[Austin_Jim]

Yes, my dash is glossy red and the reflection can make the bottom 6" of the windshield very hard to see through when the sun is high in the sky.

I drove an MG TD last year that had a glossy yellow dash and it was very bad also. The previous owner had dark colored rag he'd put onto of the dash to help visibility.

Awesome. Thanks for guidance. Matte it is.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Almost out of paint jail!!! It has color.

 

[Humberd]

👋 Looking good 👍

 

[Austin_Jim]

Color in the sun. Getting closer...

 

[Austin_Jim]

Haven't updated in a while. However, I'm very excited. I should have the car back at my shop to finish out wiring and plumbing within two weeks. Latest pictures:
Rear Seat upholstered to match fronts:

Cage back in:

Side glass in and front end assembled:

Dash in. Did black matte on the mai dash for contrast. Matte Blue on the upper dash to minimize glare. Don’t mind the steering wheel - it’s temporary. Gauges are Livorsi:

Rear almost done. Bumper is back on, but don’t have a pic. Inside the racetrack is matte black for contrast:

 

[Austin_Jim]

Brought it home last week:

Dynamat in trunk and II MUCH filter in:

Finally up on cribbing blocks to start the wiring:

Got most of the dash and fuse-block part of the wiring harness finished yesterday. I should have some free time this week and hope to finish off the wire harness

 

[Austin_Jim]

2.5 days of work and the American Autowire Harness is in. Was a bit easier than I thought. Wiring left to do:

- Doors - Get power, power windows, power locks and two sets of speaker wire. I already had holes for everything except speaker wire, so just need to enlarge

- Main power - Just received my roll of 1/0 welding wire today, so I can get that done. Unfortunately, my kit from American Autowire didn't have the MEGA fuses or block. I bought it so long ago, I doubt they'd send me one. I have a circuit breaker I can use, so no major loss. Routing the cable from the trunk should be fun.

- A/C binary or trinary switch. The binary switch Vintage Air sent me is female and needs to be male. Again, bought it a long time ago. Probably just have to buy one. Suggestion on binary vs trinary? The ECU already controls the fans and turns them on at 207

- Halo headlights. Gotta find a spot for the controlers

- Courtesy Lights. I'm not using the factory ones, but LED strips instead. I'm going to wait 'til I make sure everything works to tie the harness up and fabricate mounts for the LED strips

Pictures:
Had to cut a space next to the fuse block for the pedal wire, OBD and a couple other things:

Rear harness running behind the II MUCH filter:

Battery mount in and battery installed (delivered today):

Switches and the only left over wires. The one switch without a cover is for locks and the only place it would fit. The round switch on the bottom is for the wipers:

Only a couple engine bay wires left:

 

[Humberd]

Looking good Shakie 👍

 

[Austin_Jim]

First fire!!! After building oil pressure, connected fuel pump relay and spark plugs. It took about 5 seconds and it fired right up. This is my first time doing this, so the sounds were a little odd. Not sure if everything was right. I have four issues:

1. Power steering (reservoir, pump, steering box and hydroboost)
a. Apparently, I didn't put sealant on the adapter going in the steering box, so I have a leak there
b. The reservoir drained pretty darn quick. My son filled it as fast as he could, but the reservoir ran dry
c. Once I shut it off, the fluid came rushing back into the reservoir and over-flowed
d. I bled it again by jacking the front up, turning the wheels from left to right 5 times and pressing the brake pedal three times. Still, the second time I fired it, same thing
2. I have a transmission leak somewhere.
a. Not from the tailshaft (I have a plug there), but somewhere at the front of the pan
b. Could be the dipstick as a I had a mother of a time filling the transmission and had fluid leak all over the place, but I think I cleaned it all up
3. No Tach signal
a. I'm using the tach signal from the LS bulkhead along with a pull-up resistor (5000 ohm, 1/4 watt) to the +12v from the same bulkhead and the tach is set to 4cyl
4. MIL (Check Engine Light) stays on. No idea why. And don't have a tuner to check. Hopefully it's not bad

Videos:
IMG_4971 by Jim Johnson, on Flickr

IMG_1134 by Jim Johnson, on Flickr

 

[67_LS1]

First fire you’ll have a bunch of codes. It’s the ones that come back after clearing that you need to chase and eliminate. Decent code readers are pretty inexpensive and should be part of your tool box going forward with an ECM on board.

