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I was watching American Restoration last night and couldn't help but notice how bad the finished products looked during the closeup shots. I noticed a trend of the shots only lasting a second or two or the camera would just quickly pan over the finished product. I doubt a TV show with a bunch of characters who are perceived as idiots doing much in the way of quality work.

Lowgear wrote: I doubt a TV show with a bunch of characters who are perceived as idiots doing much in the way of quality work.

I would agree with that whole heartedly! You have to keep in mind that it's the drama and stupidity that keeps the majority of the viewers watching. If it weren't dramatic, why would you watch? It's kind of like being back in school and having to wait while the teacher tried to edjumakate the village idiot.

gold 68 update. finally got all of the brakes, and what a chore that turned out to be.

first off, i had all of the hotchkis suspension installed. it was just a matter of installing the brakes. then the owner decides he want to change the rear. when the car is done, he's pulling the motor and trans (496 w/turbo 400 and 6sp overdrive) and putting them in the black 68 we built a couple years ago. this car is now going to have a stock 400 w/ turbo 400. he's giving this car to his kid who runs his business out in california, and wants it to be a good freeway cruiser. the 3.90 gears are a little tall for a turbo 400. so we took another rear up to our driveline guy, had him tear it apart, brought the housing back to sandblast and paint it, then sent it back to him for reassembly. now it's a 3.08.

now on to the rear brakes.

so apparently, wilwood doesn't make a rear disc kit for this olds rear. i guess 68 and 69 were the only 2 years it was made and it's not worth it for them to make a kit. so, we got a kit for a gm 12 bolt (chevelle, camaro, nova) becaused the axle flanges on the housing are the same between them. but, on the chevy 12 bolt, the axle bearings are pressed into the housing flush with the flange and are held in place with c-clips in the pumpkin. this olds rear, the axles are pressed onto the axles, and once the axles are slid in, the bearings are flush with the stock brake backing plates, and they're held in by a retainer on the outside.

so first off, the kit they sent was for staggered shocks, which the olds doesn't have. so i had the reconfigured all of the emergengy brake and caliper brackets to the opposite side of the backing plate on the right side. other than having to get some longer bolts, this wasn't a big deal. so i mount the backing plates onto the housing and go to slide the axles in. well, the bearing won't fit through the hole on the wilwood backing plate. so, i take them back off and file the opening a little larger. put them back on, and slid the axles in. all good right? wrong.

a stock backing plate is about 1/8" thick or so, and that's how far the bearing sticks out of the housing. well the wilwood backing plate is like 3/8". with the reatiner on the outside, the axle slides in and out like a 1/4" because the retainer can't hold the bearing in place. so, my dad's neighbor came over (a machinist) and took measurements to make a spacer to fill the void. now because the bearing are pressed onto the axles, they had to be taken back off to put the spacer on first, then press the bearings back on. so, it's all done now everything fits.
the front brakes went together without much trouble.
i still have to install the proportioning valve for the rear brakes, and get the system bled. but it should be done in the next couple days. thank god.

scr8p wrote:put them back on, and slid the axles in. all good right? wrong.

Sounds like the afternoon I had yesterday with what should have been an easy leaky sink drain. The moron that installed it glued the entire system, including the threaded union on the trap. None of the threaded connections were tight, and because there was no way to break the system apart to tighten anything, the drain had to be cut out and replaced. Three trips to the hardware store later, I had the system replaced and leak free.

Did I mention that none of the connections lined up properly? the main sink and disposal connections were at different heights and extremely close together, then the connection to the wall was nearly the same height as the bottom of the sink.

I was never so glad to be done with a project in all my life!

alright, gold 68 is done. still needs to be lined up, but the owner is taking car of that. he's also gonna put some bigger tires on the rear. there's more room back there than he thought there'd be.
and when he came to pick it up today, he dropped of the next project to start on. 68 charger.

I'm glad to hear you had such difficulties. One recurring thought I keep having is how do these builds go together so smoothly? The majority of vehicle related projects I start turn out to be nightmares, and here you're rebuilding entire cars.

