[Marv]

I figured you guys might like some of the other stuff lying around United Speed Shop

Ryan's LS1 6spd shop truck sitting on a 1955 passenger car frame, third-wheel hitch, custom steelies made using Dodge Nitro centres, etc. The other truck is owned by another mate, Scotty Barter from Oxytech Powder Coating. It was a long bed '56 Chev but its now on an HQ Tonner frame, Ryan shortened the tray, etc will be a nice thing


Pete's 1958 FC Holden that was started at The Chop Shop. Stock these had a Holden pushrod inline six cylinder that made about 50hp but Pete's has a Nissan RB26DETT twin turbo 6cyl motor from a Skyline GT-R, tubs, etc. Cool pro tourer




Heaps more stuff too. Kombi is a low light ute thing, hot rod is an Essex originally built in the 70s and has gone through a top to bottom rebuild that started at The Chop Shop.


Ryan has been busy on my nugget too this week



Wiring is the next big job

[Alf ista]

That is one cool shop!

[Marv]

More work is happening on my Poncho.

My front inner guards are off being powder coated, wiring is being laid-out, i have an Optima Yellow Top D34 battery going in the boot, a solenoid to open said boot from a WB Statesman, etc etc.








Ryan is getting a blanking plate for the firewall for my heater core/air con laser cut and will powdercoat it up like the fan shroud he has also done.


He also painted up the exhaust and will wrap it to keep the heat down as it sits really close to the floor. He also remade my trans crossmember to give me a touch more space under there too.

[Marv]

Ryan has been working on packaging all the A/C gear in the front-end, plus the trans oil cooler, so I ran the nose panels up to him today.

The A/C condenser mount has been dummied up so Ryan and Jake can sort out lines, fittings and drier placement. Thankfully there is a recess in the factory radiator panel which suits the drier size



The wiring is almost all done and Jake has done an amazing job - better than any factory GM loom! The Vintage Air Gen IV Magnum evap unit is dummy fitted to check for clearance. It looks like i won't have space for a glovebox so i will be buying a Retro Sound headunit to replace the stock analogue radio


Ryan finished off the single biggest, most complex rust patch. It doesnt show in the pic but this has multiple angles and folds in the one piece


The laser cut pieces for my thermo fan (attached) and the blanking plate for the A/C bulkhead lines will get powdercoated next week and be ready to fit up.



More updates next week...

[RJ300]

Love this Bonne, Havent been on the forum for the best part of a year but this was the first thread I came to check out. Cant wait to see the finished result.

[Marv]

Thanks mate! A present turned up at work today

I actually got my Accuair ENDO-VT (valve + tank) from a different supplier to Air Ride as Boss Air had stock

[Marv]

So Ryan, Eric and Jake have been busting their foofa-valves on this thing again this week.

The Sanden A/C compressor was mocked up so the boys could work out what belts I need to run



Test-fitting the condenser mount & drier mount - it was great Pontiac thoughtfully designed the radiator support with this recess that makes a perfect mount for the receiver-drier



Brackets to mount the evaporator under the dash - all powdercoated in Oxytech gear (Wet Look Black for gloss stuff, Ebony Texture for the matte stuff)


Yay spaghetti - Jake has done a KILLER job on this thing's wiring given the crap he was handed






Ryan discovered the gantry shock mount the car used to have in the front-end wouldn't work with where the power steering pump & A/C compressor now lived so he relocated the shocks to a more conventional spot down beside the chassis. He also found my car was using stock C10 Chevy pick-up front shocks. As they were 100% SNAFU Ryan thoughtfully ordered me some more so it should ride nicely with all the work I'm about to put into flash new bits in the front-end.



At least being bagged makes it easier to work on


This is how the custom fan shroud on the other page mounts up. Hopefully my SPAL turns up soon?


