Sir I will do my best to oblige you if she sees the road again before the snow hits the ground! :D

What is the trans/converter again? Ever figure out why the housing cracked? I love a nasty shift kit. A buddy of mine has a 2nd gen years back & the dash had huge crack down the middle from the damage of 2nd gear (jarred the whole dash to oblivion). Nice healthy tight chirp even in casual traffic. LOL... enough to spill a drink at least.

It had a 3500 stall with a Turbo 400. Trans guy is rebuilding my case and installing a Ultra-Bell housing and that should keep that part from cracking again. I am putting a 2200 stall back in since the 3500 was way to much for a street car with 3:08 rear gears. The rear trans mount was broke, the vibration loosend the passenger side lower bellhousing bolt and the crack started there and worked it way across. Thank goodness I wasnt getting on her hard when it happened, could have been a lot worse! The trans already has a great shift kit, valve body setup and most of the internals were salvagable. Front pump was toast from the converter walking in and out for the short time I drove after the housing cracked. I hope my trans guy gets it done by Thursday, I have 4 days off with nothing to do so it would be nice to get her back together.

3:08's are nice all around driving gears... great on freeway too. I have 3:36 & they are fun w/ a 4spd (not too high/too low). Your pump- I wonder how much the actual pump has to do with the shift quality?? I have ridden in many cars with shift kits... some were just little jerk shifts & others were EPIC events when they shifted. I always wondered what makes them so different?? They were all fast shifting shift kits, but some the whole car would lunge forward into a huge shift & others just a little scratch. I wonder what makes them feel so different- I am sure torque, tight possi w/ gears etc... all contributes, but there has to be more to it than that. I didn't mean to hijack... I just always wondered about this.

Most shift kits are based off making changes in the valve body. Making larger or smaller holes in certain passages in the valve body change fluid flow and change the shift rate. My car has a firm and hard shift at just partial throttle but I can leave hard in 1st and get the pedal almost all the way to the floor (trying to keep the back tires from breaking loose) but as soon as I hit 2nd it will will just tear the tires loose and I have to back outta the throttle to keep her from getting to loose. Roll back into the throttle and hit 3rd she will lay a strip down hard at about 75mph. I have had lots of small blocks, but the big block is just a huge torque beast!

I installed the headliner, what a pain in the butt! It looks so much better, put in the new PUI visors and I dyed the quarter panel and sail panel trim while I had it all out. I still swear by the SEM dye, they look great. Also painted the metal A-pillar and upper trim moldings.

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Transmission should be back at the beginning of the week, cant wait its been over 2 months since she has been on the road.

Finally got the trans back, all fresh with the J&W Ultrabell housing. Changed the 3500 stall out for a 2400 to make it more compatible with street driving. Hope to get it back together over the weekend! :D

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Very nice, going to take a lot to brake that one! Good luck hope it works out good for you.

Came home early, starting getting everything together to install the trans, pop open the torque converter box and damn, wrong converter! :evil:

Heading over to Winner Circle in Peoria tomorrow, hope they have one in stock or its gonna be another week before shes back on the road...

Scored a TCI Breakaway torque converter from Winners Circle

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The trans sitting on the tranny jack would not slide under the car from any angle so I set it on the creeper then lifted it up on the jack with some help from a friend

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Everything went together great and surprisingly easy, took my time, cleaned everything and Loctited every nut and bolt.

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Car is on cribs so the rear suspension is loaded, I do believe that the mystery broken trans has been solved. The driveshaft is to long! The yoke is all the way forward and I can not get the rear joint in, I could if the rear suspension was lowered but this tells me that I must have bottomed it out that day when the trans broke. :cry:

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I knew that Brian, the previous owner, had converted the car from a SB 4-speed to a BB Turbo 400. I bet he put it together on a hoist and just changed the yoke not noticing the difference in the yoke length. its a bummer but at least now I know what really happened, it had me baffled for a long time.

Chris,Some of the 400's have an o ring on the output shaft in past the yoke bushing,they use a yoke that the splines are resessed to let it slide over the o ring when going into the trans.If your's has an o ring on the output and the yoke has splines all the way to the end the o ring might be stoping it from going all the way in.Just a thought.Nice car.Bill.

Bill thanks for the input, I double checked with my builder and the output shaft doesnt have the o-ring. I am dropping off the drive shaft in the morning to get it shortened. I was hoping to take her out for a cruise today, its almost 60 degrees out at 10am and would have been a great day for a ride.