My latest project involved installing new headlights on my pickup truck. I bought the lights 3 years ago and finally got around to installing them. Well what was supposed to be an afternoon project took 2 weeks. I just finished Friday night.

well you have to remember, we've done 4 '68 cutlasses in a row. currently working on number 5, which i'll be starting to paint this coming week. and while each one is a little different, the majority of them is still the same. it's just like anything else, do something once, the second time will be easier. that's really all it is. but believe me, every car we've built has given us some sort of battle. usually, it involves aftermarket parts (like the brakes on the gold car), or the owner changing his mind on something after we've already done it once. but it's his money. if he wants to pay us to do something twice, more power to him.

Yeah I see what you mean. If I had to do the job again on my truck I would have a better plan and it would go a lot smoother and quicker. Next up is to convert my 68 Camaro to front disc brakes. I have everything and just need to find the time and motivation to start. Its too late in the season now as the car will be going into winter storage but it will definitely get done sometime next spring when its taken back out. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as the front brakes for you did.

Lowgear wrote:Yeah I see what you mean. If I had to do the job again on my truck I would have a better plan and it would go a lot smoother and quicker.

Yeah, next time you'll know about the set screw behind the bulb that is only accessible through the tailpipe and requires a special left-handed Torx-robinson-phillips-master screwdriver to turn. Oh, and you'll probably need a right-handed Torx-robinson-phillips-master screwdriver for the other headlight.

Halgar wrote:

Lowgear wrote:Yeah I see what you mean. If I had to do the job again on my truck I would have a better plan and it would go a lot smoother and quicker.

Yeah, next time you'll know about the set screw behind the bulb that is only accessible through the tailpipe and requires a special left-handed Torx-robinson-phillips-master screwdriver to turn. Oh, and you'll probably need a right-handed Torx-robinson-phillips-master screwdriver for the other headlight.

You forgot that you'll need to remove the muffler bearing first.

illshou wrote: You forgot that you'll need to remove the muffler bearing first.

Well, yeah, because that's a given!

Halgar wrote:

Lowgear wrote:Yeah I see what you mean. If I had to do the job again on my truck I would have a better plan and it would go a lot smoother and quicker.

Yeah, next time you'll know about the set screw behind the bulb that is only accessible through the tailpipe and requires a special left-handed Torx-robinson-phillips-master screwdriver to turn. Oh, and you'll probably need a right-handed Torx-robinson-phillips-master screwdriver for the other headlight.

The way some of these cars are engineered thats not far off.

The main reason it took so long is once I had things apart I decided along with the headlights I might as well change the parking lights, blinkers, and do some painting as well.

Lowgear wrote:The way some of these cars are engineered thats not far off.

The main reason it took so long is once I had things apart I decided along with the headlights I might as well change the parking lights, blinkers, and do some painting as well.

Holy poop!!! With the way vehicles are engineered today, that's at least 3 specialty tools, not to mention 2 trips to the paint store for color matching!

My '95 GMC needed new bushings in the driver's door hinge. One special tool later and the job was done. Have never needed that tool again ... Maybe I need to buy another '95 GMC?

The '02 I currently have needed new e-brake shoes a couple years back which technically required a special tool. I was able to work around it at the time and will have to figure out what that was if I want the e-brake to work again because it wears itself out whether you use it or not. Sometimes I really want to do bodily harm to the morons that design vehicles. The way these brakes are designed, they wear out all on their own. It would have been cheaper and easier to design a cam to engage the caliper than the half-arsed BS thing they came up with.

I'm really sport'in a chub over that Mopar! In the pics it looks like it won't need much work! It looks great as it sits, but what the hell would I know, I can only dream of owning one!

slotcarrod wrote:I'm really sport'in a chub over that Mopar! In the pics it looks like it won't need much work! It looks great as it sits, but what the hell would I know, I can only dream of owning one!

You're not trying to derail this thread with useful comments, are you?