64 Pontiac Tempest build

[damannhw]

Tank is welded up ! Boy, this thin material is a bear to weld. it won't win any beauty contest, but it's solid. I'll probably brush on a fuel safe sealer on the backside for some added protection.

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[damannhw]

I've not posted in a few weeks, been really busy coaching my boys flag football team and hitting a few car events. I have made some progress though, I finished up my transmission crossmember, and got the frame cleaned, primed and painted.

Here's some pics of the final mock up of the cross-member mentioned earlier. I think it came out really well, and I like the fact that it will drop straight down and out of the way without having to twist or snake it out. I don't have the pics that show it, but it's welded up now and ready for paint.

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After welding the cross-member brackets in, I finished up prepping the frame for some etch primer. I've spent a lot of time here scraping undercoating, wire brushing, and sanding. It's not show car worthy, but I never wanted it to be. It's gonna get driven.

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Sprayed the etch primer last Thursday evening :

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Then shot it with 2K urethane chassis black. This came out a little shinier than I hoped, but I'm sure that within a few weeks of driving it, you won't be seeing much shiny anymore.

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And I had my pit crew roll it out for the pictures ;)

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I also got the bottom of the car painted semi-gloss black. The car still has it's original factory undercoating, and I have no intentions of removing it, so I just painted over it. Looks really good and now I can't wait to start reassembling all the new pieces.

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Here's a couple of shots of me and the boys at one of our flag football games. This keeps me occupied several nights a week right now, but it's a lot of fun ! We are playing in the 8 & under division, and both my sons are on my team (maybe the only time this will ever happen). Last year my oldest son played QB, this year we had a league rule change, and a coach can play QB to make sure more players get touches. Now I usually start the game as QB and bring in a child QB later in the game to give them some experience playing the position. I have to admit I love this sport. It really helps the kids learn the basics of football before they move into tackle ball.


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[ponjohn]

Very cool Pontiac project.

Did you buy the car completed or had you owned it and decided to pro tour it?

[damannhw]

Very cool Pontiac project.

Did you buy the car completed or had you owned it and decided to pro tour it?

Thanks, bought it completed. I wanted a '64 post for a long time and found this car after a long search. It was way to nice to pass up, now I've just got to get it where I want it to be.

[damannhw]

WOW, just realized I haven't posted since June. It's been an incredibly busy summer so far. Went on the '13 Power Tour Long Haul with a buddy and had a blast !! The kids are out of school too, so we've spent a lot of time enjoying the summer so far, therefore I haven't gotten a lot done. I did get the Quick Performance 9" rear partially assembled with the chunk I had built w/ Richmond 3.50 gears and a new Detroit TruTrac posi unit (no brakes on it yet). I also have the frame back under the car now. I always seem to lose a little motivation this time of year because of the incredible humidity down here. I'll get busy again soon though


Etch primer:



I decided to paint the rear a gunmetal gray. I hope it looks OK with the black frame. If I get it in and don't like it, I guess I could always repaint it. One of our new puppies observing my work !





And installed the pumpkin and the control arms from Currie:



I'll get pics of the frame installed this weekend and try to progress some more.

[Django]

Lookin' good!

[64Tempest]

Was also interesting to note that they mistakenly stamped the last digit as a 7, and the correctly overstamped it with an 8 !! Must have been a Monday

X2 on that. The second digit should be a 1 not a 3. (0 = Tempest, 1 = Tempest Custom, 2 = Lemans). Does your VIN tag in the door jamb also start with 834?

[damannhw]

X2 on that. The second digit should be a 1 not a 3. (0 = Tempest, 1 = Tempest Custom, 2 = Lemans). Does your VIN tag in the door jamb also start with 834?

No, just checked, and the VIN starts w/ 814P...... Wow, I guess they really screwed that on up !

[lightninjack]

any updates?

[damannhw]

any updates?

Hi, wow, it's been awhile since I've updated the thread. I haven't really done too much. Fall kicks off basketball with both my boys, and I coach both teams they play on in a church league, so we've been pretty busy with sports, and as soon as basketball wraps up in 2 weeks we will start flag football, which I also coach !! It's time consuming, but it's alot of fun.

I've got the rear installed now along with brakes, shocks, etc. I haven't done much more than that though, sorry to not have more to report. Here's a few pics of the pathetic amount of progress ;)









The rear brakes came off of the '02 donor Trans Am I bought. I was able to fabricate brackets to utilize the stock emergency cables from the T/A, so it came out pretty nice. I have the LS1 on the engine stand now, so maybe I'll get it finished up soon and move to the front of the car.

[damannhw]

Spring time's here and I've actually gotten back on this thing again since I had a free day or two ! To recap earlier posts, I bought the whole SPC/AFX front set-up from SC&C after speaking with Marcus. The components look great and have had no issues installing them.

First up, the lower control arms go in with the bump-stop and coil spring seat already installed w/ supplied hardware and Loctite. I did not use any supplied spacers. You have to verify you have the proper orientation of the spring seat so that the top of the spring seats correctly into the top frame pocket, also had to lightly clearance the lower control arm holes for the spring seat bolts. :


Bolted in the uppers in the correct orientation with the balljoints bolted up. FYI, I did have to cut away some metal on top of the frame to properly clearance for the upper arm travel as others have had to do.




Next up I bolted the AFX spindle to the lower control arm, then installed the spring and jacked the lower control arm up into place. Install hardware and cotter pins. Install the optional steering arms. I also installed the new LEE 670 steering box.

[damannhw]

With the spindles in place, I almost hate to cover them up because they look so good ! Front brakes are next, and I bought the Baer 13" track kit (also from SC& C) for the front to go along with the 12" rears. Rotors slipped right onto the hubs and the caliper brackets bolted right into place with no issues.




