i paint everything metal under my dashes silver or white---it makes things show up ALOT better when under there doing anykind of work 8)

Chris, where did you get or what are you useing for the carpet and interior dye? My 1979 Elky was completely done in 1988 and the interior and carpets has sun fade and doesn't match the door panels, so i would like to put them back to when they where first done 23 yrs. ago.

Or anyone else who has an answer to this question.

Zip.

Zip,
The dye I am going to use is called SEM, it uses a base color than a low gloss clear. I have researched it extensively and SEM makes the best! As far as the carpet goes, I really dont know what would work well besides just replacing it. Here is a video that shows how well the SEM works. The stuff is about $20 a can but its worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mMYl...layer_embedded

x 2 lively. Any light present will be reflected.

Zip,
After reading the SEM website, yes the Color Coat Flexible Coating dye will work on carpet and seat. Real light feather coats, about 5-6 total. I did my upper and lower door panels today and they look real nice. Plan on doing the lower dash tomorrow. Use in a well ventilated area cause it has some pretty potent fumes! :wink:

Installed the carpet today, the company ACC makes the best preformed carpet kits! I only had to trim up in 2 spots. It runs way up the firewall too, last couple of carpets I have installed always had a gap below the heater core box. New door strikers and sill plates were also installed. Reinstalled the dash braces, lubes all the push-pull cables on the vents and heater controls. Hooked the tach lead up to the cluster wiring and just cleaned up under the dash a bit. Dyed my door panels and they look great!

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/47/24975479-964.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/4/55/24975554-555.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/0/62/24975620-688.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/64/24975646-372.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/65/24975653-885.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/69/24975699-238.jpg

Yeah Dwaine, great product!
Also the SEM interior dye is the best, I cant believe how good the door panels turned out.

Took the dash to work today so I could take my time laying on the dye. looks pretty good! Hopefully I can start putting the door panels and dash back together this weekend.
Before
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/4/56/25043564-628.jpg
After
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/57/25043573-148.jpg

Before
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/56/25043567-720.jpg
After
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/57/25043579-141.jpg

Before
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/0/57/25043570-167.jpg
After
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/57/25043576-996.jpg

I still cant say enough about the SEM Color Coat dye, that stuff rules! :)

DASH LOOKS GOOD !!! NICE WORK :lol:

Got the dyed upper and lower door panels installed Friday night. Used my original lowers, the uppers and new center inserts I bought on the net. Took a while to get the centers lined up properly and I ended adding an extra screw or two to make everything right but they look great!
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/09/25065096-932.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/10/25065107-421.jpg

Started putting the dash back together. Took my time and tried not to scratch anything. After some cussing and a few scratch's on my hands the dash is in. It did give me time to put a new wire in for the factory temp gauge. I also couldnt decide what to do about the sending unit for the oil psi gauge. After looking at the Sun oil psi gauge I realized I could take the braided line off the Sun gauge and the electric sending unit screwed right on it! Its too tight with my headers to install the sending unit on the block so now I am just going to make a bracket and install the sending unit under the dash and wire it into the gauge. Heres some pics of the refreshed and dyed dash installed.
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/0/13/25065130-980.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/5/67/25079675-968.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/68/25079682-603.jpg

Cluster is assembled with the oil psi gauge, I bought some LED'sfor the 6 illumination slots in the cluster and WOW, what a difference!
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/4/72/25086724-375.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/74/25086748-614.jpg

Finished up the lower dash and reinstalled my seat, not gonna recover those till late spring.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/76/25086762-513.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/1/78/25086781-834.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/79/25086796-117.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/1/82/25086821-691.jpg

Looks great harbone! Where did you get the LED's for the gauges? I hate dim gauges :evil:

I picked them up from Advance Auto Parts, they are about $10 each but worth ever penny! I only used them in the "illumination" spots. I put 168 bulbs in all the rest of the spots, turn signals, bright lights indicator, dummy lights, etc.
I couldnt believe the difference!

They looked like this...

http://www.visionxwholesale.com/prod...63475_zoom.jpg

$10 each :shock: Well,that puts me outta the game. My 66 Pimpala has 21 bulbs total in the dash. Subtract indicators and I'm still looking at at least 15 bulbs! The woes of an 18" long speedometer :lol:

Wow! Thats a lot of bulbs!
Now there is one downfall, LED bulbs will not work with the factory headlight switch fader. They are either on or off. I think they need 12 volts and anything below that must have a "pulse" type signal to dim the LED's. You can buy a LED specific fader but would have to hardwire it into the existing harness. The good news is they are bright, but its far from overpowering.

