[HWYSTR455]

You can always wobb the holes of the brackets some to make more of an adjustment.

If you have rubber body bushings, you kind of want enough of a gap there, if it's too close and you have body/frame flex, it could make contact.

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[Mister Pontiac]

That turned out great, Bruce.

Soapy water, lacquer thinner and flat clear is the magic, eh? I'm making a mental note. My 72 should be coming apart in the near future, in need of similar improvement.

[Pepper Judge]

Originally Posted by Bruce Meyer

Finally got paint on it. I went with factory color Atoll Blue.

Originally Posted by Bruce Meyer

Just finished cutting and buffing the paint. I really like the paint I used. The brand is Ure-chem. I don't know why my pics are sideways.

Originally Posted by roger1

Your Atoll Blue looks fantastic!

Need some more progress photos of the body if assembled. Rotated your pictures Bruce to give your paint skills a better look!

[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

Mine I believe is just a hair over 1/2", so guess 5/8 isn't too far out of whack.

Where are you measuring from the quarter to the top of bumper or the trunk lid to top of bumper?

Might be the pics, but kinda looks like the trunk lid isn't fitting right.

If you get down at bumper height and take a pic directly at the bumper it's going to look bigger than it should be, so might be an optical trickery.

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...&postcount=100


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Im measuring from the quarter panel. The trunk lid fits good. That pic is a little deceptive as there is a bit of polishing compound residue on the trunk edge making it look off. I guess if I want it better I will have to modify the brackets or live with it.

[Mister Pontiac]

Boy, that is disappointing. I'm sure Butler will make it right.

Thanks for the info on Bud with MACH. Always like to have other names of successful Pontiac engine machine shops here in the valley.

[Bruce Meyer]

Thanks napster. I modified the brackets and got it to 1/2" gap. That is as far as it would go. Yours look a little less than 1/2". I like it. I did some searches on the internet for photos and a lot of 70,s have a fairly large gap.

[Bruce Meyer]

Its been a while but Im still at it. Ive had a few setbacks. The dash was one of them. The dash that was in the car was in really bad shape. I decided to try a plastic overlay (cap). I used one on a 67 GTO drag car I had and it came out really nice so I figured it was a cheap and easy way to go. I was wrong. I pulled the dash and glued and clamped the cap in place. I then reinstalled and wired up. Everything was going good until I went to put the glovebox door on. It wouldn't fit. No matter what. I tried using a heat gun to give it clearance to no avail. Had to pull the dash again. I found this vendor ABCmoparts.com that had a couple of recovered 70-72 dashes in stock. He gave me a deal on one that had the radio section cut out for a CD player. That was OK with me since I wanted a in dash CD player anyway.

[HWYSTR455]

That looks pretty good, how is it, good form and fit?


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[Bruce Meyer]

Originally Posted by HWYSTR455

That looks pretty good, how is it, good form and fit?


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The fit was not too bad. I had to do a little carving with an exacto knife to get everything to fit right.

[Bruce Meyer]

Rear seat and door panels installed. These are the originals. I just cleaned them up and reinstalled. The front seats had some tears so I got new covers and sent them to the upholstery shop. That will be a few weeks so I am going to work on the motor now.

[HWYSTR455]

Wow, those are nice!

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[Bruce Meyer]

Here are pics of the shortblock. I used Butler Ross .030 pistons. The rods are RPM forged A beams.

[Bruce Meyer]

Here are the finished heads. They have Ferrea valves with 1.77 exhaust. The exhaust flange was pretty gouged up from the steel shim gaskets. They had to remove .025 to make them flat again. This is why I never put steel shim gaskets in anything. The heat cycling causes the steel shim to act like a cheese grater. If seen several sets of Pontiac heads with the exhaust flange buggered up including round port heads.

[Bruce Meyer]

I bought an oil pump, one piece pan gasket, and a oil pan from Butler Performance. I brazed the pickup in place. Ive been doing that on motors Ive built for the last 40 years and never had one fail. I only go around a third of the way around the pickup so I don't overheat the pump body and warp it.

[Bruce Meyer]

Heres the bad part. The oil pan is useless. The holes are so far off there is no way its going to fit. That is a factory timing cover so that is not the issue. Sent pic to Butler so I can get a refund on this junk.

[Bruce Meyer]

I have ceased working on the engine until I can get the oil pan issue resolved. In the mean time I restored the evaporator housing. I scrubbed it with soapy water to get the dirt off. I then wiped it down with lacquer thinner and then shot it with a flat clear.

[Bruce Meyer]

Butler gave me a refund for the oil pan. I ended up getting a Canton pan. In the mean time I finished the interior. Did I mention that I hate doing interiors? I used PHS seat covers and front door panels. The door panels were a poor fit. None of the holes lined up very good. The door window felts were a really bad fit. Large gaps. I saw someone else posted that they didn't fit right on their car. Next up is the motor. Finally I get to do something that's fun.

[Bruce Meyer]

Motor is done and ready to drop in. I went with a Summit 2802 cam. Its mild enough for a car with A/C. The trans has been rebuilt with a Kilgore lower first gear set. With the 3.08 rear gear it should get out of the hole pretty good.

[Bruce Meyer]

More fun with aftermarket parts. I went to put the motor in and it wouldn't seat all the way down on the frame mounts. We tried everything to get it to seat. Ended up pulling the motor out and measuring these new Torque Lok motor mounts. When measuring the distance between the tabs that seat over the frame mount the Torque Loks came in at 3.69". I measured some old stock motor mounts and they measured 3.79". That's a tenth of an inch too tight for the Torque Loks. Not sure what Im going to do now. Ugh.

[HWYSTR455]

Mine I had to shuffle the engine around some and it was tight. It wouldn't drop down until it was perfectly square over the mounts.

On the IA2, I had to slightly grind the square part over the top of the mount, it hit the slight bend at the top of the engine mount. And that was with Anchor mounts. When I did the Torque Loc ones it was tight, but just had to make sure it was square lowering down.

I had a similar issue with the Anchor mounts on a 69 400 block before, so did the same to the IA2 before it went into a car. Maybe that's why I had luck with the torque loc ones?

Not sure, but may go back and look at it. You might be able to wob the engine mount bolt holes so the mounts sit lower on the engine. Lower on the 'V' would make it closer together. A tenth of an inch isn't much.

If there's some rubber built up in the hole, that might also be a problem.



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