sportriderok wrote:Man, Kevin, I admire your determination! I'd love to try doing half the stuff that you are, but I always chicken out. I love your attitude, "Oh well, just cut it out and weld a new piece in." Your posts are very inspiring to those of us with stalled projects.
Thanks! I had planned on working on my red coupe (my profile pic) but I was afraid to take it apart. This one, no fear on taking it apart!
It is coming along. I have a lot more little things to do on it before I'll really feel like I'm making serious progress. I hope to patch the clutch cable area on the firewall next. The cowl needs some serious blasting and cleaning. The floors are the next big project which won't be too challenging but I am considering getting my brothers bead roller to make them look somewhat original. The doors need work (don't they all?), there is one hole in the left quarter, and dent in the right quarter. I have several sets of fenders but all need some work. Still scrounging some parts but I have a hood, another header panel, and a steering column on the way.
I still plan to put it on a rotisserie so I can strip the underside. I want to get that cleaned and painted then rebuild the front suspension with AJE a-arms, S-10 spindles, and upgraded brakes. Still need to decide on a rear end. I think I need to upgrade to something bigger but still want to use a torque arm. I'd like to build a 12-bolt with the torque arm mount which isn't cheap ($600 just for the housing center section). The torque arm will need to be modified to be a cross member mounted version or tunnel mounted since I am changing the transmission to a modern 6-speed.
Still need to finalize on engine/transmission but really planning the LS3/6-spd manual. May opt for one pulled from a wrecked car since the Connect-and-Cruise one I want is $12k+ and would still need an accessory drive which is another $1k+.
Ah...I need to win the lottery.