Long term 68 SDV resto/mod

[taintedsaint]

At the urging of friends, some on this forum, I decided to jump into the famous "build thread". I was hesitant due to the planned 2 year process and didn't want to bore folks.
My project started with an 18,000 mile original car, owner died suddenly in '72, wife parked it in garage and never drove it again.
Fast forward to last summer, I'm driving to pickup another project car I see this guy pushing the car out of garage onto the driveway. Curious, I stop to ask about it. Turns out to be the ladies son, he is pushing it to end of driveway to put a sale sign on it. I save him time, offer $3500 cash. Deal done.
Fresh gas and battery and I drive it till October.
Beginning in November, car is meticulously photographed and disassembled. Interior sealed in wrapping, everything off body then body off chassis.
Jump to now, chassis is back in garage with all components for reassembly. Frame and components powdercoated. Will be upgrading to disc front, some other changes and upgrades. Rear axle gutted and at coaters right now.
Lots of shelves stacked with new and refurb parts. Goal is get chassis back rolling, then pull body in for mild mods (smoothing firewall) couple dings, then onto rotisserie for media blast and bodywork it for Brandywine metallic paint. So here are couple pics of chassis and parts.
Will update regularly as I can.

Joe

[taintedsaint]

Couple other pics for reference. Body on cart, interior pics pre-disassembly. Body is 100% rust free, straight as a board, never hit. Sudan Beige with Medium Covert interior.

[cadmium]

It will be interesting to watch.  I wish I could be doing mine.  I will have to live vicariously through yours for now.

[taintedsaint]

I appreciate the sentiment, I have always taken a crazy long time to finish project cars because of funds and meticulous nature. Many purists will go nuts over some of the changes however many are for drivability/servicability and many are just personal preference. The 68 has lots of unique parts that are tough to find so many things like weatherstripping will be mdified from other years. A/C will be Vintage Air underdash for efficiency and to cleanout engine bay. Got lucky with having no rust issues and car being so complete. Some of the take-offs will be going to other forum members needing them, cruise control etc. I hope to keep everyone interested and be able to answer any questions.

[Highwayman68]

How about some pictures of what it looked like when you got it.

[taintedsaint]

Those couple pics are the only pre-disassembly that I can find. I had a bit of a file corruption a while ago and lost lots of pics, documents etc.

I do have parts update for today. As part of the "mod" part of resto-mod, I am replacing/upgrading the rear trailing arms. Not that the originals are bad, just ugly and not lubeable.

So I got with Spohn Performance who has built arms for some of my other cars, they build some awesome stuff. $75 a piece, built to YOUR specs as to length, bolt diameter, bushing type etc. And built in grease nipple.

If you need anything like it, even adjustable track bars or whatever, check them out at spohn.net

[taintedsaint]

Trailing arms installed and tied up out of the way. Waiting to get axle reassembled and in. Also bolted up disc brake conversion brackets today. Looking forward to the improved stopping AND easy available factory parts.

[DeVille68]

Hi Joe,
wow very nice work so far. Keep us updated
Best regards
Nicolas

[taintedsaint]

Big chunk of chassis reassembled today. Had been waiting on axle housing at powdercoater. Also had new bearings pressed on to axle shafts. As per discussion with others, put copper washers back on carrier, torqued. Axles and backing plates back on. In pics you can see the new retaining plate bolts at hub. I like them much better than stock since the head that keeps them from turning is much wider. And the original ones were a bit iffy. Now to reinstall in chassis. They are same spec, 3/8 fine thread. Made for Ford 9 inch.

[taintedsaint]

Axle back in!! The first thing I noticed using firm poly bushings in the custom trailing arms versus the pliable rubber in the factory ones is there is very little 'wiggle' room during install. You better be spot on with aligning. As those who have pulled an axle know, getting the housing sitting at correct angle and position within frame to line things up isn't easy. But one by one, got them all in with new Grade 8 hardware. Now on to front end. Waiting on new ball joint eccentrics to do front.

