69 Z/28 Day II Project (Air Force Brat)

[NorCam]

I've always avoided sand blasting springs and was told it makes them brittle or can stretch the weaker ones. I plan to add brand new springs to the frames.

[NorCam]

So I woke up this morning to ask myself, what can be accomplished today? Made a call to Al knoch to arrange a few things and spent a half hour discussing seat upholstery and door panels. I then picked up the subframe and rear end housing after both were media blasted. I drove to town and delivered them to my welders shop. He then stitch welded the frame and properly welded the axle tubes to the rear end housing for me. I then brought them back home later in the day and cleaned up all of the slag and the welds using a few Rolox disks. Next I picked up a new TruTrac Posi carrier and another shipment that just came up from HBC. From there I dropped off my bumper for Chroming along with the stainless trim which will now be polished to perfection. After that I packed up some parts and dropped the housing and subframe back to the powder coaters so he can coat them in the coming days. I have a late pickup scheduled to go and get my Muncie M23 trans that is coming up from the states today, and after I get home from that, I'm gonna sit down and drink a few beers. The rest of the weekend is going to be wound down as some relax time. (lol) yeah right



Housing is now stripped, buffed and ready for powder coating.


The tubes were previously welded, so we cleaned them up and a friend added some professional welds to the tubes.


He also stitch welded both sides of the sub frame to strenghen and stiffen the frame.


All of the stress points were beefed up to ensure a it handles some future abuse.


After everything was sanded down and polished up, it all went back to the powder coaters.

[napa68]

"and after I get home from that, I'm gonna sit down and drink a few beers. The rest of the weekend is going to be wound down as some relax time. (lol) yeah right"

I LIKE THE WAY YOU TALK!

[NorCam]

Right on Tim.

Got home 20 minutes ago, unpacked some parts and now I'm knocking back a couple cold ones. Bit of a long stretch here lately with a few different things in motion. You know how that is.


M23 A/G Trans with 346 Gear Package from Jeff Collins at Midwest Muncie

[big gear head]

I sent my M23 main shaft and gears to Jody Haag at Jody's Transmissions for a little tune up. He found some clearance issues and did a few things to improve oiling and shifting. I'm excited to get it back together and see how much better it works. Your guy probably did some of the same tricks to yours.

[NorCam]

Originally Posted by big gear head

I sent my M23 main shaft and gears to Jody Haag at Jody's Transmissions for a little tune up. He found some clearance issues and did a few things to improve oiling and shifting. I'm excited to get it back together and see how much better it works. Your guy probably did some of the same tricks to yours.

I've heard nothing but good things about Jody and did speak with him about doing a trans, but chose to go back with Jeff @ Midwest Muncie who is equally talented. I really can't wait to try out the box with this gear set.

[NorCam]

Learning all about seat restoration and GM Strato bucket frames this past weekend. It's all coming along now with the seat frames apart and ready to go out for media blasting before I paint them up. They are then being packed up and shipped off with fabric to be rebuilt and and fit with new covers by Al Knoch. Al Knoch will also be custom dyeing a set of door panels so they match the yellow Madrid vinyl colors that I purchased through SMS. These should look fantastic once everything is recovered. I still have to detail some of the original seat hardware but it's going well so far with the original buttons and locks cleaned up. Also spent some time restoring the backs of the rosewood dash pieces yesterday and repainted the black areas.

[NorCam]

Learning all about seat restoration and GM Strato bucket frames this past weekend. It's all coming along now with the seat frames apart and ready to go out for media blasting before I paint them up. They are then being packed up and shipped off with fabric to be rebuilt and and fit with new covers by Al Knoch. Al Knoch will also be custom dyeing a set of door panels so they match the yellow Madrid vinyl colors that I purchased through SMS. These should look fantastic once everything is recovered. I still have to detail some of the original seat hardware but it's going well so far with the original buttons and locks cleaned up. Also spent some time restoring the backs of the rosewood dash pieces yesterday and repainted the black areas.


That rolled up package contains 8.5 yards of new seat material from SMS

[napa68]

It now is about 3 days since you posted Graeme!!!!! Stop screwing off on that Harley and get back to work......I need my fix!

[NorCam]

LOL @ Tim

The good news is that Ron started on the car this week and he's been banging away at it for a couple days now. I made a trip over to his shop today to see the floors and pick from some paint cards he sprayed out last night. The rear frame rails were very clean and the original 16ga torque boxes stayed in place since the AMD torque boxes were lighter at only 18ga. The torque boxes and seat pans were welded in today and all of the plug welds have now been ground smooth including along the lower rockers.

Next up he has some rust to deal with along the dash top. Once that's done he'll move onto the firewall which is also getting new metal. I suspect he'll also keep the original front mounts in place as they are also clean and rust free. In the pictures below, there are two shots of the paint that I chose. With inside light it's a terrific match, but is deeper with a shade more yellow once you get it out in the sun. This card is actually Sherwin Williams ATX BC/CC in 76 Daytona Yellow and I think they also call it Harvest Gold in other GM lines? In either case, it was the deepest color he sprayed out and it really pops in the sun so that's what I chose. More soon as I'm busy with all the bits and pieces while Ron works his way through the body. It's going very well here.


Floor removed to reveal clean solid frame rails and torque boxes which were retained and welded to the new floor.


New AMD floor is in with all of the welding finished up and grinding nearly complete. Both seat boxes are also installed now.


Plug welds between the new floor pan and the original rockers which by the way were completely rust free.


Like most people, Ron doesn't like his picture taken but I got one of him with the car today. (lol)


Sherwin Williams ATX Code 76 Daytona Yellow with a great match under natural lighting.


Hard to see the difference here. but in the sunlight this BC/CC paint really pops.