Welcoming a new member to our home...

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

Need some advice. Is this too much slop in the King Pin? That bolt that holds it in place isnt going anywhere and I might be screwed if this is going to be junk...

So here are the seat covers. I think they look GREAT and for only $200 for both seats it was well worth it.



Here is the link to the seller on eBay if anyone needs/wants a set... Took 10 days from date of purchase till delivery. A lot faster than they say it will take. They have lots of colors and you just pick what you want after check out.




Fiero Seat Covers

great lookin seats, great price too, i'll bet you cant wait to install them,

Yeah they will look nice. Going to paint the feet first though.

Looking good Matt !!!!!! How did you repair the damaged foam on the headrest?

Glued in a piece of dense foam then shaped it to match. Same where the seat cushion was a bit rough. Had to cut some of the original foam out to make it even to glue to the surface.

Got the King Pins replaced, drivers side spring bushing and rear bushing on the passenger side spring. Still need to pick up a 1.6" bushing for the front on that side. Replaced the Tie Rod ends and swapped to Disc brakes.



I have the dual master installed but still need to get steel and rubber lines to hook it up.

Its coming along at least.

So after we found that the motor in the 66 has some issues we decided we are going to do the V8 swap from the 3rd Gen donor.

EFI Throttle body 350 with 700R4 tranny. Dad and I got it pretty much ready to pull. Just need to drop the drive shaft and loosen the motor mounts and its ready to come out.

Also thinking I might pull the steering column since the 66 has a Buick one in it now, it wont be changing anything that is "Original". Will see if it is going to be long enough or not once we get the motor pulled. This would solve issues with the shifter and also keep all the hook ups for the Cruise. So nice the cruise control module is mounted right behind the throttle cable so it isnt another spare piece that has to be found a mounting location. LoL

Got the motor and tranny pulled today and mounted it to the motor stand. Pulled all the extras and the intake. Motor looks in pretty good shape. We plan on cracking the heads loose tomorrow and getting it ready for rebuild.

Anyone suggest a good kit to use? Was thinking the sets on Summit would do nicely.

350 rebuilt and ready to install... and man she looks pretty...