[taintedsaint]

Front end coming together. Got control arms hung, spindles on with disc conversion parts. Hubs etc are next. Hunting for my 3/4 thread die to chase threads on strut arms for smooth threading then they go on. Even made new ground straps for control arms.

[DaddyDeVille]

When I bought my 67, it had trailing arms very similar to what you bought from Spohn Performance.  I have been trying to figure out where they came from as I knew they were not factory.  (Thanks, that may be the ticket )

What front brakes are you installing and have you investigated front control arm replacements?  Mine was converted to 68 factory disks up front, but i'm looking for something a bit stronger.

[taintedsaint]

I have done unending, exhaustive searches for tubular control arms. No luck. The guys at Spohn said they could make them though. They put existing arms in locating jigs, weld locating pins and plates all over their jig, take a million measurements then fabricate. They have done many different GM cars and they said it cost about $2500 in time and materials to create the first jigs so there would have to be quite a market for them.
Not undoable but not anytime soon.
Brakes are the Scarebirds kit. Comes with bracket, a complue bearing spacers and a parts list of factory pieces. Went together REALLY easy and doesn't appear to be any clearance issues, though it doesn't matter as I will be up-sizing rims a bit.

The chassis is buttoned up, front to rear main brake and main fuel lines installed. So rolled it out to my storage building (spoiled with a 2400 sq ft concrete floored pole barn) zipped it into its Rhino CarJacket and moved body back into garage to get it underway. Thankfully as I've mentioned, no dents or rust ever so just my mods to contend with.
As I'm going with Vintage Air unit under/behind dash, I buttoned up the factory A/C plenum box hole.
Pics are before and after, still have other factory holes to do. Leaving only brake booster, steering column and wiper motor holes.

[taintedsaint]

Updates today on progress. Got both of the larger firewall sections filled for smoothing, only a couple individual bolt holes left. After completing stitch welds its grind, grind, grind. Pics below.
Also worked on mockup of Vintage Air a/c unit. I use Vintage Air on my builds because they will provide a full size mockup unit (basically an off the line unit with no guts) so when complete unit arrives you know it will fit.
Bolted in column support and dash skeleton to verify ALL clearances. Then welded studs on back of firewall for a/c bracket. Pics show unit alone, and with skeleton in place to include dash top which will remain unaltered. In final pic is skeleton minus the ABS plastic bits. This metal framework will provide foundation for custom formed all metal lower dash and flat gauge section to accept Dakota Digital gauge package. Lots of pics below. Let me know if there are questions.

[metalblessing]

My steering wheel has the same exact crack in the same exact spot. Must be common

[taintedsaint]

Small items today but one of the most time consuming related to the dash. Base tube of frame positioned and tacked in, you can see it in first pic. Spaced to allow dash face to run to door panels where door panel upholstery will visually continue the dash. There will be another tube about 9 inches above with flat sheet metween the two, leaving bottome 2/3s of dash one continuous panel.

Also templated and cut new cluster mount, seen in second pic. Had to of course match the contour under the original dash pad since it will be reused. Lots of trial and error out of chip board and masking tape before going to metal.

Last pic is the template for the Dakota Digital gauge cluster that will reside on new panel. All metal will be bodyworked and painted to match car.

Now to finish framework...

[DaddyDeVille]

I thought about Dakota Digital for gauges.  I would love to see where yours goes.  I decided that in the end, I liked the rusty patina on my gauges and that I simply need to figure out how to integrate things like a tach, oil pressure and others.  The short term solution is the little lcd provided with Holleys EFI kit, but would love to ditch that.

[mario]

here is what my dakota gauge pack looks like installed in the original housing.
ciao,
mario caimotto

[DaddyDeVille]

Looking good! 

[DaddyDeVille]

Any chance you could provide some details on how you got the dash and instrument panel out without damaging anything?   I have been inspired to start my instrument work; but I cant get past the dashpad removal.  Getting the instrument cluster out seems to be a bloody knuckle routine where I'm afraid of breaking parts.