Cruisin' Down teh Street in Mah Six-Fo

Strut your greasy stuff!
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Huckleberry
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It's been a while, but that's because we've been rather busy. The booth was set up and there was some sanding.

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And then we laid down the primer.
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Annnd then we found some spots in the roof that needed more attention.
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Some more areas needed to be touched up, as well.
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Base coat on the roof:
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Base coat everywhere else:
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And then the clear:
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You may be wondering why the roof was cleared separately from the body. Well, we were having issues with the the way the base was laying. It looked funny in some light and I didn't want to clear over it with the way it looked. I eventually commissioned the help of a long-armed friend and had him lay the base. It turned out better, but it still had issues. As it turned out, it was much ado about nothing, because everything turned out fine once the clear was laid.

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We then disassembled the booth to have a little more room for putting the car back together.
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Obviously, it was time to put the 17" wheels on and see how they looked.
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Huckleberry
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Oh, and we may have dropped the BMW seats off at a local upholstery shop at one point....

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CaleDeRoo
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Those seats look amazing.
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Huckleberry
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CaleDeRoo wrote: Sat Jul 27, 2019 4:15 pm Those seats look amazing.
They look even better in person. We're really happy with how the front and rear seats turned out.
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D Griff
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Damn dude, fantastic updates :fuckyeah:
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wap
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D Griff wrote: Mon Jul 29, 2019 4:09 pm Damn dude, fantastic updates :fuckyeah:
:dat:
Most :impressive:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Huckleberry
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It's been a little while, but we definitely haven't been sitting idle.

We fitted the new carpet, matching the original carpet color:
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For the most part, it fit extremely well. It is nice knowing that this carpet is only glued in certain areas, unlike the original carpet that some yokel decided every square inch needed adhesive.
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Then came time to install the front and rear windshield clips in preparation for the glass:
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We had a company come in and install a new windshield and reinstall the original rear glass. They didn't charge extra for coming to the house. That was money well spent since they struggled with getting everything seated correctly, and even had to come back to reseat the rear gasket. Once the glass was in, the trim went on.
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We also installed the dash pad, which is the original pad with a new cover glued over top and painted.
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And the completed dash with the Dakota Digital cluster installed, as well as the outside trim:
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We refurbished the original console, as well:
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We took leftover seat foam and material and refreshed the console lid:
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And then we bought some corrugated plastic and felt from Michael's for a total of $10 and made a new console compartment:
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Now, one issue that we did come across is with the factory shift boot. It is just a square piece of rubber that sits recessed in the console. Unfortunately, because of this, it sat below the mounting points of the shifter handle:
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No bueno.
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So, I placed a call to our Polish friends at Redline Goods with some measurements and had them make a custom shift boot. I had to fabricate a mounting bracket for the boot, but it came out great.

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wap
Chief Master Sirloin of the Wasteful Steak
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:amaze:
Dude, this is incredible.
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Huckleberry
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I fabricated a mounting bracket to hold the end of the air intake in place:
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The replacement trim clips were being little whores. We had to tack each clip and then thread each stud. If we didn't, the stud would break loose and spin.
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Before installing the trim, the wetsanding had to begin:
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Then came time to clean up and reassemble the front bumper and grill:
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We picked up some halogen lenses from Vision X:
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Next up is the side glass and the rest of the interior, starting with the headliner.
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wap
Chief Master Sirloin of the Wasteful Steak
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:muah:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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MexicanYarisTK
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holy fucking shit it looks fucking beautiful.
Nephew of a :plac: a few first gen immigrant on DFD, resident turk, and ex nazi egg lover now driving a middle class mom mobile.
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Acid666
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This is pimp
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Huckleberry
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This past month has been a tumultuous roller coaster of emotion. With the deadline of my sister's wedding fast approaching, we had to kick it into gear. As Jerry Reed once put it, "We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there."

While we were assembling the front end of the grill, we had laid the headliner out so it had some time to unbox itself.
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When it came time to concentrate on the interior, we glued some new matting to the ceiling:
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And then we followed these instructions for installing the new headliner: https://www.danchuk.com/images/Download ... dliner.pdf
If you ever need to install a bow-style headliner, follow those instructions and you will be fine. If us two knuckleheads can do it, you can, too.

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After the headliner was out of the way, it came time for the glass to get installed. Of course, this was when my dad realized the glass wasn't in as great of a shape as he remembered. So, we took to eBay to get some new/slightly used side glass. As a note of caution, the hardtop and the convertible are interchangeable with everything...EXCEPT THE DOOR GLASS. Guess how we learned that bit of trivia. With a deadline fast approaching, this isn't exactly news that you want to discover.
These pieces of glass are also a riot with their 400 different adjustments and each piece being integral to the other.

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Replacing the seals in the vent windows is a real treat, too. GM took the concept of the windows all being integral to one another and applied it to the seals, too.
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Before we could install the door glass, we had to install new rollers.
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Why make an updated part that utilizes a bolt when you can reproduce it as a rivet?
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Once the glass was installed and adjusted, we were able to get the quarter interior panels in. These panels are original and cleaned up well.
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The door panels were not as lucky to be salvageable.
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So, we removed all of the brightwork and spent time assembling the replacement door panels. Yes, I said "assembling," because that's how the factory sent them. The brightwork has teeth on the backside that puncture the panel to remain in place, so we had to make sure to get it right.
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The driver side trim on the car, and holy shit, our holes lined up.
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Basically, my GTO and El Camino lived outside for the duration of this crunch time. Once again, the huge garage somehow manages to not be big enough.
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Once the rear interior panels were in, it was time to install the seats. And they turned out so nicely:
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Once the rear seat was in, we put the driver seat in:
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And, of course, my dad had to test out the seat...and the mirror....
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Giddy as a schoolboy:
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The completed interior:
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CaleDeRoo
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Awwwww yisssss

