65 coupe project in progress! **PICS**

[truck90278]

Heres some pictures of our 65 coupe project.

On the way to media blasting

After media blasting

Getting ready for paint. This is after the fitment of the fiberglass hood (more on this later)

After a little paint

Dropped in the 347.

Strut rod for the deck lid

8 inch rear end with 3.55 tru-track and powder coated housing.

powder coated spindle

TCP power rack

Amazingly enough, after painting the fiberglass hood, it warped!

We figured the best way to fix it, is to just remake it out of steel!

Future stanger with my AutoMeter Cobalt gauge cluster

 

[wyant50]

Oh wow, thats nice.

 

[izzy jr]

That's an awesome looking car! Looks like you've put alot of time/money into it. Look forward to seeing the finished car.

 

[TenBeers]

wow......cha CHING!!!!

 

[TenBeers]

Truck, any advice on my 66 A pillar situation? see "Body shop guys" thread.

 

[truck90278]

Truck, any advice on my 66 A pillar situation? see "Body shop guys" thread.

I agree with the approach shown in Rusty428cj post. The real problem is finding a shop that can do that type of work AND be reasonable. It is possible to find a good donor, but I have found that sometimes when you get the used part it turns out to be in not so good shape inself. the photos shown in the post is the right way to do it. You will have to find a shop that does that kind of work. The average body shop DOES NOT. Look around for a shop that specializes in special interest cars. I used to do a lot of metal work but had to stop, I looked around for someone who just specialized in older cars. The body shop who did our work is a small shop (and it takes a long time to get the car out) and they are reasonable and do excellent metal work. The cost could easily run ~$1K + to do it correctly. don't know the hours for the work shown in the photos, but it could easily be 8-16 hours to fix. The photos in our post for making the shelby hood out of steel reflect probably 10+ hous and that does not include finishing - hood is still in process.

 

[TenBeers]

Thanks Truck!!! if i can get it done for a grand....I may not mind that too much....heck it's only money.

 

[jcode68]

Great build, most impressive if the dates on the photos are real, you have been working in overtime

Couple of questions & comments:
1)What color blue is that?
2)Share some details on that decklid strut, I haven't seen that before.
3)Love the Cobalt guages, have had my eye on them for a while.
4)what transmission are you planning to run?

Be sure to post more pics as you make progress.

 

[fvike]

WOW, that's a sweet build!

 

[truck90278]

Thanks Truck!!! if i can get it done for a grand....I may not mind that too much....heck it's only money.

just be careful of the shop, make sure you can see work in progress on special interest cars

 

[Grabber70Mach]

Looks really good, like the colors that you went with.

 

[truck90278]

Great build, most impressive if the dates on the photos are real, you have been working in overtime

Couple of questions & comments:
1)What color blue is that?
2)Share some details on that decklid strut, I haven't seen that before.
3)Love the Cobalt guages, have had my eye on them for a while.
4)what transmission are you planning to run?

Be sure to post more pics as you make progress.

We will be adding more pictures, the dates are real, but if you notice they do go from 2007. From the time it came out of the media blaster, it was in the body shop for almost a year by the time the color was on. They had to replace a qtr panel, taillight panel and repair rust in the drip rails.

Color: Dodge Viper 2006 Pearlescent Blue, strips Dodge Viper silver metalic

Decklid Strut: We have a FG decklid with spoiler (Maier) We didn't want to use the stock torsion bars. The struts are 100lb spring rate and are "universal". They are available in various lengths, these are 12" compressed. 'We first tried 50# but that was a little to light. We are using 2. Although 2 100# struts seem a lot, not really when you take into account the bending/leverage of the deck lid. Didn't want to weld anything just in case we needed to move them. the top mounts is simply s piece of 2/4" aluminum shaped to fit into the "U" shape of the hindge. Took some filing to get to fit snugly. To hold it in place, doesn't take much due to the snug fit and the arch, we simply drilled one hole thru the hindge into the Aluminum piece and tapped it 5/15-18 thread and used a button head bolt. For the side the strut mounts on, we did drill/tap 2 places for the strut to mount for adjutment purposes. The bottom mount is simply a piece of angel aluminum. Further adjustment can be accomplished by angleing the strut more and using a longer/stiffer strut. We ordered the struts from a local auto parts house, you do have to oder the mounting struts seperately. We can post more detailed pictures of the mounts. On VMF we have more detailed pictures

Transmission: AOD