Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0
69again

69 302 Coupe Restoration so far

By 69again, in Project Progress Forum

Recommended Posts

69again    10

69again
Posted

Ok, here is our father/son restoration so far. Remember, amateur here. Haven't done this in 30 years. The car was a 1 family owner purchased in NV and spent the rest of it's days in OR. Which is a blessing. I grew up in Michigan were rust is really bad. Didn't look as though there was any rust, but I would know more after media blasting.

 

Bought the car July 5th, 2007. Washed it and moved it into the garage for tear down. Took a few pictures, (you can never have too many pictures of the engine area, learned that the hard way) and labeled everything as we took it apart. Well almost as I have a couple of pieces I am not sure where they go yet.

 

The PO tried to paint it and from a distance it was shiny, but close up has blisters and lots of tree sap and pine needles from sitting out side for the past few years. Lots of bolts missing from the front fenders and hood wasn't attached. Thought it was because they removed them for painting and never got it back together. I was planning on using new bolts and nuts anyway so at the time I didn't think much of it. Engine wasn't running as a couple of freeze plugs were popped out. Since it is a complete numbers matching car, I was hoping the block was ok, but if it wasn't that was ok too since my son and I just wanted restore it for him as a daily driver.

 

Took the engine to a machine shop where it checked out really well. They did all the test and then I had them bore it 30 over grind and polish the crank, install new bearings, added srp pistons, had them recondition the rods, add new arp rod bolts, balance the rotating assembly and installed the crank and pistons. They sealed it in a plastic bag and I couldn't wait to get it home.

 

Preparing to get the car ready for media blasting. Completely dis-assemble the car. Spent many days under the car removing undercoating. Found a really nice older man who does restorations. He has two huge buildings and inside one is a full size paint booth. Really nice guy and teaches restoration classes at a local community school. Took nearly 2 months to blast as it wasn't his highest priority, but he blasted 30 or 40 pieces, which I was able to pick up and prime and start painting before he started the body. He rents his paint booth out for $40 a day, so I was able to hang all the parts up and prime them with epoxy primer. I paid him for an hour of time to help me set up my gun.

 

Finally got the car back to the house. One little surprise, I think the reason the PO didn't completely bolt the driver side fender on was because of fitment. The PO did a repair to the driver side and it wasn't done perfect. Not bad though since no metal needed to be repaired. The last evenings have been spent trying to fit the door so the gaps are even. Almost there.

 

Bought tons of new interior/suspension parts for the restoration. Very exciting getting all these new parts. Went with the Edelbrock Top end package for heads, manifold, cam, etc. We are doing this rebuild for us to drive, however, I have kept all the original parts, (heads, manifold, carb, exhaust manifolds, etc) so if we ever sold it, it could be put back to stock if desired.

 

We finished the engine and took it to the machine shop to beak in the cam and dyno it. Edelbrock says it should put out 376hp and 340lbft of torque. This was one of the most exciting/worrisome times. Will it start and will it make it through the dyno. I didn't sleep much the night before the test. Started right up and they broke in the cam. Pretty neat to see. They put a special oil filter on it so they can check for any problems after each pull. Makes for a long day, but fun for me.

 

Everything is going back together well. Got the new wheels and tires. Thank you to all the other members for your tire threads. It really helped with size and fitment. Finally order them, rear wheels took longer because of the custom back spacing. Front bfg kdw 245/45/17 on TTII's 17x8, 4 3/4 bs, rear bfg kdw 285/40/17 on TTII's 17x9.5, 5 1/2 bs

 

Have done a fair amount of the body work, but wanted the engine and suspension under her for final fitment, which brings us to today.

 

Hope to paint her by mid May, interior after that and driving around in June. My son's 16th birthday is in June and it will be his car to drive (mine too I hope) Need more youth to keep the old muscle cars alive and well. I had a 69 fastback when I was in high school, so it's pretty cool that he likes the old cars.

 

Lots more pics, but screen says can only do 5

 

 

That’s it for now.

 

Dan

Share this post

Link to post
Share on other sites

69again    10

69again
Posted

Not a 100% finished but on the road and having fun. This is supposed to be a fun daily driver for my son and me and not a show car. We still have some alignment issues, more polishing and other small things to take care of. Not sure what we are going to do about the stance. We used 620 1" lowering springs in the front and the 4 1/2 leaf mid eye rear (1" lower), but as you can see the rear is slightly lower. Not sure if I remember well (it has been a lot of years since I rode in a car with headers and a nice exhaust, but with the windows open, this is loud. Son really likes it.

Share this post

Link to post
Share on other sites

Stang69    11

Stang69
Posted

Is it me, or is that every time someone has a 69 painted, the painter fails to repaint the inner door the interior color? Or are people choosing to leave it the body color? It looks alright, but when I had my coupe painted, I told the shop to do everything like they were bringing the car back to original...of course, they put it back together again with out painting the inner doors the interior color...I was really annoyed....

Share this post

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0
Go To Topic Listing
×
×
  • Create New...