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Hawk-Rod: The Restoration

thats real nice and purty....
good job Mark..
i'm jealous now!
i still have lead/finish work to do before priming my junk,i'm gettin close
i wish i was that far along.

yeah, me too......... took mine off the rotisserie for Hawk's ......... you know the deal, the shoe makers kids go shoeless
 
Damn, see what happens when you take a night off to watch some football... By the way, the hapless Jets almost beat up the Patriots - it was actually a good game.

...OK, now back to our regularly scheduled thread...

:kermit: :sunny: :thumbsup: :pink banana: :eek:ccasion14: :wav: :eek:s_dancing2: :VB toast:
:yourock: :sSig_thankyou:

FANTASTIC! (now I won't be able to concentrate at work today...)

The 'ol girl is looking FINE in her new coat of paint - finally back to her original color after many years of wearing yellow! Given my time and inexperience with bodywork, I could never have achieved anywhere near this kind of result. Proof that I took it to the right place! Thanks Mark and Tom.

I've got plenty to bolt on the car now, including a dash (and a dash pad, LOL), front and rear suspension. Of course there is still a lot to figure out with fuel injection and air conditioning plumbing, plus putting the entire car together - lots to do! I now have 5 1/2 months before my scheduled target. CAN I GET IT DONE IN TIME??? Next year's trip is coming up quick!

I am excited to start wrenching on the car - let's hope for a warm winter so I don't freeze my butt off in the garage!
 
Damn, see what happens when you take a night off to watch some football... By the way, the hapless Jets almost beat up the Patriots - it was actually a good game.

...OK, now back to our regularly scheduled thread...

:kermit: :sunny: :thumbsup: :pink banana: :eek:ccasion14: :wav: :eek:s_dancing2: :VB toast:
:yourock: :sSig_thankyou:

FANTASTIC! (now I won't be able to concentrate at work today...)

The 'ol girl is looking FINE in her new coat of paint - finally back to her original color after many years of wearing yellow! Given my time and inexperience with bodywork, I could never have achieved anywhere near this kind of result. Proof that I took it to the right place! Thanks Mark and Tom.

I've got plenty to bolt on the car now, including a dash (and a dash pad, LOL), front and rear suspension. Of course there is still a lot to figure out with fuel injection and air conditioning plumbing, plus putting the entire car together - lots to do! I now have 5 1/2 months before my scheduled target. CAN I GET IT DONE IN TIME??? Next year's trip is coming up quick!

I am excited to start wrenching on the car - let's hope for a warm winter so I don't freeze my butt off in the garage!

Sweet! That's awesome Hawk... I'm sure with all the prep work you've done that 5.5 months is toatally doable. **** if I had a brand spankin new clean painted body and a bunch of clean restored parts to assemble, my wife would have to drag me away from the car just to eat and sleep until it was finished.

Lay out a plan with the order of assembly, so you don't have to go back and dissassemble anything and just start working down the list, you'll be done in no time.
 
**** if I had a brand spankin new clean painted body and a bunch of clean restored parts to assemble, my wife would have to drag me away from the car just to eat and sleep until it was finished...

LOL, this IS the case already, as I have been working on car stuff and not home projects, cutting grass, etc. Most hours I do have free are dedicated to the car.

As Tom from Apex likes to say, a car has around 28,000 parts. I have a fair amount of major components ready to go back on the car, but the devil is in the details. There are TONS of smaller parts that I need to fix, clean up, paint, whatever. It will get to be tough to paint these as it gets cold. What I worry the most about is some of the "re-engineering" that I have to do. There are lots of wiring and electrical changes that are related to the fuel injection and alternator power upgrades, as well as new fuel line routing and firewall elements that need to be mounted and connected in a clean "professional" way. I am no expert, just an average guy willing to pick up a wrench, so I hope I don't make to many major mistakes!

Either way, I am chomping at the bit to start!!!

...Having said all that, I guess I need to let Apex finish the black hood paint and buffing before I show up with a wrench! :icon_biggrin:
 
There are TONS of smaller parts that I need to fix, clean up, paint, whatever.

What the hell have you been doing all this time while Apex has been working their asses off on this? ;) Get to it!
 
What the hell have you been doing all this time while Apex has been working their asses off on this? ;) Get to it!

What have I been doing??? You know, drinking beer, watching football, Velocity TV, etc. What, do you mean that cars don't look like show cars by magic? I watch Overhaulin all the time and I thought all parts look nice as soon as you bolt them back on!!! :grin:


Speaking of both Apex working their asses off and parts looking nice, check this out! Limelight mirror!!!
IMG_3160.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

I bought a truck load of stuff from Year One doing my 73, If they give you a problem returning it bud it would surprise the heck out of me.. Good luck with it...

Just one more quick update on the Year-One dash pad, and then I promise no more on the dash pad! I called Year-One today and got NO hassles returning it. I ordered it March of 2012, so it has been awhile, but it was no problem. It is nice when a vendor stands by their customer service... :hello2:
 
Looking good, got that paint as flat as can be.
 
