Looking fantastic!

Outstanding work as always.

I’m curious, did the new clutches eliminate the clearance issue you were having? I’ve been able to reuse GM clutch packs reliably unless they have obvious overheating damage.

Both the tabs of the clutches as well as the clips that hold them in the diff carrier were badly worn. Between the tabs and the clips as much as .050inch. I was getting several degrees of free play at the drive shaft before the wheels even started to move. I bought it used and it was very clearly abused and worn out. Im just glad the diff was ok as I didnt wanna spend more money.

Looking great Rick!!

Just a heads up with those new clutches. I would always worn my customers when I installed a new Eaton Posi with those clutches to be careful when doing a burnout. If they were going to be drag racing I would warn them to skip the water burnout and to never do a burnout while holding the brake. If those clutches slip they will over heat and glaze. Then they don't work anymore. Back then Eaton was still making the original 18 disc steel clutches and I replaced several sets of the new clutches with the old ones for drag racers or people who liked making tire smoke. It's been several years since I bought new clutches so I don't know if Eaton still makes the original ones or not.

Beautiful job on the wiper motor. Just took a couple pics of mine, which is original to the car. Appears my non depressed park motor uses a lesser offset arm. Can't get a pic of the stamping if any is there, but the distance between pivots, center to center is roughly 2 inches.

Appreciate that. I have the correct one, which was the one I got with the car. I have a new question, the plates that sandwhich the wiper arm ball are yours original? Was your car Baltimore built? Mine were copper coated.

Not really sure if these were copper coated or not, possibly I cleaned them too well? The car is a KC Leeds car.

Just awesome work on this car. Thanks for saving another one.

My best guess is that there were multiple suppliers of wiper arms and the linkage clips. All of mine, from the one that is at the wiper, to the other 3 that are part of the additional linkages were all coppered.

Delco Horn Rebuild
 

I had found some original 280 279 horns. Date codes are 69 but there so hard to read its not even worth mentioning what they are.

Neither one worked no matter how many times i smacked them. Repair included taking out all the rivets to split the horns from the electroncis. Both diaphrams were rusted swiss cheese. I found some donor horns and harvested parts including a new coil as I had a bad one. Riveted the units back together and painted. Played with the tone adjust some and there as good as new.

Parking Lamps
 

I wish all years were like 69s. Its so easy with this year to just blast and paint. The rubber boot was reconditioned and the copper bulb base blasted and finished off to look original. I decided on trim parts lenses. There very nice. I custom cut my own gaskets as I have struggled to find anyone that makes good replacements for other years.

Looks great Rick! Always look forward to your updates.

Rick,
I am in the process of restoring my horns for my 69 ss396 300 deluxe post car and I have a question does a gasket go in between both sides of the diagram? When I tore mine apart there was only a gasket on one side however the kit I bought has 3 gaskets in it! Thanks

My 69 300 has the same offset arm brackets as jer's it appears.

Good question! I didnt use any. I believe they were put in place for the purpose weather sealing. I think the replacments i have seen are much thinner than original so there probably not gonna do much in the way of sealing. Its also hard to believe that with the gasket on one side it would seal anything on the orignals. I just sealed mine with seam sealer, let it dry and then painted them up.

Thankyou. I did find my original arm in the plating table. After more research its not the same arm as used with the more common hidden wiper units. Im sure there are other models of cars and years with the same arm but I cant say which. Another 300 deluxe oddity.

Engine Assembly
 

Ive been very slowly and patiently building the engine. As stated earlier original Chevelle JD stamped 4 bolt main block form a Kansas City 69 Chevelle. Kept the numbers with no decking but it did require a line bore, and .040 over as it was already rebuilt once and ran what appeared a very short time. In first is the crank checking for main clearances.

Pistons, Cam and Valvetrain
 

Nothing to exotic on this build. Speed pro pistons with as large a domes as can be had. Little bit of ring filing and bearing clearance checks on the rod bearings. Cam was put in and checked. Best setup was doing straightup with the timing set. Pistons sat in a hole anywhere from .015 to .025.

Once good with the bottom including oil pump, dropped the pan and tightened everything up.

Heads, Gaskets and Intake
 

Heads recieved enough decking to get the huge 074 chambers down close to the original 842s. With super thin cometic gaskets and head work compression came in at 10.8 to 11.0 :1 accross the pistons.

Next part gets a bit tougher. With that much machining on the heads this sinks the bolt holes for the intake further downward in the engine. This then means the intake holes no longer line up and you cant put the bolts in.

Intake Machine Work
 

I had to start this project with building a fixture plate to hold the intake on the mill. Not to terribly hard but turned out great. From there the intake can be positioned so that it can then be indicated in to cut the right amount of the material off the intake front to back and from top to bottom of the runners to fit near perfectly on the engine.

Once the mating sides of the intake are cut it re aligns the bolt holes, but now you have the issue of little to now front and back wall clearance. Once again a fixture had to made to hold the intake flat to the table for the front and rear intake walls to be fixed and re machined to match the block.

WOW Rick! Engine is looking great! Can’t wait to hear it!

That’s next level stuff right there!

Impressive work.

I just went through this same deal on my L78 nice work on this car!

Engine heat cycled on the run in Stand
 

Im not sure how it goes everyone else but things never go smooth and you really cant trust a single new part you buy.

Had the motor on the stand and it would fire a few cylinders but just wouldnt kick off. changed the coil, check the spark at the plugs which looked weak and then decided to change out the points that had the condesnor intergrated in. Put in one with separate points and condensor. Both sets were AC Delco.

All and all im very happy and frankly impressed with the throttle response and how it runs and sounds.

https://youtu.be/JtRLdeaSxf4

Sweet runner. Thanks!

The Uni-points were a known piece of crap in the late seventies, at repair shops. But I'm thinking you weren't even born yet to have heard about that...:smile:

Off the Stand and Into the Chassis
 

Didnt feel like wasting any time. Got the engine off the run stand and into the chassis. Finsih up clutch, belhousing, transmission, and driveshaft. Then back to body work. Maybe I will setup a lemondae stand to pay for the exhaust.

Looks great!

New Shop Skill - Zinc Plating
 

I normally do plating in batches and take them to place in 5 gal buckets. Its not that I dont appreciated the place I go to, but its kinda a pain. Throughout a restoration it always seems that I miss something or find I need to buy some new hardware etc.

I recently took the plunge on a Caswell plating kit. Im honestly blown away how I can get better results with an at home plating kit.

First picture is a set of valve cover washers bare stainless. Second picture is the plating bath. Third picture is after the parts are zinc plated which can look like cadmium plated. 4th picture is after blue chromate is applied, which is how my bolts and hardware for the whole care get processed.

I even did a holley carb body the other day. Just phenomenal results.

For anyone on the fence, give it a try. Just note Caswell is not quick with there shipping, so its not out of the ordinary to wait even a few months.

Wow that looks great!

Gardner I assume?

Here is their system on my 300 D HT

Yes. I may till fall.

Engine Detail Work, and Smog
 

These later year cars seem to have alot of extra work in the restoration to work on items like smog. I was able to restore an original diverter valve which included phosphating the air intake, plating the diverter valve cover, and giving it the GH, and giving a chromate coating to the remainder of the valve. Came out perfect!

Rest of the engine doesnt look to bad either. Even thru in a KI sticker on the valve cover for fun.

Beautiful!:biggthumpup:

Wow

Beautiful!!

Rick,
Any updates?
Missing my "fix" of your restoration of a great 300 Deluxe.