Little delay….

Well I am out looking for a body person now.  I got a little disappointing news but I totally understand.  The guy helping with the body work and paint (David) has a super difficult schedule coming up and is going to be super busy plus some “life” things came up.  So I need to find a body guy to do some help finishing the base for the paint.  Primer and finish little body work. David is still going to help paint.  Which is what I would rather him help with anyways….he’s amazing painter.

So we got a little delay.

No biggie,   hope to find someone this week and maybe get it done within the month.  Be able to paint next month or in May.

Engine or Interior?

Okay here is where I am at.  I am trying to figure out if I want to go Engine or Interior?

Engine…..

Purchase the following Valve Covers, 4-Barrel Carburetor, Manifold, and Air Cleaner.  It will clean up the engine bay and provide some nice horsepower.

Interior….

All I need to do really is get new door panels and evaluate knobs, handles, arm rests and console.  I already have the carpet and the deadner.  So its just a matter of sitting down and figuring out which way to go….

Suggestions are welcome!

Prep and Paint…

Finally some good looking progress!  We got the driver’s side prepped and primered!  We got to do a couple little things but they are easily accomplished within a couple hours.  My next step is to finish sanding the trunk and get the passenger side sanded as well as the hood.

After some work we come to realize that the body is in MUCH better shape than originally anticipated!  Good job Pops on the past prep work!  Everything help up well and is making this process super easy!  We did all the prep (except for sanding) and all the work and primed it in less than 6 hours!

Slowly getting things done and making good progress!

One thing we are working on next is filling up some holes (where the trim used to go) and trying to adjust the door so it will be flush down the side of the car.  As you can see we got a small gap to fill.

Rearview Mirror…..

www.opgi.com

This website has pretty much anything you need to restore your car to whatever need you want to make it.  I recently bought my carpet and my rearview mirror.  Unfortunately the carpet is backordered but my mirror came in and it looks great!  It makes me anxious to see what the car is going to look like when everything is finished and set up!  A little mirror isn’t much but it sure does help with the overall vision of what it is going to look like!  I am excited!

Carpet….

Last night I made my next purchase!  I got some Essex Carpet, which is going to have a higher cut pile which you’ll see in more luxury cars than what you typically would find in a “original 71” interior.  Also got some high quality sound deadener/ padding to keep the heat out during the winter and keep the cool in during the summer.  Along with my purchase I have brand-new Sill plates to match the original plates that have the “body by Fisher”  logo on them.  So in the next 5 days or so I should have those goodies in my garage! 

Also as a little subnote,

Today or tomorrow I’ll be sanding down the old dead paint and start preping the car for an awesome paint job!

Sparks and Tunes…

I took off my door panels just recently and I was looking at my speakers and thinking…..Wow thats some old speakers!  No there not original they’re more like $30 walmart speakers from 20 years ago coupled with an old Radio/Cassette player.

As I put the speakers back in place with no panel i was getting no sound at all!  Hmmm….I unscrewed the speakers and as I did I was getting sparks on where the bracket touched the metal!  Not good….. So I know for sure I need to replace the speakers and the radio, I just got to see what are the best speakers to fit in that space that can carry a full clean sound in all ranges.  I have a pretty good knowledge of what I want…It’s once again it comes to the all recurring question……How wild/custom do you want to go?  I won’t go to wild by all means but I want to make sure I leave the option open for a subwoofer.  Will I go that far?  I dont know but I do want to make sure I have a good clean sound.

As far a Radio/CD Player….I am currently looking at a Blaupunkt Key West MP38.  It is priced cheap and has a clean front operational face that is what I have in mind.  Not to mention it has 4,096 colors to choose from on the display…..pretty nifty.   As far as speakers I need to do some more research….More than likely I’ll go for the JL Audio TR series or something with Pioneer or Infinity.  As mentioned I need to do some more research.

Ahhhh….slowly but surely its all coming together!

Interior removal began….

Phase 1….

Remove Console and Door panels…..

I took out the console of the Cutlass and I saw something I have been kinda curious to see….What in the world has fell into the console over the past 37 years and has never been fished out after all these years?  Well I found some interesting stuff…..a receipt from 9 years ago (milk was much cheaper!), a stamp of 33 cents, old gum wrappers, and various trash.  It was like a new little treasure.  What can you find?

