Thanks man!

 

Just found your post. Thanks for the info on the adapter plates for the engine mounts. I'm making my own set and mounting my powerglide back into the car w/ an lq4. I was wondering what the setback on the adapter plate had to be in order to reuse the stock crossmember. One inch it is!

Mike

 

Cool Mike. I'm glad the info helped you out with your swap. I'm very happy with the location of my motor and transmission with these 1 inch set back plates! The transmission mount bolt holes are right in the center of the slots on the cross member.

 

I took advantage of the long weekend and got some work done on the car. It’s amazing how one minute I’m bolting parts back on this car and the next minute I’m tearing it back apart….LOL. I guess this mostly stems from my recent decision to strip this car down to bare metal myself to find all the body damage now rather than later. But, before I started tearing it down, I wanted to be able to bolt at least SOMETHING back on the car, so I blasted and painted my lower hood latch assembly, the brace that runs between the upper and lower valance, and all four bumper brackets. This also helped me to “locate” the front end sheet metal a little better which should help with alignment when I bolt it all back on.



And then it pretty much went down hill from there. Let the stripping begin……






Before I stripped it, I actually took the time to pull that big dent I had in my passenger side quarter panel. I didn’t take a picture with the paint still on it, but it looked pretty darn good…….until I took the paint off and found this gem beneath it. Apparently this quarter had been caved in before and it took them no less than 50 holes to pull the dent……ridiculous! Then they laid the bondo to it and called it a day. I can believe it didn’t fall out when this quarter got hit right above it, but I guess all those holes gave the bondo something to grip to!



Then the doors came off……






So far I’ve gotta say I’m not very impressed with the Klean Strip brand of Aircraft Stripper. It barely lifted the outer (cream colored) paint, leaving a lot still holding on after several coats. Each quarter panel got four coats and four heavy scrapings and I still had spots of cream colored paint holding on that I had to use the DA to remove. I’ve still got a lot of DA’ing to do to get the rest of the factory lacquer paint off in several spots. The stripper just turns the lacquer into goo. A buddy of mine told me the Mar-Hyde brand of stripper works much better, so I’ll probably try that next.

 

I wasn't too happy when I used the aircraft stripper either, it did the same thing to me that you are talking about.
I ended up getting a hand full of those wire wheels with the braded wire for my 4" angle grinder and went to town, they make short work out of stripping the paint

 

I honestly don't think any aircraft stripper is of damn near any use on older cars. Once the paint has been on there for years, it just can't get it off.

If you painted your bicycle with spray paint and want to change the color a week later, it might be good for that. But as for removing automotive grade paint from older vehicles, I think your best bet is to just do it the old fashioned way.

Also, be careful using that stuff. Its really, really nasty and the vapors alone can cause burns. Really shouldn't be made available to the public IMO.

 

I plan to use my angle grinder and knotted wire wheels on all the inconspicous areas like door/trunk jams because it's just plain impossible to scrape or sand in those areas. But, I wasn't sure about using it on the outer sheet metal becuase I wasn't sure how badly it would profile the metal. But, come to think of it, I wire wheeled the the whole underside of the car when I stripped it (in conjunction with Aircraft Stripper) and it really almost "polished" the metal more than scratched it, so I guess that's probably the way I'll go. I guess it wouldn't profile the metal any more than media blasting.

 

Yeah, you're right about it being nasty stuff. I've had the pleasure of getting a small drip in the corner of my eye when I was stripping the under side of the car, and let me tell you....you haven't lived until you've felt that pain! Shoulda been wearing saftey goggles, I know...but I was also wearing a respirator and it kept fogging them up. I wear both when I'm not working under the car.

 

I used the knotted wire wheel on the hard to get to areas and used the plain one for the outside of the car. I did however use the knotted one in places that I needed to eat out the rust or bondo. Made quicker qork of it and you are right, it will almost polish the metal.
I am convenced that the knotted one will work anywhere on the body as long as you don't put too much presure in one area for too long.
I did my whole car this way and it turned out great I think.

 

Yow got really lucky with the frame and under body of that car, they are in great shape. Excellent base for a projects!!

