Finally got one! 78 caballero

[the ghoul]

Knocking things out little by little;
Started working on the seatbelts this time.
I took a spry bottle full of simple green, and a stiff bristled scrub brush and washed down the belts.
As you can see there was a big differences in the colors of the belts (sunfaided vs non) and both have way too much blue in them for the new color scheme!

At least gm made it easy for me; the seat belt retractors are not strong enough to over power the buckle. So holding the retractor assembly vertical (same orentation it would be mounted in the car) carefully pull ou all the belt then slide the guide and buckle all the way down to the retractor and this will be sufficient to hold all the belts out...

Right now they are drying in the basement. I made an effort to keep the retractors as dry as possible...

I'll let them dry there till the weekend then I'll paint them.

[the ghoul]

Dontcha love it when you get sick and tired of waiting for something to be delivered, complain about it at work, and you come home to find it waiting for you?!
Well my cheap forgen knock off eBay door handles and ecklers dash cap were waiting for me when I took my lunch break.

Rough fit of the eckler's dash cap seems promicing, dosent look like it will take much fitting at all..

I only have two complaints about it. First the undercut area (under the hvac and radio panel) is cut out to accomidate the ashtray would have rather had it a solid panel.
Second the cap isn't black as advertised, it's a very dark grey...
Which trows a wrench in plans because as mentioned before I've been painting all the interrior parts gloss black
(picture below shows one of the kick panels I painted last night in the fore ground sitting in top of the cap

you can see clearly they are not a match) I sprayed a test piece flat black and that wasn't a match either.
I perhaps could find a top quality interrior paint that will match (as there are air vents, glove box and cluster that need to match perfectly or it will look goofie) but those run upwards of $25 a can..
As I already have most of them painted I think the best bet will be to fit and glue the cap, shoot it with Adheasion promoter and shoot it with the same gloss black most the parts are painted with...

[the ghoul]

Got the dash cap fitted, used an air hose to blow all the dust out of the nooks and crannies then wiped it all down with acitone ( including the back side of the dash cap).
I then sprayed the areas that the cap didn't cover with black fabric and vinyl paint.
After that dried I started applying the silicone supplied with the cap. Just about every one who's done this says use it sparingly as it will seep out the edges... I say F that! If it seeps you can always wait for it to dry and trim it off.
So to be on the safe side I picked up a tube of good quality household silicone (I know it's not the same, but the tube said it says flexible forever so that's good enough for me).

I then applied the silicone around all the features on the back side of the cap and around all the edges of it.
You'll notice below that insted of putting it on the defogger cutouts themselves I put it around the dash top section.
I figured the cap was going to do what ever it wanted to do and I'd drive my self nuts trying to bend those back to meet the walls of the dashboard (witch admittedly was rather rough after my attempting to smooth it out)...

I then spread silicone generously on the dashboard where I knew the cap would make contact.
I stayed away from crossing long flat areas (dash top, passingers dash face ect) this was to prevent it from adhering contracting and forming a very noticibly wrinkle in the cap.
I instead focused on any trim features and along corners/high details.

I placed the cap loosely on the dash sliding the radio/hvac surround into place first.
Using what ever c clamp/ spring clamp/ vice grips I could find along with 30 small spring clips I found at home depot for $.39 each I started working the cap into position and tacking it down.
For long noticible features I used wood stur sticks to keep the pressure spread out so there wouldn't be any noticible warps.
I worked from the hvac surround first to the passingers vent, glove box, cluster then dropped the defroster vents into place and the snugged down all around the edges (the logical order to me)


Result looks pritty good to me.
Seeing how this is sitting in my garage and it's damn cold out I'm going to give it till Sunday to set up before I remove any of the clamps (if that!)

