1971 Speedipus Rex

[dangina]

Now the hard part:



started on the gauge face plates, I used the 3M Headlight restore kit, I thought "what the hell, they're both plastic, should work for this as well" I also did this to the temp control plate as well:





Went to a hobby shop and got a paint that I thought would look close to original and this stuff was bang on and it went on beautifully with no runs - Tamiya TS-1 Red Brown. Goes on light brown but dries to what I wanted. First I sanded and painted the whole shelll:



I wasn't sure how to get the black in the wood like on the original, so I improvised, I thought if I could paint the background in a matt black and paint over top it might bleed through the paint. I used a acrylic paint which was messy to work with and it ran like crazy and pooled up alot so i had to keep wiping it down so the layer wouldn't get to thick, It was a PITA and I reccomend a different method but it ended up in my favor, I tried fingerpainting all the areas where the black was on the shell:





Next I painted a very light layer of the red brown again:





next I sanded the gauge pods and wiper/light switch areas, masked them and painted them a semi gloss:




Now this was the most stressful step of them all - applying the silver to the outer edges of the pods, switches and shell, I used a automotive GM Silver, comes as a 2 for 1, light bruch or can be used as a pen, i used the brush. It is hard to work with, you have to keep moving in one direction and it with thicken up on you if you overlap the previous area too much (it starts to dry pretty quick) This would be easy if you were a pin stripper, but for us joes its passable and didn't end up to bad:






Now all together: (I tried taking different pics in different light)

[dangina]

sorry guys the posts have been slow - being a new dad and getting overrun at work, my progress has slowed down, but hasn't stopped - heres what I hae been up to so far:

I got the new rallyes from year one :





1 1/2" clearance to the rear springs


1/1/4" to inside front lip I ay get a 1" spacer down the road:


My firewall was cracked when I first bought the car I figured it was because of the heavy heater core being held on by 4 screw heads and nothing else, So i ade a pattern and took it to the metal fab shop here intown and made my own aluminum plate so all 4 points are on the same plane - its made from 1/4" aluminum!




got the kframe back from the powdercoaters!



cleaned up my heater box, put it together, sealed it, new weatherstripping, good as new!



got my quarter windows tinted with factory tint:



rear window with limo tint



cleaned up my rear window regulators



painted the window wiper assembly - looks darker in person:



I have the windows in, just wasting so much time aligning them up - I never wanna do this again when its over - i probably wasted at least 3 hours per window. will take a pic when finished. Also have the underside of the dash finished but I was gonna go with a stock clutch setup but now I'm thinking hydraulic. More posts to come...

[Brads70]

Looking great!

[dangina]

Been busy trying the past couple months, been trying to work on the car whenever the little guy is sleeping, I pulled apart the 400 and took it into the machine shop. Its a good virgin block and will work great for my 470" kit from muscle motors (which has been 2 months and still haven't recieved it yet):mad:



Installed the headliner from year one (which is from PUI) I would not reccomend getting it from them as they sowed 2 bows in the wrong spot and I realised this wasn't gonna work after we had already cut up the material. So with summer coming fast I drilled new holes, sowed on extra fabric on the front to make this work. Its ok but not great. I will replace it with one from legendary down the road when i have more time to do so, but for now it'll work.







painting some forgotten interior parts




washed the seat belts with laundry soap in a tub, then washed them off and dried them with the air gun. They look like new!




Installed the rear panels - had to repair one of them, turned out pretty good

[dangina]

so I built my own hydraulic clutch bracket from 1/8" plate for my wilwood compact 7/8" MC:

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added spacers and welded on the nuts and drilled out the stock holes:

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drilled out the angle for the MC, didn't like the angle of first try which is why you see unused holes:

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cut off any extra unsed weight

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paint!

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the firewall wasn't perfectly straight so I had to cut somemore off, final look:

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installed!

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found a graet place to mount my wilwood bottle for the MC:

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little guy dropped in to see what I was doing:

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installed dash and for the insert It wasn't as bad as the instrument cluster for wear, so I tried the method of clear paint and painted the edges with the silver paint pen. Its too shiny and about two shades darker than my cluster now so I may change one or the other down the road but for now its going in:

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rear seat mockup:

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installed the front and rear windshield yesterday:

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now time to pull out that rear!!!!!

