Welcoming a new member to our home...

I hadnt taken phone out to get a picture of the floor. It is a bit rough, I needed to add some filler to the sides since it was a bit out of shape. I used TIG rods and the MIG welder to add material to the original metal and get it up to the level of the new panel. I will use my 7.5 inch grinder to smooth it out before it gets painted again.

I just wanted it covered, it is REALLY humid here from all the rain and I didnt want it to start rusting on the new welds.



This week the wife and I went to the shop where we will be getting out paint and she was able to pick out her colors.

First off the van is going to be called "Coco 66" on the plates. She has really wanted a Hot Chocolate colored van. This was the shade of brown she picked and it looks SWEET!.



The secondary color was a bit tougher. We wanted to get a lighter brown but it was REALLY limited for something like that, that would match her main color. Most we bronze or cream/tan. I thought she should get a little more adventurous. So to go with the Root Beer brown this is the chip she picked. I think it is going to look AWESOME!



Mike had all the interior plastic panels, they will be painted the same orange and then we got some matching brown vinyl that will have foam backed and sewn in diamond shapes for the finishing panels and roofing.

I am sure we have ALL seen vans suffering from the missing stop on the front doors dent... UGH! The 66 is no different...



Drivers side was gone from the door to the body, the only piece was the piece welded to the body. Passenger side had it all complete but the brace in the body had the welds broken. I decided I wanted to replace the whole setup.

Here is the kit I made. I will do a feeler to see if any one would be interested in buying these sets.

2 Body brackets
1 rod
1 door plate
1 stop plate
1 rubber bailer belt cushion



Rod Assembled





Drivers door that still had the bracket on the body...

Door Mounting Plate



Drivers side looking down from the top




Passenger side body mounts



Complete mounted to body (Passengers door is off so I didnt have picture of it in the door.)



All done! No more nose dents!!!

How close does it come to the window when rolled down? Or are you far enough down the door? Don't no the chevy vans all that well, and was wondering if this is to replace the stock parts that would normally be in that same location anyway. Looks nice that's for sure.

The brace that mounts on the door plate forces the rod to pivot more parallel with door as it closes.

This replaces the stock pieces. I just copied what was there in my CAD software and cut it out and mounted it.

Very Nice....our fords have the straps on the doors that kinda stick out. wouldn't mind trying to make something like that fit.

I think the biggest challenge would be an indent for the pivot on the body and the bolts.

The Chevy has a "Pit" on the door and the pivot on the body slips into that pit.

If you send me pictures of the inside of your jams I will see what I can come up with. I am sure if you chamfered the holes and used a pan head bolt that sat flush we could make one work.

How thick is the material around the edge of your doors? Would it be able to have a .035 deep chamfer? 45* chamfer would need to be .035 deep to hold a 10/32 pan head flat against the material I believe. As long as we could chamfer it, the slot where the rod slides in could accommodate the body pivot bracket.

Hmmmm not sure how thick doors are. The door posts would probably be thick enough. I will have to take a look at it and see what I have to work with for door edge and get back to you.

Monkey wrench in our restore, yet again.

I bought a 1990 300ZX from a buddy for a VERY good deal. The car wasn't running but it only took me 10 minutes to figure it out. $400 and 3 hours of labor and car purrs.

He had the car repainted and seats recovered 2 years ago. Tranny rebuilt and new exhaust 6 months ago. New tires and 18 inch Liquid Metal rims. Also almost new tires on 16 inch rims.

A guy had backed into the front of the car which scuffed the front bumper and broke the passenger side headlight. This head light has been Satan in disguise! First one I bought was for a Japanese version of the car. Sent it back, bought another one. I got it from UPS yesterday and the glass was broken out! Ugh! So now waiting for my money back on this one to buy another.

I need to get rid of this thing so I can put the money into the 66.

Hey Matt, didn't mean to ignore your post about the '66, I've been busy working on my stuff at the camper and haven't done much vanning this summer. Your progress is looking great. Keep the pic's coming.