Well done Harb... glad you payed attention to the length with suspension loaded & caught that!! BTW: you are braver than I to install a headliner... I have always feared them... she looks good.

Well I am somebody! The NastyZ28 forum calender is finally out and my Camaro is the August cover car! :D

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Congrats!!!

Scoot I figured what the hell on the headliner, I did a bunch of research online and just took my sweet time. I glued a small section and would let it setup and then move a little farther down. It took me a total of about 6 hours and I piddled around working on some other stuff while the glue was drying in each section. The only thing I would have done different was to maybe lightly iron the headliner before the install to get all the wrinkles out. It wasnt warm enough to lay it out in the sun that day. I did use a small steamer on a section and it worked fairly well. I am sure over time things will settle in. All the bows are tight and all the corners are secure so I was pretty happy with the results for being my first time installing one.

Congrats on the calander Harbone. 8) How many copies did you buy :?: :wink:

I was not shy, ordered 12 of them, make great X-mas presents and still leaves 9 of them just for me! :lol:

^^^^^^^^^^^

1 in EVERY room in the house and 2 for the garage! It's good to plan ahead

As usual, I take a while to "get it"... a little late to the party so to speak. I did not know that was YOUR car on that calendar... I thought it was a look-alike. I will tell my son it is actually YOUR CAR on that calender you sent... he will be excited.

Scoot you had the wife in total tears! I read your pm before I saw this post and she was laughing so hard cause you didnt realize that was actually my car (hint: its says "harbone66" in the lower left hand corner) on the calender I sent to you and Riley! :lol:

Thats OK, we are all getting old, less attentive, deaf, blind, etc, etc, etc... :D

How did he like that Aarons Automotive Camaro?

The Aaron's Automotive Camaro is the icing on the cake to him... it is unique & he like the reverse tilt hood on it too. I would say next to the chrome COPO 69er' you sent; that one is his favorite next. All cars are in the package still & he has them locked in his fire proof safe. Riley likes them- he says you are his "Santa from IL."

The outlook on the world to child's eye is very small... he does not realize how big it is to car a car in a catalog like that... he asked me if "any of my other friends had a car in there?"

Tell you wife that I have been beat in the head a lot lately & it take me awhile to get it. LOL.

'bone, PM sent

The driveshaft is fixed and the new valvebody is installed, it has 2nd and 3rd now but wont shift till way late! Looked at the vacuum modulator and its a single red stripe stock one, that wont work with my car since it only pulls about 9" of vacuum at idle. So I ordered a low vacuum modulator and hope that solves the problem.

I found a complete 1LE front brake conversion on craiglist, got it all for $100! The guy put it all together about 6 years ago, mocked it up on his car and then liofe changed for him. the sad thing is the brand new rotors are probably rusted beyond repair but he threw in a set of brand new calipers, brake pads and brake hoses. I dont need the pads and calipers so will just probably resell them. I remember someone posting up the lower ball joint holes in the spindles may be bigger but so I need to check mine to see if they are the same size.

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Well after installing the new valve body and vacuum modulator at over christmas weekend, the weather finally got nice so I could see if the trans was working better. It does finally shift but really late, unless I get the rpms up around 3-4K it wont shift. So at least I know all the gears do work. I called my trans guy and he says to take a look at the governor. I will mess with it later.
I did buy myself a bunch of goodies for the car at the end of December so it was a good day to tinker. First new front and rear sidemarkers along with some LED bulbs. The OER markers are nice built units, I also ordered new brackets and nuts. What a world of difference, nice and bright!

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Next was the rear window moldings, mine were scratched up pretty good on the edges, almost like someone left them on when sanding the car. My back window is scratched up too but that will be replace in the spring. Having the correct trim removal tool makes this a breeze. You can see a lot of the scratches on this piece.

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The new moldings went on real easy and fit good.

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Next is the vertical B-pillar moldings, mine were pretty pitted. I pulled out the seal and started on taking them off.

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Now I couldnt figure out why the screws were painted orange? The rest of this car had beem completely taken apart when painted, so I got curious and decided to take off the upper weatherstrip channels and drip rails. Low and behold after a year of looking at every inch of this car I think I found the original color, blue! Looks like they painted the car with the channels in place and then replaced them since they look pretty new. My cowl tag was long gone when I got the car so the original color has always been a mystery.

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Original moldings were pretty pitted.

