connectors. It's a major pet peeve of mine. Do it right, do it once, solder and then heat shrink. I never have a problem with loose connections.

I upgraded my package with this fiberglass woven loom. An extra $150 was worth it in my opinion. It'll look hella better than plastic split loom.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

Heck yeah Doc! Looking good. I can tell you from experience you will LOVE the rotisserie! Some buds and I built one we share, after using it a few times wish we would have done it years earlier!!!

The only time I use butt connectors is for temporary installations and testing, otherwise it's solder and shrink for me too.

doctahouse

I love it already. Made easy work of what I needed to do tonight.

doctahouse

The drivers rocker is 90% finished. The very front will need a filler piece. It doesn't have the angle like the passenger side to sit flush.





Whe doing a convertible, there is extra body mounts. I cut the out the nut and retainer out of the old floor brace and welded it to the new one. Splash of zinc and it's good to go.


Floor is all in.




I saved the trans tunnel from the 64 Pontiac I cut up. I'll fit a piece later.

Brace has a bad fit on the rear side. The screws will not pull it tight. I'll have to drill in a 1/4 hole to put a bolt and nut through to tighten it up.


And my bags came in. Running the SS7's. Big thanks to my air bag hook up's from Freaks of Nature truck club.

Jimbo1367

Docahouse,
great work. Keep the pics/progress coming.

doctahouse

Thanks.... I'll try to keep the momentum!!

lq46liter

Looking great, Maybe you'd like to spend some time in soutern South Dakota this winter and get me ahead on my project. Well I tried. I do have a couple of questions on your gas tank. What was the deal with the wiring harness.? Did you have to change it for some special reason? What is the third metal line coming off the fuel pickup on the outside. One is gas out the second is gas back but what is the third one? Are you also happy with the wiring harness and computer reprogram you got from LS1wiringharness? Hope you can take the time to answer my questions. You're looking good and realing coming along on this!

doctahouse

Thanks, I don't mind answering any questions...I'm still learning and having to change designs on this one as timr progresses.


I've got my own deadline of next summer that mine will have to be done!!! Hopefully my pictures will help you out?

The factory wiring harness was cut up beyond repair. That was how it came to me when I bought it. I am very happy with aftermarket harness I recieved. I went with them as the cost was much cheaper and the quality was still top notch. I hope the reprogramming is close when I go to fire it up.


The fuel tank has three lines. Supply, return and emissions. I'll try keeping it capped, if I run into tank pressure issues, I'll run a small check valve.

gofastwclass

iTrader: (2)

I capped the vent line on my Thunderbird tank and it has worked fine for many thousands of miles. On some days with an empty tank it seems to create a bit of vacuum when you pull the gas cap off. I hear a quick hiss from time to time releasing the cap but no worries beyond that.

lq46liter

Thanks for the information. One more question. You changed the harness on the fuel pump setup. Where did you get the fuel pump harness from or did it come with your new wiring harness for the engine and car?