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As things usually go, the weather and my schedule worked against me to get a lot of this done. Luckily its closer than it was last week.
Plus they actually look alright in these pictures, and I didn't forget to take a picture during a test fit.
Cut the holes for the tweeters high build primer, but more sanding needed I finished and painted the little coverup panel between the kick panels and the pillars
I'm still plugging away at trying to learn/understand how to tune this thing. I'm feeling more confident, but not enough to just jump into anything crazy. I'm thinking a lot of my issues are coming from the LS3 MAF setup I used, but maybe its something else. I'm pretty booked up for the foreseeable future with other stuff so I am guessing I won't get to this thing for a while longer.
Jessica
Should be back to my regular schedule of El Camino stuff here pretty soon. I finished assembling the big block for the dually. I ended up taking the rotating assembly to a machinist, and I redid the seals in the heads and upgraded the springs. I also got a new cam for it (something slightly more aggressive than an RV grind is all), and put domed pistons in the thing. It was already bored 40 over so its a 462 I guess now. Should be making a solid amount of torque and should be a lot more reliable. The crank had to be turned so I'm glad I pulled it apart when I did and there wasn't any other damage to the block or anything else.
The last few weeks or months have been pretty much just juggling this big block stuff and all the other bits and pieces as well as doing maintenance on the daily. It'll be nice to get back to the El Camino because I feel like I'm really close to hitting the road.
They're some peanut port open chamber things from the 80s nothing fancy. I basically got the domed pistons so I could make up for the large chamber (122cc) and the abysmal stock compression ratio. If I decide to do more stuff with it in the future I'll throw some aluminum heads on it; but it wasn't even close to in the budget for right now.
Jessica
Small progress on the El Camino. Should have a bit more done this week but I finished the interior this week.
The hood should go on by next week and then tires and wheels and tuning.
Finished the pillars and put the tweeters in them I'd like to wrap them and the dash someday They tie the dash into the car nicely
The Dually has an engine again, and once I get a good day to finish hanging the new exhaust I'll break it in and then start putting miles on it (if all goes well). Should be ready to hit the road this summer for shows and stuff which will be really nice!
Managed to put this gigantic hunk back into the truck And it looks like a truck again!
My plan to have the dually and El Camino on the road this summer is coming together. That gives me summer to rebuild the transmission in the Fiero, upgrade the engine a little, and then paint the darn thing. If I can manage to teach myself to do paint and body work good enough I need to do the dually when its wrap is worn out and I'll also paint the El Camino.
Jessica
Sounds like you’ll be reall busy . Please remember the oil pump needs to be shimmed during installation. This ain’t like SBC/BBCs.
Keep up the great work
I think I shimmed it pretty well, I've started it to take a log and it looks to have about 60-80psi oil pressure at start up. I had read it was very important in one of my LS building books as well as on the internet. Thanks for looking out for me though!
Jessica
Nice progress. I didn't think that dash was going to look good, but it does!
Andrew
Thanks, I had my doubts too! I'd seen one picture of a 4th gen Camaro dash in a Monte, so I knew they kind of fit, but the person never finished it off and it had gaps all around it. I never got rid of the original dash, and I never cut anything on the car, I just modified the Firebird dash bar, and made little adapter pieces for near the windshield to bolt it in the car. I thought I may have to go back to stock but with these pieces done I am pretty happy with it.
Jessica
Backstory (skip if you don't care): The Elky is a 78 and had basic non delay/pulse wipers originally. The switch was in the dash and the motor had seen better days as it would no longer park the wipers below the cowl. The car was also a column shift originally (I promise thats important). I installed a column from a 95ish or 01 Camaro (4th gen) so I could do away with the column shift parts, and gain cruise and wiper controls on the turn signal stalk. I basically made the column fit the firewall, and I thought nothing else would be difficult, I was wrong. I then needed a pulse/delay motor to go with the wiper switch from the Camaro. I tried the original style no pulse one from the car, one from an S10 that had pulse, I tried one from a Camaro with pulse. I even tried one from a Maxima. Nothing but the one from the Camaro worked with the switch, but that motor can't physically fit in the location it needs to (I cut it up and tried everything short of modifying the car). The best I could manage was one speed, sort of like high, and none were able to park (even the Camaro motor wasn't going to park the wipers in the right spot if I had managed to mount it).