[the ghoul]

5 hours of windshield time and we have a successful parts run!
Thankyou again MACV! And be sure to thank your wife as well, my wife said she had a lovely visit!
We both greatly appreciate the parts and hospitality!
Parts aquired
-drivers door with functioning rally remote mirror
-passingers hinge clip
-drivers and passingers striker clips
-tilt steering column
-stock steering wheel with GMC medallion
-rear window sill/upper bed patch
-sail panel covers
And
-chunk of old grill shell to test a theory
(still amazed at the trunk space in out 2012 charger

[MACV]

Originally Posted by the ghoul

5 hours of windshield time and we have a successful parts run!
Thankyou again MACV! And be sure to thank your wife as well, my wife said she had a lovely visit!
We both greatly appreciate the parts and hospitality!
Parts aquired
-drivers door with functioning rally remote mirror
-passingers hinge clip
-drivers and passingers striker clips
-tilt steering column
-stock steering wheel with GMC medallion
-rear window sill/upper bed patch
-sail panel covers
And
-chunk of old grill shell to test a theory
(still amazed at the trunk space in out 2012 charger
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...CD195AA4CB.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...CD20B0E222.jpg

Kevin, it truly was an enjoyable afternoon for us too. With mutual interests in dogs an Elcos what could be better? Good luck with your project, if I can be of help in the future just call.

[the ghoul]

Originally Posted by MACV

Kevin, it truly was an enjoyable afternoon for us too. With mutual interests in dogs an Elcos what could be better? Good luck with your project, if I can be of help in the future just call.

Definetly! Was a great day.
Let me know if you want an exra hand when you do more cutting come summer!

[the ghoul]

As mentioned I wasn't pleased with ecklers definition of black.
So this morning I used a razor knife and trimmed all the silicone that ran out of the seams
Wiped every thing down with some asitone
Shot it with Adheasion promoter than with fabric and vinyl paint

BTW
Larry and I discovered yesterday that eckler's dash cap and origional parts groups caps are both produced by the same company (dash tops)... Just a little FYI...

[the ghoul]

Went outside to pull the engine and get it on the stand for some freshening up and got distracted messing with the drivers door (had to swap all the mech and glass from the door that came with the car to the new one..
that was fun, those linkage clips are a pain

looks like just about every mile was had out of the old door


but I was successful in getting the drive train ready to pull (motor mounts and possibly trans cross member and it looks like I can pull the engine and trans as one)

i noticed this and found it rather disturbing..

It looks like who ever put this together used grade 5 bolts for every thing (including the intake manafold)

[MACV]

Gee, looks like new door likes its new home.

[the ghoul]

Originally Posted by MACV

Gee, looks like new door likes its new home.

The only fight she really put up was after I had it fully assembled with the glass my handle and my lock then I discovered the latch was faulty do I had to disassemble it all then reassemble with my latch.... And again those clips for the linkage sucks!!
But yeah, I think she's happy in her new spot...
Seems very clean and streight.. Couldn't have asked for any thing more!

[the ghoul]

Gmc now with 100% less running gear.
Pulled the engine and trans together with no signifiant issues.

saw the tans pan and thought "gee that's special"

i didn't even know you could couple a SBC to a metric trans!
While I was working on sepperating the engine and trans I thought I would multitask and burn the oil off the headers with my heater.... That didn't last too long!

I did, however, open the door and windows and continue burning off the oil. I plan on knocking off the loose scale and painting them before re-install..
This whole car smacks of a father/son project, from the grade 5 bolts on the front side, to the metric trans than this!

It looks like they used a crank from a manual trans car and didn't bother pressing out the pilot bearing. Guess this wouldn't be an issue for most torque converters but this one has a centering snout that fits into that outer cavity, so basically the pilot bearing is preventing the torqueconverter from sitting all the way into that cavity..
Oh, speaking of being a hack..
i got around to painting the belts..
can and a half and it looks pretty convincing.

And this is the carpet that came with the car

obviously dark red won't work in an all black and grey interrior
So three cans of spray paint (btw key to painting any thing outside in the cold, bucket of hot water)

And I'm pleased with the results (I skimped on under seat area)

your not ever going to fool someone into thinking the origional color was ever black, but for the $23 investment I think it goes a heck of a long way twards making things matchie matchie

[the ghoul]

Trying to make a bit of room in my basement so installed a few things

I'm very pleased with the dash pad, I'm glad I took the extra time to paint the cap to match the rest of the plastics

[O. D. Showtime]

Your making good progress...nice work!

[84elcoconquista]

Gee your kicking butt! Thats awesome!

Are you keeping the engine? That would be cool if it was a 400!

[the ghoul]

Thank you both.
I'm going to replace the upper end gaskets, paint the engine and do a general cleanup and dump her back in as is. After I have the rear end, and front suspension upgraded I will swap the engine and trans.
Engine casting comes up 65-79 305-350 from car or truck... Haven't decoaded the front tag yet.