Space City 1982 GP Build

[Texas82GP]

I do like that antenna wrench! I've always just mangled them off and on with needlenose.

I hear you. I've been there. I have plenty of roughed up trim on my car so I don't want to rough up the antenna nut. It's actually in pretty nice shape so I waited all day for the wrench to come in. It showed up at about 5:00 PM, about 30 minutes after I left here to go back to the storage. Murphy's law.

Jared, turns out that I don't have a light, but looks like there may have been one, or a provision for one... Got a couple of pics...

Thanks Darin. My car looks exactly the same. I may just go off of the measurements and pictures that 565bbc posted if nobody else posts up.

 

[Texas82GP]

Work continues. I was at it most of the day though I can't say I'm completely satisfied with what I got done. These days are going by very fast. here's a look at the storage with the car pushed all the way over to the driver's side for the antenna replacement job....

Now that I can get to the back of the car, it was time to swap my license plate bracket to the flip down, stay down bracket that I bought from a forum member. Then I could install my vintage 1982 rear license plate. Note the 1982 tags.....I love it!

I took several pictures regarding the antenna replacement project but I'm going to do a separate write-up on that once the job is done on my car. It should be helpful for other GP owners and hopefully it is helpful across the G Body spectrum. I can tell you that I bought a small booklet from Kirban's on how to replace the antenna several years ago and the Buick's are slightly different than the Pontiacs, so my write up will be GP specific.

I had to run some errands this morning before I made it over to the storage. After I took the pics above, I came back to the house and spent the better part of the day working on fabricating a little retainer plate for the boot for the clutch rod that comes through the firewall. It took a lot more time than I thought it would. I have to credit ssn696 (Quinn) for the idea. After looking at his picture again tonight, I think I have my new clutch rod in backwards. Look at how it is pointing down so much. Anyway, I got the boot mocked up and mounted to the firewall. Then I pulled my new retainer ring and the bolts and cleaned them up and painted them before I came home. Here is a picture of the mockup...

I was planning to put the painted ring and hardware on tomorrow morning but now I'm second guessing that I have the rod in right so I'll probably hold off. Now that the antenna wrench is here I plan to get right back on the antenna in the morning. If I can get it buttoned up, the passenger inner fender will go in right behind it. I'll take it from there.

That's it for tonight gents. Thanks for tuning in, as always.

 

[Clutch]

I've missed a few days on here good progress cars looking good

 

[Texas82GP]

I've missed a few days on here good progress cars looking good

Thanks Eric. I appreciate the kind words and I appreciate you looking in on the progress.

 

[Texas82GP]

Update time. I'm behind. I went back to the storage Thursday morning. I got right on the power antenna since I had the wrench. The power antenna replacement went pretty well. I had to slightly re-engineer a few details as my replacement (NOS) antenna was not a perfect match. I'll detail all of that in a separate antenna replacement thread. Sean came over to the storage when I got back from my second parts store run on the antenna replacement. Together, we got the new antenna in and got everything buttoned up. It's great having an antenna that is down in the fender in the parked position. Mine has been stuck in the up position since I bought the car...

After that, we moved on to installing the passenger inner fender. I started out with cleaning up the body plug for the opening in the firewall under the HVAC case where the computer harness for a gasoline car would run. I got it cleaned up and sealed it with 3M strip caulk instead of seam sealer so if I wanted to remove it later and run some wiring there, it wouldn't be so hard to remove it.

Next, I put some convoluted tubing on the wiring for the power antenna and on the vacuum tubes for the vents in the dash and for the heater control valve. Then I got that harness hanging off of the HVAC case again and put the rest of it on top of the case for the short term to get it out of the way.

Early on in the process of installing the inner fender I gave Sean the new bolts that secure the fender skin to the fender inner structure along the wheel arch. Sean got started putting them in and then said, "you know there are no clips in two of these holes right?" I knew there were a few bolts missing over there when I bought the car but I didn't realize the captured nuts were missing. This flummoxed me pretty bad. I didn't want to go backwards but I didn't want to live with the missing bolts either. At that moment my decision was to press on with installing the inner fender.

We got the inner fender installed. We installed the Coolant tank. We installed the brace from the inner fender to the core support. Then we put the wheel back on and let the car back down on the wheel dollies. We pushed the car back over against the wall on the driver's side and pulled the passenger fender skin loose again and replaced those missing captured nuts so we cut put those bolts in. It was good for my OCD. Here's a look at the engine compartment looking more complete...

After that we came home to work on a repair to the passenger inner fender extension. I want to take a moment to give the appropriate amount of recognition and appreciate to Donovan for helping me with this. The inner fender extensions on these cars are as rare as hen's teeth. Nine times out of ten they are broken. Both of mine were broken when I bought the car. Without them, the fender skin, at the leading edge of the wheel well is very weak and floppy. I was fortunate enough to find a NOS fender extension for the driver's side. I've been watching the part number on ebay for the passenger side extension for three years now with no luck. Back in October of 2016, when I was recovering from my first hospitalization of 2016 and awaiting my major surgery, it came to my attention that a GP was in the U-Pull in Calgary. Donovan was nice enough to go there on his weekend and retrieve the in-tact passenger extension in the winter, in Calgary for me. I was in a bad place mentally at the time so it meant that much more to me that he was willing to go out of his way for a 'pen-pal' like that. The bolts that go in these extensions are very coarse thread and are very hard to get out. Donovan backed up his tool with some pliers on the piece, but unfortunately, it still broke one of the three mounting tabs. He wondered if I even still wanted the piece. I told him I did. When the piece showed up, it was cleaner than the NOS piece I had for the Driver's side. Also, two of the three bolts that secure the inner fender extensions are in the battery tray portion of the inner fender on either side of the car so normally the heads of the bolts are in bad shape. Donovan cleaned up and painted the bolts that he retrieved and also pulled some bolts out of his own stash from the header panel from those 78-80 Cutlasses to replace bolts in bad shape. These replacement bolts were painted as well.