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I also noticed the paint looked pretty nice under the drip rails so I decided to take both sides off, nothing wrong with them, I think it just looks cleaner. So I mocked up the new B-pillar moldings, they fit weird at the top so I ground an 1/8" off and then they fit perfect.

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Now reinstall the upper channels, tuck in the weatherstrips and we are done! I think it looks better without the drip rails.

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I also ordered some LED tail light inserts from Matts Classic Bowties. Turns out they are direct shipped from a company called North West Mustang in Oregon.

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When I contacted them to find out what was taking so long, the owner Larry contacted me personally to say they had just redesigned them with more LED's and they will be ready in 2 weeks. I then asked about getting a second set so I could convert my reverse lights to park/brake lights he said that he would send me the second set for free if I sent him pics and video of my install, SCORE! I told him no problem. So I found a used second set of park/brake light lenses and I have them all ready for install, just waiting on the new LED boards to arrive, cant wait!

Old setup

http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.racingjun...150115-337.jpg

Mocked up with new seals, just waiting on new LED's

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I just LUUUUV 'personalizing' a semi 'stock' body style. Example was the 3 tailights Stingrays.
That HOT ROd is looking GREAT 'Bone !

:D :D :D :D :D

Harbonious!!

Man you motivate me on even the small things... such as LED's... they are nice looking. All those details... they all add up to a quality nice ride all-the-way-around. No one like being at a cruise & seeing an awesome car that has one dim/burnt out tail light.... or one muffler lower than the other... or a piece of missing molding. That car is nice. well done on all accounts.

Finally took the trans governor out today, got a new one and a B&M weight and spring mod kit. Took 2 times taking it out, changing the weights and reinstalling but she finally shifts correctly!

Starting on the tail light mod, hope to see the LED boards in the next week or two, Still need to put in the floorboard courtesy lights and the glove box light. Spring is coming and I am ready to cruise!
:D

Managed to have a few beers and tinker with the car this weekend. My inner door window felts that I installed last spring had started to pop off, rivets were to short so I took the panels off and drilled out the rivets. I used 1/8" wide and 1/4" grip rivets this time and they seemed to hold a lot better. I am still waiting on the LED brake light kit for the tail lights but went ahead and spliced in the new sockets, looked for any worn, chaffed or brittle wires in the harness and fixed everything along with cleaning up any ground points. Now it has 4 park/brake lights across the back. Hopefully the LED boards will be here soon but with everything cleaned up all 4 lights have the same brightness now.

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I had also purchased a footwell courtesy light harness and housings.
My car never came with them so I thought it would be a nice touch. I also learned that I am getting to old to be squeezing up under the dash with the front seats still installed!
They look good but I might have to go buy some LED bulbs to make things just a tad brighter.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.racingjun...599791-175.jpg

Back in my High School days, I installed RED clearance lights under the dash for those nights of watching the 'submarine races'...
`:lol: :lol: :wink: :wink: :wink:

Lookin' good Chris. I hear about not being young enough to crawl under the dash anymore. I've got everything out of mine right now for the rewire and decided to repaint the rollcage. Ouch, am I ever sore. It's like playing twister on the monkey bars and I'm too old for that. :lol:

I had an issue with the drivers side front turnsignal not working properly, turns out the socket was broke. So I ordered a new set.

I received the new front turn signals today, they are OER units and very well made

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Remove the stainless trim off my old signals and polished them up

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The one complaint I have with the new OER units is the stainless trim did not want to fit well through the curved part of the lamp. They seem to be molded a little wide in that area of the lens. I had to carefully take my Dremel and remove about 1/32" of an inch of the lens at that spot to get the trim to fit right.

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The fit is real nice, I need to take the drivers side one back out and bend the mounting brackets just a tad to level it off in the opening

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Lookin great chris!! :wink:

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D

The new LED boards came in today, I got these from Larry at ClassicLED's in Eugene Oregon. He just finished designing these new units. They look to have about 94 LED bulbs per board.

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These are 2 brake/parklamp kits since I removed my backup lenses and put brake/parklamp lenses in their place. Lay the boards in the tail light flat and use clear silicone adhesive to hold in place.

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The 1157 style connectors let you plug them right in and you are done. No other wires.
He does sell a sequential set that has to have a wire run up to the brake light switch and the LED's flow left to right and vise-versa when the turn signals are on.

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Here is a video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkj8n...t=HL1362269673

Thems purty 'Bone ! :D :D