Sally

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Been on this site alot to help my build but just now decided to make my own account. May take a couple days to complete the progress but will do my best. Started this 2 years ago when my coupe got crushed by a BMW that decided not to stop at a red light. 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Found new roller

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

I hope im doing this right by clicking the reply button to update my own post bit here she is back from paint. Gonna go with the 1970 grabber u code. 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Wiring and lower dash. Nice foam mat helps alot. Floor hurts after couple hours. AAW wiring harness worth every penny

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

SO the hood stayed in the bedroom for almost a year. Not sure why wife was ok with it but happy she was haha

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Lost a few photos but finished brake lines. Stainless steel sounds like a great idea until you try to flare them. Finally got them to work but had to order eastwood flare tool that mounts on bench vice. Stainless steel fuel line was awesome though. Lined right up no problem 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Control arms in. 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Dash in with dakota digital gauges. Adding clutch pedal so much easier before dash is in.

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Had 3.55 gear and Tloc installed. Then spent 3 days cleaning and sanding rust. Painted with eastwood rust encapsulator

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

LED headlights. Building the front end grill, headlight buckets, and bumper are a NIGHTMARE. Finally found out to place bumper first. Then buckets and grill pieces. Yeah. Had to redo everything at least 5 times

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

[RPM 1,190]

Real nice job. Love the color. 

[Vicfreg 771]

Wow, nice job...

[EastYorkStang 63]

Great progress.

 

Wasn't the coupe salvageable ?

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

thanks everyone. Hey Vicfreg! you are the reason I'm on here. thank you. I learned so. much from your posts that I figured I may post so someone else may see something, also to show everyone on here how much you all helped me. thanks everyone more updates to come as I'm still trying to catch up

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

So please bear with me, I don't think I am responding correctly but, Eastyork unfortunately my coupe was not salvageable.  I was parked at a stoplight and the BMW was doing 60 with foot still on Gas. I got sandwiched between 2 cars. the body was completely twisted, floor snapped, etc. there wasn't a single salvageable panel. the pics don't do it justice as it was BAD. Snapped my corbeau seat, put me in backseat and even broke my neck. would have been worse if I still had the original seats.

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

So interior pretty much done. Had rear seat reupholstered with wider strips by local shop. Doesn't match perfectly but looks good enough to me and I'm not winning any shows, I just need a car to drive. all the panels are repo plastic and kind of flimsy compared to the original fiberglass so I lined them with sound damp material. seems to make them much more solid. Had to do new carpet as well but super worth it. Much thicker than original. had a hard time finding bolt holes so I used a cheap soldering iron and melted the holes through so permanent. Smells bad but makes intall of seats and belts so much better

 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Seats are Corbeau A4s, ordered directly from their website. bolted right in. Side glass is repop.... cannot get it aligned perfectly, got pretty close bu shimming the TOP of the adjuster. found out from local guy that the repop glass is very slightly wrong on the curve so has issues. I will have to keep eye out for original glass later but for now just need to get to a safe reliable driver. 

[toranav8ss 16]

Terrible thing to happen, but doing a great job with this build, congrats

[stangs-R-me 120]

Sorry to hear about the accident and the Hardtop being totaled, but sure is a blessing you survived to be able to start again with a Sportsroof.

Very nice work and great color choice.

Oh, and welcome to the forum !!

Doug

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Corbeau seat was in a permanent recline after the hit. So I understand there is a right way to do things and the right answer is to replace the seat. Unfortunately I am Active Duty Navy and building a car nearly broke haha. SO dismantled the seat and found the culprit. luckily just a bent/split bar. was able to beat it straight and weld the pipe back together. replaced hog rings on the leather and installed seat. YES before you blow me up for unsafe etc, I know its not perfect but as said I do what I can to get her back on the road. I am also sure it is better than the original seats so sometimes we do the best we can.

As most of you probably already know (and I have since learned) building our old cars never goes as planned. I have also found that what you budget for your build you should just double that at ehe start. costs adding up so looking at saving where I can. Also, seats are easy to replace later where engine and trans etc are more difficult later. 

 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Put Stripes on. Decided an off center would be different. just using vinyl strips that I cut for now. will likely paint on later. Blue tape on the cowl was to Align everything. After putting the vinyl on the cowl and looking terrible on the slots I just painted the stripe on the cowl. Also had front and back glass installed. I didn't do that as I didn't want to take a risk at messing it up. however it was pretty cheap as I had the original back glass. best part was they came to my house to do it. great news as I was worried I would have to tow it to a place. 

[Mike65 475]

WOW! looks great, nice progress. 

[Dr Chickenhawk 23]

Well, getting pretty close to being caught up. Took the hood back off, as only wanted it on there to line up stripes and keep busy while waiting for engine to be done. 302 (308 now) engine installed near Christmas. finally got engine back. as written about last time everything changes. was going to rebuild engine myself then decided since its already out better go ahead and do it right. took to local shop (Dave ARCE) in San Diego. great small shop cool guys. engine was already 40 over and I did not want to go 60. he recommended just bore the cylinders as little as possible and get custom pistons cut as they only couple hundred bucks extra (sure my credit card is already gasping but I don't want to have to redo anything costing more later). He also had them put the wrist pin slightly lower to get better compression? sounded good to me. ended up 43 over with simple Edelbrock heads and a mild roller cam. Im gonna drive this nearly every day so don't need to be able to race but still want to have fun. COVID decided that everything was going to take forever to arrive so car was nearly done when engine showed up. that's ok because my garage is not big. 

So engine started but ran like crap and I couldn't get the timing right, called the shop and looks like the firing order is now same as 351. swapped some wires and runs like a top. below is changing plug wires and valve covers. (shiny). Backed her up to a T5 from Modern Drive line. May have to do a whole write up on only that. Those guys are AMAZING. I called MDL and the owner answered the phone. he talked with me for nearly 30 minutes. He wanted to know everything from how I plan on driving to expectations to rear end. ultimately they sent me everything INCLUDING fluid. I only had to source an actual pedal (talked about that earlier)

Last thing, note the Power brake booster that I thought was a great idea and took great pains to get the clutch cable attached to. More on that later but boy do I regret that one.