About to start body restoration on 86

[gbeaird]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same. While I tried to 'squeeze' the bottom down a bit to hold the battery a little better, it still seems to be a little loose. I think I have some old inner tube material I may cut up to use.

[TheViking]

That came up nice. Did you buy the mount or fabricate it yourself?

[gbeaird]

I ordered it from the same place I got the battery from, West Coast Batteries. I'm not certain that it is their's alone, but I looked at other sites selling Odyssey batteries, and didn't find another vendor who listed it. I am guessing they make it, but am not certain.

I'm drawn between polishing it, cleaning it and clear-coating it, or painting it either semi-gloss black or Jalapeno red. I just don't know at this point in time.

[gbeaird]

I decided to coat it and see how that works. I have this stuff called Rust Preventative Magic (RPM), that looks like a soft wax that you melt into the metal, then buff it if you want a smoother finish. I'll see how it holds up. I'm also using the same stuff to coat a lot of the metal parts (mostly aluminum) on the new engine for our C Prepared Autocross car, so we'll see how that does.

[gbeaird]

Not much has happened lately. I DO have the back seats redone and the front passenger seat done, although not 100% to my satisfaction.

I've been cleaning on things under the hood as I get time, but that's been rare lately. We've been putting together a new engine for our autocross car and recently have been replacing the clutch in my wife's 95 Z28. It's been fighting me all the way through this project. We have all the new parts ready to go in, and that starts Saturday. THEN, we roll the Firebird off the trailer and start the engine swap.

>sigh< Some day I'll get to get back to our SVO. In the mean time, I'll be recovering the driver's seat from the comfort of the living room as the cold winter wind blows outside.

[Ford Builder]

I think the seats look great so far.

[svono50]

Good work Gene, slow and steady as she goes, eh!?!

[gbeaird]

The pictures really don't do them justice, but they do look nice. There are a few wrinkles around the side bolsters, but I've pulled and tucked until my fingers bled, so that's where they stand. I will say if you do such a project and have cats, you need to wrap EVERYTHING. I've used up one lint roller on the passenger seat and still have some work to go to get all the dang hair off of it! After we finished this seat, and worked on it with the lint roller a bit, I wrapped it up in garbage bags and taped them shut. I figure I'll need to lint roller it a bit more after it goes in the car, so I wrapped it for now.

Yes, slow and steady, although not as steady as I'd like. Hopefully I'll get more time to work on it after the new engine is in and running. We want to be ready for the first event of the year (our autocross season really never ends here), so after the Z28 is off the jackstands, the Firebird goes on them.

So many projects, so little time. :-)

[inerceptor]

Gene I started to buy those seat covers but had heard mixed reviews about them. Looking at your pictures I wished I had now. They look great. It sure would have saved me money and the hassle of having to find a reputable upholstery shop to make mine with the material that I bought. Did you buy the TMI seat foam as well? If so, how did it fit? Oh, and as far as the multiple projects I don't have as many as you but I am working on two at the time. It is a good thing I guess that every vendor that I purchase from never is in any hurry to get me the product that I have paid for because I keep running out of money. Anyway, I guess I will be driving my Fusion to the 50th anniversary of the Mustang in April.

[gbeaird]

Chad,

Yes, TMI seat foam as well. The fit of the foam is spot-on. It may be a little thicker than factory, hence the fitment issues with the covers, but the foam, so far, has fit like a glove. The 50-Resto video has helped a LOT, and I review it often when working on the seats, but it's still a LOT of work getting things to fit properly.

That 'never in a hurry' thing is a double-edged sword. We told the engine builder for our new engine for our Firebird that we were in 'no hurry', but his build took 8 years!!!!! Never tell them you're in no hurry!!

We have the engine now, and everyone says what a hotrod we'll have with it installed, but it's been a long, frustrating road, at times.

[gbeaird]

Still not much progress on our SVO. We did locate a set of interior panels for the back of the car. Shipping was 3X what the parts were, but we're happy to have them. I guess I should spend an afternoon throwing them in the car, but want to see if I can make any repairs on the few scratches and scrapes they have first.

We're in 'full engine swap' mode on the autocross car, though, so when I wander out to the shop, I'm usually at/in/under the race car trying to get the little bits all hooked up. Can't wait to get to turn the engine over for the first time.

[inerceptor]

Gene, just for future reference. It is pretty reasonable to ship big things like interior panels through Greyhound Bus if the seller does not mind going that route. The only down side is that the buyer has to physically drive to the closest bus station to pick them up. I found out the hard way. I sold a set of panels for a coupe on Ebay and when I went to ship Fedex and UPS wanted $350.00 dollars to ship them to California. I contacted the buyer and told them that I was going to have to issue a refund because it was going to be to expensive to ship and the buyer suggested Greyhound. They shipped them for $ 55.00 dollars.

[gbeaird]

Yeah, I've heard their prices are decent, and with few exceptions, they do a decent job. I wasn't sure about the situation the shipper was in, but here in the Houston area, our local Greyhound terminal is a VERY scary place. I'd rather pay for the convenience of sliding the box off the truck, and into the bed of our truck for the short trip down the driveway to the shop.

Given that, I did get the missing interior piece installed yesterday afternoon. It's so nice having all the parts back in the car again!! I have to get back on the upholstery install so we can finish getting the interior back together. If the weather continues to be cr@ppy, we may get the time to do that sooner than later.

[gbeaird]

Another little update. I finally got the old steering wheel and it's adapter off so I could install the much-better wheel I got from here. Crappy cell picture, but it looks great! The only issue seems to be that the horn button(s) seem to be permanently-mashed. When I try to plug the horn pad in, the horns go off. Oh well, we'll be running Antique tags on it when we get it back on the street, so a horn test during an inspection won't be necessary. :-)

[JesuSVO]

Hello Gene,
I have an 86 with broken Header Panel (right where the headlights are mounted on each side) and I'm considering repairing it by 3D printing the sections I need and then bolt or glue them to my header panel.
I just need a complete header panel to take measurements to model it on CAD. Do you happen to have yours off? If so do you mind me looking at it just to take measurements???

BTW: I also live in Pearland, TX!!!

All, does anybody have a header panel for sale???

Thanks,