Beantown
10-09-2019, 09:37 AM
I've been building this for about 2 and a half years and I'm finally getting to the point where i'm focusing on making it look good. After getting it on the road I put about 4000 miles on it to work any kinks out and parked it about a month ago to start modifying and painting the dash, now it's time to start doing the bodywork and get her looking good. I have a few colors in mind but not really sure yet. It was built with the goal to be a weekend road trip car for me and the little lady to explore the southwest with some autocross throw in for fun. With that goal, I wanted it to be set up like todays' cars with some creature comforts. Dakota digital gauges, cruise control with turn signal controls, retained accessory power, obdII interface, power locks, windows (not in yet), bluetooth, power seats, vintage air, tilt and remote start with keyless push button ignition. For the ride quality there's Hotchkis springs , shocks and sway bars with CPP AFX spindles and Global west upper control arms. For stopping power there's corvette C5 brakes front and rear. The wheels and tires are US mags u111 18x9.5 rears with 18x8.5 up front with Nitto 555 275/40 in the rear and 225/40 in the front. I had the rear end shortened roughly 2 inches and used grand national Moser axles to fit the limited backspacing US mags, Forgeline's just weren't in the budget....yet....There's also Detroit speed subframe connectors stiffening things up. Under the hood there's a stock 4.8 with some tuning, 2.5 stainless flowmaster exhaust and a 4l60e. I have a 6.0 sitting at home ready to build, still having fun with that little 4.8. There's a Tanks Inc. tank with in tank Walbro pump feeding the engine. Right now there's a 4 point cage that I still need to finish. To date I have performed all the work except for the gear and posi install and the front and rear glass install. I replaced and modified the rear tailight panel as the original was in bad shape. The factory Vinyl top took a toll on the roof panel as well and needed to be replaced, they don't make a roof panel for a 74 but a 68-72 worked really good with some patching to do above the quarter glass. I kept the 4 taillight panel but filled the center in and installed a 68 bumper. All 4 taillamps are LED and can blink with sequential patterns. The car came to me as a rolling shell without a wire in it, every nut and bolt, felt, weatherstripping has been replaced. It's been a really fun build, I grew up in the Northeast modifying muscle cars as a kid and moved to Cali 12 years ago and caught the off road bug and built a great K5 but it was more function than form, it's nice to build something quick and fun to drive again. Besides some ac cooling fan control issues with the programming the car was super reliable and ran well within operating temps with the temp hitting 111 here in Phoenix, can't wait to get it back on the road now that the weather is cooler! 168135168134168136168137168138168139168140