Are you in need of an original 427 fuel line? I also have a real good vinyl graphics guy I use to restore old race cars. Im not sure where your located, Im in Central Ohio.

Sounds like you're somebody I need to talk to....sent you a PM!

Great thread, thanks for posting the pics of all the little details you are coming across, I find it all very interesting & educational

It's been a little while.....
 

Did some work on my fuel tank this weekend. My ambitions to save it are not as good as they once were...we'll see where it ends up. Anyway found some interesting stuff for the guys that care about some details.
I'll start with some pics before I tore into it. Below photos show sending unit wire routing, tape size/method, adhesive application, and jute pad. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the jute pad especially when it's under the sending unit wire? I believe all this stuff to assembly line original. If anyone sees something that indicates otherwise, please chime in.

I have seen the same pad under several tanks I have removed over the years. Don't have any input as to why either.

/R

Here's some more photos of the sending unit wire with a part number(?), o-ring seal, and sending unit itself. When I removed the tank from the car, there was "loose stuff" rattling around inside. Pulled these four critters out.....non-metallic - look like chunks of galvanize coating? Kinda weird...maybe were laying in there before the two halves of the tank were assembled together?

Here's some more details on the tape that held the ground wire to the rubber isolator on the 3/8" fuel line as well as the isolator and it's position on the line. Also started stripping some of the junk off the tank. Found overspray remnants of the "ice blue" that was the base color for the Rat's Nest paint scheme in 1970/71:biggthumpup:

Original fuel tank stencil.....
 

More work on the tank today - more "ice blue" overspray is evident from the "Rat's Nest" paint scheme. Removing layers of crud revealed the original stencil! The stencil is dead center L-R on the tank, with the Wheeling Pitt logo right below where the recess starts to angle up. It is much easier to read in person than what shows in the photos, but I did the best I could for you guys. Last photo was my quick attempt to recreate the letter/numbers with some photo-shop work. I could not make out what was under the "1969" but in person you can definitely tell something is there. If anyone has seen this version before and have more details of the stencil, please let me know as I will eventually recreate it on the car as part of the resto.

That's cool, hav'nt seen that before.
R

Did some work stripping down the hardware off my header panel and lower valence. Both pieces are in perfect condition with no signs of dent repair or rust. Both pieces show the original Lemans Blue paint under the fastener clips. As always, if you see something not original or correct, please help me out.

Nice detail capturing there, thanks!

Another update on my progress......sunk my driveshaft in some evaporust and found the original painted stripes. I have no idea if this shaft is original to my car and would assume it is not due to the drivetrain swap over the years, but it's an original GM shaft. Also included some shots of the body stripped down. Very pleased with the lack of "surprises". Original panels are very nice and straight with just some minor work having been performed on the rear quarters back in the late '70's.

Talk about your clean virgin sheet metal! Nice! Looks great Jim. Do you ever sleep?

Looks great, nice and solid!

Great progress. Don’t remember reading it but have you decided on the paint scheme?

It will be restored to Lemans Blue. Plan to use vinyl to do the Rat's Nest thing.

Very Nice!! Thanks for posting progress pics!! It was great talking with you this AM.

Very smart move on using vinyl wrap. Best of both worlds.

Worked on my original 9204 brake booster this week. Goal was to get it ready to ship out for re-plating. Of course it had a large amount of the gloss black paint on it so I went to town on it with some citrus stripper. It took 3 or 4 cycles of stripper and scraping with a plastic putty knife but it all came off exposing the original plating. Included a pic of the pedal connector and RBW pin as it also looks to be the original unit.

Rat's Nest is getting a heart transplant...
 

It's been a little while since I posted an update....been busier than a cat covering $hit these days!
I found a correctly dated 512 4 bolt main block and a matching set of 291 casting heads. Block is dated Sept. 8, 1969 and the heads are Sept. 11, 1969 so about 2 weeks before the build date of the car. The long block is built to stock spec.s with all the correct internals and was broke in on a stand. It will be a while before it lands in the subframe.

Went to a swap meet this weekend and met up with the son of the 2nd owner (Rat's Nest creator) again. He shared with me a story about the car's M22 biting the dust during one of the runs BITD. His Dad sent it to Doug Nash for a rebuild. Doug found the input shaft had a slight twist to it so that was replaced. When it was time to pay for the rebuild, his Dad was tight on money so he paid for the rebuild by giving Doug Nash his son's (guy I'm talking to) train set! Apparently Doug Nash was a model train collector in addition to an transmission guru!

