Hi All,
Since I am doing a build I seem to have loads of questions, that I can't seem to find on this site. And since I don't want to bore everyone with constant thread makings I have decided to make a build thread where I can keep everyone updated and ask questions, since I am doing a 350 swap I thought this section would best suit me, if not I apologize and would be more than happy to move to a different section.
So here is the first question of the day. I am looking into fixing my floor panels seeing as they are rusted through. I looked into price quotes and found that $600 for LH and RH floor pans is just too much, so I decided to make my own. I think I should be using 20 gauge steel from threads I have researched and found that I can buy a 48 inch by 65 inch sheet of 20 gauge steel for 85 bucks. Seems reasonable. My question to you guys is, am I making a big mistake by trying to do this, and is there an automotive grade steel I should be getting or is this mild steel good enough. Plus do I have to make the "indention lines" to get extra stength or can I skip that. My side walls of my floors are solid and about an inch of floor all around the side walls is solid as well, so I figure I can simply cut my peices to fit and weld them in. Anyones opinion would be strongly appreciated.

Thanks, DacMan

 

Here is the extent of my rust.
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Got My Steel Today!!!
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She's ready for the new pans, and a new life
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Does anybody know whether steel shrinks or gets larger, or stays the same width when bead rolled length wise?

 

I got all my pieces cut out today, and will try to get my pieces bead rolled this week, however I can't cut my pieces to fit the holes in my floor, unless I know weather bead rolling shrinks steel, and if so how much?

Thanks, DacMan

 

Ouch that is some nasty rust but im sure you can get it taken care of! Unfortunately I don't know any of the answers to your questions but I would like to say good luck and ill be watching your progress!

 

Glad to see that someone is enjoying this thread, I was afraid I was wasting my time. Thanks for the support!

 

Found a 350 today, Guy owns a junk yard, and has this 350 he used in his trunk since new, says he always changed his oil every 3000 miles (who really knows) and that it's out of his truck and has been sitting for 20 years, says it needs a cam and carb, but only wants 175 bucks. He told me he just pulled it a few months ago, and before he pulled it he cranked it up and it ran strong,,, what do yall' think, will I need vavle seals, along with other stuff since it's sat so long?


Thanks, DacMan

 

Well I wouldn't think it would need valve guide seals just because its sat for a while I let my S-10 sit for 2 years and it runs like a top, it needs new valve seals now but thats because someone wasn't watching the temp gauge....is it a short block or a long block?

 

It's a complete long block, glad to hear that the seals might be alright. The cam and carb issues are not a bad deal at all, cause' I was going to replace those with performance parts anyways.

DacMan

 

Last night I decided to get to work on my vinal uppohlstry, and I read that the best way to moisterize vinyl is to use baby oil. But it was far from as easy as throwing on baby oil. I first had to clena the things so I took some 409 and wiped them down, then with a q-tip I clened all the crevases and seams out as well. But that wasn't the end of it, I had to clean off the drops of paint as well.
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Here are my two seats before cleaning
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Here is what made cleaning these things a pain, if you'll notice there is a milky red paint drop here and they were all over the seats, it looked like water that had been used to color sand a red car with was dripped on these seats. So I took some rubbing alcohol and a q-tip and began to slowley remove these spots.
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The one on the left is done, and the one on the right I havn't even started on, I took a mircrofiber cloth and wetted one side in baby oil and applied it liberally to my seat, then I took the dry side and really worked it in. The seat looks really shiny in the pic because the oil had just been applied, but I looked this morning and the seats had a nice clean satin look to them.
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Here's the one done in contrast to the untouched one I mentioned above, sorry one post is only allowed three pics
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Alright boys,
Got one floor pan in today, but I'll post pics of that later, right now, I have an issue. I need to figure how to remove my valve covers. Here is my driver side vavle cover, as the arrows point to, there are clearance issues on both sides, so the cover will NOT come out, am I the only one that deals with this or is there a trick I need to know?
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Thanks, DacMan

 

I don't really know how to get the valve covers off mine come right off lol. I can't look at the pics on internet explorer for some reason so im kinda bummed but hopefully they'll work later with firefox. Any more progress?

