As an aside:

My Black 66 L-78 is 07B Atlanta and is coded 5Y deluxe too. But when I got it. One cover was missing. Series of friendly offered help landed me a mint set of Standard Belts which don’t have plastic covers.

Thanks Mike. That helps alot. Dads L78 is 04D, Maroon with Black Buckets.

3rd week July Atlanta 66 SS

If your Dad's car is Atlanta built too, it can't be too far ahead of my 05A, May 5th built SS.
As for the seat piping, I think people like the chrome and add it during resto. Most vendors advertise it as the correct piping too, so that doesn't help the knowledge base any either.

Nice find! I will be dragging my L78 66 home in May!
I will try to post pics!

Carpet, Console and Tach
 

Fought with the carpet on the weekend. I wish ACC would give more material on the front edge by the drivers toe board, and a little extra on the sides would be nice too. This particular one I bought took no trimming on the sides and had to be centered in order to not have any uncovered areas.

I reinstalled the original console. Top plates were sent off for rechrome. They look perfect with the fresh chrome. Re flocked the console compartment and have the original rubber surround for the shift hole for 66. Clock is a quartz conversion I did myself this time around. I also struggled with the poor engineering in 66 for the harness. Seems in 66 they expected the line worker to route the console harness up the carpet to the back of the heater box where a short harness resides from the back of the heater up and behind the firewall to the dash. I know from doing 67s they changed this and made the in between harness long enough to reach the console. Im always surprised to find the small changes year to year or even through the model year

Finally got the original tach put back in. I really didnt do much here. Cleaned the face and redid the needle, and painted the yellow and redline areas. Chrome was sent out and it looks very nice.

nice detail!!:headbang:

Looking good!! Now get those carpet slits made for the track claws while its naked in there:)

Grille Emblem OEM GM
 

As many of you can tell I do enjoy the smallest details.

Just a tip for those doing a 66. I can never fault things made by Trim Parts. There quality and originality are really top notch for most of the things I have purchased. In fact there Grille emblem is really really nice. Too nice in fact! lol. Pictured below in the last picture on the right is the aftermarket emblem. There actually chrome plated and honestly look beautiful. On the left is original off my car. I sanded the flat areas of the SS and 396 to take out most of the pitting. It was then sent off for re anodizing. Got it back today. The anodizing is much less flashy than chrome and I really like that original dulled down look.

Picture 1, as restored by the anodizing shop.

Picture 2, tedious taping for the white paint in the SS. I had already painted the black at this point, but the same process.

Picture 3 Left original restored, Right Aftermarket.

Mike I appreciate you looking out for me on the details but this is one area on my restorations I throw originality out the window. I have always placed the seat tracks on top the carpet. I know this car had the carpet replaced at one time so I really cant say for sure how it came. I did find carpet under the feet of the seat tracks but so many things can happen to a car in its lifetime.

Great detailing going on here!!
If I may ask, who are you using for aluminum anodizing? - Bill W

PM Sent Bill

Grille and Front End Trim
 

I also got the Grille back this week from the platter. Alot of taping. This was an original grill so not in perfect condition. I had to fill in some pits in the face area before painting with SEMs trim black. With the redone emblem it came out really nice.

Grille Emblem
 

Grille emblem installed. Glad I had my original or I would have not known there are small black plastic spacers behind the emblem to space it off the grill. Im not sure the repros have these.

Front End
 

I put on most of the front end trim this weekend. All the pieces are originals redone. The only piece that is reproduction and phenomenal quality is the lower valence center piece.

Looking very GOOD!

Man that car is a beauty! Can't wait to see it finished and on the road! :Can-I-Have-It::Can-I-Have-It::Can-I-Have-It:

Rear Rocker Trim
 

Put on the rocker trim this weekend. Have several originals to see how the factory very thinly painted the lines. Lots of masking and like 3 mins of painting. I have another 66 SS waiting on restoration that had the original pieces un touched with the factory screws shown below. There chromed #8s with a very low profile. Very similar to a wheel well molding screw, but a slightly smaller head diameter. In fact AMK has a screw pretty close to this that I used.

Side Rocker Mouldings
 

I used NOS pieces for the side mouldings. As a piece of advice to avoid issues its best to fill all the holes the factory puts in and place your own. Couple of shots below of the drivers side. I rolled the car out of the garage today to clean things up. Car is finally starting to look really good. Just a piece of unique information comparing 66 to 67. I had original shots of the screws and clips, the screws are #8s of my car. I got confused because over the years I have robbed plenty of the these clips and thought the screws were #10s. Come to find out in the AIM 66 did use a #8 and 67 and I assume later used #10s.

Gorgeous!!!

Vinyl Top
 

My dad stopped over last weekend and we tackled putting on our first 66/67 top. Turned out very well. We started with gluing a small strip down the middle after centering everything up, and then we just worked one side at a time and then the sail panel areas. Little heat in the tight corners where the material struggles to stick helps alot.

I also worked on side glass quarter window trims and weather seals.

Handsome!!! :burnout: Nice work!

Door Panels, Seat Belts, and Back Seat
 

Once i got the quarter windows adjusted to the front door windows I finished up the door panels. Still waiting on the arm rests, and front buckets. Backseat and belts all went in. Not much left to do at this point.

I think i may check out till fall on car progress. Ive been back and forth with the bumper because the front came back so out of wack. I ordered tires the other day and its Oct before they are expected to come in. Thanks all for following along. Once I get the car completely finished I will post later this year. Im considering showing the car at Chevelles in the Smokies. Im not sure I can catch MCACN this year.

Beautiful car. When you get some time can you straighten the garage a bit?! Just kidding your garage tells me your an attention to detail guy and a bit OCD like me!
Can’t wait to see this one done. What wheels and tires are you going with?

My eye goes all around those interior photos, having put together a few '66s. Very impressive in all areas. The door panels are very accurate, which vendor? Again, you've done an over the top resto here.

Thankyou, Im straying away from originality in the fact that im grabbing redlines from the 67 model year with 14x7 rims painted body color and correct 66 poverty caps. I feel it gives the car a more muscular look. I have some original mags but I decided to save those for a another 66 SS awaiting restoration.

Hi Jer, Thanks. So I had bought PUI and just didnt like how puffy they were. Dont get me wrong PUI has a nice product, but at the end of the day the Legendary are much closer to the original Flat door panel like original. I had do some rework with the fold overs of the door material, but past that they are VERY good. Its kinda sad there isnt too much I buy that doesnt get reworked or tweaked as its installed on the car.

Awesome. You keeping this one? Really dig the color!

That is some tidy and impressive work!

Im not opposed to selling cars as I just sold a 71 LS5 this year but this L78 is so hard to replace Im not sure I could part with it unless someone started talking a ridiculous figure.

Looks fantastic!!

Time to finish things!
 

Hello all. After taking a full year off to remodel my entire house im back to working on cars. I finally got my seat covers pulled and installed them in the car. Like anything else on the car alot of fun details. I used over my seat adjust chrome handles. I also have the original lower seat trims that are colored black to match the seat. Something I found unique, the seat tracks were bare on the upper fixed portion while the lower feet section was painted black.

Anodized Trim
 

Ive finally completed all the aluminum trim around the care including the vinyl top trim. I sent off several sets before i got one that came back looking acceptable. Whatever original material GM used it tiger stripes really easy. Im such a stickler for detail i even had another grill done that had next to zero road rash and pitting. I redid this second one and put it in the car.

Rims and Tires
 

Ive decided to depart some from original on the rims and tires. The original size of rim and tires on these cars is laughable at best for a muscle car. Because of that I went with some new 14x6 rims, and redlines from the 67 model year. Im going with body colored rims and dog dishes.

Front End
 

After a very long drawn out process to get the bumper chromed, the place i worked with actually destroyed the original from the car. I spent several phone calls back and forth to discover they took my perfectly formed bumper and reformed the angle it makes to match the front end because they claimed to have a form, and my bumper didnt fit it. In the end i sent them another core and told them to stop putting in there form. What ended up with was a nicer bumper that perfectly fits the lower splash pan under the grille. The car is really coming together now.

Wow, beautiful.
If you aren't going to save the reject grille for future use, I might be interested in it. I, also need some trunk paint, if you are still making that. I'll send you a PM. I could swing by your place to pick it up on my way back from SCR on the 22nd.

Hi Rick,

This thread of your beautiful ‘66 396 Chevelle restoration is awesome, not to mention it’s being done in my old stomping grounds of central Illinois.
I was born in ‘54 in Springfield and traveled to just about every town including Washington/Peoria area in my good old days. Many corn fields.

The time, money and sourcing parts that’s required for a high end restoration like yours is exhausting. Congratulations to you for this undertaking.
This old muscle car was very fortunate to have found you!

Factory vinyl (Cordova) top.
I’m a GTO (65-67) guy and the Cordova tops on these cars always received a flexible retainer. I’m not sure if the Chevrolet models used this item?
Shown below is this retainer on my ‘65 GTO Survivor.
This retainer was also used on the 66-67 Tempest Series cars with this fabric top, but in a different translucent material opposed to the chrome retainer on my 65.

Looks like you’re on the downhill of this project and it looks fantastic!!!.

Thanks for sharing this restoration.

Chris.

Hi Chris,

Really appreciate the comments. I have noticed that for those that really get into the hobby, passion and obsession become a blurred line.

So my car did have those inserts when i was in the disassembly process. I have heard/read that some others have had success in removing them for reuse. I was not one of those people so i just glued the top down and installed the drip rail moldings.

Where did you get the page from? That something produced by Body By Fisher?

Engine Finally Back In and Running
 

After the flat tappet fiasco, thankyou Comp Cams. I yanked the engine put an erson roller and started the engine on a run Stand. I have determine engine run in stands are the only way to go from now on. All worked out great. The erson cam is most to the stock specs with just .010 more lift on both intake and exhaust. Opening and Closing valve events plus duration are pretty close and it sounds Excellent! As soon as the hood is on and i square away an alignment i will post final pictures for this project.

Engine running in the car
https://youtu.be/4_kYUOM9U1Y?si=bCC3UKCk0J3PiQTM

Can you share the source for your engine run stand?