So what's everyone up too?
 

I got the new upper control arms in last weekend and took the car out on Sunday for a short drive, UMI adjustable uppers with roto-joints. I just set them to stock length, no gauge to set the pinion angle, take care of that later. Felt good, smooth ride, good handling for a 40 year old car.

I said short drive because we stopped by Ray Barnes to borrow some harness tape. We were there almost 2 hours talking. Did leave a couple of black streaks in front of his house. Slight amount of wheel hop, not like before. Walked a little sideways down the street, nothing bad. Lynda bitched a little because the car filled with tire smoke, took a half mile to clear it out. :D Can't figure her out, I mean there's nothing like the smell of burning rubber!

Ok, that was last weekend. This week, no work, not the kind I get paid for anyway. So I pulled the forward light harness. I bought a gauge conversion kit for the dash, tach, temp gauge, ammeter. Had to add 2 wires for the ammeter to the harness. Someone previously routed the temp sender wire from the driver's side through the engine to the passenger side? So I pulled the engine harness too.

What a mess, both harnesses had been re-wrapped with electrical tape. Gooey, sticky mess. Fixed up both harnesses and re-wrapped with harness tape.

Cleaned and re-sprayed an original dash pad that Brian, Bowtie-Bri, picked up for me last fall.

Pulled the dash out today and started cleaning it up. Install the gauge package, repaint the dash, reinstall the whole mess and we're good to go.

Sounds like your getting er done there. I been swamped working on this www.akfest.com
for the last several months. Come May 3rd I ain't doing squat for a long while :)

If anyones in the area, stop on out and see me.

Dave

Forgot too mention it was 84 degrees here today. That's at the airport so still over 80 here, what a beautiful day. My son helped me pull the dash, 2 person job holding it while you disconnect all the wires. We were sweating in the garage doing that.

Lynda cut the back grass, she likes riding the mower and being in the sun when it's nice out, doesn't bother me in the least. Lawn looks great, plenty of rain lately. Weather is supposed to nose dive other the weekend, oh well it's only April, take it while you can.

I got home at midnight last night from Florida. I spent 5 days down there doing the rough plumbing in my brothers new house. I forgot how much work it is to dig 180 feet of trenches! It sure is nice to be home!

Wow Brian you have been busy. I have one house project I need to do. Have to install a tile back splash in the kitchen. Guess I better start looking for a tile saw. Gonna catch hell if I keep working on the Chevelle and don't get the kitchen finished.

Hey Tony, welcome back. 180' of trenches, I thought you were plumbing a house not installing a sprinkler system. Now you get to work on your own stuff again.

My cars are still in the garage all covered up...got to finish up the yard projects, cause I know once I bring them out ...the work will take the back burner.

Between the house projects and car projects, I can see where it would be an enjoyable life to live in an apartment and play golf instead. It is never ending projects around here. As I see it now, I will go into next winter still looking at some of the projects that need to get done. Their just is not nearly enough time to do it all.

Jeff

Car *would* be ready this weekend, but my driveshaft won't be done until Monday. :(

I've got some new tires & wheels to mount up for it. :)

Well this weekend I'm planning on riding the Harley a little since the weather person is saying it should be 72 degrees this weekend before another storm comes in on Monday. Also I have a couple of Honda Z 50's I need to change tires on, and the 1969 needs me to finish the rebuild on the stator assembly I started a couple of weeks ago. The only other thing we have planned is the wife and I have a bowling tournament this Sunday which should be fun; it’s a no tap.

Also I just got a call from B&T and they told me the car won't be done until the end of May.:(

A tap is if you leave one pin standing on your first ball, like a seven, ten, five, etc pin it counts as a strike. Now if you leave two pins you have to try to convert it just like in regular bowling everything else applies. It makes for a fun tournament esp. if you get a lot of strikes and nine counts.

The wife and I started doing No taps last Holloween and we were lucky to win that one, since then we've placed in all but one and last month we got second for $150 they have one every month. The tournament we won on Holloween paid $500 but we won alot of the side pots and that helped alot. First place pays $300 and they pay down to 13th place which gets your entry fee back of $20.

Hey Hank ? Did you put a fuse in line with your amp meter ?

No, the wires supplied with the conversion kit have fusible links in them. Plus it's a shunt type ammeter in the 70's, no real current flow through the meter. It's really a zero centered volt meter. It measures the voltage drop across the wire between the horn relay and the junction block.

Well we ended up winning forth place for $70 and the wife won a stuffed chicken doll that does something called the chicken dance; it uses batteries. Boy was she happy, it's the first time she ever won anything at a raffle, you would think she hit the Lottery or something, but as long as she's happy.

I moved 4 Ram trucks full of top soil by hand Sunday. Don't sound like much,till you figure out that is 2 tons of dirt. My arms are so sore,I can barely type.

It was so cold and miserable yesterday,beer did not taste right.

Still working on the dash, lots of pieces to refinish. Getting estimates for a new roof too. Looks the the roof has been leaking at the chimney. Could just get the leak fixed but whoever laid the second roof did a half-assed job. Really needs to be stripped down then ice and water shield and new flashings. Got two estimates so far, $5200 and $7200, ouch. Guess I need a couple of more.

