The Chevelle Challenge

[derekf]

Okay, so yesterday wasn't as productive.

I reassembled the column, but there's obviously something wrong there - the steering wheel isn't centered on the rest of the column. I'll have to see if I can't find some assembly instructions so I can see where I went wrong.

Front suspension is mostly assembled. The UCAs and spindles are directly taken from the parts I took off the El Camino, so the UBJs and bushings have only 6-7k miles on them. They look like crap against the freshly painted frame though; I have to keep reminding myself that I'm not doing a restoration, I'm building this to be a driver and if they look a little dingy, well, the rest of it will soon enough. The remaining bushings for the front end are supposed to arrive today, along with the parking brake cables.



I also attached the engine stands that I painted 6 years ago before I moved, and looking at them attached to the car just hammers home that something bad happened with the paint - the flattening agent that I added (and I added a LOT) really didn't flatten the paint much at all. I know that I'd been told that the hardener glosses it up some (the engine stands didn't get any hardener) but damn, it's all real shiny.

My power brake booster is broken - the plastic surround around where the rod comes in cracked and is in pieces. No idea when that happened. Another thing I'll have to replace.

Rust in the trunk is worse than I remembered. I suppose once I get the car back on the ground in the front, the rear will have to come back up and the rust dealt with. I've got some work to do in the wheelwells back there anyway.