 

Well intrepid I've been busy and gots a lot done, I got all my floor pans welded in from the top, I just gotta patch some spots where the replacment peice couldn't cover. So here's my pics, but keep in mind this was the second time I have ever welded and I am completly self taught.

The first one I did is solid but not real pretty.
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The second one I did was real perfect, best patch of the bunch.
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The Third was simply tricky.
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But belive me I didn't stop at the patchings, I went ahead and finished most of my vinal seat restorations, as well as putting in new inner and outer tie rods. I painted them with rustoleams hammered metal finish and it turned out great!
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Course couldn't have done it w/o my old hunting buddy
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But I didn't stop there, I decided that my plactic interior panels looked awful, so I decided to paint them black, I used krylon's plastic infusion paint, or somthing like that, just scuff and paint. I used some of this stuff on a vintage riding mower two years ago and the wheel still looks new!
Here's the back side of the peice I painted, I'll get a pic of a better example later.
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Here's the finished peice.
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BTW sorry to hear about the pics, you're right you might have better luck with firefox.

 

I would like to start this thread off by saying this; I am kinda disapointed with this forum, simply because I thought I would get some feedback on what I was doing on this build thread, by all means if somone out there thinks I'm doing somthing wrong, tell me, or if you have advice, that would be appreciated as well. 263 people so far have viewed this thread and only one (intrepid) have responded. I would love to hear from anyone else as well..

So with that being said here I go with todays accomplishments. First of all, I went to AED steel, and bought some 1 3/4 X 1 3/4 tube steel. This was for my (for lack of a better term) "seat bars". The old one's had rusted through and were wayyyyy too thin to begin with. I didn't drill any holes for bolts cause I figured I could always weld on studs to the seat bars.
So here's the first side I did. Now I realize that the origina seat bars were 1 1/2 X 1 3/4, but the place didn't have any and they said it would be a few weeks before they coudl get me any, so I gave and 1/4 in up in the name of efficiancy lol. I really don't mind though cause I like to sit up as high as possible.
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And here's the second.
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Ofcourse the fun didn't end at putting in seat bars, I also decided my winshield wiper fluid tank looked pretty grungy, so I decided to take it off and clean it, and you wouldn't belive what I found inside. Maybe it's usual but there were these blue crystals that looked like they had formed from the fluid, but that wasn't what was weird... Try to guess... Red Paint was what I found inside, all these little chips of it. Who the Hel thinks to themselve, hugh, seems like I oughta paint the inside of my winshield wiper fluid tank today, good rust protection lol . Anyway Here is what the tank looked before I even started.
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I eneded up soking the tank in record breaking hot water and a load of Lestoil. In a bucket, I also threw in some googone for good luck.
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And here's what she looked like after I pulled her out, but she was far from done.
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So once I pulled her out of the lestoil, I took a tooth brush and scrubbed her down. Then I took a Mr. Clean magic eraser and finish cleaned it, then I rinsed her with water and walla! I realize this thing isn't perfect, but that's the point of this project, to make a good running, clean, reliable, fun car that can be driven and enjoyed. And not only that but something that an 18 year old can take pride in, I feel like not many guys my age could do what I've done so far.
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I also decided to dip the bolts in black paint
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I also cleaned and waxed the spot that the tank goes over.
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BTW everyone this is my dream camaro, https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...k-stripes.html the one by Rocky-d, I love the blue with silver hockey sticks, but since my car is read I think it'll have to be read with silver or black hockey sticks. What do yall think?

 

I think it would be better if the hockey stick would go all the way down the car. Keep updating, I deleted my inbox and this is the only thread I kept lol.

 

Yeah I heard a lot of people say that it would look better if it went the hole way down, as far as update, not much. I just finished rebuilding the quadrajet that came with the car, and am dialing it in with the help of some quadrajet guru's lol.

DacMan

 

Ah well its cool that you can rebuild a carb, I found that part kind of difficult so I just bought an edelbrock 600, not sure if I like it or not yet...

 

Man I wish I had the budget for a new carb, but this car is all about cheap quality fixes, and for $60 I got a solid carb. But boy do I wish I could have a holley avenger.

