Aaron's 76 Type LT Project

12 minute(s) of a 383 minute read

I pulled out the rubber boot and the plastic bezel to fit it on the 4-speed hump and everything looks good. The boot is positioned a little rightward and the plastic bezel angles toward the left to compensate for the hump being installed left-of-center.  

For future reference, here are a few posts that have measurements for factory location of the hump

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showpost.php?p=442339&postcount=29

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1811978&postcount=8

http://www.nastyz28.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2625721&postcount=1

I am sure there will be some slight adjustment needed when everything is installed but I will be able to install the hump tomorrow.

7-2-2014

I got the 4-speed hump welded in, there's no turning back now!

I used my jig saw to make a nice, clean cut. I left about 1" of metal for the hump to attach to



Stripped both mating surfaces down to bare metal



I got to use my Harbor Freight hole punch. This was one of those purchases I didn't need to make but hey, it's a cool tool!



It makes nice pretty holes perfect for spot welding



I sprayed both mating surfaces with weld through primer for extra protection. I will eventually seam seal both sides of the joint.



The hump welded in place

Thanks guys. It was a simple task but I figured the extra pics might help someone else.

The goal is to get the hump all done, which is just a matter of cleaning up the welds. Then I can mask off the areas around the wheel wells and trunk for spraying. Then I will spray epoxy primer on these various areas, apply seam sealer and then do the truck bed liner on the trunk and the wheel wells. I also need to spray the firewall, which I will do when I spray the trunk and wheel wells.

After that the plan is to:

1. Get the doors lined up
2. Move the car into the driveway and do some spot sand blasting for areas I cannot strip by hand
3. Install the motor and tranny This should be pretty straightforward actually
4. Get the all the body panels installed and measured up. This will be time consuming, no doubt
5. Remove all body panels and start focusing on the shell for final body work and painting

So that should keep me busy, but I can truly envision making some strong progress in the next few months.

7-5-2014

I got the firewall, rear wheel wells and trunk sprayed with epoxy primer today after doing prep and masking the surrounding areas yesterday (and doing some grilling and beer drinking ) It was good to get used to spraying again in some pretty "low risk" areas. I will apply seam sealer where I need to and then coat the trunk and wheel wells with truck bed liner. I am using Upol Raptor bed liner.





The firewall was like deja vu all over again since I sprayed it a while ago. I had to re-spray it since I added the Detroit Speed AC delete cover.

Thanks bud. I am going to use a Vintage Air aftermarket AC system, so the old factory "suitcase" won't be used. Aside from the compressor and condenser, everything else is under the dash in a compact system. The lines will run through the heater core opening.

While his setup is WAAAAY nicer than what I will have, this pic is what prompted me to get the DSE cover panel. speed_m5 did a lot of work to the firewall, as in completely smoothed. You can see the AC lines are run between the fender and wheel well for a nice, clean look.

7-7-2014

I got the Upol Raptor truck bed liner sprayed on the trunk and wheel wells tonight and I am pleased with how it came out. I only snapped pics of the trunk after the first coat since the wheel wells still have the masking paper up and the pics were crummy. The idea came from a few other members in the Body forum, so props for the idea.

Here is the exact kit I got: http://www.amazon.com/U-POL-Tintable-TRUCK-LINER-COATING-Bedliner/dp/B002M0S9AE

Two containers (1/2 the kit) did the trunk and both rear wheel wells. So I have plenty to do the front wheel wells. I set the pressure to ~55 psi and it came out a nice thickness. I sprayed SPI black epoxy primer on Saturday before spraying the Raptor.

Thanks Tony, I will snap some pics tomorrow after the second coat is cured and I can remove the masking paper.  

To be clear, the color is black. It looks speckled only because the light is reflecting off the texture. But I did not tint it or anything, just went with straight black.

You will recall the pits and dings in the floor in the below pic - the bed liner makes all that go away but it's not super aggressive texture so it still looks good.

7-9-2014

I tried to get pics of the trunk after the second coat of bed liner cured but the pics are not any more helpful than the first round of pics. I was trying to show the texture in better detail in case anyone was thinking of doing the same thing

Here's a closer shot that shows the texture I achieved at 55 psi.



Here's the wheel well, which I think shows the color better. I did the inner and outer wheel well, so I stopped at the bottom lip of the inner wheel well before the frame. It's not for everyone but I like the look and the protection, plus a little sound deadening.

7-12-2014

Yep, I sprayed it at 55 psi at the gun gauge. Re: the gun, you have to use a siphon gun with a larger orafice, so there was not much overspray at all. This is the gun:  http://www.tcpglobal.com/UPO-726.html?gclid=CPTuspyAwL8CFUYA7AodSmEAmA#.U8FIc_ldV1Y You can use other guns as well.

Re: the trunk, I hear you. This is certainly not for everybody but I am genuinely very happy with the results, both from an aesthetics and practical point of view I wanted a durable finish that helped conceal some imperfections and this delivered wonderfully.

The pics I have posted previously were from my phone camera and were not the best so I took some better pics with my Nikon. I don't mean to beleaguer the point, I mainly want to provide others with the best info possible so they can make an informed decision since this is something you can't reverse very easily. I somewhat took a leap of faith in using this product so maybe I can help others feel better about whatever decision they make.

Here's links to the original sized pictures so you can see more detail

http://imgur.com/OCiTAzQ
http://imgur.com/S9ZLbqJ
http://imgur.com/t7GAa1y

Good stuff man, as always. I actually saw someone else post pics of this product applied so it wasn't a complete leap of faith, but pics are not always the same as seeing the product in person. But I am definitely happy with the results, so all's well that ends well  And I am glad I was able to assist some others.

Re: the gun, a 2.0 tip won't cut it, you need this gun or a similar Shutz style gun.

Here's a pic of the gun tip

7-13-2014

Got a few things done this weekend. I started off applying seam sealer to the firewall and then re-coating with epoxy primer for aesthetics since the seam sealer is a a lighter black color than the epoxy primer.

I taped off the areas to keep the lines clean. I applied the seam sealer with some acid brushes, which are like $1/pack







Here's the seam sealer I went with. I liked having more control of where I apply the product. If you tape off the area you are sealing, then remove the tape a few minutes after application for a nice clean line.



I also got the 4-speed hump sealed

So the door-to-1/4 panel gap along the lower half of the passenger side door is as good as it's going to get with the hinge adjustment, which means I need to close the gap somehow. I can either add metal to the 1/4 panel or to the door and I decided to go the door route. I decided this would be less intrusive as most people are not looking on the backside of the door. I may add some metal to the top half of the door lip if it looks too awkward, but that would only be to achieve a uniform thickness the entire length.

The plan is to add a piece of sheet metal (shown below) to the backside of the door lip and then weld along the door edge to provide a solid edge. I will then shape the edge to achieve the proper door gap. It will take awhile but I would regret not getting this door gap correct.

This is still very raw, but the general shape of the metal piece is good, minus the edges which I intentionally left "long" since I can easily remove metal easier than I can add it.

A few fun things.

I typed up a list of sub-projects I need to get done that pertain to the body work and taped it in my garage. That way I can stay focused and work down the list one item at a time.



I changed over to higher flow air tool fittings and it definitely has a positive impact. My air tools definitely feel like the have more umph. I thought I'd share since I didn't know about this until a few weeks ago