'6"3 I just had to say it.... (So, what is everyone up too).. I kill myself sometimes.

That's why the wife and I bought new, but even then there's always problems. That quote sounds high to me; will your home owners ins cover it?

Month Precipitation for Reno, NV on average is almost eight inch's per year. We are not a desert since Reno is at 5000 feet above sea level. Also since Reno is near CA we pay CA prices for everything and have an unemployment rate of 13.4%. The average house in Reno is 234k and reg unleaded today is 3.03 a gallon. it's raining outside right now and is 47 degrees outside; I wish I lived in a desert!

Jan 1.06in.
Feb 1.06in.
Mar 0.86in.
Apr 0.35in.
May 0.62in.
Jun 0.47in.
Jul 0.24in.
Aug 0.27in.
Sept 0.45in.
Oct 0.42in.
Nov 0.80in.
Dec 0.88in.

Oh and it's suppose to snow/rain mix tomorrow thru thurday.

Homeowners won't cover the roof, maybe any water damage inside. In MI we have wind, rain and ice damns to deal with. A rubber ice and water shield is now code here but wasn't when this house was built. Ice damns cause the water to back up under the shingles and that causes leaks. The ice and water shield is supposed to extend 24" inside the outside wall so if water does get under the shingles the shield keeps it from getting through. We also have poor ventilation in the attic. One of the previous owners was a real genius. He stuffed insulation over the edge and down into the eaves. Because of the low slope it's impossible to get to the edge and clean it out.

I have a tri-level two good size roofs, one on the lower level and one on the upper level. The quotes were for tear off, water shield, flashings, vents, drip edge and new shingles. The quotes were actually around the price I expected. I have 2 more companies coming. I may have the lower boards ripped off and the insulation cleaned out of the eaves. It would cost $800 or so but should end the ice damn problem.

This is not Las Vegas!!!

I understand Hank; I use to live in Industry, PA before moving to NV. Best of luck in whichever way you chose.

Sorry Stalkingbear; after re-reading my post I didn't mean to come off like I was mad or anything. It's just the desert word that kind of got me going.

Mike don't get mad,he gets even.:p

Thanks Robert. Just not something I wanted to deal with now, future employment is not looking good. I have the money in the bank so it's probably best I take care of this now while I can.

Painted the dash, looks pretty good. I used interior black from NPD but it was too glossy, sprayed over that with Krylon clear matte. Looks like the right amount of gloss. Sprayed the rest of the dash with 72 dark saddle from NPD. The dash is darker than the rest of the interior but all they sell for a 70 is saddle. The 72 dark saddle appears to be the correct color.

Wow, what a difference. The dash was dull and scratched in a few places. Now it has a nice sheen and even color. Sprayed one kick panel, looks like I have to remove the e-brake assembly to get the other one out. The kick panels are pretty rough but they'll have to do. A coat of paint will help some. One broken vent cable for sure, don't know about the other until I get that kick panel out.

Installed the new gauges, they look good. I removed the lens, Ray Barnes said he would help me polish it. Looks like someone sprayed the dash before with gauge assembly installed, some over spray on the lens.

Disassembled the dash vent housings and installed new vents. I need to do the silver outlining on the dash, spray the other kick panel, polish the lens, install a oil pressure sender, install temp sender then reassemble.

I installed a new interior last year and it made a world of difference in the look of the interior. Redoing the dash will be the finishing touch and I'm sure it will be a big improvement.

Ok, that's what I've been up too the last couple of weeks. Along with getting roof estimates on the house. One at $5,200, two at $6,400 and one at $7,200. Think I'm going with the last estimate, $6,400. They did the house behind us a couple of years ago and I just like what heard when I talked to the guy.

the interior sounds great; do you have any pictures? I would go with the middle one also since you've seen their work and it looked good. Let us know how it goes.

No, pictures yet. I just put the dash in the basement this afternoon. I have to remove the masking over the black gauge area. I'll take a picture on Sunday, have to drive to the east side tomorrow and replace a faucet for my great aunt. She's going to be 98 in June and still lives by herself, although my uncle does keep an eye on her, he doesn't live to far from her. She's amazing for 98, everyone says it's because she never got married and had kids.

Anyway, I'm going to try and find a Sharpie Metallic marker for the silver. Heard it's better than the Krylon silver leafing pen. Then I can get some pics with silver outlining. Install the gauge cluster and get a few more pics. It's not going to be perfect, I'm not as good at this stuff as some guys but I'm sure it will be a big improvement. I just won't let anyone look at the outside, just the interior. Maybe I'll keep a car cover on it when I go to a cruise-in. Lift it up and let them look inside but that's all. :D

I'm in Carlisle.:p

I took a couple of pictures of the dash and gauge cluster this morning. I added them to this post in the interior forum. Hard to see the dash well, it's in the basement and I had to use the flash.

http://chevelleforum.org/showthread.php?p=8275#post8275

Picked up some silver pens so I guess I can't start doing the silver accents, later. Redwings game is on in a few minutes.