Day 112 - 7/20/15 More low

Well, decided that the car needed more low in the front. So (for the second time) we blew the lower ball joints out and I cut the springs one more time.

Cut the little piece off this time, should be better now...

Day 111 - 7/19/12 Final tweaks

Doing more assembly and last minute tweaks before Cruisin' the Gut that's coming up this weekend. Cleaning up the visors and headliner, dash pad and the panel that goes behind the petals. Dad also got down a set of caps for the wheels for me from the attic.

40 years of checking make-up, makes the headliner a wee bit dirty. Gross.

Steel wool is my friend. Cleaned up most of the build-up, but there is still some deep pits that will just have to stay. Went to the hardware store and got some new un-pitted screws for both visors.

Scrubbed the heck out of the dash pad and petal panel. Used a softer brush so I didn't shred the original vinyl.

We have center caps! They're Corvette caps made for rallys, but they stick too far out on the fronts, but that's what I get for wanting staggered wheels.

Garage shot, cannot remember what Dad was doing here. More to come!

Day 110 - 7/18/12 Beaches cruise-in

Today is a Wednesday in July, and that means it's Beaches night! "Beaches" is a weekly held car cruise-in at the Portland International Raceway, a fun turnout of classic iron each week. This is the first car show since we finished the car!

Here is myself (driving) and Chris Ho, a long time family friend. Dad took this picture at a stoplight in his '55 Chevy that he drove to the cruise-in in.

Day 109 - 7/17/12

Now, this is the day I have been waiting for, it's been just over a year since we picked 'er up. The Chevelle is all in one drive-able piece, it's licenced, insured, reliable (enough) and safe (enough). Time to drive it! No more taking the Mommy Missile to work, I've got a set of wheels! (Until the next big project that makes it undrive-able for awhile...)

Here's myself (17) all smiles.

No hubcaps? No problem.

First fill-up under it's own power.

Day 108 - 7/16/12

Since the last update, we got the front tires mounted and bolted on the car, and it looks totally sweet, and "period correct". It sits a little high in the nose so we might need to fix that soon.

Continuing to clean and reassemble the interior. Took off the dash pad because it needs some serious cleaning/scrubbing. Took the radior knobs off here to clean them and the dash surrounding it.

Washed it for the first time that it's been all in one piece. Decided not to dry it off and let the sun do it's thing instead. Not thinking of the calcium in the water, there is hard water-spots to this day (12/30/15). Still a little mad at myself for not thinking about that, oh well.

Kind of a bad picture, but you can see she still needs a few parts put back on.

Day 107 - 7/14/12

Today we went for the second "official" drive since the roof has been done, the first being the drive to the glass shop. As an area of focus on the car comes to a close, we switch our focus to different areas. Since the roof is done minus the rear window moldings and brakes are done, it's time to look at the engine more in depth now. To make it a little more user friendly. We take it the the local self-serve car wash to clean all the grease and debris off the engine and bay so we don't make a huge mess at home.

Just cruisin'

Got a few cans of degreaser from the parts store to help the process out a little.

Rocking the new rear wheels+tires and they look and fit sweet.

The only thing is, is those fronts look kind of lame.

Random interior shot. You can still can see some bondo dust on the floor sound deadener.

All clean and ready for the journey home.

Finishing up the rear moldings now, taking a break from the engine.

Looking at and working on trying to update the ignition system. Pulled the cap off and made a reference point.

Stripped the distributor down to nothing.

Got a new (used) shifter knob from a car at All American awhile back. They all look the same from that era of car, but the shank on my arm is too long so Dad ground the tip down a little for it to fit. You'll never know when you look in the car. 

Gathering up and assembling the jack and spare tire stuffs. 

That's all for today, sorry for being a little jumpy.

Day 106 - 7/13/12

Today is a day of more assembly and preparation for getting 'er road worthy. The door panels are toast and I don't want to put the carpet in yet, so going to just leave the lower part of the interior out for now...

Putting the door handle and window crank back on. Check out my sweet floor mats, they're carpet scraps from Dad's work.

Putting on the rear window molding clips in preparation for the moldings themselves. 

Re-greasing the door handles. Sourced some new gaskets for them too, as the originals were smoke.

Just got home from another long Saturday at work.

Cleaning the headrests, as you can see they are filthy.

After!

Dad showing off his legs as well as working on the rear defroster.

Day 105 - 7/12/12

Today I got the rear tires mounted up, the fronts are on order still. This is a few short weeks after being employed at America's Tire, and my manager gave me a killer deal. I am shocked, having only worked their a little less than a month. But hey, I appreciate it!

Black-wall out because we're not Nascar.

About to wash the unsightly blue off the white letters.

Went from a 205/75/14 to 255/60/15, just a little width difference.

Day 104 - 7/10/12

More assembling and putting back together. Wheels turned out sweet! The price was right too. Corvette Rallys as they are commonly known, are a timeless wheel. Very popular "back in the day" to this day currently. The front two 7s are off like a Monte Carlo or Impala and the rear 8s are off a Corvette (as Corvettes ran 8s all around). But to me, they remind me of my Uncle Mike cruisin' in his El Camino, because that's what I remember growing up.

Ready for some meats!

Installing the windshield moldings back in place, all the polishing is paying off now.

Anddd installed! All the front trim is in and it looks awesome.

Day 103 - 7/8/12

Moving into new avenues. Time to paint up the set of staggered rallys that I have on loan. Some updates back, it showed me wet sanding down the trim ring scratches out. Here you can see they are all gone and the thin layer of GM silver on the rears is sanded through. Did a bunch of research, and sourced some look a like, "period correct" (oooh/ahhh) silver wheel paint. Kind of spendy, but it does the job and looks great!

Final clean and prep.

It said you don't need to use primer along with the color coat, but ehh lets just go ahead and use some anyway.

Color looks really good, I can dig it. If you notice the inner lips of the wheels are black. This was done after the fact to quickly cover the backside and instead of using the wheel paint back there to save some bucks.

Day 102 - 7/7/12

Today is vinyl top installation day! I've been looking forward to as well as not looking forward to today, because other people are going to be working the car and I get a little freaky about that. But good news, I had to work this day (Typical Saturday at America's Tire) so I wasn't there to get in the way and worry about things. But, Dad took some pictures of the process of the installation and the guys appeared to take extra care, which we like! What's pretty cool is the guys (a father/son duo) do house calls so they came right to our shop and did it right there where we did all the metal, body, and paint work! Not too shabby.

Taped off everything, and finding the center to use as a reference point.

I hear it was joke time as well as work time, we can appreciate that.

Started from the center and worked their way outward.

Lots of trimming and glue touch-up.

They both did amazing work, there's no way we could've done that ourselves.

Time to pop in (literally) the molding clips.

Done! Well, close. Makes the car look brand new! 

The rest in another update soon.