Your right "the devil is in the details". They seem to fly back together until it get's to the little things like getting the windows cranking up and down correctly while sealing too and the wiring always seems to take forever. The good thing is with every part installed you get more and more excited and motivated so I'm sure you'll knock it out in know time. As far as the fuel line routing goes I found my subframe connectors to be a perfect place for it, down the inside of the rear subframe, then the connectors, threw the crossmember and right up the front frame as original. I used those nice rubber lined stainless clamps and stainless self drilling/tapping screws. Enjoy because things are about to get really fun and the timing is perfect with winter on it's way (you got all winter).
 
OK, OK, I am flooding the thread with pictures, but I can't help it... :shruggy:

I went down today to check out the car in person and bring the rear down too. The car looks fantastic! And the important thing is that the beauty is not just skin deep: every effort has been made to remove any and all rust, and paint/protect the inside and hidden areas as well. This thing is about as well prepared and protected from future rust as is reasonably possible.
Mark is doing a great job on this car - I am going to have to step up my game to keep up with his quality and attention to detail... :headbang:

IMG_3173.jpg

IMG_3182.jpg

Forget my ugly mug in this picture - check out the reflection instead :icon_fU:
IMG_3184.jpg
 
wow what a color. It's looking fantastic. Keep the pics coming.
 
The RR looks awesome! That is one slick paint job. :wtg: This is a build thread it's should have a lot of pictures in it. LOL
 
Hawk that 'ol bird looks FANTASTIC!! Can't wait to see it start to go back together.

-Mark
 
It was cool to check out little details that Mark did. For example, he mimicked the factory spot welds throughout the body, so you really can never tell that quarter panels were put on the car - it looks totally factory. The bottom of the car is "over restored", but that was because I wanted to protect the bottom from rust as well, and it was just as much work to paint it a primer grey color as it would have been to paint it Limelight. Here are a couple of shots of the bottom, somewhat hidden with plastic to protect them from overspray...

In this shot, the new fuel lines are wrapped up - they had to be installed prior to the sub-frame connectors going in. Otherwise they would need to be cut and reconnected and I didn't want an extra connection that could leak...
IMG_3175.jpg

Next two shots are all the factory original floor - that did not need to be replaced...
IMG_3177.jpg

IMG_3176.jpg
 
Bit late, but thanks for the info. Just so you know if you are ever in Australia, I don't think you'll get an invite for Dinner. Your in my Wife's bad books, I had to order the proper dash pad, couldn't stand looking at that crappy one I had....

PS paint is looking fantastic!
 
Just so you know if you are ever in Australia, I don't think you'll get an invite for Dinner. Your in my Wife's bad books, I had to order the proper dash pad, couldn't stand looking at that crappy one I had....

Crap. It is easy enough to be in the dog house with my wife. Tell her she has to take a number... :eusa_naughty:

(smile)
 
Nice work on the body and paint Hawk. :headbang:
Now the fun begins. If it helps any - when I assembled my GTX from the same start as yours is now, I took 2 weeks off work to do it solo.....I could have done with an extra week :laughing5:

Keep the pics flowing.....and here's a reminder of what can be done at home in two weeks (with a little help on days 13 & 14);

NZV8reduced_zps0354d2fc.jpg


:icon_thumleft:
 
Nice work on the body and paint Hawk. :headbang:
Now the fun begins. If it helps any - when I assembled my GTX from the same start as yours is now, I took 2 weeks off work to do it solo.....I could have done with an extra week :laughing5:

Keep the pics flowing.....and here's a reminder of what can be done at home in two weeks (with a little help on days 13 & 14);

You have an absolutely beautiful car Kiwi - you should be justifiably proud! :sSig_goodjob:

As far as the bodywork and paint, I wish I could say that I did it, but all I have done is write the check. At least I was smart enough to realize that I never could have achieved those kind of results on my own!

Finally, you mostly assembled your car in two weeks. WOW!!! I am not worthy!!! :icon_pray: You obviously were well prepared and had done A LOT of planning before you started!
I do hope and believe that I can do certain tasks relatively quickly, like install the rear suspension and front K-Member/engine. I even think my dash can go in quickly, as well as much of the interior. There are a few things that I worry about eating up a lot of time: :eusa_boohoo:
1) The small parts that I have not yet restored and are not ready to go back on the car. There are always lots of small nuts and bolts, goofy parts, etc. that take time to clean up and paint. With the weather here in PA getting cold, I will be limited with being able to paint stuff.
2) I need to engineer the several upgrades that I am adding to the car. The big ones are the Air Conditioning (running the A/C lines in a nice manner), upgrading my electrical system for higher amps (and not connecting through the firewall), and the fuel injection, which will require plumbing and mounting lines and regulators, plus all the electrical wiring for the computer controlled distributor.
3) The glass. Maybe this isn't so bad, but I worry about this. There are fewer and fewer guys who really know how to do this, and I am not sure I feel confident installing these leak free in my car.
4) The other crap I have forgotten about.

Either way, I appreciate all the help and support from the forum here to get this done! My focus continues to be on my epic trip across the USA next year. I need the car to be done for that, and damn it, I will be sure to get it done to meet that dream...
 
I hope your epic trip goes threw Ohio (70 or 77), if so you might be met by a Charger along the way "I've got to see that car" haha.
 
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