I found someone parting an 84 El Camino!! And somehow it had the holy grail magic motor, (84-87 with pulse/delay). It was nowhere near me but my good friend in that state went and got it for me and then we got it to me a little later. It doesn't just bolt in place, but with a small adapter bracket consisting of a stud, and sheet metal it fits! The wiring has the right number of conductors and they're even the right colors! I hooked it all up and it doesn't work right, but here is the cool part, its not working exactly like a third gen motor won't work with a fourth gen Camaro column. According to a few very old forum posts from people who installed wiring and a column from a fourth gen in their third gens they were able to make it work with a 3rd gen wiper wiring harness in the 4th gen column. So I ordered one of those and we shall see how it all turns out.
I removed that terrible Chase Bays pump/resevoir thing I had installed. This motor has the pump integrated into it, so I'll be able to use just a generic black aluminum overflow tank and it should look much better.
And in other exciting news I've been spending a little time as I have it to play with the tune. I was able to get the car to idle yesterday! It surged and eventually died, but I was recoding a log and I'm going to try to use that to make my next attempt better.
My plan now is to install the hood, because I want to see it on the car after all these years
Hopefully this is the last picture hoodless for a good long while!
I had my friend swing by and help me lift it into place. I am debating some vinyl stickers on the cowl, but I'm not sold. I always loved the cubic inch emblems on the 70s cars. I'm sure I'll mull it over for a while and decide but I'm open to opinions.
Anyways its getting there, its running better, but I'm learning and thats a huge part of it.
Jessica
You have a nice car and you did it yourself. There’s ALOT of people out there who wouldn’t attempt that or would just pay someone to try to do it.
Thank you! Its been a hell of a learning curve and there are things I'd probably do differently if I did it again not that I know how to do them better.
Originally Posted by G Atsma
Plus, she has helpful friends! They are gold in this and many other hobbies!
I am so fortunate to have good friends willing to come give me a hand with stuff when I need it! Good friends are priceless.
Originally Posted by theunderlord
I don't mind those LSX decals! But maybe the X in a different color?
Yeah I'm thinking a different color too the greens clash too much, maybe red, or just black and silver or something. I got them off ebay years ago, so I'm sure there are other options out there still.
Well I figure I should add the less good stuff along with the bad stuff. I got the hood put on the car, but it wasn't fitting. I thought it was the A/C port on top of the compressor. I had been closing the hood slowly and it was going well. I used some grease on the top of the A/C port to mark the hood frame. I made my cut it all felt good, I latched the hood. It was weird it was sitting up in the front, but I couldn't figure it out. Fast forward a few days and I had the car up to do a bolt check under the car and put cotter pins in the suspension. I noticed through the grill the hook that goes into the core support had hit the top of my condenser and it put a big bend in it. Of course now I can't get that condenser anymore (out of stock from the mfg eve, and no idea when it'll be available). Maybe it isn't actually broken, and its just bent. We shall see, and I'll be making a new mount that picots it towards the radiator to get it out of the way of the hood hook.
So I moved onto things I could deal with: the wipers. I went to remove the bolt on the steering column that holds the wheel adapter on the shaft and it just spun. So I had to cut that off, and it turns out the shaft stripped. I ended up needing to get a new column, that was a pain, and it was kind of a piece of crud so I spent a few days getting everything swapped between the two. Now the car doesn't have a column, but at least its ready to go back in the truck.
The good news I an report is that I took the column into the local lock smith and had him make me a couple keys. I had him try twice in the past but for whatever reason none he made worked, but now they do!
Hopefully this helps someone whos going through this kind of stuff, its just a bummer and annoying but it puts a damper on the projects thats for sure.
02-15-2022, 02:08 PM
