Leaderboard

Not strictly related to ‘69 forum , but here is the next project; 1968 fastback. i vowed to myself not to do one major resto, but can’t resist one more fastback project as will take me through to my retirement in circa 2-3 yrs time. Definitely not for purists, ex US West Cost car, has hybrid MII at present, ripping it out, and putting a MTF front end in with a Coyote and supercharger . After that I’ll do one piece floor, cowl, mini tubs, rear 3 links etc but keep the body line of the 68 as I just love it shape. Wish me luck for the next 3-4 yrs.

We spent the morning drilling holes and sanding flanges. We also put the firewall in the car to test fit again, and to see if I can install the torque boxes the way I want. We ran out of 3 inch sanding disks, but they should be here today. The lower cowl panel export brace holes aren’t quite lining up with the firewall. I didn’t play with it too much, but we may have to relocate them. Driver side of the firewall needs to come up 1/4” to meet the cowl flange

It is on my daily driver; I use it to go to work, shopping etc. Did not encounter any of those but I do not live in Atlanta downtown traffic kind of city.

Thank you and so true on what you say, done 250 miles with another 70 miles today with 30 mins traffic and loved every minute of driving her.

Thanks, it was next to the beach, so not as bad as it looks ! chris

I'm the same height as you and will also need to lower the seat. I have played with a similar idea, but with the square tube running from rocker to rocker, and with a bend over the tunnel, and maybe a drive shaft loop. You could probably make it lower and still keep it sturdy since you have plenty of room for a tall tube going mostly under the floor, at least in the front. So far it's only an idea in my head, so I don't know how feasible it is.

You mentioned both MTF and TMI headliners, which one do you have?

Well...Bob. Okay, I admit, I only drive it on dry sunny days... Mostly to car shows on the weekends, but I enjoy every minute that I am behind the wheel... and that's no bull :-)

Some recent acquisitions. We were able to find a nicely restored original Hurst shifter. Reproduction rods and handle, but original levers and T-handle. Also just purchased an original 1969 gauge cluster with tach and 140mph speedometer. Not sure I’ve ever seen a 140mph speedo before. Will obviously need to trade the panel for a 1970, but the gauges will work.

It's been awhile since I posted anything, I've just been enjoying driving the car. While in winter storage, I decided to install a 1" rear sway bar and "CalTrac like" traction bars from CPP. Becasue I converted to rear disc, the factory style sway bars that mounts to the plate that is bolted to the axle/shock plate will not fit around the calipers. So I went with a CPP sway bar that clamps to the axle housing and bolts to the frame near the rear torque boxes. It also does not interfere with the new traction bars. See the captions with each picture below.

Been running the Autolte 45's forever. In my 289 as well as the 428. Reliable with consistent quality. Under $3.00 each but steadily creeping up. Brian

The big day is here! Today we made sparks! Previously we drilled holes at 5/16” In the inner rocker. We are welding inside to out, as it offers much less area you have to grind on that will also be visible. We did have some exceptions back at the torque box area where we had to weld outside to in. We completed the welds on the passenger side. Truthfully, I did most of it while my son helped, but he did get in there and do some himself, but he wasn’t as confident as I was with rosette welding. We used 5/16” holes, but we could have used 1/4” holes particularly if we were welding outside to in. Our process was as such. We put epoxy primer on both the inner surfaces, including where the wells would go. We then drilled holes. We then positioned the body side back up on the car and clamped it. I took a burned up 1/4” drill bit and flattened the end to use as a scraper to remove the epoxy on off the back metal in the hole area and used it with a die grinder. Then we welded. Where you see scorch marks in the first photo was where we had drilled holes and used screws to hold it together. Turned out awesome. Still need to grind the welds flat. About 3 hours of work Pictures…

Apologies I’ve not posted any updates recently, but the good news she is finally only the road over here in the U.K.. Had a number of issues such as timing and brakes, so it went way for a few weeks to someone I know to sort it out Still got some seals to fit, miscellaneous jobs to sort out, but it’s first run out was last weekend to a local show. It drove well and I’m so pleased with it. So it is true that good things come to those who wait ! chris

Weather seems to be warming up. We havent had much chance to do work on the car. I've been rebuilding the engine in dad's mower (Onan P220 for the interested... couldnt talk him into the SBF). That will be done Friday. Next week will be warm enough that we can get primer on the firewall (which miraculously hasnt rusted), and continue mock up. I did start purchasing engine parts. We also tore down the block to the bones, and it will be headed towards the machine shop this summer. I hope to start having more regular updates starting next week.