Fitzy's GP is back!

[Fitzy]

Okay, brace yourselves. This will put an end to the discussion. An impromptu decision made me drop in to my local wheel retailer, as it was a 50m walk from where I had parked on unrelated business. I enquired as to the availability of 14 x 6 Torq Thrusts. Yes, definitely available AND "wait a minute," he said. The Australian distributor has a 20% off sale for the next 3 days. I ordered an entire set for $500, landed in Cairns.

That's the cost of ONE Cragar shipped to Cairns. So, it's been a bit of a ride and I loved all the feedback - what a passionate topic! Once they arrive (12 weeks) I will ship them to the modifier, chuck on some whitewalls, get some hub rings made up so they're snug & safe, I'll bolt those babies on and post some shots, so we can all then bask in the glow of my nicely lowered land yacht sitting on some nice wheels. Perhaps now I can go back to sleep the next time 3am rolls around.

[64 kiwi boni]

Cheers to that Fizty

[Frosty]

Fitzy, I totally respect your decision, after all it's your car! It won't stop me from throwing some other period wheel ideas at you though. Who knows, something might stick!

[Fitzy]

I actively encourage anyone to continue to throw ideas at me, because if you can find 14 x 6 in a 5 x 5  AND at the right price, let me know. Believe me, 14" 5 bolt wheels just don't exist. And here's a reminder of how good the Torqs will look. You just need to imagine the pictured vehicle as longer & lower, and with heavily 'patinated' paint.

I guess another reason to steer away from the Cragars is that they are predominately  a 'muscle car' wheel, whereas the ol' GP is a little flabby to be called muscley!

Oh dear, I can hear the keyboards tapping already - let the comments begin.

[Fitzy]

The fruits of my labour today: I made myself a trunk carpet, a trunk divider and a rear parcel shelf. I then applied the Ames supplied walnut veneer replacement kit to dash & console. Trimming the walnut prior to fitment was a sweaty, panicky procedure. One slip of the carton knife and off to the doctor but even worse, one trashed walnut veneer kit. Fiddly, intense work. Is that a refreshing beer I can smell?

[Fitzy]

I'm on a roll...I decided to do my footwell trims before beer o'clock. Here's a hint: the factory ones have a sewn edge to prevent fraying but modern auto carpet is polypropylene,  so after I neatened my cuts I resurrected the ol' Creme Brulee torch and melted the edges to prevent fraying. Nobody is ever gonna look under there, so I reckon sewn edges are overkill. Another coupla hundred bucks saved at the auto trimmer!

[Fitzy]

One more - today was 'dashboard reassembly day,' so as you can see I polished up all the bits & pieces and bolted it all back together. However, as I was gently hammering home the slotted bezels that locate the radio control shafts, the little fluoro orange needle that tells you what frequency you're on fell out! Now, that radio was full of ratshit, dust & rust when I pulled it out, so it was pointless to think it was ever going to work, but I wanted to keep it in the car, so I discarded the vast majority of it and what is left is simply the face - just to keep up stock appearance in the dash. So, after I'd finished hammering, I deftly put the tiniest amount of clear adhesive on the back of the needle and located it on the face. It looks perfect, but of course if anyone fiddles with the controls trying to hear something, all they'll hear is me screaming at them to "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!"

[64 kiwi boni]

looks good Fitzy 

[Wrongway]

Looks great Fitzy! As far as the rims bro, I still love them. Remember, I'm running those same rims bro, mine are just a bit taller. 👍

[Fitzy]

Today I was hungover. Nothing to do with NYE, just a catchup with a mate who I hadn't seen in a while. Lordy, why do we never learn? Anyway, I was determined to keep pushing on with the interior fitout, so through my bleary red eyed haze, I bumbled through, head pounding, nauseous, sweating like a whore in church. Enjoying a lemonade right now...