So last week I made a couple of purchases for Tammy's B-day in 3 days. I bought her an HEI Distributor and the adapter to switch to a 2 barrel carb. I didnt buy the carb yet, need to budget it in. Hoping the stuff will be here this week.

Thanks to Dan for his advice and help in picking out the right stuff.

Looking at replacing the tank with a 16 gallon aluminum fuel cell from a guy on Ebay. I need to find out if it has an in the tank fuel pump or not. Was going to redo the tank but seeing as how his tanks are only $150-$200 I would rather replace it. I seen he has a lot of different dimensioned tanks so will get good measurements on what I can make fit and go from there.

I went to the Pick A Part in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago and while there wasn't much to be had I did score a few of the trim pieces off of a few new vans that hopefully I can modify to fit the pop outs on side windows.

I started wire brushing the front floor boards and tunnel and dog house but was tired so pulled the van out and pulled my Fiat in. Worked on that for a few hours while I had parts cutting on the CNC.

Progress is slow when I am having to work on this stuff alone.

This morning the '64 Panel got sold to a new owner. As much as I wanted to keep both vans and make a "Shaggin Wagon" out of the panel, we just didnt see us having the money for both within the next 3-5 years so decided to let it go. It went fast, I posted it last night and it was gone pretty much last night, finished up the sale this morning.

I still have the 1991 with a 350 and auto tranny that I am going to either sell as is or pull the motor and tranny for anyone wanting to do a V8 conversion.

With the sale of the '64, even though we lost all the money we paid to ship it here, we have some money we can sink into the 66. Now that I have the HEI and 2 Barrel adapter I need to order a carb and I have money to get the interior started.

I put my TIG welder up for sale, I just dont use it enough to justify a $2500 welder sitting in the shop, even though I love it. If I could get rid of that and the 300ZX I would have pretty much enough to finish her van for her.

One step at a time...

Well I am still waiting on my parts to get here. Shows the Distributor and Carb are supposed to be here Friday and the 2bbl adapter tomorrow.

I bought a gallon of POR15 to get the interior started. I bought 4 wire wheels for my grinder and drill and as soon as I get the new suspension put in the Fiat I will be pulling the van into the shop to get the front portion of the interior going.

I am heading to Harbor Freight at lunch today to buy a Soda Blaster. I plan on using this for small parts only. I have a lot of stuff on my Fiat I want blasted and I have found a few for the van as well.

I need some advice on the seats. Mike had a set of Fiero seats with the van. I got all the mounting in stalled and they fit great. I took them to a guy I had met that redoes seats. He told me for the 2 seats $250 a piece. Is this a typical price? Seemed a bit high but wanted to ask what others have paid to get a pair of buckets recovered.

Impatience is killing me! Just found out my HEI distributor was delayed and now wont be here till Monday. The 2 bbl carb is still supposed to be here today. I got the adapter yesterday and I am pretty eager to get started on this mod.

GREAT LOOKIN VAN, KEEP THE PICTURES COMMIN,

Ok the carburetor came and the adapter so I can at least get that started this weekend!

I ran and got my soda blaster today, yesterday there was just too much going on and I couldnt get over to Harbor Freight. Going to give it a test run on the springs for my Fiat and see how it does.

Found a couple of options for my Fiero seats. That guy wanting to charge $250 a piece seemed way over priced so I did some searching on Ebay.

Found vinyl sets for $200 for a set. I can get these in a black and brown/beige color combo so this seems like it would look real nice.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/300506178232?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

and leather for $350 a set.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/221122543129?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

$250 a seat would be cheap for what I’ve been quoted. I have some recaro seats that need reupholstered and I was told $350 each. those links you supplied are for seat covers, not the same as a real reupholster, but you might get 80% of the look for 50% of the price.

So I thought I should give an update. Been awhile.

I got most of the parts for my front brake disc conversion. I bought the bracket from M1D this spring.

I ordered the Nova rotors from JC Whitney since it was about $25 a piece cheaper than Advanced. They should be here this coming week. I bought the K10 Calipers and duel master cylinder from Advanced.