I've ordered a bunch of parts and have made myself fantastically broke. On their way are:

- quick-ratio steering box
- new inner & outer tie-rods
- new drag link (centre section)
- new idler arm
- rag joint/steering coupler rebuild kit
- new upper control arm bushes & shafts
- new engine mounts
- new carpet
- new kick panels
- new C-pillar panels (to get wrapped in hoodliner)
- new headunit
- whole new disc brake kit

That last one is on top of the Castlemaine Rod Shop spindles to take HQ Kingswood (Aussie Holden) calipers. I've got a mate with a '62 Bonneville so i'll probably pass that all on to him as he wants to run 14in wheels and I think he'll squeak that out with HQ brakes whereas I want 15s or 17s and am happy to go with bigger brakes. The kit I've ordered is from Master Power Brakes - http://www.mpbrakes.com/1964-pontiac...s?filter_name=



I should have it in a few weeks and will bash the new front-end in one Saturday. At that point hopefully I'll have time to pull the steering column out and give it a lick of paint. Or powdercoat. Whatever. It's only money, right?

[Marv]

So Ryan is now on to installing the new air system. This includes the flash new Accuair ENDO-VT (valve tank), a pair of Viair 480C compressors and the Accuair E-level height-management system. To have your air suspension system legal in NSW you need a few basic features like bump stops, a controller hooked up to your handbrake (so you can't adjust it on the fly) and height management software keeping your car level. My car will have all these things once Ryan is finished with it and it should be far nicer to drive than the old front/back system that, while it was well-installed, tended to lean badly in corners as air raced from one bag to another.

E-level will allow me to choose 3 pre-programmed heights to have my car. The E-level kit knows where each of these heights are as it uses 4 sensors that sit at each corner of the car to talk to the system ECU. These sensors mount to the frame, with the ECU coming pre-wired (apart from power & ground) and ready to plug into the ENDO-VT tank (which has Accuair's legendary VU4 four-corner valve block inside it). The E-level ECU operates the VU4 valve block to adjust each corner of the car until the sensors report the car is where it needs to be.


This is the controller. #1 will be fully aired-out (which I'll be able to choose once the handbrake is on), #2 will be regular ride height for driving, and #3 will be "access mode" or maximum height (for driveways or looking donk status, homeez). The other functions are for minor adjustments to either front/back for up and down, or individual corner control. Not that anyone ever adjusts air on the fly, kiddies



As the valves are inside the tank it has ports in the end which will connect to the compressors, plug wiring in and possibly be somewhere I can put burritos. Or not.






I ordered a few more fittings from Air Ride to go with the system and, after talking it over, decided to run the flexible air line instead of steel stuff... and here she goes...

[darbikrash]

Originally Posted by Marv

That last one is on top of the Castlemaine Rod Shop spindles to take HQ Kingswood (Aussie Holden) calipers. I've got a mate with a '62 Bonneville so i'll probably pass that all on to him as he wants to run 14in wheels and I think he'll squeak that out with HQ brakes whereas I want 15s or 17s and am happy to go with bigger brakes. The kit I've ordered is from Master Power Brakes - http://www.mpbrakes.com/1964-pontiac...s?filter_name=

Ordered the same brake kit for my '64 Cat and it worked out great. Couldn't get my 15" steelies to fit around the calipers though, ended up with 17"s. I highly recommend switching out the Chinese wheel bearings for Timken's.

You can get them on Amazon or Ebay for about $50-$70 USD total, P/N's if you are interested:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...0&postcount=15

[Marv]

Thank you for the tip - I'll definitely grab a couple of sets (handy having spares when you're 10,000mi away!)

[Marv]

I ordered the wheels today. While I'd like to have supported the Aussie distributor or a shop out here I ended up buying them off eBay USA for an absolute STEAL.

VN504 1-piece cast 17x7, 5x5 PCD in 4in backspace. I could have gone for the 2-piece forged VN402 but I don't think I need that kind of hardware, plus the VN402s aren't available in a 17x7 in 5x5 (you have to get a blank to drill).