Picked up a set of 1969 license plates at the swap meet, thought the MN suffix was appropriate:grin:

Spent some time today working on my 3.5" Fenton Gyros that will end up on the car. They're in pretty good shape with just a couple of nicks on wheel. I have more polishing to do, but am pleased with how it's coming out:biggthumpup:

Very cool plate! And the engine and wheels look great too - nice work.

That's some great work that you are doing. I'm guessing it won't be ready for SCR22. Maybe you can have it at SCR23? Are you going to come this year anyway?

Thanks Freddie. I'm hoping to finish the car up this winter so it is ready for SCR23. I'm still on the fence if I'm going to make it this year or not, definitely would like to since it was so much fun last year.

I think there are going to be some first timers there this year. Should be a good show again.

Started to clean up my BE rear today. Found some paint marks on the housing....curious if these are typical? Horizontal white line with runs on the top and a white "6"(?) on the bottom side of the passenger side of the gear housing. Bottom of the gear housing has what looks like (3) wide yellow stripes. All the paint marks look like they are applied to the bare casting. Black paint is on top of both the yellow and white marks.

Would the black paint have been applied at the factory or was that done by a previous owner?

Are you going to leave the rear end assembled or are you going to rebuild it?

My understanding is that the axle manufacturer would have painted the unit black prior to shipping to GM.....experts please chime in on this one. In my stripping process, the paint application on this rear seems to be (from recent to oldest):
1) semi-gloss black
2) chevy orange (side facing rear of car only)
3) semi-gloss black
4) yellow/white paint marks
5) bare steel

Layer 1 came off pretty easily, while layer 3 is adhered pretty good to the hsg. so I'm assuming this is the layer applied by the manufacturer.
My gut feel is to have someone go through it to replace bearings/seals, set backlash, etc. though just my uneducated eye says it all looks basically new now. Any advice is welcome.

Someone (can't remember who at the moment - Frank A. maybe) told me this particular rear was in a 57 chevy in the Columbus and originally came out of a burnished brown Frost Chevrolet RS COPO that had been wrecked BITD.

Where are you located? You don't have your location listed in your details.

Located in Minster, Ohio. Just updated my user details.

More BE stuff & questions
 

Pinion yoke - is it correct? Some research I've done says the u-joint should be held in by straps and bolts instead of u-bolts? Found some more paint dabs on the ends of the axles, white in the center and 3 orange dots on the flange. Anyone see that before? I ask because the rear side of this housing was painted orange so don't want to duplicate if it was part of that paint job.
Also curious what the "58" represents above the cast date tag on the housing. Anyone know?

The way I understand it the high HP cars got the larger yoke for the 1330 U joint and used U bolts instead of straps.

Bare, naked BE!

Please don't take anything out of that rear end without measuring backlash and doing a pattern check on it first. Once you remove parts it's too late to do this and you will have no idea how to set it up again. Also, please do not put punch marks on the left bearing cap and only put one mark on the right cap. Those punch marks can make the cap weak and the left cap carries more of a load than the right one. If the factory paint marks are still on the caps then there is no need to put punch marks on either cap, and even if the caps get mixed up you can still figure out where they go by measuring the bore size.

It looks like that housing is in great shape. Those tubes look like they are free of rust pits and the spring perches look like they haven't been bent or torn from abuse.

Does this rear end have the 1330 yoke with U bolts?

Spring perches are not original to the rear, Frank A. had his guy weld them on as part of the deal when I bought it. Housing and tubes are in fantastic shape with almost 0 pitting. It does not have the correct yoke...William over on CRG says that it should be the larger yoke (3954393) with straps/bolts instead of u-bolts.

Stopped to visit the car. Bodywork and initial panel alignment is coming along well. Currently waiting on my hood hinges to get back from resto so the hood can be aligned/fit. Original cowl hood was near perfect - zero rust. They will be protecting/retaining all the factory original interior overspray including the little paper tag on the inside of the door frames and rear panel inners. They will have to blend a little LB on the jamb side of the door inners where the PO sprayed some black.

any possibility of getting a pic of the rear axle tube stamping pls?

Looks great!

Eddie, here's a pic of of the stamp on my axle.

I have the same date in my Copo