Xelerator's 73 Pro Tour Project update

[Xelerator]

Well, since we made it home from the FL trip and all is well, I ended up working on the 73 this Saturday (10/13/07). My goal for Saturday was to make sure the brakes are finished, all fasteners are tightened, all necessary lighting was finished and working. Basically wanted to make sure the car was...............ROAD READY!!

Well, after a couple of hours of looking over the car, I started it up, went up and down the drive way to make sure the brakes did work and then proceeded onto the road!! What a dream come true, the 73 sounded great under load, shifted smoothly and even had minimal amounts of rattles and groans. I made a couple of passes down the road while breaking in the brakes only to notice the clutch seemed to slip. I took it easy a couple of more times. The last run I decided to get on it a bit and WOW, I broke loose so easily in first, then hammered second and again the rear came out from under me when I decided I better take it easy and brought her home. WOW, this car is going to be fun. I still have a lot of trim work and interior work but its getting closer every weekend!

The picture attached was taken after my drive near my parent's woods.

IMG_1287.JPG

very nice car, looks great, and i love that color...... thats going to be fun to drive for sure......

[WMCC Doug]

Hey Derek,

Sounds like you had "one of those days" working on the car. At least you're at the stage where you're are bleeding the brakes. That means you're getting close.

We didn't have a lot of time on Saturday to work on the Project since we quit at 1pm to head for the GVSU show. But, we did get the battery mounted and the negative battery cable modified and installed. Gary installed all the short rubber hose pieces that tie the fuel lines together, both under the car and by the gas tank. Dave did the final install on the ATS clutch master cylinder bracket and tightened down the power booster. He also mounted the clutch fluid reservoir.

I trimmed off the rear brake hard lines, double flared them and hooked them up to the flex lines to the rear discs. We also did some modifying to the front leaf spring mounts so the springs would fit in better.

We drilled a hole in the trunk floor, up under the package shelf area to run the positive battery cable to the front of the car. (I picked up about 19 feet of 0 gage welding cable on Friday.) We installed a grommit and were able to utilize the same screws that hold in the fuel lines to hold the clups for the battery cable on the first two clips in the back. We'll need to get some spacers for the rest as we head towards the front of the car.

I still need to set the emergency brake lever position on the rear calipers and install a couple of emergence brake cable mounting brackets, and then the rear end will be ready to put back under the car. The we can get it back on 4 wheels!

So, one step at a time,and eventually, we'll be bleeding our brakes, too!

[Xelerator]

Hey Ray and John!
Good to hear from you! Thanks for the comments. I hope to take it's first spin around the block this weekend, the weekend can't come fast enough.

Does anybody have a good idea for a shifter boot? The problem I have is I want to use the 69 Camaro 4-speed shifter ring (might be able to see it in the pics) but the first gens had a flat spot on tranny tunnel and the shifter ring is designed to fit on the flat. This ring has small flanges on the inside and outside perimeter of the ring which make if very stiff so it can't be formed over the arch of the 2nd gen tranny tunnel. The 69 shifter ring is such a nice small good looking piece that I have to use it. I wanted to use that ring in combination with a 4rth gen shifter boot but I am having no luck get them to work together. Anybody have any other ideas?

Well the weekend final came, At 10am I was able to bench bleed the new MC today and install it after tightening all the fittings and connections of the brake lines. I have been putting off this project since I made a lot of the brake lines myself and had been nervous that they would leak, well, of course I could not be that lucky. I had the first leak at a very hard to get connection, at least it dripped on some towels in anticipation of a leak. I determined that I could not get this connection tight enough to stop the leak so I removed the whole line, well this is hard to do without making a mess so another leak! Let me tell you the whole damn day was like this. by 8pm I had it buttoned up and the brakes free of air and back on it's feet. Anyways I am going to have to wait till two weeks from now to take it's first spin on the road (if it's not snowing by then,haha) I will keep you up dated, may even have a video???

[Xelerator]

Hey Ray and John!
Good to hear from you! Thanks for the comments. I hope to take it's first spin around the block this weekend, the weekend can't come fast enough.

Does anybody have a good idea for a shifter boot? The problem I have is I want to use the 69 Camaro 4-speed shifter ring (might be able to see it in the pics) but the first gens had a flat spot on tranny tunnel and the shifter ring is designed to fit on the flat. This ring has small flanges on the inside and outside perimeter of the ring which make if very stiff so it can't be formed over the arch of the 2nd gen tranny tunnel. The 69 shifter ring is such a nice small good looking piece that I have to use it. I wanted to use that ring in combination with a 4rth gen shifter boot but I am having no luck get them to work together. Anybody have any other ideas?

[zmanrc]

All I can say is

[WMCC Doug]

John,

They would look good next to each other at Autorama. I think Derek's will be done by then, I'm not so sure about mine ..... but I hope so.

[WMCC John F.]

Hey Derek
Now we see why we haven't seen you guys all summer. That car looks fantastic. I love 2nd gens and some of the "off the cuff" colors that they were painted back in the seventies. Glad to see you kept it the same.
Doug, that car would look sharp next to yours in our Autorama display.
Hopefully see you and Vic soon.
John F.

[JAdair]

Yea i like that color on there and you went with something stock

[Xelerator]

so how wide are those rear tires.

ohh and by the way. that car is the hotness

I chose 315 (17x11) rears. Thanks for the comment!

[Formula Z]

very nice ride. id love to do something like this. mine would be a chevyII with a modern engine and trans. great work, would love to see it in person. the color is great too.

[Xelerator]

GETGONE: I knew not everyone would like the color, at least it's not "red, Black,Yellow or Silver" it's something different. I think you either love it or hate it! It is the exact color the car came with (code 46 gold-green). I know I am going to take flak for it but it will be fun hearing all the comments.

Doug, No problem, give me an e-mail or PM, I would be more than happy to help!

Thanks all for the great comments, I can't wait to have you guys see it in person!

[EMCC Randy]

Very sharp looking car! Like the low rear spoiler.

Gorgeous!

[WMCC Doug]

Derek,

Yup, we're going T-56 in an original 4 speed car. I figured the shifter hole would need to be modified.

I've got a bunch of other question for you too, but I'll PM or e-mail you those in a couple of days.