[dangina]

installed front and rear speakers

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[dangina]

I've been working like a dog at work and have been picking up a ton of overtime, which I am doing more tomorrow, but I'll show you what I have done so far before my next set of days off next week:

I picked up a ton of parts after getting my passport finally - some items I have aquired:

QFT 830cfm, mechanical secondaries, annular boosters, electric choke - I wanted the double pumper but they don't make them with an electric choke and I plan to drive this from spring-fall so I went with an electric choke setup instead.



electric cuttouts for the exhaust!



I also picked up my front and rear from a car I thought would fit. I wanted a functional rear spoiler so I am using this one:








It turned out better than I had thought! and to top it off I also used the front spoiler off the same car which equally looks just as good - can you figure out what car they're from?







Have you guessed it?
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Its a from a 67 camaro! Haters are gonna hate.



the front spoiler from spoilers by randy still hasn't fit right and I'm not crazy on the design, Plus the camaro was only $20 for the front and $120 for the rear both included shipping!! I thought they would fit looking at a 67 camaro at the world of wheels and thought if it didn't fit I could easily sell them. Actually for $20 I bought the 68-69 front spoiler as well but I liked the bigger 67 instead

I started tearing into my rear end now the windshields were in and no longer taking up space. I matched up the old springs to the new fiberglass ones:




One the hypercoil website it says a 4.5" ark but you can see its almost 6" I was wondering if that meant after they settled? I left them on the car for a week and it actually settled over 1/4"



old spring for reference:



there is some slop on the bottom leaf stud, but I found some brass bushings off one of our old machines that have been discontinued and they work perfect!



I just put a couple spot welds on the bottom to prevent it from falling out

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Now with the rear diff out I'm starting to make a few improvements, first I drilled three holes. Why 3 holes? the two one the bottom - one is a oil drain, the other for a future rear differential pump, the top one for the rear diff cooler return. I will be welding on the 1/2" female bungs next week. It may be a year or 5 years or never, but at least now I won't have to pull the rear diff when I want to do it. I'lll also be running as extra power source for the pump but I'll probably leave it in the trunk for now until that day comes:




I changed the wheel bearings (what a pain in the A$$) and here you can see doctor diff's billet adjuster:

[dangina]

Here is something that hasn't gone so smooth - I bought the same seals as autox cuda (from: http://www.sealsit.com/axlehub.asp) and I drilled out the inside weld in the rear diff, I had also shaved the edge off the seal that was meant for fords, but I was only able to press it in as far as past the first oil ring on the seal (the seal has 3) looking at the chart on the website I should have went with one size smaller (either the blue or gold one)

I taped them off so I can grind off the edge without getting any fillings in the seal



I tried taking a pic as best as I could with the little room in the housing you can see the gap on the sides:





Thats it for now, I hope to have the rear axle and suspension done next week on my next days off!!!

[dangina]

been busy working lots of overtime, bought a acreage, but haven't stopped working on the car - just slowed down. I'll start with the rear spoiler and what I have found:

I did some reasearch and found out that the 69 spoiler was longer but no one knew how by how much. So I bought one anyways and here is what I have found out:

the 69 spoiler came in and its exactly 2" longer - just the length I need! although the 68 spoiler is almost a 1/4" taller in height, they are the same width in the base. The mounting holes are suppose to be the same, except it all depends on who fiberglassed them in place and where. I had to file each hole a bit, or alot, to make it fit but it was close. Pics for those who are interested:
67-68 top
69 bottom


67-68 top length
69 bottom


67-68 height


69 height


67-68 rear decklid


69 rear decklid






On to the back of the car:

I welded a nut on the inside to prevent the seal from coming forward(not that it should, just some added insurance)



I made this up so the welds won't harm the seal:




welded a backbrace on the rear end, I also welded on 4 1/2" npt bungs - one for putting in oil, on for a drain, the other two for a rear diff pump/cooler down the road if I ever want to do one - this just saves me time doing it later:







doctor diff eaton true track 3:55 gears! 408 casing:





I let the car rest on the springs for a few weeks before I did this install - I'm running sliders and wanted the leafs to settle before I put them in:

I should also mention the the mounting point on the rear leaf springs are about a 1/2" out (20.5" instead of 20" front segment, this also confirmed with the ones brad bought from his challenger) coupled with the thicker bracket moves your rear wheels back about 3/4" total. This also increases your wheel base which is good for better stability at higher speeds like roadraces but not so for the agility aspect. That and it may lmake your tire look funny in the wheel well a little bit. I don't have the wheels mounted yet, if it bugs me enough I may have to do what brad did and weld up the front holes on the front leaf spring bracket and drill out the holes where I want them.

