what I'm starting with

Been working the dash all home made parts
bezels for the ac just don't like plastic.
pattern I made

finished bezel. Wanted to mold into the dash in the beginning just figured the dash was to small

made the curves with a large pipe, hammer and lots of little taps.

redid the gauge cluster to hold round gauges


filled the gap between the cluster and the metal sheet with fiberglass then skim coated with bondo, thought might hold together better.

took lots of hand sanding but I think it turned out ok.
last thing is a plate to cover the speaker grill on the top of the dash.



also made a radio replacement panel and a box to hold the ac controls (sorry no picture of that yet).
radio mount'


all these still need a bit of work and was time consuming. Didn't have my Zen today so quit. Hopefully I'll be better soon and start cutting the dash to fit everything together.

You're doing an amazing job sir - I come back to this thread quite abit - enjoy seeing your progress!  It's going to look great, you should be proud!

Autometer gauges?

Regal thanks for the pep talk. this is what I've been doing,
here's the gauge cluster primed.

mock up with gauges, bottom tin was cut and bent so it'll still work. It's pretty pitted, tried polishing up the left side. hoping it'll clean up with lots of elbow grease.

mounted the ac inside before working on dash to make sure no other welding of mount points were needed.


finally got the nerve to hack up the dash, filled the speaker grate,

welded and primed the ac controls,



installed the new stereo mount,


and while the bondo was drying I cleaned lots of parts, stripped paint and started to reassemble.

the dash is smoothed out and feathered in, soon as I prime it I'll post more pictures....thanks for looking.

well been doing a lot just nothing to right home about.
Did some sanding


then added a little paint on the jams and engine bay.
forgot that when it looks great walk away, I didn't and got a few sags but nothing great. It's been 6+ years since I touched a gun.




that's about it for now. hoping on getting the engine to the machine shop for a refreshing up next month, working on putting the wagon all together for final sand and paint.

Hell yeah man - you're making great progress - bet you'll be cruising in the spring at this rate! Love the color btw! Good choice!

Thanks, I'm hoping on getting her done by the spring time. I'm turning 60 next year and well I promised my wife that I wouldn't die till all the cars in the yard are up and running,
short list:
57 pontiac chieftain
51 f-2
73 baracuda
61 morris minor
46 pylmouth sedan
65 custom880
41 ford business coupe.
73 amx-runs needs a little work
86 jeep cj-7- runs body shot
whatever rolls in  lol.

so you see I hope to be here for a while.

looks great

well not much to show since I'm sure everyone knows what sanding primer looks like and that's what I've been doing to the door interiors. Lots of curves and small pieces of paper to work with. They're ready for paint which I hope to spray soon.
What I'd like to show is with the help of a friend we ran the brakes.

few shots of the master cylinder and proportioning valve.



also ran the lines

grounded the front suspension

and finally put the rubber shields in. They wanted like 30$ for the plastic pins so I tapped the holes and put screws and washers on them


Once I've painted the doors I'll be putting them on along with the front  fenders. Oh and the engine is in the machine shop should be done next year. I'll have to make brackets for the alternator and ac pump I'll try and put it here.

lacquer paint was easy...enamel I got good at. Not sure if it's my eyesight or getting used to the HVLP guns. Its a whole new world for me and well a few small runs this time. guess I need more time between coats and new glasses.





anyone have any extra of these they hold the door in the open position

just mounted the exhaust what do you think?




have to trim some brackets and make a few adjustments. Hope it sounds good.

You're killing it man!! Love the side pipes! Post a vid when it's running please!

Amazing work. I may have missed but it what size wheels are you going to use? And what is the master cylinder from?

Using 205/65 r15 with  crager 15/7 rims. Sorry haven't been posting much but did get the driveshaft fixed. Used 62 bearing and driveshaft support. The driveline place I took it to modified the bracket to fit the parts. They added a shim to fit the later parts and welded it in. Other than that the engine is still at the shop, and I've been sanding and priming to smooth out the body. Don't think anyone needs to see pictures of that. But if you want I'll post a few.

Your work is Amazing, can't wait too see the result.

Thanks I'm still sanding and priming sort of anal when it comes to that....prep work is 99% of a good paint job. Funny though if the weather stays cold I should be ready to paint end of next month. If it warms up I need to start doing my planting etc and might take longer.....so what did the ground hog say again?

Sorry I wrote out a bunch of questions and thought I hit send,I did not. LOL
1. What master cylinder are you running?
2. What rotor are you using?
3. What Wheel are you using?
5. Does everything work on a stock spindle?
6. The following link is for wheels that will work on 4 or 5 lug wheels.
https://www.cokertire.com/hot-rod-steel-primed-or-chrome-56785.html
Thanks Dave reber

It came all as a kit. Think they're gm calipers and rotors. Chevy bolt pattern 5 lug and I'm running cragar baby mooms on a 15 by 7 rim. Everything was a bolt in and all the bearings, new brake pushrod, master cylinder, caliper brake lines, caliper bracket, everything you would need. Go ahead and contact Ben at Bccp he could fill you in on the details.

Fantastic thanks man.

If you call him tell him howdy from Fred

deal

OK it's been a while. I'm still sanding the body and hopefully by the end of next month it should be ready for paint. I was hoping sooner only it's spring here and planting season.
This did come back though....

crower cam, 30 over pistons, new manifold etc etc etc ....cost way to much and I see why most people are going to crate engines.


still waiting on a new water pump then I'll be making brackets for the alternator and ac compressor. Still have to blast and paint pulleys and other bits and pieces.

This is the original block. It was a good one other than whoever replaced a head gasket on it tore up some threads for the head bolts and tapped out a few holes then put oversized thread-all in it to bolt the head back down. I had to take the spare engine to the shop and from the 2, I got one nice engine.,

mounting the alternator on the drivers side

first I made a spacer out of an old bushing insert and welded washers the size of the bolt so it'll sit flush

as you can see here it turned out ok

I then made a simple bracket from the water pump to stabilize the unit.

here's how it looks from the front

to mount the adjustment bracket I went off of a bolt hole near the balancer.
this is the bracket that I made.

still have to make one more bracket to add support to the mount point for the adjustment bracket. Used a piece of welding rod to get bends and size. It'll bolt to the lower bolt on the timing cover.

I'll have to clock the alternator and I might build a heat shield to keep exhaust away from the rear of the alternator

after I make the final bracket and weld them together I'll post it here.

Wish I had better news, the wagons been ready to paint for the last 3 weeks only we've had 90+ temps with humidity between 70 and 90%. Not going to chance spraying in that kind of weather. What I have done is work on other cars and put insulation in the wagon.

top

what used to be back seat door
I haven't done the front floor yet since I'm trying to figure out what to do where the back seat used to be. I'm thinking boxing it a bit for storage and a few speakers.

trunk


if anyone is doing this I've found this stuff great for covering seams


hope to have it painted by the middle of October....wish me luck

what an amazing build. inspires me to keep going on mine.

Great project! Thanks for sharing with us.