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The "What Did You Work On Today" thread

3M views 36K replies 388 participants last post by  cerial 
#1 ·
4 hour work day for me at the shop. Used the time to do a valve body swap on a '01 Jetta 1.8t auto .... I successfully installed a transbrake on the car .... that however wasn't my intention.

Its in 2 gears at once in park, all other gears (R/N/D/2/1) are forward gears.... they all seam to be first gear.

I have it torn back down most of the way. Tuesday I'll actually get the VB back out and see whats up.... but part of me wants to take it out for a test drive the way it is just for the fun of it.
 
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#7,702 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.


I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
 
#7,704 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.


I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
Ed your dash and console looks just outstanding! Beautiful work. Congratulations!!!

BB :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
 
#7,706 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.


I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
That's freekin awesome!

I will remember to shape metal for my dash rather than use fiberglass. Thanks for the tip. :thumbup:
 
#7,707 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.


I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
amazing work there!
 
#7,708 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.


I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
I am sorry you had to go through that Ed. The results are superb. Thanks for posting.

John
 
#7,709 ·
Look inside that door guys, look INSIDE the door at the back side of the door skin. Guys THAT is a well detailed car. It's not pretending, it isn't simply a bunch of money thrown at it. It's a SHOW CAR as I believe one should be. You can look at this car deeper and deeper and not see a flaw, you can look at it where you're not suppose to look...and not find a flaw. This is the kind of car I love to see, they will stop me in my tracks at shows.

Brian
 
#7,710 ·
Look inside that door guys, look INSIDE the door at the back side of the door skin. Guys THAT is a well detailed car. It's not pretending, it isn't simply a bunch of money thrown at it. It's a SHOW CAR as I believe one should be. You can look at this car deeper and deeper and not see a flaw, you can look at it where you're not suppose to look...and not find a flaw. This is the kind of car I love to see, they will stop me in my tracks at shows.

Brian
LOL, Now you have quit preachin and gone to medlin.......:mwink:
 
#7,711 ·
Weird happenings yesterday! I got my new engine ready to drop into the Austin, and after lowering it into the chassis the motor mounts didn't quite line up! Got the cross bolt through on one side and then the other side was about 1/8" off from lining up? It was like the three raised bosses on the block were slightly wider than the old 327 were. I'm re-using the same Moroso motor mounts, and they don't have the oval shaped holes that a factory replacement mount has, so no wiggle room. I ended up pulling the motor mounts off the engine and drilling out the holes larger to make them allow more play, and it went together.
In all my years of working on Chevys I've never had a SBC or BBC that didn't line up, but haven't used these mounts previous to when I built the car 3 years ago.
Anyway, the engine is in place, and just need to start bolting everything on it again. I test fitted the new cross ram, and found my fabricated valve covers are too wide, so can't use them with the intake. I'll need to pick up a pair of covers that aren't so wide to clear. Maybe go with some old retro finned valve covers this time.
 
#7,712 ·
Weird happenings yesterday! I got my new engine ready to drop into the Austin, and after lowering it into the chassis the motor mounts didn't quite line up! Got the cross bolt through on one side and then the other side was about 1/8" off from lining up? It was like the three raised bosses on the block were slightly wider than the old 327 were. I'm re-using the same Moroso motor mounts, and they don't have the oval shaped holes that a factory replacement mount has, so no wiggle room. I ended up pulling the motor mounts off the engine and drilling out the holes larger to make them allow more play, and it went together.
In all my years of working on Chevys I've never had a SBC or BBC that didn't line up, but haven't used these mounts previous to when I built the car 3 years ago.
Anyway, the engine is in place, and just need to start bolting everything on it again. I test fitted the new cross ram, and found my fabricated valve covers are too wide, so can't use them with the intake. I'll need to pick up a pair of covers that aren't so wide to clear. Maybe go with some old retro finned valve covers this time.

Did you try the Fel Pro rubber gasket with the metal strip sandwiched ,they are less than half the thickness of the cork gasket, they work great with aluminum valve covers ,but Not on stamped steel they tend to leak because you cannot tighten steel tight enough without curling up the ends of the valve cover causing the leak

don't know how much room you need,
 
#7,713 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.

I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
Gotta agree, that is an awesome interior. Sorry you had to redo it but look at what you learned. You're work is a touchstone for others to attempt to achieve. Somewhere down the road when you are driving and enjoying the car, you'll look at that dash and laugh about the ordeal...;)
 
#7,714 ·
Did you try the Fel Pro rubber gasket with the metal strip sandwiched ,they are less than half the thickness of the cork gasket, they work great with aluminum valve covers ,but Not on stamped steel they tend to leak because you cannot tighten steel tight enough without curling up the ends of the valve cover causing the leak

don't know how much room you need,
I've got plenty of height. It's the width of my fabricated valve covers. They don't have an outer lip, as they come straight up, and the holes for attachment bolts are actually through the valve cover. They're about 3/4" wider than a stock SBC valve cover on each side. I just need something with a perimeter lip like stock have, and any height will work. So I'll look at the swap meet in a couple weeks.
 
#7,715 ·
Got the new short block for the Austin yesterday! First time I've had an engine assembled for a car, as I've always had them machined and then did the assembly myself. They did a beautiful job and it's all balanced, blueprinted, cam degreed in, oil passages reworked, and all new ARP bolts. Just need to put in the oil pump, heads, and externals, and it's ready to go. Pretty painless. It's a 10:1 355 with my heads on it.

Also finished the polishing on the intake after another 4 hrs. Had to block it out again, as the flat areas had a lot of irregular grinding that showed after 1st polishing. It's still not perfect, but good enough for my hotrod. The small irregularities left will be under the carb bowls, so not an issue. Didn't want a "show quality" shine, as it would look out of place on the old Austin's theme.
nice job I polish a lot of stainless steel parts and it takes hours. I'm not a big fan of real shiny lots of chrome engine stuff so it will fit your car.
 
#7,718 ·
Stuck the seats in today for one last fitting and found out you can't bolt them down on the dynaliner foam under the carpet without distorting the tracks. When the bolts are tight you cant adjust the seat:mad


Guess I'll have to machine some spacers the thickness of the foam to cure this problem.
Martin, you need to come look at this car, plenty of flaws to see. This project was a lesson in what not to do. After you get so far into it you cant quit, have to finish it. But, I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.
I have a new hobby:D

I've been picking up tired old pinball machines and juke boxes the last year or so and getting them working again.
It's a lot of fun, and my kids and grandkids love them.
I think I have the best wife ever, she puts up with my crazy hobbies and never complains.
She usually beats me at pinball though, I don't like that much.

Thank you for the kind words guys, have a great night.

Ed
 
#7,719 ·
Stuck the seats in today for one last fitting and found out you can't bolt them down on the dynaliner foam under the carpet without distorting the tracks. When the bolts are tight you cant adjust the seat:mad


Guess I'll have to machine some spacers the thickness of the foam to cure this problem.
Martin, you need to come look at this car, plenty of flaws to see. This project was a lesson in what not to do. After you get so far into it you cant quit, have to finish it. But, I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.
I have a new hobby:D
[
Ed
How about just a few stacks of fender washers ? Pick them up cheap at Lowe's. :mwink:
 
#7,720 ·
Been a while since last post, been working hard fixing my dash after dropping it on the floor shortly after finishing it. The damage was much worse than I thought once I gave it a close inspection, had to repair a dozen small cracks. Got it painted and installed this weekend. just need to finish the carpet and build door panels and interior is close to finished.

I will never do fiberglass work again.

Have a great day guys.

Ed
That car makes me drewl…….. darn that is nice.
 
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