Thanks. Im just glad to have things moving forward again. I've missed driving and racing the car this season. If things go well I should have it out next season.

 

Glad to see you still playing with your car. Any plans on tweaking the. Motor any?

 

Hey Jim.....yeah Im still at it. I really wanted to do something with the motor while it was out of the car but after going over lots of options and crunching the numbers Ive determined its just not in the budget right now. So the plan to go faster next year is gonna have to be limited to suspension tuning and more nitrous.

 

Nothing wrong with more nitrous.

 

That's the way I see it!

 

Awesome build thread! Sent you a PM with a cam question if you get time to look at it.

 

Thanks much! I replied to your PM.....hope it helps you out.

 

So not a huge update, but I did get my trunk re-spatter painted and cleared last weekend. The last time I did it I didn't clear over it so the finish wasn't very durable. Hopefully this time it will last. The only real abuse it sees is nitrous bottles being fed in and out of the trunk. The 10lb bottle isn't bad but I have to do some finagling to get the 15 in and out of there.

 

It helped a lot! Now if the weather would just break so I could get started on this engine!


What clear did you use? My car's trunk had already been resprayed and it looks good but I feel that it also isn't very durable.

 

I used PlastiKote brand spatter paint so I used their recommended "505 Top Coat Trunk Paint" which is a clear. But on the spatter paint can it says if the 505 product isn't available, any PlastiKote clear product will suffice. Which to me means, any company's clear is probably fine too.

 

Well it's official.....I dropped the car off at the paint shop Saturday. Who knows how long it will be there but hopefully I'll be posting progress pics along the way.

 

Color? LeMans blue would look killer. Didn't you want a grey or something?

 

Yeah, I'm holding out until the last minute to decide on an exact paint code but it will be somewhere in the range of a gun metal to charcoal gray metallic with black z28 stripes.

 

Hopefully you will see it back soon. Paint shops can be a black hole.

 

Oh, just PREPAY for the entire job. That should speed things up.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean! I had a buddy who's 68 Camaro was at a paint shop for just shy of 3 years! In fairness to the shop though, some of it was my friends fault because he often drug his feet in providing parts, answering phone calls, making payments, etc. But a lot of it was the shop taking on way too much work. His car sat for 9 months before it was even touched. I'm somewhat hopeful about the shop I'm using but almost all body shops fall prey to the same delays and distractions.

The guy doing my car is a local "hobbiest". He paints for a living for a large company but also does an incredible amount of night and weekend business out of his home shop and has an excellent local reputation.

The good news is he doesn't bring in any cars until he's ready to begin working on them immediately. The bad news is, he also takes in insurance work and quick turn-around jobs that pull him away from his larger projects like mine.

He told me upfront he would have the car for 2 or 3 months; I've already doubled that number in my head. He's also supposed to give me the car back in primer with the front clip off so I can drop the motor and trans back in pre-paint. He said I'll have it back in "a couple of weeks" for that stage......hahaha.....we'll see.

 

Quick update on the car. I stopped out Sunday afternoon to check on it and lots of dust is being made! The car has a lot of filler spread on it right now but its a very thin layer and much of it still needs sanded. Lots of little highs and lows, even in the new sheet metal.....but especially on the tops of the original fenders. All the gaps have been set so they are in the process of tearing it down so all the individual panels can be worked, primed and painted separately. Here's how she looked on Sunday.









He said I should be able to get the body (minus front end sheet metal) back in primer the first or second week of December. He's giving it back to me at that stage so I can bring it home and set the motor and trans back in the car before it's painted. At that point I'll also be swapping the front suspension over to double adjustable coil-overs, moving the ignition box out of the engine compartment, and a few other odds and ends that are easier with the front end tore apart.

Also, I finally decided on a specific paint color. I'm going with a Nissan/Infinity color.......paint code KAD. Nissan calls it Gun Metallic and Infinity calls it Graphite Shadow Metallic. Here's an example of it. I think it will look great with black Z28 stripes and a blacked out tail panel!

 

Its a beautiful feeling when it comes out of paint.
Here's mine back in March.



And recently:

 

Looks great man!

 

Looking good! I like your color choice. It's going to be a stunner when complete.