mikee

Update!
 
Installed the power windows and the seals and got the windows adjusted pretty darn good. I went through 6 pairs of door runs to find some that made the window arc correctly. The aftermarket stuff just didn't work well. I ended up using a combination of original and aftermarket door runs. The windows move FAST. Unexpectedly fast. Still cool Got the doors aligned with the seals in too. 
 

 

 
Test fitted fenders and hood for the final time before welding. I ended up buying another pair of new fenders. It didn't make much sense to me to have original fenders that need work to look new, when everything else on the car was new. The new fenders did require some removal of material on the inside support and I had to shave some of the side cowl to get them to fit nicely. Overall i'm happy with them now. 
 

 
I've been doing a lot of welding. Hundreds of spot welds. Hundreds.... I unfortunately put too many holes in the outer rockers. I also don't really like how small the holes are. I would occasionally hear a POP when id move to another area to weld which means I didn't have great penetration on some of them. So, once I get the car on the rotisserie I will seam weld the rockers together for additional strength. I still have a lot of grinding to do. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Made sense to paint the inner side cowls while it's easy.
 

 

 

 
I also noticed that the outer cowls have these 2 overlapping seams from manufacturing. I welded them up. 
 

 
Passenger side torqued box was a pain. I had to slice the bottom of the inner torque box where it meets up with the frame rail because it was way too low. Could been a combination of a couple things. Poorly stamped firewall, or the torque box. Either way, I made it work. Welded it up and then painted.
 

 

 
Floor jack was very helpful to position the outer torque box and get it right against the firewall 
 

 

 
 
Driver's side went in great. Minimal cutting or shaving required. 
 

 

 
I also noticed that the front of the rocker had moved away from the frame rail and the outer torque box didn't butt up to the rocker. It was out by about 1/2". I used some tow straps (need 3 of them) to pull it back in, and then tacked in the torque box. 
 

 
Been working on the lower and upper cowl. Got the lower positioned. Drilled the holes, welded it in then seam sealed and painted. Paint, seam seal, paint, seam seal, paint. Lots of layers of protection around the hat and also where the lower cowl was welded to the side cowls incase there were any pinholes from the welds. 
 

 

 

 
I also seam sealed and painted the gaps/crevices inside the side cowls. There was no way I could weld them from the inside. At least now though water cannot pool in the crevices and is as protected as I could make it. 
 

 

 
Prepping upper cowl. Drilled holes, deburred the holes, and also gave the inside a couple more coats of paint.
 

 

 
Lower cowl prepped for welding
 

Damn! I have to order new rebuild set... :)

Looks great!  Steady progress and……….it’s in!  
One word of caution however:  carb rebuilds should really be done with creamy peanut butter.  The crunchy causes misfires…..

Haven't been doing a whole lot. I plan to drop off my heads July 3rd. I've bought new Manley valves, Howards valve springs, seals, roller rockers and roller cam. Damn cam went up almost $200 since the first of the year. I want to pull the block, strip it and drop it off to get cleaned and checked to make sure it doesn't need bored. In the mean time I'm working on some small stuff. Had the kitchen redone in 21 but the contractor messed up the flooring. That's finally getting replaced next month (not by the contractor) so house stuff is taking priority.
I made a new throttle cable bracket for the engine. I've developed a tremor in my right hand so the welds aren't very pretty. Will have to do something about that. Here's the intake/carb mocked up.

Sooo, Carb is overhauled, installed and my biggest nightmare - installing of engine with tranny is done!!! Due to lack of time for quality time in garage I decided to order whole exhaust and not to build it by myself.  That's the last thing to my initial engine start :)

Sooo, Carb is overhauled, installed and my biggest nightmare - installing of engine with tranny is done!!! Due to lack of time for quality time in garage I decided to order whole exhaust and not to build it by myself.  That's the last thing to my initial engine start :)