Locally, the one shop who was prepared to give me a price wanted $2600 AUD and for me to wait 10 weeks for the wheels. The eBay shop had them in stock and, all up, it came to $USD705 delivered - amazingly, freight from the USA was $USD40 for the SET of wheels! Once they are here i will get the centres done in a goldy bronze.

[Marv]

The Master Power brake kit turned up today. It is all incredibly well made, professionally packaged, and with clear instructions.

I can highly recommend using these guys in the future if anyone else wants to make sure their barge stops.

[Marv]

More updates...


Air tank is mounted.


Next week the new transmission crossmember will be back from powder coating, the tailshaft will be shortened to suit the TH400, exhaust mounted for the last time and... maybe... the fuel tank drained so we can start this barge. I can't get too excited yet because i still need to hook up the (Lokar) throttle amd trans shift linkages.

Stereo ordered (will be hidden)




I'm definitely NOT going to put this one in the dash, but that leads me on a merry ol' journey of discovery figuring out where to mount the headunit.

My Road Runner had its head unit under the front seat, but I'd like to hide mine where the glovebox used to be (as the void for the glovebox is now mostly filled with Vintage Air A/C). This avoids the risk of backseat passengers kicking the headunit (which happened in my Plymouth) and makes the whole install a bit tidier.

I only use the stereo in my cars to listen to my iPod so none of this has to be flash - I just want it to play music clearly and reliably, and look tidy. That's why I went with a single 12in woofer for the boot and pair of half-decent speakers for the front doors. The amp is going in the boot, next to the air tank and compressors, with the sub mounted on the passenger (RH) side and the battery on the LH side.

I had thought about filling the holes where the heater controls and radio used to live seeing as none of them are required any more. The issue is that they're not in the thick metal section of the dash but the thinner aluminium (sorry, "alooo-minnum") fascia and so I'm not sure it's going to look any good to fill them up.

The apertures I'm talking about closing up are the rectangular ones below and immediately to the left the trio of gauges


Oh yeah, and I bought pop-out cupholders from a WM Holden Caprice back seat (same as G8 Pontiac or some US cop cars) off Holmart (Holden surplus warehouse) and will have them added to my front seat.



Ill get an aperture cut into the front of the seat, which will attach to the metal frame of the seat. The cupholder itself is thin but fairly wide. I am thinking of getting a shroud made up to cover the edge so it looks a bit more '60s.






While buying the cupholder i figured i may as well upgrade the stoppers on the daily, too it is our ute variant of the Chevy SS (very similar to a Pontiac G8). This has all Aussie cam, intake, tune, exhaust, coilover suspension and 20inAussie Simmons wheels. It makes 420rwhp and is a pretty bloody good daily.



I had to upgrade the wheels too, obviously

[Marv]

[hurryinhoosier62]

Originally Posted by Marv

I like your helper...

[Marv]

He is a good boy, but his work is a little "ruff"

[Marv]

So my exhaust was painted up in Aussie-made KBS heat-proof paint, which is like an Aussie Por15 product. Ryan also powdercoated my transmission crossmember as he'd modified it to fit the exhaust around and for the TH400 auto to bolt-up to.



My stereo gear turned up


And I got some 205/55-17 high-performance Bridgestone RE003 tyres for the 17x7 VN504 American Racing 200S wheels. I still have my stock '62 15in steel wheels and the 15x7in Cragar S/S mags if I want to go for a more traditional look, too.

[Marv]

I went and saw the barge today.

Rust repairs are progressing. Trim holes still need to be welded up but there are only 4 rust spots left in the car now!











Rear end



Tailshaft is freshly made by Gibsons in Newcastle with new unis. It is now 28mm shorter than stock




More tuck than a Thai ladyboy...

[cruzingratiot]

who makes the compressor mounting bracket and what is part #
thank you

[QUOTE=Marv;5708047]So Ryan, Eric and Jake have been busting their foofa-valves on this thing again this week.

The Sanden A/C compressor was mocked up so the boys could work out what belts I need to run

QUOTE]

[Marv]

It is a Vintage Air part #141001-PPA

$109.97 via Summit