BUILD THREAD 86 GP 2+2~Blown 6.0

[81cutlass]

Yeah, the snowblower was something that I went to pretty quick. The alley is packed with snow so there was no traction for me to push. Couldnt get it pushed up the little hill to the driveway. Grabbed the snowblower and hooked a chain to it and let it eat. Worked awesome, i was thoroughly impressed.

Today I welded up a few cracks in the door.

 

[81cutlass]

Its a Christmas (eve) Miracle!

Heads are back from the machine shop. Probably would have saved money just buying a good set of 317's with valves instead of swapping valves out of the iron heads into these bare heads but at least I know I have a good pair that isn't warped. Simple valvejob and surfaced. They were about 3 thou out.

Probably dropping the engine in Saturday and fabbing motor mounts.

 

[81cutlass]

Its in for mockup. Gotta fab the motor mount tabs and grind a little off the bellhousing to make the rear cover bolts clear the multibell 2004r. Manifolds fit so I am just going to be cheap and get it running on the stock pickup ones. PS pump sits in really nice, no really big problems. Only thing thats going to be a problem is the height of the blower. Probably going to need to cut the hood unfortunately.

 

[81cutlass]

It has been pretty cold in the past couple days and I didnt want to go outside and heat the shop.

Stayed inside today and cleaned the fabrics in the interior. Door panels were a bit dirty and a little rough but cleaned up well. Drivers upper is the worst since the door was cracked and moved around so much. Shampooed the drivers seat and its actually pretty nice. Passenger seat, not so much. I wish I could buy just a passenger monte SS seat since these are the same.

I hate mice.


Hours of cleaning ahead.

 

[81cutlass]

Not really much done recently. I dug through my parts and found some stuff that was missing/broke like a radio, door handle, random bolts and brackets, headlight, ect. My passenger rear view mirror was broke off from the previous owner (left in reverse and backed into a pole, why the quarter is dented) and I had another passenger mirror but the glass was broke (go figure).

List of stuff I need (mostly for my memory, haha)-

Monte SS/GP grey passenger seat
DIN 1.5 radio brackets and GM wiring plugs
Grey carpet
Grey rear seat
Passenger rear view mirror glass
Passenger sun visor in any shape
Drivers door seal weatherstrip
Both window seals
Windshield
99-02 DBW LS harness/ecm
LS starter
LS AC pump
Other stuff Im forgetting...

Bought headliner fabric and kinda glued the corners back together on the board. Need to add some fiberglass though, my resin was a rock. Also did a little work on my belt drives to get that wrapped up. Finished up motor mount fab and need to tack the mounts in place before I hard weld it. Was running into valvecover/AC box interfearance but I loosened up the trans mount and pryed the engine forward a bit and gained like half an inch. No AC box work required! Also scraped the 3/4" of bondo off the drivers fender to see what I'm working with. Going to the body shop tomorrow and seeing if they can get a stud gun welded to it and pull the dent out. If not I'm going to the salvage yard I know has a GP or two to see if they have a fender.

Progress is progress!

 

[81cutlass]

Went to the salvage yard to hunt down some interior parts.

Pair of Monte SS, but missing T tops, maroon interiors, nogo


Nice GP, not the right one...


More Montes

Limited Regal, plush seat, nogo

5-6 78-80 cutlasses, combination of no windows so the seats are shot, or plush seats. There was an 87 EFI LS monte in there but it had a plush seat so nope.

 

[Blake442]

Looks like someone needs to make a run to Rohner's! lol
I'm looking forward to seeing this thing come together!
Good progress!

 

[81cutlass]

Yeah, hopefully Rohners has a 4dr that hasn't had the windows left down. Should be able to find a nice one.

Didn't get as much done on the car as I wanted this break. Wanted to get the interior back in and the engine more solidly installed starting on fuel lines and stuff but thats not going to happen. Actually taking the rest of the break off to go down to texas for mini-vacation this weekend so no more progress for a while.

I did practice the dark arts today, upholstery. Bought the fabric last weekend and fiberglassed the broken corners over the last few days. For whatever reason the resin cured REALLY slowly (18 hours or so) and is still kinda tacky in places. It seemed to eat the foam board like pouring gas on it in places really lightly. I fiberglassed the sunvisor corners on my cutlass headliner and I didnt have that problem. Good news is I learned from my cutlass headliner I did like 5 years ago and applied more glue, looks good overall. Probably will put it back in the car over spring break.

 

[81cutlass]

Door hinges were shot so I bought 4 of those dorman bushing and pin kits. Got the passenger door done and lost the drivers upper door side. Nowhere in the garage, car, anywhere. If anyone has a door side upper G body hinge laying around (kinda cheap) I'd be interested. Was hoping to get the drivers door hung again and interior in but with no door on I'll probably hold off.

I did get the blower belt idlers made this week. Stock tensioner with a 1.3" and the third mount tab cut off and a mercedes SL500 8 rib pulley. Had to drill a hole on the idler bearing race from like 8mm to 1/2" or so and counterbore for the tensioner pilot (never turned a bearing race, holy crap that was hard, HSS, cobalt steel, wouldnt touch it. Had to drill with a carbide endmill.) Also made a triangle plate off the waterpump for the idler. Belt was laying around from my old 4.0 cherokee thats the exact right length (haha). Its only 6 rib but enough for like 5psi and testing.

 

[85GPLef41]

damn you guys have more g bodies in your salvage yard then us!! good job on the progress!!