I still have quite a mess and need to get this car back together. Time had been VERY slim with 2 boys playing multiple sports and me coaching multiple sports as well. And if I needed more on my plate, I've been trying to get my house ready for market !! Here's the messy photo of how it sits right now :

[damannhw]

As mentioned above, I got my Lee 670 steering box installed. After installing the box, I began to think about the solid steering shaft these early A-Bodies had, and I really don't want to take a chance of it becoming a spear in a collision. My wife will drive this car, and possibly even my boys one day. I know old cars are not very safe, but I want to make improvements where possible. I started doing some reading here and on different forums, and decided to try using a collapsible steering shaft from a Jeep Grand Cherokee since the shaft diameter (3/4") and spline count are the same as the Lee box. If anyone see's anything I'm overlooking, please feel free to comment !!

This shaft comes from a mid 90's GC and cost $8 at LKQ.


I cut away the factory rubber isolated upper u-joint because it is a larger 1" diameter. Make sure you extend the shaft before you cut so you don't cut away the inner shaft !



I purchased a vibration reduction u-joint from Borgeson with 3/4" DD couplings on each end. $116 - (p/n 034949) This will couple the GC collapsible shaft to the 3/4" '64 Pontiac steering shaft after I weld in a short piece of DD rod. I will have to grind the flat sides onto my '64 steering shaft after I cut it down though. I bought the 18" section of DD from a local street rod shop -Southern Rods, cost was $15.


Drilled 2 opposing holes through the GC outer collapsible shaft for plug welds, inserted the 2" section of DD shaft, and tig welded the DD shaft into place. the Borgeson u-joint will now slip right over the DD shaft. I also drilled a couple of dimples in the DD shaft for the set-screws of the u-joint to seat.



I now have over 3" of collapsibility, plus u-joints top and bottom. Should be much safer, and I hope I never have to test it !

[rohrt]

Cool stuff. My new favorite thread.

[Nicks67GTO]

Got anymore info or pics of the rear ebrake setup? Im going to be doing this very shortly on my GTO.

[damannhw]

Got anymore info or pics of the rear ebrake setup? Im going to be doing this very shortly on my GTO.

Hi Nick,
Rear set-up is complete '02 LS1 Trans Am.. They have integrated parking brakes, and I have modified the rear e-brake brackets so that I am using the entire system just as it was on the Trans Am. I will tie the ebrake cables into my factory ebrake. This is a pretty common swap w/ GM guys since it's almost a bolt on.

[Nicks67GTO]

Hi Nick,
Rear set-up is complete '02 LS1 Trans Am.. They have integrated parking brakes, and I have modified the rear e-brake brackets so that I am using the entire system just as it was on the Trans Am. I will tie the ebrake cables into my factory ebrake. This is a pretty common swap w/ GM guys since it's almost a bolt on.

So did you swap your backing plates around passenger side to driver side and vice versa? This would leave the the caliper mounting in the front of the wheel well and have the ebrake mechanism pulling forward? any pics of the brackets?

[damannhw]

So did you swap your backing plates around passenger side to driver side and vice versa? This would leave the the caliper mounting in the front of the wheel well and have the ebrake mechanism pulling forward? any pics of the brackets?

A lot of people do just swap left for right so that it pulls from the front, but I decided to maintain the rear pull ebrake just as it was on the '02 F-Body, that's why I had to modify the F-body brackets to work. I'll try to get you some pictures of this arrangement, and it did take some fab work. I don't know if there's an advantage either way, but I like being able to reuse as much of the late model donor car parts as possible.

Your car looks great and it's cool that you have had it for so long. It looks like I have installed almost the same set-up you have already. Are you happy with yours ?

[Nicks67GTO]

A lot of people do just swap left for right so that it pulls from the front, but I decided to maintain the rear pull ebrake just as it was on the '02 F-Body, that's why I had to modify the F-body brackets to work. I'll try to get you some pictures of this arrangement, and it did take some fab work. I don't know if there's an advantage either way, but I like being able to reuse as much of the late model donor car parts as possible.

Your car looks great and it's cool that you have had it for so long. It looks like I have installed almost the same set-up you have already. Are you happy with yours ?

Thanks! Yeah it handles very well. You can hammer the car into corners and it stays very level and controlled and im still on 15's and 60 series tires.... for the next few weeks ;). I'm pretty impressed.

My only complaint is that the front springs are just too short. Even with both spacers in there the front still sits lower than the car did with 1.5 coils hacked out of some 10 year old stock replacement springs. Marc @ SC&C says that you can get the car close to stock ride height with the spacers provided but thats just not the case for me or other people I have discussed this with. I'm probably going to stick another half inch of spaces in to get the front up a bit after I do my wheel swap. Thats my only complaint really. Other than that everything has been great!

[damannhw]

Thanks! Yeah it handles very well. You can hammer the car into corners and it stays very level and controlled and im still on 15's and 60 series tires.... for the next few weeks ;). I'm pretty impressed.

My only complaint is that the front springs are just too short. Even with both spacers in there the front still sits lower than the car did with 1.5 coils hacked out of some 10 year old stock replacement springs. Marc @ SC&C says that you can get the car close to stock ride height with the spacers provided but thats just not the case for me or other people I have discussed this with. I'm probably going to stick another half inch of spaces in to get the front up a bit after I do my wheel swap. Thats my only complaint really. Other than that everything has been great!

That's good information to know about the spacers. I installed my springs w/ no spacers and was going to see how it sat when put back together. Maybe I should stick those spacers back in now !