Shortly after the last pics, we went to FL for 4 weeks, including the 5 days driving. My wife rode down but flew back, so I took a little detour to Richmond, KY on my way home.

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Quite the front room "shop" they have...:ooo:

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I now have a new upper dash panel and dash pad for the car. Over the next few weeks, I hope to have this project done and painted. THEN, I can get started on fitting the NOS fenders I thought I was going to do several weeks ago...:rolleyes:

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My body guy has been bugging me to get wheel opening trim so we can drill the holes before going any further with paint, so I picked up the GM set that has the step in the rear trims to follow the body line at the lower door and quarter. Also grabbed a few small items to help fill needs down the road. With the crazy shipping costs of oversize items now, I saved about $100, so the few extra miles and gas, as well as getting to see the place and talk with them, was well worth it.

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Removed the top dash panel. I don't like using spot weld drills when I want to save/use the panel below what I am removing. My preferred method is a grinding wheel. I grind around the perimeter of the spot and try to not cut into the substrate at all, or very little.

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I use the grinder about the same way I mig weld, using short bursts and checking the color of the metal to "see" where the spot is and work around it until the metal is very thin and I can pop it off with a screw driver.

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There were about 16 spot welds and it took about 15 minutes to remove them all. Less time than using a drill and stopping to observe that progress to prevent drilling thru the substrate panel.

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This is what I use... That wheel was used when I started and shows almost no wear after all that

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After this, I used a 2" disc sander with 120 and cleaned up the spots, removing any of the top panel that was left behind.

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It does make a MUCH bigger mess than drilling. I use a shop vac with a HEPA bag filter inside. I can vacuum filler dust and dried overspray and it never comes out the exhaust.

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It does fit and line up nicely, but It would be even better if the pre-punched holes for the trim clips and glass stops lined up with the holes in the cowl panel. It may well be the cowl that is off, as 3 of the 4 holes for the cowl grill aren't accurate either. Just a little more work later to drill the holes in the correct places.

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After this, I wanted to finish sanding/cleaning/prepping to paint inside the cowl before I welded the top cowl panel patch on. I grabbed my Dent Fix Eliminator, otherwise commonly known as a crud thug, attached the air hose, depressed the lever and......nothing. Just air coming out the exhaust. Thing worked just fine a month ago and now nothing. I couldn't turn the wire wheel by hand, so knew something was seized up....dang. Long story, short, it took 45 minutes just to get the danged spring pin out of the handle to take this apart. I REALLY need to get a better set of small punches and I'll leave that part of the story alone. Anyway, I had an exploded view page in the kit and used that to figure out how to take it apart. It must have had moisture in it from the last time I used it and the vanes on the rotor stuck to the cylinder. I was able to work it enough to free it up and get it working again. That whole process consumed the last 1.5 hours of my time for this project last evening. Today, I used it and got everything cleaned up, papered and sprayed with SPI epoxy primer/sealer. Tomorrow will get Limco single stage color and then the cowl top will get welded on. Are all y'all bored to tears yet...:grin:


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Went back out at 7 and shot the color on. There's a LOT more paint in that cowl than GM ever got, but they didn't have the cowl top off for access either.
I can start the final fitting and welding in of the cowl section right away tomorrow.

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Looking great Mitch! Probably a relief to have that unexpected bump in the road finished.

There was a lot more to this project. I still had to weld the replacement cowl piece in and the dash top on.

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Steering column/instrument panel brace. It had 15 spot welds on it, but only THREE were holding. None of the rest penetrated. It's not going to fall off now..

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All done and working on sanding the entire instrument panel for paint.

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Nice work.

Wow!! Nice!!

That was a couple weeks ago and I since removed the rear axle and springs assembly to clean and prep the new trunk floor for paint. THAT was a bear, laying on a creeper and getting as wet as the car. I still need to do finish grinding of welds in tight areas and sand them.
Soooo, I gave in and did what I said for 15 years I wasn't going to do with this car...

Went out in the back shed and dug out the rotisserie...

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I bought this from a guy who built it to restore a '69 Firebird. It came with these adapters for the rear spring mounts, so I thought this would be a quick knockdown from the arms I built for the '67 GTO and my '66 Chevelle.


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I spent 3 HOURS trying to figure out how he had those rear arms on the lifts, because no mater how I arranged the drilled holes he made they would NOT line up...:confused2:
I finally gave in and just drilled new holes for them to fit the car and moved on.

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I have 6' rectangle tubes to fit on the forks for this stuff.

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This was an interesting discovery, especially since I've had this driveshaft out for 3 engine/trans changes over the years. I never noticed this before...:eek2:

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