 

[Austin_Jim]

First fire you’ll have a bunch of codes. It’s the ones that come back after clearing that you need to chase and eliminate. Decent code readers are pretty inexpensive and should be part of your tool box going forward with an ECM on board.

Thank you. I just went and picked one up. I think I may have the steering leak figured out. I think I had the wrong fittings for the steering gear. I was using the metric (M18 & M15) adapters in the steering gear instead of the SAE (11/16 & 5/8). I am HOPING that this was causing both the leak as well as the foaming and fluid level issue.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Have a couple questions on hoses to make sure I am correct.

First, this hose

I connected this from a black tube coming from the drivers side of the intake (which previously had a red cap on it) to the air intake between the throttle body and the MAF.

Second this one from the steam vent on the driver's side at the front of the intake valley:

To the radiator just below the upper radiator hose:

Do I have them correct?

Thanks,
Jim

 

[senna]

Hey Jim, the car is looking great.
The steam vent is routed correctly to the radiator, however, I would try to eliminate the high spot in the hose just before it goes into the radiator. Essentially you want a constant uphill path with no areas for an air pocket to occur.

On your fresh air vent, that is not correct. You want a 3/8" hose coming off the fresh air tube and this hose would go to one of the valve covers. Then, off the the throttle body on the passenger side is a 3/8" bung this should be connected to nipple coming out of the front of the valley plate under the throttle body.

I realize you might of got this sorted by now, but I hope this helps.

 

[Austin_Jim]

Hey Jim, the car is looking great.
The steam vent is routed correctly to the radiator, however, I would try to eliminate the high spot in the hose just before it goes into the radiator. Essentially you want a constant uphill path with no areas for an air pocket to occur.

On your fresh air vent, that is not correct. You want a 3/8" hose coming off the fresh air tube and this hose would go to one of the valve covers. Then, off the the throttle body on the passenger side is a 3/8" bung this should be connected to nipple coming out of the front of the valley plate under the throttle body.

I realize you might of got this sorted by now, but I hope this helps.

Thanks Senna. I will remove the high spot when I tie it down.

I did figure out the PCV. Someone on LS1Tech told me it was wrong. I found the connection on the driver's valve cover hidden behind a wiring harness:

The "dirty" side (I believe_ for PCV was already connected by the builder:

 

[senna]

That's correct. You might want to consider a oil catch can on the dirty side.it helps to keep oil out of the intake. You can do it later if you feel you want one.

 

[Austin_Jim]

That's correct. You might want to consider a oil catch can on the dirty side.it helps to keep oil out of the intake. You can do it later if you feel you want one.

Thanks. Someone else suggested that. I'm gonna get it road worthy and drivable first. However, that will be on the list of upgrades

 

[Austin_Jim]

Called The Drive Shaft Shop. Still won't be until mid next week to get a quote. Said I'm 4th inline. I am struggling with how it takes that long to get a freakin quote. However, I guess they are very good, so I'll try to be patient. It's the last hurdle before I drive.

While waiting on that, I started on the interior. Door panels first. Lots of router work, measuring and cutting:

Wrapped the first part of the door pane - the outer ring. Put a rabbet on the inside of the ring so it will fit flush with the vinyl and inner section material:

Don't mind the other circles drawn on. I was playing with a couple thoughts.

Now for the next choice. The inside will be upholstered in the same material as the seats. The bottom piece and moves up will be wrapped in grey or blue carbon fiber looking material. I initially thought the grey might be better (classier), but looking at the new blue carbon fiber I got, I think it's the way to go.

Blue vs grey next to door panel ring and exposed paint on the door. The blue matches pretty darn well:

Blue vs grey on the panel showing black vinyl on ring and seat material on the inside (I still need to sand the out edge):

Thoughts?

 

[Austin_Jim]

So I've had kind of a crap week. I absolutely LOVE my job, but this week was tough. On top of that, I got a decent stye on my eyelid (2nd one in my 47 years on this rock). Haven't had a lot of motivation to work on the Chevelle, but got back to it this afternoon and remembered why I love doing this. I think I figured out the door pulls, built them and covered them along with part of the package tray. This is only the second time in probably 20 years that I've worked with vinyl, so it's not the best, but I'm pretty happy.

Finished door panels and close-ups of the door pulls:

Package tray. Bottom piece will be black vinyl. The holes in the middle are for attaching the panel to the package tray to try to avoid rattles.