 

What kinda carb did you end up with?

 

I keep the q-jet, I'm sorry I havn't posted much, been real busy, I'll get some pics up this weekend, I just took of the front bumper and will be finishing up my floor pans.

 

Alright boys, here's what DacMan got done over the weekend. I decided to restore my tail lights. Here they are before:


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And here they are after:
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Well they definitely look 110% better! How did you get them to turn out so well?

 

Thanks for the complement, the pics make them look better than they are, but what I did was I wet sanded them down with 320,600,1500 grit. Then polished the scratches out with mothers mag polish, put a coat of nu finish on em and walla. Also I painted the black plastic with parts with a krylon infusion, but it didn't work right, so I ended up sanding it down, priming the parts, then painting them with rustoleam black.

DacMan

 

Looks like its coming along very nice.

 

Thanks Man, I'm gonna hopefully get a bunch of pics up tonight.

DacMan

 

cool thread

its all about doing your own thing and what works for you

 

Thanks Duderjay, I've had a lot of fun with this thread so far, and with the car. So here's some things I've done recently. None of this is major, just little things.
Fist of all I decided last night that I would try to save my dash pad. I saw you can buy one for 125 bucks but mine is pretty nice and has only one flaw. I'll probably replace it eventually, but it's not a priority. So here it is before I did anything to her. I don't know if you can tell in the pic, but the flaw is that the corner on the drivers side has a chunk out of it. Ohh well, I just painted it with a glossy black, and although it isn't perfect it's practical.
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Here it is after. I cleaned it with 409 and a little alcohol on a Q-tip in the really bad spots. Then I took a tooth brush and cleaned the speaker "vents" out. Then I just wiped it down with some baby oil on a microfiber cloth.
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Here's a few other things. First of all, this is what she looks like right now with out her bumper. I plan on painting all the bumper supports and mouniting brackets, light buckets etc. gloss black.
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The carpet that came with the car was not original. I appologize for not getting before pics , but they turned out really well. I just rented one of those wet carpet cleaners that you can get at an ace hardware. And went over it with the hand attachment six times. It's amazing what you can learn about your car from the carpet. Whoever owned this before me must have lived on the coast or near dunes or a beach, cause the drivers side carpet had loads of sand in it.
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I also did the had carpet while I was at it. Since it's grey, and the main carpet is black I hope there won't be an obvious contrast.
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Sorry I don't have more exciting news. Although I did go to the hardware store and found that I can rent an engine puller for 30 bucks a day. I'll probably be doing that sooner than later.

 

Hey DacMan,
I've enjoyed your thread. I'm just starting a project that will involve replacing the floor pans (91 RS). Mine are rusted out also. Are you happy with the results? I'm also discouraged with the price of new ones. How much did you have in yours? How did you get them bead rolled? Any tips you may have would be appreciated. Isn't it funny how one month you can be the student asking for help and the next you're the one being asked for advice?

 

Yeah it is funny jdough, that's an interesting question, I did the math and in the end I had about $200 bucks in the sheet metal and the bead rolling, I told myself the day after I did them that I would never do my own floor pans again (my back was killing me lol) but it really was worth it. I saved $400 dollars. I ended up getting them bead rolled at a small welding shop (a bead welder was a pain to find). the guy who had the bead roller only had a half inch "dip" so we decided to put three in a row, overlapping each, and it worked really well. As far as tips go, I would get a little more steel than you plan on needing, because you never know were you might need a little patch. Plus you can cut peices bigger and fit them just right by hand cutting them down to size. Also I would use 18 gauge, that is the correct gauge, don't use anything thinner. Here is somthing I wish somone would have told me before I started, if you can't seem to get the steel to coform to were you're overlapping, then just tac weld a peice down, and then hammer a few inches down, tac them in, hammer a few inches, tac them in, and so forth until you're done, this method works great and gets a tight fit. And one last thing, get a good set of tin snips (ie: left right and straight) and if you have a compressor and can afford it, get a cutt-off wheel. Sorry to say so much, but there's a lot to doing this.

Good Luck, DacMan

 

DacMan I think you are doing real good on this project I know how it is to try and restore a car with a real light wallet.You seem to make the old saying work (If there is a will, there is a way) good luck and keep the post coming.

