Emblems painted

Took some modeling paint and made the old look new. Then hit it with some glossy clear to protect them.

Mid-Life Crisis?

Soooooo. I got another car. Is this a problem? And my wife is okay with that? has the pregnancy gotten to her? Maybe? I found another HALFER that need to sell. His price met what I thought the car to be and before I knew it I was driving it home. I think I have Firebird Fever. Pontiac Pneumonia.

2 inches more

Room is getting tight in the garage. I have playing Tetris with my toys for the better part of a year. So finally convinced myself that there is no reason why this beautiful motor should be sitting on a stand. So I gave my friend Carl a call and he graciously helped me 'drop' the engine in. Without the radiator support in the way is went in pretty effortlessly. Now that it is in is looks like a car. A car with no front fenders; but a car that has the potential for going somewhere other than from one side of the garage to the other. Now I can get rid of the huge 2 ton engine hoist and free up a huge amount of realestate. Also discovered that the 4 speed Muncie is the matching numbers for this car.

Interior dash componets reinstalled

Little work, some cussing and I didn't end up with anything missing. So dash is repainted and wiring is reconnected. I refurbished the kick panels and they look as good as new.

Update - Dash is almost done.

Interior is coming together. Funny how easy it came apart, and how hard it is to remember how it goes back.... Where does this extra screw go? I guess it's good when all the pieces you categorized in little bags find a place back on the car.
So here are some pictures of the final firewall.
The OLD the New chassis black


The in between Por 15'd

I think I am doing something right. Also painted the front dash and got the the dash pad and all of the driver side reinstalled. The Steering column was also reattached back to the new rag joint and manual steering box. Still need to recondition the kick panels and reinstall the heatercore and heater box. Then I'll get the radio and heater controls back in. Then finally the glove box will go home. So one more good evening of stuff to do.

Hurricane over. The car is OKAY.

September is over and I have little to no work on the car because of it. We lucked out and had no flooding. I have to say I am sick of fixing fences. Post hole digging is a good reminder why I went to school to get a degree. My right arm is also like Popeye from all the hammering.
I did finish the steering wheel tonight. I finished cleaning the chrome and horn buttons. The chrome was cleaned with some soap and water and some aluminum foil. There was a weird funk that was growing on the chrome. Looked like some primordial algae from the 60's.

GOOD weather in HOUSTON??

This Saturday was beautiful and work need to be done on this rare occasion.

I decided to tackle restoring the old deluxe steering wheel. It had major cracks on nearly every facet and some minor cracks at the edges of the spokes. I had picked a restoration kit from Eastwood that I had heard about and decide to give it a shot. I didn't really worry about ruining the wheel since I have a Grant red/black wheel that would look real nice too. I followed the directions which really isn't my strong suit. I cleaned the wheel with some soap and water and began to make the cracks bigger per the instruction I used a dremel and an assortment of metal files to enlarge the gaps into a V-shape. Then I mixed the two part putty to make a dark grey mush that smell like old shoes. I used a heavy amount to fill the cracks. Bought a $1.50 set of plastic putty knifes and went to work. I tried to get all of the air bubbles out when mixing but still managed to find some later on. I cover the wheel which made it look like a cancer growth had consumed the wheel. Then let is set in my hot garage for a week. No the hard part. Sanding was a boring pain. I stared by knocking the biggest chuncks with the dremel sanding discs. I had also bought some sand paper (150, 220, 320, 400 and 1000) and some 3M sanding blocks (60, 220, and 320) with worked well for the contours. Two seperated nights of sanding and then some more on Saturday finally got it to a point where it felt smooth to the touch. I used some Eastwood plastic prep cleaner to get what dirt I could off. Then hit the wheel with some SEM plastic adhesion sprey. after about 15 minutes I used SEM Landau Black. I applied two coats but it didn't have the gloss I was looking for. So I sprayed some clear coat semi gloss for a little protection. It look pretty good for my first attemp at something like this.

Another project I got started on Saturday was redoing the firewall. Unfotunately, I found out the the previous owner painted right over the original paint with POR15. Not that I dislike POR 15 but I saw places where it was pealing since it was applied in that way. After I had removed all of the components off the firewall I had also noticed that they didn't applied under things like the windshild wash motor or the heater core cover. Boaght some 3M sanding wheels and got to work on the firewheel and forward dash (under cowl). Then I reappled a new coat of POR15 and sprayed some primer after about 45 minutes (when it was still tacky). Later I will spray pait it with Some POR15 Chassis Black coat. It SHOULD look great but I need to get a good HVLP first. So that project is going to be put off for a week.