Visited the body shop last week, making good progress.  I got my NPD Ford tooling shaker hood and am happy to report that it only needed minor tweaking to get aligned.  I also have billet hood hinges, apparently they needed some tweaking, I will report back on that after I go back there on Wednesday.
The current work is focused on getting my Maier Racing one piece front spoiler fitted up. That is a very nice piece of work heavy fiberglass, and fits really well.  Just a few things to do and it will fit fine.
I was at Carlisle Ford show this weekend, and searched for a decent 1970 hood trim piece. As you know, the NOS ones are hard to find and expensive.  I did have a good friend offer to let me use his to make sure the hood and headlight trim line up correctly, will be bringing that up there to the body shop on Wednesday.
I also will bring my front bumper, and the associated mounting brackets up there to ensure that they clear the spoiler/valence combination and that the bumper lines up correctly.  
To answer the other questions....  the car will be in the paint booth twice. The first trip will be very soon, and will be the initial prime coat over the body work that has been done.  Then, out of the booth, and back into the shop to be block sanded. After that back into the paint booth do do the base coat, hood stripe, and first clearcoat.  In the end we will end up with 3 layers of clearcoat.
The place that is doing the work is the same shop that painted my '68 coupe.  The main business is called Klassic Rides.  The shop where my car is located is called GunnerZ, which is a sister business to Klassic Rides.  Both are located in Newton, North Carolina.  Klassic Rides painted my '68, it needed a lot of work.  GunnerZ is primarily paint and body for cars that don't need an extensive amount of work.  
My car has been "waiting in line" for 8 months to get started.  The current wait time is approaching a year.
But, my '68 was painted 15 years ago, and the paint job is still flawless.  
PIcs below of my '68 coupe in 1967 Marina Blue Metallic, a '63 Corvette in my final color of "Sebring Silver",  and the ongoing work on the '70 convertible.
My guess is that I will have the car back sometime in July or August.
 

Earlier this week we did some more mock assembling to make sure we had things in the right places. We put the quarters and roof on to make sure the positioning of the rear filler panel was correct. I measured my Fastback at 31-5/16” down the middle. The car we are building measured at 31-7/16”. I think it is in the roof. I also measured the trunk diagonal to corners and it came out exactly the same as my car, so I am confident enough that everything is in the right place. I stripped the inside of the filler panel and brushed on some epoxy primer. I also stripped the upper seat support brackets, primered those, and drilled holes for the plug welds. I’m hoping tomorrow we can weld some of this stuff together. 

Tonight was busy but necessary work of grinding down welds in the wheel wells and primering the bare metal. Nothing sexy.

Work continues.  Wheel wells are welded in place.
 

Did the same exercise with the heads. Clearly no work needed.
 

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. 
 

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. 

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
 

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 

It's been a while since I posted an update, and a lot has changed!
After sitting about a year and a half on the waitlist, my body shop is ready to start on the car.  I stripped the car of every last panel and bolt, in preparation for sending it off to Xpress Metal Cleaning in Phoenix, AZ.  There I had it acid dipped to remove everything but the steal.  Next week it gets picked up and delivered to the body shop to start the real work! 
The car did look pretty good before the dip, and people would ask me, "Why are you doing this, the car looks great as it is!"  Well, one look at the quarter panels after the acid dip is all I needed to know that I did the right thing!  Once we have it back and can look at it in person, we'll determine of the quarters will need to be reskinned.  Right now I'm thinking yes. 
 
Teardown begins!





 
Loaded up for transport:



 
Squeaky clean after the dip:

It's quite on this page :)
My slooow progres on engine:
 

Well, I personally don’t do repetition very well. So I’m going to build this engine with a little modern touch. Still collecting pieces .what I have so far.

Dont buff until you get down to the finest grit or it is a lot more work .
I bought a buffer from Harbor freight years ago and it still works great ,i just mounted it on a pole . The buff wheels and compounds i would get a the Turlock swap meet ,those bars are at least 15 years old and started out about 12 inches long ,white is stainless and green is a polish grit . Final phase is mothers mag polish for a very bright glow . 
Make sure to wrap the nut at the polish wheel with tape or you will soon find out why . 
Wear gloves and keep a tight grip on the metal or you will find it right between your eyes ,hold the metal to the wheel gently and mage sure there is no edge to grab ,it is best to buff length wise so it doesnt  grab and wrap your stainless around the shaft . 
The longest hammer is from EastWoods ,one is actually a tack hammer ,i keep them polished so they dont mark the metal when knocking out dings . These tiny hammers also work great for very fine body work !
Sometime this summer i have all the stainless for two 56 Ford Fairlanes to buff and that is not going to be a lot of fun!