 

Thanks DustyTrix, I defianitly am not swimming in money lol. I am doing all I can to make a good reliable car on a tight budget.

 

Great work so far!

 

Thanks Stroker, I appreciate it. Todays work, although a not very exciting was successful! I decided to paint my headlight "cups" and covers. So here is what they looked like before I started.
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I sanded the covers with 150 grit by hand, and was really ****, but on the cups, since no one sees em I just scuffed em up well by hand and hit the easy spots with a orbital sander.
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And the final product. I put on one coat of red oxide rustoleam primer, that is for metal with hevily rusted metal (even though these weren't heavy, I've had really good luck with the heavily rusted type instead of the clean metal), and then covered that with a coat of rustoleam's proffesional grade gray primer (by switching colors I got the best coverage possible). Then I gave them two coats of rustoleam's professional black, and one coat of rustoleams clear coat.
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I have no clue why these springs are here... lol. Ohh well I'll just paint em and put em back.
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I found that the head light "holder" is fiberglass and has a crack in it, and seems to be missing some peices. I'm contemplating fixing it, or getting a pull a part junk yard one, however considering how much of a pain it was to get the front bumper off, I might just fix this one.
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Also here is my console. I'll clean here up before the week is over and get some pics. I've got big plans for her, but unfortinatley I can't get them going until my dash is in.
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Another little tip when tacking plate like this is to give the plate a shot with the hammer right at the tack while the tack is still hot (you have to work fast). This will help tighten things up real nice.

Nice job so far. I too am on a low budget project(laid off). Spent most of my funds on a motor for a 305 to 350 swap in my 88 iroc. The cosmetics have been much like yours so far sand paper and rustolium spray. Also contemplating a complete paint job myself with roller or dense brush. I have seen alot of good results with this method. Takes about ten coats and a ton of wet sanding but it's cheap
Been takin pics along the way but don't have the patience to post everything as i go so i guess I'll post my story at the end

Anyway keep up the good work and i'll keep watchin

 

That's a great tip 88. I am really struggling just like you, I am afraid I might end up not having the money for the 350 swap. It's amazing how with some patience and time you can make little projects like those head light pieces look just as good as a professional with a paint booth and a gun.

Good Luck On Your Project, DacMan

 

Well DacMan, you've inspired me to get out there and start rubbing baby oil on my dashpad. If I get really frisky, maybe I'll even repaint the edges of my T-tops that are faded and rough looking.

 

lol, go get em Hardwood.


Good Luck, DacMan

 

Looks like you've made some progress as well as a few other member's attention since I was last here! I wish any of the dash pads in my car looked as good as yours, when I got my 88 Iroc my girlfriend asked me if those dashes are cracked when they came from the factory lol. Your headlight buckets look alot better now, I think I'll have to do that to mine. I would stick with the stock 305 for now if it runs and drives well. When I bought mine it came with a fully fresh rebuilt 355 and 700R4 tranny, but the headers rub the frame rails and the vibrations drive me nuts. They cut the wiring harness so I don't have my tach, oil pressure, or temp gauges but I did get the others to work including speedo..so stay stock for now, and plan it out, and do it right and don't end up with a half *** gauge cluster like mine!! lol I will say this about it though it gets down the street reaaaal nice

 

Thanks for the compliments Intrepid. Yeah, I never saw too much seat time with that 305, just bought the car, brought it home, and tore it apart. I'm contemplating a hydrolic cam, but I can't decide. I am currently sanding and polishing my wheels, and might get some pics up tonight. Yeah my dash pad isn't too bad. It's just percect except for that corner. I can't decide wether I'll replace it or not in the end.



DacMan

 

Just in case you haven't figured out what those springs are for, they hook to the cups that hold the headlight bulbs. It puts tension on the headlight adjustment screws.

If there is a lot of damage to your on the headlight header mount consider getting one of these reproductions from ebay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NEW-H...Q5fAccessories, They are made of plastic (so they are lighter) but they also come with all the mounting bolts pre-installed. Mine fit real well and for the price along with free shipping was an overall good deal.