Thanks for taking the time to read through it all......and be sure to thank your girlfriend for letting you......

The real answer to your question about removing the vinyl is....."very carefully"....LOL. Actually it's not that bad once you have the lower plastic panels and window sweeps removed. From there I just started slowly peeling it back little by little. The key is to just go slow and take your time. It's just glued on to the cardboard and luckily the 40 year old glue wasn't too stubborn.

Both the plastic and the vinyl was painted with the same product (SEM Color Coat in Landau Black). But SEM has two different products they recommend for prepping plastic vs vinyl in addition to their SEM soap for the first cleaning. Go to this link and click on the third manual down (RAP-1) http://semproducts.com/training/training-manuals/

I think the SEM products are among the best out there for interior color changes, but I have to say I haven't been 100% satisfied with it's durability on some of my plastic pieces. I followed all of their prep and application instructions to a "T", but the finish on my lower door panels still scratches off with a little abuse (like if my seat belt bucket hits them). If I had to do them over again, I would probaby do a final cleaning on them with rubbing alcohol. Thats what I did with my seat backs and it seems to dry out the plastic to where it wants to soak up the paint and not just be coated by it. I think this absorbtion is the key to making the stuff stick well. For what it's worth, I didn't have this trouble at all on the vinly. I don't think you could get it to come off the vinyl even if you tried. I hope this helps you out.

 

My first car was a 73...got to love the 2nd gen cars. Your attention to detail is awesome. Good work.

 

Thanks man......my third car when I was 18 (18 years ago) was a 78 Type LT and my buddy had a 73 Type LT at the same time. I've been hooked on these cars ever since then. I sold my 78 in 1998 and it took me until 2009 to get this one. Hopefully I'll be holding on to this one for a long time.

 

Awesome, now the dye is actually in a spray can? So you don't like dip the parts in a dye, you spray them right? Where can I buy these products?

 

Yes you can get the dye in a rattle can or in a pint/quart/gallon form to be applied from a paint gun. But either way it is sprayed on like paint. The best advice I can give on that is clean, prep, clean again.....and when you think it's good......do it one more time. Its also wise to apply it in very light coats with drying time in between.

Where to buy? Google Shopping, Amazon, and/or Ebay is going to be your best friend on this one. I think I got my initial supply of stuff (dye, SEM soap, and prep products) from an ebay store. But since then I've been getting it from a local automotive paint shop that handles it here in town.

 

couple questions. Maybe I missed the answers and if so I'm sorry. What did you do about the coolant crossover? Are you running mechanical gauges? If so how did you hook them up? Thanks.

 

No problem. I dont think any of those things were covered anywhere in the thread. The radiator I bought (Champion 3 row aluminum) has two additional pipe plug bungs in the passenger side tank. I simply threaded a barbed fitting into the uppermost bung and routed the coolant crossover to it. Its very similar to the factory location on an LS1 F-body.

I am running Autometer gauges. The oil pressure is manual and is connected to the factory oil pressure sending unit location at the rear/top of the block. I just needed a metric adapter to go from the factory metric size to npt. I can't remember the part number for the adapter but I can look it up if you need it.

For water temp I went with an electric gauge. This was to avoid the large temperature probe on most mechanical set ups. I have the sending unit installed in the pasenger cylinder head port. This required two things. First was a metric to npt adapter. But even with the adapter, you need a shortened electric sending unit due to the small I.d. of the adapter. These are available from autometer for $10 or so if I remember correctly. Again, i can probably track down the part numbers later if needed but right now I'm in the ER waiting room with a sick daughter. Hope this helps.

 

Dude, I hope she is doing ok. Sick kids is the worst! I had my daughter in last week..... due to pneumonia. Antibiotics and she's golden now.

Good luck with your daughter..

B

 

Thanks man. We're still waiting to see the doc but she seems to be doing better already as her fever is breaking. She was almost 105 before we left the house and couldn't even keep her eyes open (scary). But after some Tylenol at the house and Motrin here.....she's feeling better already. She's talking again and is very alert now. I just don't like the high fevers with a little one like this......but now she's saying "I'm not sick anymore......let's go home".......yeah right! Thanks much for the concern.

 

I hope all went well last night. That sounds like our daughter.... she had a fever off and on for about a week and then bam 104+ she did no seize but it went up so fast she was vomiting.

I hope they figured out your daughters cause.

Bruce

 

Thanks Bruce.....things turned out OK, but I'm glad we went in. She tested positive for influenza A, double ear infection, and a chest x-ray showed the beginnings of a lung infection. This all came out of nowhere and symptoms just started yesterday morning. The good news is, knocking the fever down changed her whole behavior. Heck, if I didn't know any better this morning, I would think she just has the sniffles. Totally back to being herself again.....but still needs plenty of rest and antibiotics. Thanks again to all for the concerns.

Gary

 

Here are the parts I mentioned above that I used to adapt my gauges:

Metric adapter used for mechanical oil pressure sender:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-2268/

Metric adapter used for electric water temp gauge into cylinder head:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-2277/

Shortened water temp sending unit to work with the above adapter:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ATM-2259/

 

Glad to hear the little one is better! Its amazing how fast they bounce back. Us older folk would want some pity and attention.

 

Thanks Tony. Yeah, she got her share of pity and attention last night. She got to sleep with us and spent most of the night kicking me about the head and neck. As long as she feels better, daddy is glad to go to work exhausted with a bruised throat and little foot prints on his forehead.......

 

Thanks for the info and help.

Glad your daughter is ok. Sick kids are the worst.

 

No problem and thanks to you as well.

 

Lol!! Good deal! You just reminded me of something, after my Vasectomy I kept getting pains in my lower half and thought something went wrong with my surgery. Turns out my son slept with us at the time and he was actually kicking me in my boys while he was asleep. I found this out after waking up earlier than him and he did it while I was awake. After that he slept in his room and no more lower pains!!! Dang the memories!!! Lol!!!

 

Oh man......that's freakin hilarous.....I literally LOL'd. I mean, I also threw up a little in my mouth out of sympathy for the pain you musta felt........but when I recovered I kept laughing....

 

What radiator hoses are you using? The top one looks to fit perfect, any good pics of the bottom one? Great build man

 

Thanks. The lower hose is a Dayco 71391. It fits very well. It just needed a little bit of trimming on the water pump side to be perfect. Here's a phone pic.



The upper hose I think is a Gates 22352....at least that's what I have in my notes. The first upper hose I bought wasn't even close to being right, so I returned it for my current one that fits very well. Problem is I'm not positive which part number I have written down. Good thing is they can be bought locally and returned.

EDIT: I just found some of my older notes and they had a different upper hose part number listed. So I'm now 100% confident that the Gates number I listed above is the part I'm currently using.