At least upgraded valve springs and screw in studs with adjustable rockers.
I have this cam from howards , idle 800-850 rpm , 5800-6000 rpm max
 

Hi Guys,
so, my euphory after my first engine parts shipment came only after a week since order (Rockauto) is gone. I received connecting rod bearings, cam bearings, oil pump, timing chain but the rest of delivery (with main bearings of course) got stuck at our famous customs to. Since December 12th  I have no respond from them what I should do to get the parts. My “Christmas” build is gone, so I spent Holidays with some unnecessary work. After I build my custom steering wheel, I finished battery relocation pan with circuit breaker and kill switch.

Part 12 - Engine is finished
So, my decision to change cams after the engine was basically complete took up a lot of time and money.
Lunati 282HR cam (P/N # 20350712) arrived 3 weeks earlier than I was told, so I was able to get into that. 
Pulling the front was easy but the timing case gasket was sacrificed. Can you believe it took 2 weeks to ship one 500 miles? I hate couriers sometimes.
The Trickflow timing set I installed had 2 new countersunk screws for the cam plate, to give clearance for the bronze thrust washer

Neat system, all you need to do is countersink the hole. Well, the guy who screwed to motor together this first time put too much lock tight on the screws, and I rounded the hex head off trying to remove it. Ok, no issue I'll buy another one.
Pull the old cam, start to prep the new cam and what do I see? Imperfections in the lobes! Dammit

I don't know what they were, but they weren't welcome. This was a Saturday so I couldn't do anything. I was slightly paniced as the supplier only got 3 cams and they said 2 were pre-sold (including me). So I spent the weekend freaking. Luckily, Monday I called them, they still had 2, physically checked one and sent out a new one. They even paid for the freight back for the dud one. Precision International in Melbourne are top people.
So, now to buy a new screw for the cam plate. Trick flow don't sell them as an item, so I goes to a bolt shop. cuppla bucks later I had 2 new screws, but the heads about about 1/16" bigger.. Off to the tool shop, get a larger countersink tool and cut the plate again. It's not right, as it looks like the taper on the new screws is different too, but it doesn't foul the thrust washer so that's good.
In with the new cam, time it up, put it all back together. But, new cam with higher lift means new pushrods. So they are on order.
I had to remove the sump to put the front cover on, so I took some pictures of the innards. The phone had oil all over it so they aren't great, but you seen one crank and rods you seen 'em all...
Windage tray and Boss 302 oil pickup for the Boss sump

Valley and lifters whilst setting timing. I bought 2 hydraulic lifters and made the solid so I could check the pushrod length, which is why the spider is missing.

SRS forged pistons, +0.030", -5cc domes. Massive valve reliefs, there is still about 3 feet in engine measurement before the valves come even close to the piston.

Bit of alloy head porn. These are Dart Pro 1 heads, 195cc inlets with a 2.02"/1.60" valve. I also paid extra for a mild clean up on them when they checked the springs. No idea if it will help but the ports have been opened up nicely.

Then, today I fitted the flywheel and checked the bellhousing run out. I'm not sure if I was lucky or not but the numbers cam in at -0.090" and +0.011", which I calculate to be 0.002" and within tolerance max of 0.005"
The clutch was modified by a local shop, it is a 10.5" plate and an Exedy cover, he was seeking a good clamp with a light-ish pedal. Time will tell.
Finally, after months of work I have a complete engine ready to stick back in.

 

Thanks Bob, I drew it as I liked it (handle thickness, diameter, and wheel rise) and local shop cut it for me. Beech plywood, epoxy glue, stain and approx. 12 hours of work.