L78 M22 Pace Car Restoration
 

I purchased this car from a member here (thanks Max). The "for sale" thread was "69 Indy L-78 M-22 Project". Since purchasing the car, I have been able to locate the selling dealer (thanks to NCRS) and all previous owners. The car body is on a rotisserie and being restored by James - a member here. Drive train is restored and awaiting completion of body work.

This is a new thread to post pictures of the restoration progress. One of my concerns was that the center of the dash panel had rust right up through the first two speaker grille slots. Thankfully, the outboard dash areas, including the VIN area, were good, so we really didn't want to replace the panel (re-pro panels are not accurate, plus we didn't want to ever remove the VIN tag). James has done an amazing job piecing in fresh metal and even making part of the speaker grille cut-out with a hand file!

I'll leave it to James to post pictures as the restoration progresses.

Can’t wait! Bring it on!!!

Bruce- I'm looking forward to seeing the picts and would love to see the car in progress if possible- let me know if I can help with anything needed or you need to match details on one one of our unrestored survivors
Thank you
Fred

James does pretty amazing work. One of the clues that a dash has been replaced (and there fore the VIN may have been removed) is that the speaker grille is incorrect on the repro repair dash parts. So, it was very important that the original dash be repaired and not replaced on this Pace Car. I have to admit, however, that I've never seen the actual stamped slots for the speaker repaired when they were rusted up through the second set of slots (as was the case here). James is an artist with the TIG!

On the repro, it's the window for the VIN tag that is incorrect. An original dash window has a rolled lip and radiused corners; repro does not have the lip and corners are square.

Back in the '80s, the best way to repair a rusty dash was to buy a '75-'79 GM X Body dash and cut the top off; bottom portion was different. Later in the '70s, they changed the speaker grille to an oval configuration by removing some of the louvers. The missing louvers can be easily added.

If you look carefully at my original stamped speaker grille above, you will note that the louvers are not flat. The stamping die pulled one edge of each louvre up slightly when it withdrew for the stamping. Reproductions do not have this characteristic. The perfectly flat louvers on the reproductions are a dead giveaway, as is the VIN area. Bottom line - IMO, its worth the effort to save all possible original metal :-)

The actual speaker grille slots on the repro do not line up the same as the originals, the repro slots are at an angle between the two defroster ducts.

Is that foam used by the factory?? If so, no wonder the dashes rust out so bad in that area.

Yes Foam is used by the factory, AND yes if the foam is BREACHED with water It will cause issues, the care taken with these cars is above and beyond what ANYONE considered GOOD care 30 years ago and thus the possibility of the foam becoming water saturated is slim to none..
FWIW IF you do not use foam or something in the area to act as a damper you could have issues with Vibration and or harmonic DRONING.

Not meaning to hijack, but seems relevant here - if you had to repair rust at the front edge of the dash where that foam sits, what foam product and material installation method/sequence would you recommend for the sheetmetal James? Looks from the runs pictured that the factory mated the panels together with the foam still ‘flowable’?

TIM... I use NVH foam - noise vibration harmonics -
I sectioned in 3 layers of metal... the wiper cowl bowl rear lip - the wiper cowl top (where the wiper towers attach and then the dash top) then the front edge of the dash top.


I am not worried about water penetration on restored cars, the additional sealers and the care taken of the cars all but alleviates the possibility -given that the correct sealers etc are used.
I also coated all of the metal with ZINC rich primer and then weld thru primer.

In this photo you can see the edge of the lip on the speaker grille that Bruce was speaking of...

Thanks James. Is the NVH foam on a roll?

NVH is a 2 part in an automix tube.

Fitting the outer wheelhouse sections, the biggest problem with the repro outers is that the rolled lip doesn't match the quarters, and they will not "nest" together correctly...

So over to the shrinker stretcher - stretch the lip and then use a dolly and hammer and correct the shape, the ends are entirely malformed... thus it takes a bit more work to correct- including cutting and welding.

The photos just do not really show in detail the mods needed to correct the parts...


The trunk drops also have too long of a lower edge and the notch is in the wrong place....

Artist at work! I’ve inspected the car several times. James knowledge & attention to factory detail is pretty special IMO.

Some updates on Bruce's pacer.
Firewall, Fisher notes under the paint.
Cleaned the tracks and gear boxes in the window regulators black chunky grease comes out - I use Mobile1 Black Pearl open face hi-tack gear lube in the gear boxes -
Laid out tracing paper to get the outline of the "mask" correct.
You can see where the hand pulling the mask got into the wet paint when picking it up.
One door had original paint so I carefully noted all of the dimensions of the stripe - it's 22-3/4" from the front edge of the door to the and tip of the stripe.