lined up where they will be (black line indicating where the sliders should be):



Drilled some extra holes for welding:








showed my boy what I was working on:



now I came with two problems with the sliders first was that the metal sleeve that came with the sliders was a about a size or two bigger than the one the fiberglass leaf springs came with so I had to dremel the poly a little bit before I get them pressed in



and second the washers that come with the sliders are two thick (you can only get one in and it was tight) so I dremel the outside in a taper so I can run the thinner, smaller washers on the inside:

[dangina]

I ended drilling out the center of these washers to make it work





went to install the hewig sway bar, they give you this piece that you have to weld on one side and it has this huge spacer on the other side - I thought that was stupid why didn't they just give you the length you need and weld it on both sides with washers to make it stronger? so thats what I did:

front leaf spring hanger, welded them up for extra strength:







helwig way top:
my way bottom:





When it was time to mount the sway bar to the rear axle, the Helwig bar utilizes Ubolts to mount the lower brakets. I forgot that I welded the backbrace on so I couldn't utilize them, so out came the welder again:

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installed Dr.Diff 11.7" rear brake kit and hotchkis rear shocks

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now onto the front!!!

[CodexGigas]

I Love the Rear Axle, Looks Sick as ****.

[dangina]

thanks! I hope all the extra work was worth it ;p

[Hornet LSX]

Hey I like the "borrowed" spoilers! repurpose all you want and make it work for you! Cheers!

[raustinss]

Updates?....and where in this MASSIVE province do you live
Ryan Austin

[dangina]

thanks! I live in lethbridge, alberta, canada. Updates have been so slow, I've only had a total of 8-10 hours in the garage since august. Between all the extra hours at work, the kid and wife working full time until mat leave in 2 weeks, our plates are filled. Worse/better part is the longer it sits, the more parts I get/want.

- But I did get to spend last night fixing up the front suspension. I spent last night putting on the seals-it boots for all my heim link parts for the hotchkis suspension which meant I had to tear it all apart and put it back together. I'm kinda choked they didn't tell us about these on their site or the fact they sell them, found out by reading the forums in my spare time
-I sold the fox racing shocks yesterday in favor of QA1 double coilovers, which should be here soon
-I said screw it and bought the fast ratio pitman and idler arms to go with my boregson box for ratio of 10:1 or 2 turns lock to lock, this with the roller bearing idler kit I bought last year should make it that much better
-I bought and I'm excited to try this, its meant for a cuda but It looks like it'll fit the runner, if it doesn't fit I'll just resell it and keep the font camaro one:

-I also bought some dual pillow ball for endlinks off of a ford bronco? i'm gonna cut down to make fit
-I got rid of the year one rallye rims, I wanna avoid the outter tie rod clearance issue, and clear my bigger brakes so I'll be going 18", haven't decided if I wanna go 9-9.5-10" width yet, need to finish the front suspension first before I can get a detailed idea of what offset I need,

all the parts should arrive by next weekend I hope, so expect an update then! thanks for the intrest

[dangina]

So its been a crazy -CRaZY bust past 8 months with work averaging about 60-70 hrs/week. The financial part of it is good but its taking its toll. I have been working on the roadrunner here and there, it seems I love to do things at least twice, the longer it sits, the more I change my mind


I got my 47-ci stroker back finally, the stock covers are on just to protect the valvetrain, they are also wrapped up underneath, I have some aluminum covers that I'll be painting to match and putting on.




I had to grind one area on the box for clearance, painted it up





got some new hood pins!





Brads70 on the forum here complained that his monotube shocks were too bouncy with the hyperco leaf springs, he switched to QA1 double adjustables and the problem went away. Even though the ones he had were bilsteins, I decided to sell the hotchkis fox racing ones for these for peace of mind:





I bought this to try on my cra, its for a barracuda, I thought the lower pans looked the same and you don't know until you try it, too bad it doesn't fit my car, its a nice big spoiler, I'll have to stick to the camaro one for now





I was reading on the forums you can get these boots for the rod heim ends, I'm just choked I didn't know about this sooner, you can buy them from seals-it. not sure if they are entirely worth it, but again peace of mind. I tore apart my entire front suspension to get these back on.