 

I realize you deleted the VVT and therefore your accessory brackets sit back closer to where the stock LS1 Fbody accessories would be. I have a 74 Firebird and I was going to do an LY6 but keep the VVT. I saw your solution to the alternator issues. Do you have any other areas that you have identified that would cause clearance issues with the accessories pushed out with the stock VVT timing cover. I was going to use F-body accessory brackets with machined spacers to clear the VVT gear. Great thread, thanks for all of the good documentation.

 

Amazing build.

Subscribing!

 

Thanks for the kind words guys! srh3trinity, as for the accessories spacint questions, I don't know of anything else other than an AC compressor in the stock F-body location that would cause any further intereference. But, I'm also not running a power steering pump either, so I can't speak specifically to that. Basically, if I were to space out everything that I'm currently running far enough to clear the VVT cover, I don't think I'd have any issues. I would refer you to Jimbo1367's thread here: https://ls1tech.com/forums/conversio...65e-build.html but it looks like you've already found that. He's obviously running C6 stuff, but has taken the approach of spacing things out far enough to retain the VVT with his accessories. It looks like everthing is clearing good for him. I hope this helps and good luck with your build. Let us know if/when you start a build thread.

 

I didn't get much time to work on the car this weekend, but this afternoon a friend came over and helped me get the front and rear glass out of the car which is a big relief. That's definaltey not a one man job.

I stopped at a music store yesterday and the owner was nice enough to pull a few sets of used guitar strings out of the trash for me. Most people talk about using piano wire for this, but I figured a guitar string would work just the same. I just fished a guitar string through the window seal and hooked each end to a "handle". Then we just worked our way around the window, sawing back and forth as we went. The rear window had been taken out before when the upper passenger quarter panel was "repaired", and it was reinstalled with urithane instead of butyle ribbon. I feel really lucky that it came out without breaking. The front windshield however was still in with butyle ribbon. It was a little hard in spots, but once it was cut through it didn't resist lifting out at all.





I've got to find a better place/way to store the glass, but this will work for now....I hope.



I'm definatley glad I pulled the glass out. There were a few spots in the front corners where the windshield must have been leaking and I've got the begginings of some rust issues. It's nothing that'll need cut out (no holes) but it could have gotten out of control if not taken care of now.

 

Very nice write up. kudos to ya for tackling the project. The next time you buds start ragging on you about being ****, just point to this project and tell them about how well it's coming together.
I haven't done a total rebuild in a long time, but I do remember that if you don't have a clear cut plan on how you are going to do what you want, what problems WILL arise, and how to deal with them, you wind up having a basket car that some one will take off you hands for cheap! Hahaha

 

Great thread man, sick build.

 

Gonna be a sweet ride when he's done !

 

Thanks guys!

 

GC99TA,
What method are you going to use to reinstall( urithane or butyle ribbon ) the glass? When you get to this part, can you take pics and walk us (me) through it? I want to pull both of my glass hopefully in the spring.

And as always...........
thanks Gary,
Jim

 

Hey Jim,

If (and the key word is "if") I reinstall the glass my self, I'll definately be using the butyle ribbon. The reason is two or three-fold. First, it's how the factory did it and so the thickness of the ribbon sets the proper height of the glass so that you don't have a large gap between the glass and the window trim pieces. Second, the urithane just seems to be a huge mess to work with, and thirdly I know for a fact the rear glass will have to come back out when the final bodywork and paint get done since the passenger side quarter panel will most likely be replaced, and it's very dicey removing glass installed with urithane since it sticks so well.

Now, having said that, I also have to say that I've never installed glass before, so it may be like the blind leading the blind if I do. Thats the main reason for my "if", because I may chicken out and pay a pro to do it. The problem with that is, I think a lot of the "big" glass companys don't like to use the old butyle ribbon because it doesn't last nearly as long as urithane and is quite a bit more prone to leaking which is also probably why the OEMs eventually moved away from it. Plus I've also heard of glass coming out "involuntarily" in accidents and what not when it's installed with the ribbon.

So, I guess we'll see when the time comes, but I'll most likely attempt it on my own. The front glass will most likely go back in first, but the rear glass I'm going to try and leave out at least until I have the roll bar installed. I want to keep the back seat in the car for a complete interior appearance, so the rear bars will go down through the package tray (speaker holes) and I'm sure having the rear glass out will make it easier to install those bars.