Restored the heaterbox inside and out. The pedal assembly, cocktail shakers, ZL2 flapper and solenoid frame and other brackets etc.
Rearend and complete subframe engine trans are all ready to go into the car.
the inner fenders and radiator support along with all of the wiring brakes, and glass is ready to go in as well.
Original header chrome and top latch/sunvisor mounts are frosted chrome - early replacement head chrome is painted. -
I used 2 month old crushed bottle glass(not glass beads) at 20# air pressure in the blast cabinet - dusted back and forth on the "test" piece to match up to the sunvisor mount frosted chrome.

Did someone say "attention to detail"? Artist at work there!

James.......you just continue to amaze!

Ditto.

Dam. I have not checked this thread in a while. I realized the importance of saving the dash and not touching the original VIN. I fought with the body shop that had the car. They wanted to replace the dash with a complete repo top.

Looking awesome Bruce. Could not have found a better home !!
Super resto work !!!!!!

Cannot wait for that test drive someday !!

Nice resto!

One of these days my local buddy will decide if he's going to put his back together or sell it. I think eventually he'll sell it because he thinks the pace cars deserve high quality restorations and he does not have the time and probably interest to make that happen.

I would love to see more pictures, there is only been two pictures so far I can see, I am living in Woodbridge and was looking to buy from any member.

James , very nice work, do you put anything on the bar metal like the pedals mount to keep it from rusting ?

Thanks

another awesome restoration and on a great car, Hats off Bruce and James!

Here are some shots of the ashphalitic undercoating in the wheel wells and trunk. also the firewall and cowl with the PTB stamps.
There is so much light in the booth with the white on the horizontal it creates such a hotspot it's difficult to get how nice the transition mist is at the top of the cowl...
The PTB is a permanent heavy bodied ink, not paint.
Next is the orange in the wiper cowl and then dash suede -

I had to turn the lights off to get a decent shot of the wiper cowl and dash.

Resto porn:worship:

Orange in the wiper well - with the anomalies like the original.
Including some finger marks - lol

because the VIN was stamped after the body was painted the paint chipped out -
I use a needle in an exacto knife and carefully chip the paint out so it appears factory.

:worship::worship::worship::worship::worship:

Impressive attention to detail James!

Some more of the pacer from a couple weeks ago -
Installing all of the firewall stuff, the cowl vents, dash mat(firewall pad), kick panels, etc - and also the window tracks and mechanisms (cleaned of all grease etc and then MOBILE 1 Black Pearle - in the gear boxes and lubriplate in the tracks.
Cleaned and regreased the Door catches with white lithium prior to painting.

Some more details I don't think I posted.
Cleaned the steering column starter switch the copper lugs are the contacts inside the switch - took it all apart then cleaned and polished the lugs then I use a non-fouling electric joint compound on the contacts and all electrical connections.

The kick panel sealer - I don't think it is possible to use too much. This is also used on the convertible header moldings.

After cleaning in purple power with a pressure washer - I relube the gearboxes on the regulators with Mobile1 Black Pearle and the tracks with white lithium or lubriplate. All the glasses in the car rolls up with ease - I have a pet peeve regarding restored cars which have windows which do not operate correctly. ie you have to help the windows up into position.

With the parts that have grain. MOST are not clean, even guys who believe their seats or panels are clean, they are not. A soft bristled tooth brush and a can of sprayaway glass cleaner used to gently to brush an area followed with a wipe down with a new white cloth should yield a wet clean white cloth.
If there is anything but a white cloth the panel is not clean. (FWIW using more pressure on the brush will not result in cleaning the crevices)
I take a tooth brush and snip down into the brush to create different levels for the bristles - then use light pressure.
Heavy pressure rolls the ends of the bristles over(preventing them from reaching down into the grain) and renders the brush useless.

Convertible door wedges all in and clearanced correctly - Glass in and everything works so smoothly - Top on and 98%+/- aligned-
Have since rotated the top cylinders 180 degrees - fittings were pointed wrong.
Pinchweld sealer tape also on.
dash mat (firewall pad) and replaced all the pedal bushings and fitted the pedal box into place. More done, left the camera at the shop so more updates in the next few days.

Original manual top ?

Bring it on

A few more of the inside firewall heaterbox fusebox area - also one of the satin finish break line on the header molding.

Some more of the firewall and cowl going together.

Nice attention to detail James, good choice of gloss level on the heater core housing. Might want to re-plate the fuse panel center connector to clear zinc from gold zinc. Factory original bolt on the left.

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Building up the core support with all the hoses and light harness - I've got it bolted to one half of a body rotisserie - it's much easier to do at eye level.
Some other - weatherstrip fitting on the top etc.