Long story short, I wanted to salvage this part if there was any way possible. Sean and I put our heads together and we came up with an "ELL" bracket to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Had we done the repair at the beginning of the day and had I been fresh, I would have done a triangular repair piece but the repair turned out good and now the part is proudly on my car. We sprayed the repair piece and the hardware with a little undercoating to protect it from the weather and to camouflage it.

I'm going to go ahead and post this update because there has been a good bit of typing and I don't want it to get away from me, but there is much, much more to come....

 

[Texas82GP]

Friday morning I returned to the storage to put on my repaired passenger inner fender extension and to correct my incorrectly installed clutch linkage rod (from the clutch pedal to the equalizer). Here are a couple of pictures of the repaired fender extension on the car. The repair is strong and you would have to get out your microscope to even see that it has even been fixed. I'm really proud to have this piece on the car. Donovan, thanks for the help buddy, This means something to me....

After I got the repaired inner fender extension installed, I moved to correct the wrongly installed clutch linkage rod. Not only was the rod installed backwards, it was bolted on the wrong side of the pedal. I'm pretty sure the hack previous owner had the rod in backwards (what I replicated) and that's why he can-openered the firewall. I also didn't have the new rod adjusted quite right length-wise relative to the original linkage. I got this squared away and then I went ahead and installed the retainer for the clutch rod boot on the firewall that I fabbed on Thursday. I don't think the boot is clocked correctly. I used the dimples in the firewall as a guide for where to drill the firewall but the boot is pointing down and outboard which doesn't seem right to me. No matter. I think it will be functional and it is way better than the no boot, can-opener firewall I inherited....

After I finished up with the clutch rod boot, I started working on reconfiguring the storage to get the car off of the wall on the driver's side. Now that the antenna was done, there was no need for it to be pushed so far over and the future progress needed it to be back over towards center. About the time I finished with that Sean showed up.

Being done at the storage for the time being, we went back to the house and started looking at what it would take to transport the engine for the GP over to the storage. We took some measurements, made a list and then went to the Home Depot to buy some lumber.

We built a wooden cradle to set the 350 on. We got the cradle built, pulled the tailgate off my truck (because the baby hoist at the house is so limited with its depth) and got the engine loaded in the back of my truck....

We got the engine transported over to the storage, unloaded and rolled up the hill into the storage bay. That's where we ended Friday...

There's nothing baby about the hoist in the picture above. That's a real deal, made in USA hoist that my dad bought in the early 90's. He recently gave it to me and I'm proud to own it. We've done a lot of engines with that hoist, including some stupid heavy stuff.

This morning Sean, Dad and I went to breakfast like we do every Saturday. From there, we went to the storage to put that SBC in the GP. We started out with confirming the pilot bushing in the crank was what we wanted, and then we installed the new GM flywheel. Then we double checked the gear mesh of the starter. Then we picked it up and set it in there as easy as you please. We didn't even pull the hood....

For those of you that don't know, that's my brother Sean and my Dad, Dwain. Once the engine was down and bolted to the mounts, Sean and I moved forward with installing the clutch disc and pressure plate. It turns out the clutch kit I had bought for the Saginaw was wrong for it and right for the T5. The Saginaw is 10 spline and the T5 is 26 spline. I had bought a clutch disc earlier this week for the T5 but when I opened up the kit for the "Saginaw" it had a 26 spline disc in it. I'm glad to be able to send that extra $200 disc back.

We got the clutch installed, followed by my 1983 only Camaro only T5 only bellhousing, followed by the T5. Everything was moving right along. This is when you know something is about to happen and it did, though it was small.

Sean got the G-Force crossmember unboxed while I put the mount on the transmission. We jacked the transmission up until the tower for the shifter was solidly up against the transmission tunnel and there was no way the mount was going in with the crossmember. It's obvious that the new hole in the tunnel has to be cut before the transmission will go on its mount. Also painfully obvious is the fact that the T5 is not going to work with the Granny-Pillow-Top bench seat.

I had myself deluded into thinking the T5 was going to line up with the existing hole in the floorboard. Yeah right.

So where it stands is the transmission is just sitting on the crossmember with no mount. The Granny-Bench has to go now. I don't know where I'll put it. The tired Monty SS buckets I bought off of Craig's List a few years ago in Deer Park are going to have to go in sooner rather than later. My next move is Granny-Bench removal.

I wanted the engine and trans sitting on the mounts today and the headers "fitted", but still it was a good day. I can't thank my brother enough for the help. I wouldn't be where I am without it. Thanks for tuning in guys. Here are some pics. Major milestone....

 

[Texas82GP]

Damn that storage looks narrow in those pictures. It is narrow. 10 feet but it seems wider than those pictures.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank my Dad for being there today to help install that engine and to give special thanks to my brother Sean for sacrificing a sizable chunk of his vacation to help me with my project. Without him, that engine and trans. would not be sitting in that car right now. Thanks Bruddah.

 

[Wraith]

Love the progress and the engine shots made me giddy! Could you do the S10 tailshaft and make it work?

 

[axisg]

Great progress... I think I will have a beer to celebrate on your behalf 🙂

 

[Injectedcutty]

Jared, it's awesome to see that blue engine leave the house where I saw it last all bagged up, to sitting in it's new home in the GP!!!! You guys have kicked tail the past couple weeks, and the results show the hard work.
Congrats buddy, looking forward to hearing that thing run!!!!