Well got a few things done.
Replaced the RS style front bumpers with a new standard front bumper from NPD. Fit nice and didnt have to adjust anything.
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/68/25259688-245.jpg

Removed thae air shocks and installed some new Monroes
Picked up a set of Z28 wheels and installed new BFG's with 255/60's on the back and 235/60's on the front. These are gonna be my driver wheels until I get the Bogart Fly Lites that were on it sold and look at getting some Vintique Rallys in 17"
Rolled her down the road and snapped some pics. I drove it maybe a mile but it feels a lot better than it did with the fat & skinny tire setup.
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/70/25259702-143.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/74/25259748-915.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/4/77/25259774-081.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/84/25259842-219.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/85/25259853-231.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/86/25259868-491.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/89/25259899-140.jpg
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/91/25259918-608.jpg

Bought a used console, have to clean it up and dye it black. Think I am going to buy a rebuilt factory bump shifter and install it to make the interior look stock.
Needs to get warm out so I can give a good tuneup and take her on the maiden voyage. come on spring! :D

Looks good harbone. I think you got a good idea on the shifter. I have been wanting to put a 700r4 in my Impala but I havent been able to find an aftermarket shifter that suits me. Stock is hard to beat. I would love to have a column shift for my car,but I'll never find all of the pieces of that puzzle. Oh,I really like the new tire and wheel combo. I wouldn't touch it

I'm going to get some new trim rings and see how I like it. I kept looking at them all day and really am getting attached to the look!

I could lower it but if i want it 100% streetable I wont. If you look at that last side shot those big block, big tube headers hang down a bit. The roads out at my house are old blacktop with lots of dips and woops.
I like the stance right now, might throw some Hotchkis swaybars on her just to firm up the ride. Oh yeah, the wheels are dark grey. I was taking pics with my crappy camera. It makes the car look red in the pics, its as orange as orange gets!

Chris. what did you use to clean the already dyed dash before re-dying it with the sem. My 79 Elky was dyed (when new) in 1988 and is now sun faded. the rest of my interior,seats, door panels and carpet are cloth/nylon, sun faded. I'm going to try to use the interior paint on them. The door panels are not sun faded so i have a color match to work with.

Zip.

Zip if its just faded and not peeling off just scrub it down good with some enamel reducer, I rubbed mine down about 3 different times just to be safe. Apply the dye in real light coats. I put about 6 coats of black and then applied about 3 coats of the clear. I am still amazed at how everything turned out!

Not peeling just faded.

Thanks

Zip.

Long week, got home and pulled the car in the main garage. Changed the oil, replaced the spark plugs and installed my radiator overflow bottle
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/0/98/25344980-343.jpg

Wish I would have taken some pics of the console before I started dying it. It was blue, had a few spots that needed repair vinyl, a 3M vinyl repair kit worked great. Used some Gorilla Glue to fix the cracked plastic at the rear of the console. That stuff works great! I have a rebuilt stock slap shifter coming and a new GM shifter bezel.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/0/99/25344990-458.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/99/25344993-287.jpg

Hopefully the rest of my shifter parts, console bucket and lid show up this week.
:D

Trim rings cleaned up and installed. Car looks completely different than it did 8 weeks ago.

Before

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/78/24514786-753.jpg



After
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/02/25345023-868.jpg

Good night gentlemen :)

Bone that car looks killer great job a lot of work but look at the outcome WOW love it.

Thanks Ron!
In Illinois theres not much to do over the winter months but work on my car. Been at it the last 7 out of 8 weekends. I have been ebaying a bunch of my buddies Harley and car parts the last couple of months and made enough money to pretty much pay for all the parts I have purchased so far. The labor I enjoy and I like seeing the final results. Hopefully all the rest of my console and shifter parts will get here this week. The next big purchase is new seat upholstery. Cant wait to take her out on the first test drive soon!

I bet you cant wait. at least it is getting warm now and you will be able to cruise her a lot i know i would you have done a fantastic job on it .
It is one to be proud of for sure.

IT IS A SWEEEET CAMARO ---AND YOU HAVE ADDED ALOT OF YOUR OWN TOUCHES TO IT 8) 8)

Good looking ride . . You did good! . . .

Thanks guys!!!!

I scored a rebuilt stock slap shifter for the Camaro. Picked it up on ePay from a place that takes them all apart, sandblasts and replaces anything worn out. They also rechrome the shifter handle. I was looking at aftermarket shifters but for $150 this shifter fits the bill.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/60/25438606-025.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/70/25438702-653.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/84/25438843-375.jpg

Heres the current setup, B&M Ratchet shifter in its own box.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/52/25438529-588.jpg

Doing a little mockup with the repaired and dyed console

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/09/25439099-637.jpg

My biggest concern was that this car was originally a 4 speed and the hump is still there. I was happy that I just need to hammer down the left rear corner of the hump to get the stock shifter to line up properly with the console.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/20/25439203-824.jpg

