1966 Caprice LSx Swap Project: "Big Black"

[GarageToys]

Due to Covid-19, I'm working from home and all my kids activities have been cancelled. While I usually get nothing done, I've suddenly got free time and I've been thrashing on the car over the past few weeks. Thanks Corona!

The first thing I did was build a water trap for my air compressor. I had been using rolocs on my pneumatic die grinder to strip the frame/floors and it kept spitting water out after 5 minutes of use. I bought a bunch of 3/4" copper pipe and fittings and armed with YouTube knowledge, I assembled the following:



I just crack open the ball valves at the bottoms of the drop legs and let the condensation out of the system. I've only had moisture in the last leg once and there is a Devilbiss filter/trap at the end right before the attachment to my hose reel. Works great. And yes, I need a larger compressor.

So once the air tools worked properly (and I knew I wouldn't be spitting water out of my paint gun), I finished prepping the floors/frame and got the entire underside shot in Eastwood DTM epoxy primer:




The next step was to paint the frame with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black. It dried to a nice satin finish.






Masking off the frame so I could shoot the Lizard Skin on the floors was a multi-hour fun fest. I highly recommend separating the body from the frame. Sending out everything for blasting would have saved me weeks of work. Anyway, I didn't do that because I didn't have the room, a rotisserie or a bunch of guys to help. But I got it done. I sprayed 2 coats of Lizard Skin sound deadener and 1 coat of ceramic heat shield on the floors. They both come in 2 gallon pails, but for some reason the sound deadener went a lot farther. Because of the camera flash, it looks light gray in pics, but it's really a dark charcoal gray (they call it black).






In this picture you can see that I did the trans tunnel & bottom of the firewall in LizardSkin and the color is better represented:



Now I just need to repaint the rearend housing and the trans crossmember and I'm actually going to start putting parts BACK ON the car. I think all I've done is disassemble this thing for the last few years.

[Bob in St. Louis]

This is fantastic! Love the air drier too!

[GarageToys]

It's back on all 4 for the first time in a long while. Right before COVID hit, I had the brilliant idea of buying another car-- an '89 Iroc Z. It's at the paint shop now and when it comes home, I want to put it in the garage. That lit the fire to get the '66 undercoated and suspension reassembled. Still have to install the front shocks and swaybars, but it's rolling again so I can get it over to one side of the garage. Probably won't be back hard at it until September when the garage cools off again.

[GarageToys]

Wow, things have changed since I last updated this thread. We decided to move to a new house & that changed everything. I had already bought and painted the Iroc and just didn't have the time or room for a blown-apart project car. But it was my Dad's car, so I couldn't get rid of it... unless I sold it to my brother. Which is exactly what I did. I packed all the parts inside and away it went on a flatbed.

[GarageToys]

My brother bought it but admitted that he just wasn't in love with the Caprice roofline. He just couldn't get into building it. Along the way, he removed the 6.2LS and sold it and it sat in his garage for over 3 years collecting dust.

Then he happened across a guy selling a fastback roof from a 66 Impala and he decided to change the only part of the car he didn't like - the roofline. Taking measurements, he figured out that if you change the roof, tops of the quarters, dutchman panel and trunk lid, the Impala roof goes right onto the Caprice.

Here is the point of no return:



The work is being done by an independent guy who worked at a bodyshop for years (he also painted by Iroc and it looks killer).

With the new roof mocked up, a couple of tweaks and it popped right into place.



This is the latest picture of the car, taken a few days ago. The roof is now welded on and will be epoxy primered this week.



After epoxy, it goes back to my brother's house so he can weld in the '59 Impala dash. Then it goes back in for paint. Color has not been determined, but he said it won't be black. Too bad, I liked it in black.

Anyway, he'll likely get more work done faster than I did, so I'll try to update this thread (or have him take it over).