FASTBACK340

If you do a search from last winter for the My Metal Mistress thread I showed how I routed, bent, and secure brake & fuel lines using guitar string and fine wire to secure it all. It's just up to you to find the actual routing, easily found through a Google search or some brand-specific forums. My build was a Mopar, but the methods are the same regardless of manufacture.

My sister has been living in that backward, forsaken state for a few years now. Being the "flattest" is the most positive distinction I've heard about that state in a loooooong time!

Yeah, hobby cars can become a hobby keeping them alive. As mentioned in another post, the timing chain cover on the Barracuda has developed a serious coolant leak. I figured I could tear it down and order parts in advance hoping to get her back together by the weekend. My Sister is visiting for 5 days next weekend from Florida and I was hoping to hit a cruise night while she's here. Besides the timing chain cover, she's getting a new updated MSD 6AL ignition box, heat wrap for the fuel lines, and I'm going with an electric cooling fan set-up with sensor and related relay/harness installation. Looks like some late nights coming in the garage……

If I'm hitting bodywork, I use SEM etching primer, being careful of trim areas since it's a high-build primer. For finish priming, I too use the Tamiya fine white.

Road Runner is looking awesome. After seeing yours and the one I'm working on I might have to add a B body to my next model-building go around. Keep it up!

Road Runner is almost done. Just waiting on the front bumper to come back and install the rear window trim cli[ps so we can install the rear glass. After I'm done, we'll install the hood (with Air Grabber) and have the body shop shoot the black organisol on the hood. Speaking od Orange Mopars…. this one is being delivered on Monday morning. It's a 472 big block drag car. Too many goodies to list. And to give the Ford guys some love, he's a Shelby tribute car done up as a resto-mod. This one should be going home next weekend. After going in for a few hours this morning, I get to come home and rip apart the Barracuda. She's getting a new timing chain cover since mine has decided to become porous and leak coolant, a new MSD 6AL ignition box, and an auxiliary cooling fan and related sensor and harness. It never ends around here!

The customer is a pleasure to deal with. He's bringing it back in the winter for the dash gauges and steering wheel. He's also bringing us a '68 Coronet R/T to resto- mod this winter too,

It's on the list. He wants it together ASAP. The wheel (and a few other things) will go on later.

Love the Cheetah. Here's an unsolicited opinion which covers both a color & decal choice.

Update: The `70 440-6Bbl. `Bird is coming along nicely. We hung the doors just after I snapped this shot. The fenders go on in the morning, should be driving it by Wed. Think model building is detail oriented? This car is a numbers-matching, crayon-mark, date coded build. I'm having an absolute blast building this stuff. No buckets; it's a bench seat. With the Pistol grip. Sexy…..

I'm building an Orange one right now. It's a *little* bigger than yours. All kidding aside, nice color combination. The Yellow with White interior is really going to stand out. Nice job!

Wow…. I just had an urge to check in and poke around. Glad I did as I see you have an update on this great build. Nice to see you adding details.

Great color & finish Fred! It's coming along nicely. One of these days I'll finish mine….

Here's some of what we're building at the moment: 1970 440-6Bbl. Road Runner. Completely re-painted inside & out, chalk-mark/crayon resto. I just started dressing and assembling the engine this afternoon. Besides the `50 Olds, we have a `49 Chevy almost done, just waiting on the upholstery shop. This started out as a bone-stock grandma special. Straight 6, 3 speed on the column, drum brakes, etc… Now it has a GM performance crate engine w/ 700R automatic, disc brakes, and a 4 link rear w/ Mustang II suspension up front. This guy had his car-port collapse and damage the roof & quarter panels of this nice `67 Chevelle 327/4 spd. Freshly painted and going back together. 347 small block Ford pushes this around. One of the owners MANY projects going together. This Pro Street Falcon is killer in person. How about a primered, scalloped, supercharged small block Chevy pick up? We'll finish up with a 1984 Caddy Coupe DeVille getting a 454 Chevy crate engine & overdrive/auto trans. Four wheel discs, lowered suspension, and a host of other goodies planned.

Look at the `50 Olds we're starting final assembly on in my other thread. Yes, it is a really cool job, but yesterday was my first experience of delivering a completed restoration to the customer. I spent, no exaggeration…. all day with them. Touch up scratched bolt heads, align trim better, triple-checking all drivability & safety items, etc…. They spent big money, I had to attend to their every request. I left work Friday at almost 6:30 PM. The customers left happy. This week I'm assembling a `70 440-6Bbl. GTX. I'll snap pictures….

This is a '69. I love this cars look. The paint color & finish is like a piece of candy. You almost want to lick it.... ;-)

I did warn the owners. I recommended they find a nice one, or pull this one next winter and have ChromeTech do it over.

This is almost assembled, just waiting on the new top to be installed and new interior. ALL exterior trim, including wheel opening moldings and rocker trim which are hard to see have been bead-blasted to raw metal and epoxy painted Hot Rod primer. Paint is a blood-orange shade with a blacked-out hood. Late model Mustang Bullit wheels and black-faced Wilwood 4 wheel disc brakes on a lowered suspension complete the package. This car is stunning in-person, pure eye-candy. Customer is talking about a Coyote engine swap next winter with a Tremec 6 spd.

Yeah, this is some serious hardware. This just returned from the interior shop Thursday. Obviously it was started long before I joined the staff, but wow…. what a car. It was out for over 3 months getting stitched together. This is no run-of-the-mill (no pun intended) engine. The TIG welded custom headers were done in-house. We just opened a header/exhaust fabrication shop. The gentleman whom did all the R & D work for Kooks Headers is our fabricator. Aside from the Olds' engine compartment, in the background is another neat car we built & service now. It's a `64 Impala SS with a LS3 fuel injected small block and 4 spd. overdrive automatic with air ride. I still can't believe the stuff we build. I'm having a blast.

Here's the lower dash trim for a `67 GTX. It wraps around the steering column where it meets the dash panel and connects with the surrounding trim. The original item was roached-out, but the solid replacement piece was severely faded and dull. This is my first attempt at it and the pictures don't do it justice. The customer was truly impressed. I just finished redoing my dash in the Barracuda. I'm sooooo tempted to pull it apart and do the trim over. I used a light argent textured paint, but the Alclad…. wow. It would make a difference.

Un-disclosed displacement, but it's a Sonny Bryant fuel injected big-block running a Lenco. Roll cage is molded into the interior body structure. The interior along would cost you a new Honda…. big-dollar build. When it runs it sounds like a pro-stock when using the exhaust cut-out's. This will be our flag-ship build for this season.

I ran into a situation at work where we needed a piece of dash trim plated immediately. I brought it home and gave it a shot: SEM etching primer base, a coat of black base, and 2 coats of Alclad chrome. Wow…. the customer was floored with the results, as I was. Rattle cans up to the Alclad and it came out beautiful. Hope everyone has been well. Unfortunately with the cruise season here, my modeling time is gone. Work has been a steady diet of 11 hour days and long commutes home. But the Alclad was a nice surprise in my work environment. And if you hit the 1:1 reference page, I'll post some pictures of the Sonny Bryant built fuel injected big block `50 Olds pro street with the Lenco we're building….. Work is soooo cool.

I usually file-fit as tight as I can , then use Tenax7 to melt it all together.

I have a long-standing Ghia drag car planned. Yeah , I need an engine or three myself.

Studies have proven that pet ownership is therapeutic and calming. I find my dog the least stressful or obnoxious thing in my life. And I work in a noisy automotive environment all day long. But to each their own. Back on-topic: Mine barks at the TV when ever a commercial has a doorbell ring. Then he looks at us, as if he's embarrassed….