Looks awesome
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Desertbreh
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I can unequivocally state that even if I had the skills for this project, which I don't, I don't have 10% of the patience required. Those seats are :muah:
Detroit wrote:Buy 911s instead of diamonds.
Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
max225 wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 5:35 pm Yes it's a cool car. But prepare the lube/sawdust.
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Huckleberry
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And because the car gods like to mess with my emotions, we were down to one week before the wedding and it was time to get the car ready to go to the DMV for inspection. We were excited. We got the car off the dollies and back it down to hear an awful grinding noise. We pulled the car back in, and somehow the rear shifted and allowed for the driveshaft to rub on the frame. So, up it went and I clearanced the frame some more, and then I adjusted the panhard bar to pull the rear to center. We lowered the car back down, and backed it out. The noise was gone, but now we had no brakes. Initially, I blamed the rear calipers with the integrated parking brakes. They are finicky bastards. I spent hours adjusting and readjusting, bleeding and rebleeding to no avail. Every time I went back to do some research on the things, I found another link detailing a different way that they needed to be bled and adjusted. With the deadline approaching and, due to the fact that we had spent every single day for a month working on this car to get it ready, tempers were higher than they had ever been. After giving a day to cool off from the frustrating defeat, I began troubleshooting. I disconnected the master cylinder and plugged its ports. The pedal was instantly firm. So, I replaced the adjustable proportioning valve with a standard disc/disc unit from Amazon. No dice. The only thing left was the master cylinder. The brand new, shiny Wilwood master cylinder. We replaced it with a master cylinder for a 68 Corvette from Pep Boys. Go figure that they had it in stock. And, we had brakes again.

It was the god-damned master cylinder. Fuck me.
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Did I mention the wedding was fast approaching? Oh yeah, it is now THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING. The two of us took the day off to get the car tagged at the DMV. We run through the checklist: lights? Okay. High beams? Okay. Turn signals? Okay. Wipers?...Wipers?....WIPERS?!?!?!
That sweet rebuilt wiper motor decided to take a shit on us. "Oh, just go to the parts store and get another one," you're thinking? Here's the thing about that: normally, I would. But for some reason, GM, the king of parts bin scavenging, decided that the wiper motor for 63-64 Impalas was going to be unique to those vehicles. Why? Probably because they knew it would F us right in the A 55 years later.

But did that stop us? Uh, no. We went straight to the DMV to be about that 30 day temp tag life.
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Two firsts happened here: the first time my dad filled up the car, and the first time he's had his picture taken filling up his car.
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And here we are enjoying that temp tag life:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKKiNvJIQqc


The very next day, she was ready for the wedding.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfb3SQHq68w
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Huckleberry
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[user not found] wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 8:45 pm Sweet mother of all that is holy. This build delivers.

FWIW: Any interest in getting together at some point to do a photo feature? No charge, would just love to give the car some justice.

Those seats, :doe:

:muah:
Absolutely.

I'd love to get the GTO, Impala, El Camino, and Rabbit all together for some pictures since all four of them have been pushed into the garage and then driven out.
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Huckleberry
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These pictures were taken a year apart from each other, almost to the day. Amazing how much can happen in a year's time.
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Two years ago, not a single vehicle in the garage was running:
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Apex
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Sweet baby :jesus:

This is amazing.
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wap
Chief Master Sirloin of the Wasteful Steak
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So much :muah:
:bravo:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Huckleberry
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My dad brought it by today for some punchlist items. The brakes were touchy where the pedal had absolutely no give when you pressed it. As it turned out, the parking brake cable was adjusted a little too tight. Once I loosened the cable, the brake pedal felt much more normal. We also had to change out the o2 sensors since the harness requires case-grounded sensors and we installed ones that were PCM-grounded. They both have the same plug, but are not interchangeable. Oh well, they were easy fixes and he has about 300 miles on the car now. It definitely is a good feeling seeing it going down the road. The car gets thumbs ups everywhere it goes.

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Johnny_P
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This car is off the charts. Best car on the forum by a mile.
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wap
Chief Master Sirloin of the Wasteful Steak
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Huckleberry wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 6:38 pm My dad brought it by today for some punchlist items. The brakes were touchy where the pedal had absolutely no give when you pressed it. As it turned out, the parking brake cable was adjusted a little too tight. Once I loosened the cable, the brake pedal felt much more normal. We also had to change out the o2 sensors since the harness requires case-grounded sensors and we installed ones that were PCM-grounded. They both have the same plug, but are not interchangeable. Oh well, they were easy fixes and he has about 300 miles on the car now. It definitely is a good feeling seeing it going down the road. The car gets thumbs ups everywhere it goes.

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:fuckyeah:
I love this thing. It's so awesome.
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Huckleberry
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When my dad had bought the car, he looked up the build codes and discovered that the car was built at the GM Boxwood plant in Wilmington, De. As it turned out, 1964 was the first year that the Boxwood plant began building Impalas. Being Delaware natives, that bit of information let us know that my dad bought the correct car, and made the work just a little bit more rewarding. One thing I always wanted to do was get a picture of the car in front of the plant once we completed it. Unfortunately, right as we had neared completion, the shuttered plant was torn down and new construction had begun. Nevertheless, my dad stopped up yesterday to give the car a quick wipe before driving over to the site and get some shots.

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CaleDeRoo
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The car is looking awesome
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