Late 60's Vintage Modified Race Car

[Shaun1162]

Originally Posted by RWB-713

I can't say enough enough how much I enjoy your project man. I love the old race car design & just noticing how much it's evolved since then is awesome. You put a tone of time & effort into this thing man, and it's looking great!

Thanks for all the kind words! It's definately been a learning experience!

[Shaun1162]

Got my seat back last week and set it in to see how things looked... Had to have some more foam taken out of it though.



So I ended up getting my quick release steering wheel hub in the mail today, so decided to weld that on and see how things look. The steering wheel was just one that was on the shelf, and I didn't really like the looks of it at first, but it's sorta growing on me now...



I also started to hack up the old transmission cover I had.... Still needs alot of work, but I think it may look alright when it's done.

[Shaun1162]

Finally just decided to bite the bullet and bull into the trans cover today...




There was too much open space around the transmission/bellhousing (my own mistake for not fixing that before I painted it!), so I started off by adding some around there...












Then I bent a piece of plate for the hoop, and cut out a piece to close it in..











It kinda looks goofy and big, but that was actually on purpose... There wasn't an easy way to seal the firewall cutout to the rest of the chassis. So by making this cover big it'll hopefully be a little bigger then the firewall opening and help to keep some of the hot air from the engine out.



Need to do some more fitting/cutting/welding, but this part is pretty well done. Just have to make a simple sheet metal cover for the actual transmission itself and I should be all set on this part of the project..

[Shaun1162]

Anybody notice anything different??













Body work definately isn't done (I wish!) but at least the body is one color again (for the most part)! All the rust is done and taken care of, just have some more sanding and figure out what I want to do with some of the dents... Leaving some of them for sure, but once it was in primer I could see plenty of places that kinda bug me... Also have to deal with the windshield wiper set-up, probably going to have to relocate the hole and the bracket on the inside of the car in order for the wiper to actually be useful for sitting in the middle.

[Shaun1162]

Worked on the headlights today...

Built these brackets out of some tubing I bent and some extra plate I had, then added the threaded rod and a taper washer to dress it up a little. I put another tapered spacer/washer on top of the one that's welded because of how the bottom of the headlights are (no idea how they mounted to the original vehicle- could have been on the fender or something)..





The look kindy goody in these pictures, but in the "big picture" I think they look pretty good











Maybe tomorrow I'll drive it out and see how they look outside..

[mechanixman]

That's looking fantastic Shaun, great work.
If you don't like the look of the front of the car, maybe you can get a 30's grill, and widen it, so it fits the radiator.
I bet it would work a lot better with the headlights .
Just my 2 cents

[67ChevyRedneck]

Love it. When do you think we'll see some color and race graphics?
Posted via Mobile Device

[Shaun1162]

So I got my rear tires in today, had them mounted, and painted up the wheels... For the first time it actually sits level on all corners!

I guess it sort of looks like it's going away from a race car and more towards a hot rod right now, after losing the right front baby tire, and the headlights (which I don't think look too bad once it's outside- maybe a little big, but it'll be better once they're painted and blend in more).. Once it's painted and the numbers are back on it it'll be a different story then!





These new tires are about 32" tall I think... They aren't as "cool" as those old racing tires, BUT they do help to hide where the body and rearend don't really line up...

[Shaun1162]

Originally Posted by mechanixman

That's looking fantastic Shaun, great work.
If you don't like the look of the front of the car, maybe you can get a 30's grill, and widen it, so it fits the radiator.
I bet it would work a lot better with the headlights .
Just my 2 cents

Thank for the compliments! Now that it's out in the open I don't think the headlights looks too goofy, especially after I paint them black... I'm sure on factory style grill would definately dress it up, but for now trying to stick with that old mesh that the original grill had

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Love it. When do you think we'll see some color and race graphics?
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks! Hopefully soon! Mostly just some dents that are bugging me and some more sanding, and then it should be good to go! Probably be tricky when I first start trying to paint the numbers on it, but I think that kinda adds to the character of it... Definately not going vinyl stickers on this one

[XJAbuzer]

This has turned out so awesome. I love it. I only wish it still had the fat tires.....makes it look more like the old racers. It still looks badass though. Nice save and great work!

[Shaun1162]

Originally Posted by XJAbuzer

This has turned out so awesome. I love it. I only wish it still had the fat tires.....makes it look more like the old racers. It still looks badass though. Nice save and great work!

Thanks! I too wish I could have kept those fat tires on the back, but for the price of 2 of those tires (that are DOT approved), I got 2 new ones for the back, 2 like new ones for the front, and all 4 rims... And then of course if (more like when!) I get pulled over, a real hard cop could cite me for the wheels being non-DOT approved

[XJAbuzer]

Originally Posted by Shaun1162

Thanks! I too wish I could have kept those fat tires on the back, but for the price of 2 of those tires (that are DOT approved), I got 2 new ones for the back, 2 like new ones for the front, and all 4 rims... And then of course if (more like when!) I get pulled over, a real hard cop could cite me for the wheels being non-DOT approved

Yeah, that really sucks. Money always gets in the way of how we want our builds to turn out.