Anyway, it was time to stop ignoring the issue of the dash pad. A joint in the US wanted US$2000 to supply me with a dash pad. As usual, I'm sure it would have been a superlative job, but 2k??? Now, if you're not aware, the 65 GP (and others no doubt) have a sculpted padded top that not only contours down the sides to blend in with the dashboard, it also has a soft bevelled edge at the top where the driver's head is supposed to contact it when those ancient drum brakes don't stop you in time. Yes, I could have let an auto trimmer do it, but there's nothing left at all of the old pad, so I would have had to micro manage their work to ensure they were getting all the shapes right. I thought "I can do this." So, I purchased some very high density foam (flotation grade that goes under the seats in a dinghy) and set to work slicing & shaping it as best I could. You can actually sand this stuff (carefully) so as you can see in the photo I've got the rough beginnings done. I should point out that I will cut the holes for the demister vents. Tomorrow, I can start sanding it and bevelling the outside edges where it meets the windscreen. I figure I can fill any imperfections with fibreglass resin before I let the trimmer do the final skin. Knowing me, I'll probably do that too! I'm proud to say that I've only outsourced one job since I've had the car, and that was the rust repairs.

[64 kiwi boni]

10 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Today I was hungover. Nothing to do with NYE, just a catchup with a mate who I hadn't seen in a while. Lordy, why do we never learn? Anyway, I was determined to keep pushing on with the interior fitout, so through my bleary red eyed haze, I bumbled through, head pounding, nauseous, sweating like a whore in church. Enjoying a lemonade right now...

Anyway, it was time to stop ignoring the issue of the dash pad. A joint in the US wanted US$2000 to supply me with a dash pad. As usual, I'm sure it would have been a superlative job, but 2k??? Now, if you're not aware, the 65 GP (and others no doubt) have a sculpted padded top that not only contours down the sides to blend in with the dashboard, it also has a soft bevelled edge at the top where the driver's head is supposed to contact it when those ancient drum brakes don't stop you in time. Yes, I could have let an auto trimmer do it, but there's nothing left at all of the old pad, so I would have had to micro manage their work to ensure they were getting all the shapes right. I thought "I can do this." So, I purchased some very high density foam (flotation grade that goes under the seats in a dinghy) and set to work slicing & shaping it as best I could. You can actually sand this stuff (carefully) so as you can see in the photo I've got the rough beginnings done. I should point out that I will cut the holes for the demister vents. Tomorrow, I can start sanding it and bevelling the outside edges where it meets the windscreen. I figure I can fill any imperfections with fibreglass resin before I let the trimmer do the final skin. Knowing me, I'll probably do that too! I'm proud to say that I've only outsourced one job since I've had the car, and that was the rust repairs.

i can relate too that too fitzy, way more fun building it your self👍

Edited January 2, 2021 by 64 kiwi boni

[Wrongway]

Lookin good bro. I redid mine last year. It was an experience lol.

[JUSTA6]

18 minutes ago, Wrongway said:

Lookin good bro. I redid mine last year. It was an experience lol.

Nice job. Lookin really good.

[Fitzy]

Hey Wrongway - thanks for the photos. Your dashpad looks excellent. Your car had the same deterioration that mine had - steering wheel, dashpad, well everything really. I see the subtle differences between yours & mine due to their different vintages. I always wanted to change that silly vacuum guage into a tacho and am wondering how hard it would be to find a tacho face of a similar size that would squeeze into that chrome housing. Hmm...I'll do some research. Anyway, can you tell me did you reskin that pad yourself? If so, if there's anything that's going to cause me extra special grief, can you let me know? I suspect that the entire procedure is going to be one big spot of grief!

[64 kiwi boni]

6 hours ago, Wrongway said:

Lookin good bro. I redid mine last year. It was an experience lol.