All I really need to do now is pull out the seats and then I will be ready to lay down the under lay and the carpet.  I have chose to go with the newer carpet as opposed to the “old original” style carpet.  It will add a new comfortable feel and will maintain much better.

As I removed the door panels I know that ordering brand new ones will be a a smart investment as well as some good quality speakers.  I also need to figure out my cd player issue….as in i need one…..BUT thats down the road for sure……

As I am pulling the car apart all I see is all of these great ideas in my mind and I just ask myself….Do i want to take that leap?  Do I want to go the extra mile at________?  Do i want to customize_______?  It can go as wild or as mild and still pay the same amount of money………

Its all about the vision in your head!

First Car show….

Here’s a website for ya. Local Car Shows. This site displays tons of upcoming car shows/swap meets/cycle shows and etc.  Well, My father-in-law and I took the cutlass up to a car show with 100% intention of hanging out and looking at all the cars and with about 75% intention of entering my car.  When we showed up there were quite a bit of cars already there and set up all nice and all.  I thought what the heck….i’ll toss my hat in the ring and see if I can win something.  I looked at the classes and looked at the cars at the same time to see where my best chances are in winning or at least placing.  Well one category looked like I had the best chances of placing…”GM Custom”…(Since I had aftermarket wheels it qualified for custom and no longer stock) So I took my car and my #43 and found a nice spot on the grass right next to some very nice Chevelle’s to call home for the afternoon.

After settling in we took the rest of the afternoon in admiring some nice cars and also scoping out the competition as well.  Looking around we never saw a ton of cars in my class but nevertheless we had some competition.

In one class there was some serious action happening in the Mustang/Pony class for sure.  There were 19 or so cars in that class alone!  Street rod….about the same i would say.  Pre-1971 truck stock…..1…..yep one nice stock truck for sure and of course it placed 1st, Obviously.

Trophy time…..

The announcer called out the GM stock class first and a Superchief claimed first prize in that category (very very well done car for sure.  Showroom quality.  Now time for GM Custom….drumroll….Runner up- Justin Edge!   The crowd stood up and went nuts!  No actually they all just clapped.

So yep, I claimed my first trophy!  Pretty awesome experience, i also just look at the overall scope of things and just think ohhh this car has so much more potential and it will be looking so much better!  So this just basically proves to me that this car is in a good starting position for making it what I plan it to look like.

So thats it.  I look forward to the next car show I can attend and bring along the family and making it a fun family deal!  Man this car is going to be a start to some fun family memories!  Thx Dad and Mom

Tires and Wheels…done…

Well my tires and wheels are all in and have been mounted.  Here you can see the difference in width on my rear tires.  Going 255 instead of 225.  And after looking I know I could have gone wider in the rear, but it looks good either way.

going custom…..

Okay I know you may be tired of Wheels and Tires but that’s the focus on my project right now.

The wheels and tires came in!

I showed up to my tire shop and Terry said “You wanna see them?”  Of course I do!  Well when he opened the boxes I saw some nice chrome wheels!  BUT…………..they were not the right ones, well… they were but they weren’t.

I’ll explain.  Every picture I have seen of the Torq Thrust Type-M wheels were a deep dish style….Look here….But when i saw them in person here’s what they looked like…NOT a deep dish…And Below here is what it looked like on the car.  Not quite the look at all!

So I talked to Terry and he said more or less now you have to go Custom to get the deep look with a good offset to secure the deep look your wanting to achieve.  Well I sent the wheels back but kept the tires.  (Tires were awesome looking and HUGE! )

So what do I do?  Where do I go?  I dont want to spend thousands of dollars on Wheels!  I found a place who can make some Custom wheels for me and they are relatively inexpensive.  I talked with Bo at Fast toys for Boys here in Edmond and he hooked me up with a custom shop in Utah.  So monday I will be ordering some C-5’s from Coys Custom Wheels!  Here’s what they look like.

I am excited about whats to come and I know without a doubt that these will be the ones!