Rear console brackets were drilled and sheet metal screwed to the floor

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/5/22/25439225-308.jpg

Looks nice! I am waiting on a new console bucket, lid and a shifter cable. I just used a screwdriver in the B&M shift cable to pull it out of the garage. Hopefully the rest of my parts show up this week. :D

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/5/32/25439325-849.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/37/25439378-961.jpg

Well got back from vacation late Friday night and all my parts to finish the console were in the mailbox! Spent a few hours just making sure everything was lined up right. With the 4-speed hump still on the floor the console actually sits back about 1/2 farther than stock but you cant tell unless you look under the dash where I modified the mounting brackets. Looks good but the new OER console lid is a shade off so I will dye it next weekend. Hopefully I will get to take a maiden voyage next weekend.
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/25/25616257-672.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/5/26/25616265-371.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/27/25616272-259.jpg

Starting a back deck remodel at home this week so the seat upholstery will have to wait till thats finished. Need to order a nice set but the material doesnt need to be original, any suggestions will help. Going to attempt to do the myself.
Heres some driveway shots, I am liking the stance, thought about lowering the front but I am afraid the headers are gonna hit if I do.
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/21/25616217-542.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/24/25616243-154.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/0/20/25616200-026.jpg

Man,that console and shifter really set off that whole interior. I have never been a big fan of aftermarket shifters.I always considered them a necessary evil. That setup you did looks great!

Lookin' good Chris. Hopfully this weather stays like this so you can get it out soon.

Well I got a GREAT deal on a set of front seats from a member on the NastyZ forum after I was just initially looking for some seat tracks. He had already put new comfortweave upholstery on them, dyed all the plastics and the tracks are in excellent shape. I took my old seats out Sunday and popped the new ones in. Now all thats left is to get some matching back seat upholstery and put in a new headliner.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/39/25708398-849.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/1/42/25708421-109.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/45/25708459-114.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/68/25708683-025.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/76/25708763-939.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/79/25708792-602.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/6/81/25708816-899.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/83/25708839-144.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/4/90/25708904-350.jpg

I did finally get to take her out for a short cruise Sunday afternoon. Been a long time since I have driven a car with a high rpm stall converter, takes some getting used to. But she drove great, nothing fell off, fell out, leaked, overheated or exploded! That big block has plenty of power and torque! I need to put a set of tailpipes on it though, dont like the exhaust drone with the mufflers dumping before

I scored a set of rear PUI seat covers to match the front seats I purchased last week. Decided to try and do them myself. It was easier than I thought. I have to get a steamer today to get some of the wrinkles out but I am more than happy with the results.
Here is my original back seat (not original to the car since the covers were date coded 1978)

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/84/25772849-099.jpg

The cushions and frames were in good shape. All of this took me about a hour and a half to do. I have done about everything on a car but never recovered seats.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/5/87/25772875-791.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/90/25772902-104.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/92/25772929-186.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/21/25773219-232.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/24/25773242-117.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/25/25773253-436.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/28/25773283-406.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/8/29/25773298-485.jpg

Here they are installed, I love the cottonweave seats and they are a heck of a lot cooler on a summer day than straight vinyl! Next and final step is a new headliner than the interior will be done and it will be time to add some tunes.
http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/32/25773327-729.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/2/34/25773342-408.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/34/25773349-522.jpg

dwaine she's just about done, I am gonna take her out later today and stretch her legs a bit. I need to get to the exhaust shop next weekend and get some tailpipes installed, cant stand the exhaust drone with it dumping before the rear axle. I need a few spots touched up on the paint so she will probably head to the paint shop in a few weeks. I have 2 15x8 Corvette Rally wheels, have to find some 15x7's for the front. I want to powdercoat them orange, put dogdish hubcaps on and leave off the trim rings.

Pulled the car out last Sunday, washed off a winters worth of dust and grime, gave her a little detailing. Installed my new reproduction center caps on the wheels and a set of front bumper "fangs" from Muscle Car Industries. Ordered a new car cover from California Car Covers. I thinks she almost ready for some car shows, cruise ins and maybe, just maybe a trip to the track!

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/7/97/25891977-678.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/1/11/25892111-685.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/1/12/25892121-625.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/08/25892089-952.jpg

picked up some 15x8 and 15x7 corvette rally wheels. had them powdercoated orange and just had some new tires put on today. went with a 275/60r15 on the back and a 235/60r15 on the front. hope to get them mounted up tonight and then will decide if i want to get some police style dogdish caps or just leave them plain, no rings, no caps?

I like the look! I am gonna have to roll the right rear fender lip, barely rubbed on a big country road dip.

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/3/05/26164053-210.jpg

http://s3.racingjunk.com/ui/9/85/26163859-758.jpg

:cool:

heres a quick video walk around. I had my exhaust guy install 3" tailpipes last weekend to get the noise and drone out of the interior and it looks and sounds great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khIxBA-PAss