[Shaun1162]

Latest project has been tackling the windshield....

Didn't want to deal with finding all the brackets, hinges, etc. to make it swing out, so I decided to go ahead and mount it solid. Ended up using nutserts for the first time, worked out pretty well. Couple of them I had to re-do, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.

There were factory holes on the inside of the windshield lip along the bottom, so I just marked where they landed on the frame, drilled them out and put the nutserts in: (don't mind the dirty, cracked/broken glass... Got a new piece cut, just using this for mockup)



Also ended up putting the windshield wiper in, worked out pretty good. I ended up welding the stock hole for the windshield tonight, but didn't have time to do it when I took the pictures...

You can see the painted nerf bars/bumpers, painted headlights, the gas tank, and the Model A style taillights a little better now...











Digging through some parts I found these the other day, and figured I'd share.

The oil gauge on the left was the original one in the car... It broke when I was trying to take it out of the car, but I assume it was junk anyways. About 2 or 3 weeks later, I was sifting through a box of misc. parts at a local flea market, and found an exact NOS gauge, and bought it for a $1. Obviously not fancy, but a pretty weird coincidence huh??

Anybody know who made these gauges?? It's only marked "Made in the USA" on the back, and unfortunately the NOS one was missing most of the box... Would like to find a matching water temperature one, they built the gauge "cluster" to have 2, but it only had this one in it when I got it...

[Shaun1162]

Anyone notice a change??



















Been a while since I painted a vehicle (or at least the actualy body that you can see)... Think the last time was when I was 17 and had a borken wrist!

Came out pretty good actually... Just went with a simple Alkyd Enamel, in Case/IH red (afterall, I wanted to keep with the "built out in the barn" heritage!). Couple runs in it, mostly on the bottom of the drivers door which I wasn't too happy about- but once it's on, has numbers, etc. I don't think it'll be noticeable. The black roof should be done this week some time!

[plainred65]

Can't wait to see it with the #'s on. Looking good!

[67ChevyRedneck]

Awesome!

Is that thing seriously balanced with only one tie down strap?

[motornut]

nice ,sure cleaned up

[Shaun1162]

Really should have waited another day or two to paint the top, but I think we all know how that goes.... Unfortunately there are a few spots where the tape left marks in the paint. Hopefully I might be able to wet sand it, or perhaps use rubbing compound and some wax to help hide it, but oh well- live and learn. I certainly don't think they would have cared that much when they painted it in the first place!

Not too bad for being 19 and my first true solo paint job on a car body... And two-tone at that!

ALSO forgot to mention a pretty exciting item that I got in the mail yesterday... After about a year of asking around, phone calls, exhanging letters, etc. a good friend managed to get in contact with the last driver's family. Think this is from 1971. Pretty excited when I opened up that envelope

[Shaun1162]

Originally Posted by plainred65

Can't wait to see it with the #'s on. Looking good!

Thanks! I'm getting excited to see it numbered too!

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Awesome!

Is that thing seriously balanced with only one tie down strap?

It sure is! Amazingly I haven't had a single problem with doing it that way.... I hook the strap to the lift, and have used it countless times to lift the body on and off of the chassis. I think the body even stayed up in the air above the chassis for a good month or two without issue

Originally Posted by motornut

nice ,sure cleaned up

Thankfully the body did survive pretty good... Should certainly stand out pretty good!

[ol'blazer]

this is probably one of the coolest builds on this site! my favorite for sure!

[mechanixman]

I'd agree with blazer. Pretty sweet.
Did you already know that was the original paint scheme? or was that pure coincidence?

[Shaun1162]

Originally Posted by ol'blazer

this is probably one of the coolest builds on this site! my favorite for sure!

Why thank you! But don't worry, my heart still has Chevy on it!

Originally Posted by mechanixman

I'd agree with blazer. Pretty sweet.
Did you already know that was the original paint scheme? or was that pure coincidence?

Thanks! No, not a coincidence... It's kind of hard to see from my early pictures, but there was evidence of the bright red in areas that had been protected by from the elements (like under the hood on the cowl), and the original builder had confirmed that it has been red and black when he owned it as well.

[motornut]

thats cool,
I work with old pics and can fix some "ageing"

[Shaun1162]

Originally Posted by motornut

thats cool,
I work with old pics and can fix some "ageing"

Thanks for doin that! The second pictures shows much better contrast for sure...

[Shaun1162]

Just a quick update.... Trying to get almost everything done to the "interior" of the car before I set the body back on... Have to make a shifter, wire the car, and do some finish work/painting, then I should be able to set the body on it for good and move on to the brakes, engine, hood, etc.

Made a rear-shock set up:



Parking Brake lever (Need to find something else to use as a boot!):



Switch for the brake lights: