The phosphate can that be done at home or does it have to be sent out ?

I phosphate right in the shop. You only need the solution at temp to do it, after the parts are cleaned.

Steering Column
 

These smaller restorations are just the bread and butter of a project.

Sourced a decent floor shift column from another 69. This piece is a series of small restorations like the neutral safety switch mounted to the column. Not sure what others do but I break all these smaller items down, clean, restore and reassemble. Column all layed out after alot of bead blasting and clearing, phosphating and painting. Found it so odd one of the metal pieces internal to the column was blue on one side and bare steel on the other.

In some upcoming photos im already recreating the column sticker on some software I used in my younger years. For my dad back in the early 2000s i recreated every decal on his yenko chevelle. Reminds me of my early days and passion for restoring things.

Had to order a few items like a new turn signal handle and a lower bearing.

Door Hinge Rebuilding
 

Hinges get fully taken apart. Most of the kits out there that include the bushings work well. I reuse the old pins as they have the circular marks on the pin that the replacements dont. This set was in nice shape and only needed minor filling.

Pins are reinstalled and pin ends swedged out with a die and press.

Got lucky on this set as i reused the pin at the roller. These are usually destroyed and i have to turn my own.

Steering column and spring decals
 

Finished decals for the springs and steering column. I used the spring chart and weights for a 69 to take my best guess at an l89 300 deluxe car.

Steering column was fun. I used a combination of known part numbers and a steering column or two that dad had laying around with the decal still present. One thing i love for detail here is getting the font and type size correct to match originals. There honestly are very few if any reproduction decals of any type that are even close. Soon i plan to do an exact copy of the emission decal that goes on the core support radiator top plate.

Picture order: Springs and Column printed, Original Column(Auto I believe), Orig column to the car, and Redone finished

Chevelle Decals
 

Thanks for sharing your progress. It is fun to follow along and I am learning a few things as well.

Have you looked at these: https://www.angelfire.com/rock/69ss/index.html

Thanks,
Marty

Hi Marty, took a look and not rain on someones hard work and effort but just looking at a few where there are originals next to the reproduced decal shows significant differences in font thickness, width and height. I picked the page for the 71 air cleaner decal as i have redone that one myself and even the symbols at the top are not accurate. I can only assume what happens is someone gets into say microsoft power point and just starts typing up the words without giving much thought to does it look correct.

It should also go without say that im sure between various plants the decals differed as its probably short sided to say there was only one supplier.

----I have to ask if you market any of your great decals? I may be out of the loop. And,,,Would you consider when the time was appropriate to do some other stuff? I really like your attention to correctness!....Bill S

Steering Column Complete
 

Mostly finished with the column. Had to put in a new lower bearing at the bearing cup is in the plating box so finaly assembly will have to wait. I also need to get in an nos igntion switch i order and rekey it.

I struggle with these, as i had the top section on and off about 5 times before it finally went into place.

New Skill, Key Cutting and GM Key Codes
 

After my dad moved we lost our chevy dealership person back in Dubuque Ia that cut and and rekeyed lock cylinders for us.

This meant dad and I got to research how its done. Not terribly complicated, but you need something like a Curtis key cutter, the right cams and carriages, the key blanks and most importantly the key code book to take all your old lock cylinder codes and have keys made for them. On this car I had all the original glove box and door cylinders. I had to rekey the trunk to the original glove box and rekey the ignition switch to the doors.

All pretty straightforward as long as you can read the 4 digit GM code on the side of the cylinders. This was alot of fun to read up on and do.

Pic1 Curtis Cutter
Pic2 Key succesfully cut(trunk and glove box for a 69)
Pic3 doors tumblers restored, polished, and keys cut
Pic4 Glove box tumbler, showing the code
pic 5, 6, 7 Rekeying the trunk lock, includes pulling the entire assembly apart and pieces of the tumberl to get to the individual tumblers. Redo the 6 tumblers to match the key, springs, spring retainer, and reinstall with new key face pieces, and done

Amazing!!

Front Suspension
 

As i assembled the front suspension my fear is it will be coming part post restoration for ride height adjustment. Looks super clean and no scuffs or scratches. Happy i got to use over the 2 piece rotors.

Engine back from the Machine Shop
 

Picked up the engine yesterday. I think this about the closest thing a car enthusiast can get to the feeling you had as a kid on Christmas morning. Engine is 40 over, with 38 CC domed pistons. Roller cam with a grind very close to stock l78. Same one I used on the 66 SS i just finished. Heads are milled way down so the chambers are 111ccs. For the guys that noticed yes there zl1 heads. All in all should be around 10.8 to 1 when done but I need to do some checking on how far the pistons are in the hole. Assembly to come!

Oh yeah!!!!!

Before you do your quarter panel replacement do you replace the body bushing first like so many people suggest to do or leave it as is and replace quarters? Thanks an once again thank you for taking the time to share your progress with us all!

I double check to make sure there is no major damage or rot. If I do find questionable bushings I just put metal spacers back in during assembly. The frame is kinda like a wet noodle as it is, especially in the rear. Its obviously ideal all body points touch down evenly but i have had cars where its not, and I didnt do any major panel replacement.

Shifter - Hurst
 

I have deviated on 68-72 cars with the shifter because the muncie to me is just not ideal. I grabbed an old hurst setup, and restored it. One of the trick things to do is machine all the bushings for the rod pin points so its super tight.

M21 Muncie 4 Spd
 

Found a correct 69 M21 case date very close to the car with no Vin. Just basic clean up and blast and then recondition the alum parts to look new.

Most of the muncies builds I just get all new gears along with the overhaul kit. Dad taught me alot of tricks for assembly and preparation of the parts to ensure buttery smooth shifts, even brand new.

Assmebling the main shaft into the case can get frustrating, as this one gave me some problems. I finally figured it all out

I’ve had my Muncie out of my Corvette for months now.
I’ve watched the Muncie files on YT, read Paul’s book but I still can’t bring myself to tear it apart.
I’ve never rebuilt a transmission so I’m apprehensive.
How do you get the case to look so good?

I can understand being apprehensive. Most of the assembly isnt too bad. That said you need a press and patience for a few of the learn by doing not by watching tasks. Loading up the cluster shaft with the bearings via some assembly grease and having a undersized pin is a must. When you braing the main shaft and center bearing plate into the main transmission with the gasket can be tedious but not impossible. The best advice is dont force anything and be willing to take something back apart when its not going on right.

In light of all of that as you can see in the pictures I wear gloves to keep my case work clean. Im gonna send you a PM about case prep

Distributor Rebuild and Recurve
 

I enjoy doing some of the tuning work the most. Distributor fully taken apart, cleaned and reconditioned the main casting. I select the right vac advanced based on the vacum start and max vacum value, along with the number of degrees i want to see at the crank. This can get tedius as i also include a stop bushings on the vac advance to limit the number of degrees. On this build it was only 13deg of vac advance. I put together a 454 one time with like 25 and it pinged and knocked terrible so i tend to be on the conservative side for Vac advance.

On the mechanical side I have to cut new stop bushings to fit up on the main shaft advance boss. This is never the same for each unit as i mix and match the advance and main shaft parts. To be honest i see no reason to get in a big hurry to rebuild one back to factory specs. To recurve you have to modify so many things it just not worth it. I have alos come to learn that looking at the manuals, a 396, 427 or 454 running a single digit advance just gives you a lazy motor that may want to overheat more at idle. On this build im gonna be rougyly at 18deg of initial advance and around 37deg max limited.

Many years back i bought a sun distributor machine to do all this messing around. It can be done in the car but that means putting it in and out for changes. Its bad enough with the machine. To quicken the curve i do play with the fly weights by grinding the contact area to speed up the advance curve along with lighter springs. Springs can only do so much for a guy and grinding the weights for me is usually the knob that works best to me.

I get pretty nerdy and track with a spreadsheet my advance curve. a quick curve with a larger initial can really improve throttle response.

Very cool! Love that dizzy machine.

Man I played with a Sun Distributor machine in H/S auto shop I'd love to find one locally as shipping is prohibitive. Yours is restored nicely BTW

I'd love to have one of those machines. There is one local that's been sitting in the same place with the same Ford distributor in it for about 40 years. I can't talk the owner into selling it to me.

Right side up

I got mine from Paramount many years back. There about double what i payed if there are any avaialbe. I have noticed there stock comes and goes really quickly. I thought about getting a used one but it concerned me as to wether a used one would work and then be reading accurately.

Alternator Rebuild
 

Sourced an alternator for the car. Just basic disassembly and recondition of the case. I was replacing diodes at one time when doing these but i never have seen where there needed. You can get fancy and do the lettering on the rear of each diode, but i passed this time. New bearings front and rear along with a new set of brushe and all hardware replated. Repro pulley which honestly look really good to me compared to originals.

4:56 Rear End Setup
 

My dad had a set of 4:56 GM gears that came from a very early 67 chevelle ss he had. Thats a story for a different day. Got a used 4 series carrier. I spent several days on this. I cleaned and checked the clutch packs which included shimming per the GM overhaul book.

For setup up of the gear pattern i use a case spreader as to not pound on the shims. This especially gets helpfull when setting up a new set of gears to a housing. After 2 days of in and out with both the pinion shims and the diff shims I got to something I was happy with. The process even with the spreader is very tiring. Shocked on this setup as the pinion shim ended up being the stock .025 which is much thinner than most others i have heard about and done. Most cases as i have seen the stock shim with the housing will work on the next setup even in gears are changed(well for GM for sure)

Once everyting is setup you take all apart put in fresh roller tapper bearings on the pinion, do the torque procedure of the crush sleeve to get the proper drag and then slam in the diff.

I was glad once it was under the car. That only took 30 mins compared to about 3 days.

Chevelle...
 

The project looks great...your tach will get a work out with those 4.56 gears :tongue:

Can't wait to hear that motor fire up :beers:

Where did you source the case spreader?

I think i ordered it off Ebay many years back. I did a quick search and I cant find anything like the unit i have. I think i paid close to 200 and that was well before the past few years insane inflation. Its mostly made of cold rolled. Ive considered redoing the arms that are paralell to the diff bearings with some stronger hot rolled. You can kinda see in the picture the setup is bent from use. Problem is I just set it back in its storage place and will forget about it till the next car. It gets the job done. I could never find alot of great information either about a safe acceptable spread distance. I keep the max travel .008 to .009. I somewhat recall geting .012 or .015 is about the max, but I dont feel like tempting fate.

I kinda hope i did all the math properly. I see most original 4.10 and higher geared GM cars got gear reducers. I managed to find a combination with the main shaft driven gear, and speedo gear that should work without a reducer. Maybe GM didnt have alot of combinations back in the day?

I have one that i got from Randy's Ring & Pinion many years ago when I was a dealer for them. I owned a rear end shop for 15 years and I think I only used the spreader 2 times, and those were aluminum cases. https://www.randysworldwide.com/shop/yt-s01

Holley Carb Restoring
 

Dad and I figured we would try our hand at redoing some holleys for future and current builds.

Dad did the yellow chromating. I will admit its not as distinct as some restored units but for our time and effort we are very happy with the light finish it does have. All the carbs were fully tore down, rebuilt and adjusted. All the smaller pieces were sent off for zinc plating and yellow chromate. Id like to try and perfect the body plating process in the future, but plenty of more restorations to come.

The smaller 4150 is for a 67 SS Chevelle and the larger 4160 is for my current project. There both GM part number and date code correct originals.

I learned alot on this as it was new to me.

L78/L89 375hp 69 Holley
 

69 Carb Pictures, fully restored. I did have to machine provisions in the front bowl for the vent as I pieced this carb together.

Have your door panels arrived? If so, how are they and did they also come from SMS? (No affiliation to my screen name)

I also have a 300 SS Sport Coupe and am stuck with Malibu door panels now.

I have not. I need to give them a call just to make sure they havent forgotten about me. I think the person i spoke with said around a year and I think im now past that by a few months.

Dealt with SMS a couple times, and on my '69 300 post...took about 15 months IIRC for the door panels, but they are sooooo pretty! Got pissed a couple times, no contact by phone, and no email response, but that's how they do business. Sucks, but they are THE best at getting the panels right and using the exact material, either nos or their own duplicate. I've got a set of originals in black, for a post car I'll be selling soon.

Rear End, Axles and Brakes
 

Two steps forward Three back. Once i had the diff in and started doing the brakes i started to notice alot of slop in the clutch packs to the diff carrier. That meant tearing it back out and rebuilding with a set of new clutches and discs. Checked the pinion backlash and shimmed for each side and then reinstalled. First picture is the new carbon clutches. I had never done this before. Pretty straightforward

Rest of the pictures are the brakes, rear end and axles all in. One thing I caught during restoration. The 12 bolt cover bolts were different on the 2 clips and upper larger clip for the brake lines. I can only assume on the line they took out what came from the axle assembly guys, tossed them out and grabbed new ones as the bolt head markings are different. Hope you guys can see that in the picture.

Wiper Motor
 

This was just a simple clean up, replate parts and rebuild. I do wanna throw out there since the 300deluxe had this cheaper wiper motor anyone in the know, let me know if the wiper arm off the motor doesnt look right. I had to do some junkyarding to get the correct one plus the arm assembly that goes in the cowl.