So reading more on the forums i decided to give this a try, the stock endlinks that came with the hellwig swap bar was a long 5/16" bolt that was on a huge angle to the lca hole and the holes at both ends had so much slop to them I never cared for it. This seemed like a good solution. The are actually ford endlinks for their explorer? They are Moog#K750074. With the dual pillowballs I can get the angles I want with no slop!


Using a 5/16" bronze bushing, I installed them on both the LCA and sway bar:







Cut them down shorter to what I needed:





final assembly:






Some of the guys shorten them an inch, or cut them down to make them adjustable, I'll leave them for now as they are still about 1-2" higher than the balljoint.


I was never happy with the way the wheel sits in the center, with the longer brackets and shorter spring, It seem like I was still about a 1 1/2" off center more towards the rear, seeing how I left about 2 inches towards the front of my sliders at full rebound, I figure I could get that back and still have a 1/2" to spare. So I took my brackets and re-drilled them 1 1/2" back and for fun about another 1/4" up! drop that rear baby!


before:






1 1/2" back





Finished!





Since I moved my rear axle back to where it needed to be, I had to also move the sway bar endlink mounts, I didn't like the hellwig 8" long mounts with bushings, so I thought I'd go with 1/2" adjustable heim links.


had to file the inside of skid 40 3/8" steel tubing to get the 1/2" bolts to fit, its pretty snug!





welded, painted and body sealed and painted again! then hook up. Using steel heim links for now until I get some aluminum ones








Started on the hardlines for my brake lines:







thats all for now, I'm actually just about finished my front end except I ran into complications. The solid tie rod sleeves I bought from PST were over 1" shorter than stock tie rod ends so I couldn't finish the front end until I get some new ones. A BIG THANKS TO BRADS70!!!! for coming to my rescue and tooling up some and shipping them to me which arrived today! I'll have more updates the next set of days off...

[dangina]

So I have been busy...to prove it we added another little guy to the family - his name is Sylvester Gauge but we just call him Gauge:




started working on rebuilding the shifter, What a PITA to put back together! Whats worse was half way through building it I found that the brewers "rebuild kit" does not include everything. I had to wait for parts to finish it:




So I had a couple days off and had to rush finishing the brake lines so I can get the motor in, so I have room on the floor for my wifes motor and tranny for her duster. I never had so many leaks in my entire life I think I bent and flared every line to the rear diff at least 3 times. Plus dumped about 2 bottles of brake fluid all on the fender and on me. I was not happy. I found out that if you use the longer fittings they seem to help.




But secretly I really did them so I could finish one of my secret projects I thought of two years ago and is now just finished:

so I had to drill out holes in the bracket so I could have the smallest footprint possible:



I had to mark and drill holes in the floorpan for the lines and bolt the bracket to the floor. The bracket holes are exactly on either side of the torsion bar support rail. And it's the possition I want when I'm sitting down (luckily)



the patch that is in place under the bracket so i can remove the carpet and the bracket stays in place



drilled out the holes I need on the new hurst shifter handleL:



Put it all together(sorry for taking the pic at a bad angle ):





Run the brake lines so they clear the torsion bar hole in case of removal:



And you got the worlds first Hydraulic ebrake pistol grip! Cool part now is my car will have both the 71 short shift and the 71 bench seat shifter in one car!



Cleaning up the center console:



got the aluminum pullys and brackets powdercoated:



Dropped in the new motor!



threw in my headman headers to check for clearance with the boregson box, seems theres a ton of room all around and clears my fast ratio arms as well!:





got my parts for the shift and got working on the tranny, its the numbers matching A833 for my car, sat on the owners garage floor the last 20 years, still had oil in it, changed the speedo gear and seals to match my 3:55 truetrack, and painted it grey (previous owner painted it sublime green)



got my new american powetrain bellhousing for my 11" flywheel setup, beatiful piece, 2 starter positions for the 10.5 and 11" setup, also it has holes on the backside to be mounted to other transmissions, very cool:



Put it all together and what do you got?!

[72BBSwinger]

Awesome Dan, I dig the e-brake too!

[19,69camaro]

Great job so far. I like the solutions you come up with for all the little problems. This should be a very well sorted car when its done.

[instro84]

nice, throw up a pic of the duster aslo.