Nice work Wrongway 👍

[64 kiwi boni]

Fizty, have a look at these guys gear, they are bound to have some thing that will fit into the vacuum gauge pod.

https://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm?ptype=results&category_id=706&mode=cat

 i used them for the mk1 cortina i built, i needed custom sizes to fit the 2 x 5inch centre speedo and 4 x 2 inch gauge pods, and they had them all 

Edited January 3, 2021 by 64 kiwi boni

[Wrongway]

Hey Fitzy, Pontiac made a tach to go in that location on the manual shift cars that opted not to have a vacuum gauge. On the models that were manual and opted for the vacuum gauge the put the tach on the left side of the dash in front of the gauges. They also had 2 models, they looked the same with the exception of one being a 6k and one being a 7k tach. If I remember correctly the 6k was for 61- 62 and the &k started in 63' but I'm not positive about that bud. The 3rd picture is the tach that mounts in the console. You can see the mount on the one for the dash is on the left on the housing. Hope that helps bro.

 

Yeah I did the dash myself bro. Its the first one that Iv done so I ended up doing it twice lol. The only real issue I had was with the adhesive. It just didn't want to hold the material in place. I trimmed away all of the dead, cracked and broken garbage. Then I widened the cracks in a V shape so I could fill them. After everything was filled and sanded I covered with 1 piece of foam and used 3M spray adhesive to hold it down. But as I said it would hold the dash material. I finally ended up using the contact cement. I glued down the top and left it to dry over night. The next day I pulled and stretched and glued the rest and clamped it down. I didn't get to really drive the car this past summer like I planned but Its all held together and still looks the same after sitting outside in the hot sun all summer.

[Fitzy]

Thanks Guys. Dakota Digital do some droolworthy stuff but I don't think my meagre budget is gonna stretch to that but I'll have a look. I like the factory Pontiac tach - I wonder where I'm going to find one. I'll do the usual searches after I post this.

So, today I got the dashpad nitty gritty sorted. The 65 GP's pad extends down the sides whereas Wrongway's stops short and meets that cool looking aluminium trim. When I was wirebrushing the old crud off the metal skin I saw those side bits and thankfully had the presence of mind to cut them off and keep them, to use as a template because trying to replicate that shape from memory was never going to happen. Anyway, today I thought I'll just glue them on and can patch them as part of the entire pad. I think this is actually going to work! I'm buying some tough UV resistant black automotive vinyl tomorrow in preparation for when it's time to perform the skinning.

Wrongway, what did you fill the cracks with? I was just going to use gap filler but also to smooth over the surface to fill any irregularities and apply it with a wet spatula. Gap filler will remain flexible and it's only purpose is to fill those gaps. 

[Wrongway]

I used mostly resin for the small to medium sized cracks and rondo for the larger ones. I mixed the rondo in small batches and kept it on the running side so it would flow down and get deep into the cracks.

[Fitzy]

Thanks Wrongway - I'm gonna try gap filler and will finish the entire job with a nice big batch of fibreglass resin which will hold everything together and I can sand or fill it to get the final finish. I fly back to work tomorrow so it'll have to wait for my return. See you all in 7 days. Oh, if anyone sees one of those beaut Pontiac tachs for sale (with chrome pod, without, trashed, rusty, not working, whatever) can you let me know?

Later.

[64 kiwi boni]

Watch out for all the rain coming your way Fizty,, i saw the weather forecast on sky news this morning, 

a wall of water heading your way

[Fitzy]

Got it. In fact, we've been rained on all day. The 2 dams on my property that were just about gone are now overflowing, all our water tanks are overflowing and everything is drenched. That's okay - this is what happens in the Wet season: best time of year.

[64 kiwi boni]

Good on ya mate 

we are getting good rain too 

which is making my grass grow and we are looking to bail hay in two weeks so bring it on 😀👍

[64 kiwi boni]

1 hour ago, Fitzy said:

Got it. In fact, we've been rained on all day. The 2 dams on my property that were just about gone are now overflowing, all our water tanks are overflowing and everything is drenched. That's okay - this is what happens in the Wet season: best time of year.

whats the dams for fitzy? do you have stock or are they just for duck hunting?

Edited January 4, 2021 by 64 kiwi boni

[Wrongway]

Just glad to help bro. Iv seen those tach's every now and then on eBay. I'll keep an eye out bud. Be safe