Talked to Pete last night and he and I are going to make plans to hit the Pick A Part in Birmingham and see about putting together a couple of TBI kits. I think working together on it might be a huge bonus.

Looking in the dog house is a bit over whelming. They have so many spliced wires that I dont really know where to start. I think I will start by buying a new fuse box and trace and start replacing one section at a time.

I pulled one of the pop out windows from the drivers side side windows. They are pretty rough but I wire wheeled the frame and then used the POR15 type paint I got and it turned out pretty good. I am hoping I can save them. The other drivers side isnt bad but both pop outs on the side doors are pretty bad. Going to see what I can do with them.

I still need to get new weather stripping. There is a junk store in Guntersville called Mike's Merchandise and I am going to cruise on down there today and see if they have any goodies. They get in a lot of stuff and can get lucky on stuff that could be used.

I took both front seats out and wire wheeled everything on the floor and dog house. I can now use my POR15 to seal it all. I bought an under carpet sound deadener called Stinger RoadKill. It is made for under carpet and this will just be used in the front under our feet. For 12 square feet it was $80. The rest I will use the foil backed sound deadener which is $175 for 36 square feet. Much cheaper than Dynamat.

Something that really bothers me is last night when I was pulling the van back into the shop it started hard and after I got it running it started smoking BAD! The van has been starting hard like the spark was seriously retarded but I havent moved the distributor at all so no idea why it would act like this. Once it is started it runs perfect. I dont think spark gap could be the problem. I gapped them at .050 when I put them in. Only reason I mention the spark gap is cuz it started starting hard after I replaced the plugs and wires.

As I start finishing up a couple of the started projects I will post some pictures.

just bought dynamat from amazon for 142.99 for 36 sq. ft. with free shipping, that's the best price I've found.

uncle ron wrote:just bought dynamat from amazon for 142.99 for 36 sq. ft. with free shipping, that's the best price I've found.

Wow that is super cheap!!!

Gonna search there for it. Locally Dyna was $225 for 36 sqft

So this weekend I got all the flip out windows cleaned off and painted. There a couple of rust holes in them. Pete and I were talking and I am thinking of getting some JB weld and filling the small holes, smoothing them and repainting those areas. I also got the whole front section of the van sealed as well as around all the flip out window openings in the van.

I found that the door latch on the drivers side is cracked around where it mounts to the door. I am not sure I can fix it so might have to buy a dang door.

I made a model for my paint booth I am going to build with PVC pipe and plastic. I am going to get the small sections ready around all the window openings and do that section first since it will be a much smaller area and will see how my new paint gun works. I am going to get the booth up then start sanding. I am going to have a large fan sucking all the air/dust out the door. I dont want all that dust flying in my shop and onto my CNC. 8 feet tall, 18 feet long and 10 feet wide.

Also found that my seat mount on the passenger side wasnt done that great and it is running crooked on the track so I am going to need to redo that. Really sucks since I have painted it all. I wouldnt have know if I hadnt been looking to see how the new seat belts are going to mount.

So I got my kit all laid out, I have everything except the hoses and steel lines and proportion valve.

I got my Duel Master installed. The hardest part was getting the dang belly pan off.

Good luck! I just finished my discs with the same setup. I had already done the dual master cylinder conversion so I had that out of the way. It's a pretty straight forward install.

Well worth the time and money, makes a world of difference. Makes it way more fun to drive!

Scotty,

what proportion valve did you use?

I am thinking i am going to replace the king pins and anything else I can while everything is off.

That's probably a good idea, I didn't do that but things looked pretty straight and clean under my van.

I just got one off ebay, something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adjustable-Proportioning-Valve-With-Residual-Valve-Kit-/200812982280?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ec162f008&vxp=mtr

This one comes with the residual valves too which I also installed as recommended by M1D. Not sure if they're completely necessary though.

It took me a while to figure out all the right adapters and plumbing to get it all connected. Drawing a little diagram helps.

Thanks Scotty, I bought one.

I might need some info on how to adjust it correctly. Lol