Hi all,
I have been lurking and responding to some messages during the 26 year restoration of my 1966 Polo Red Coupe.
I am now going to embark on my 1967 Brown Coupe.
What I have done:
Body Work:
o Every panel had either Rust or an accident, so I learned how to work metal and do lead work. I purchased the car in Chicago in the early 80's.
o Replaced front suspension pan, middle and outer rockers and jack receiver, and both floors
o Starting from the top: Fixed hole in roof that had bondo and two screw holes (looked like an axe was taken to the car); fixed crunched hood using a body work spot welder (studs and puller); Driver's side fender is actually two fenders married into one. The original had rust along the back of the wheel well and the other fender was crunched in the front; driver's door: fixed rust along the bottom and added 3/4 inch of welding along the back of the door for gap purposes; rear quarter panel had been hit and pulled out the dents and used lead as the door will make a lot of vibrations when closed and replaced the rear taillight bucket; engine cover, fixed rust holes; Passenger rear quarter panel: fixed rust along the wheel well and the quarter panel; passenger side door; filled holes in door from bondo; passenger front fender: filled and replaced rusty lower rear wheel well near door.
o Painted in my garage with PPG Base Coat Clearcoat Polo Red. I did not use undercoating on the wheel wells just left painted but interior and underneath including wheel wheels and front trunk used POR 15 Black
o Dipped gastank at a Ready Strip and painted bottom POR 15 black and gray in the trunk
o Marcus Surko's headlight relay system
Suspension:
o Bilsteins all the way around
o Elephant Racing Poly Bronze bushings front and rear
o 23 mm front torsion bars and 27 mm rear
o Elephant Racing front adjustable sway bar
o Power coated (learned myself) 5.5 inch steel rims with Caswell Plating Products Artic Silver and clear coated too
o Mounted 205 x 60 Bridgestone
o Welded stress bar attachments in the front trunk with heim jointed bar for adjustment
o Wevo solid transmission mounts
o Stomski Racing shifter
o JWest Shift gate
Plating:
o Learned to cad plate (gold) all nuts and bolts with Caswell's Copy Cad plating system (great product)
Power coating:
o Used Bright Black on all my engine tin from Caswell Plating too. Suspension was powercoated too. Larger parts than would fit in my wife's old electric oven were sent out for powercoating after I blasted them in my bead blasting cabinet.
Motor, 280 horsepower, (Dawe Motorsports Development, Stroudsburg, PA):
o 2.7 barrels
o AE pistons
o 10.6 : 1 Compression Ratio
o Twin plugs in 2.2 heads
o 2.4 crank
o Tilton Clutch with aluminum flywheel
o MSD CD boxes with billet 12 sparkplug wire distributor
o Eurometrics rebushed my 40 IDA carbs and I purchased a soda blaster for cleaning out the inside of the carbs after 20 years of sitting
o PMO fuel rails and Aeroquip push on gas lines with electric fuel pump with relay in the smuggler's box
o 1988 Carerra oil cooler in passenger front fender well and thermostatically set fan and Elephant Racing oil lines to the thermostat
o Racing cam
o Racewear engine hardware (rod bolts and studs)
o Rebuilt alternator
o Polished and clearcoated the valve covers (930 lower valve covers), alternator fan, fan shroud and the aluminum plate in the engine compartment where all the electical relays, coil and fuel pump live
Interior:
o New carpet set
o CDOC roll bar
o Crow four point harness
o Leather covered front seats
o At home I cleaned and redyed all the interior vinyl red and black
o All new rubber gaskets inside and out
o Dynamat under rear seats and floor (note: I left the engine pad out as I like the painted look
This was the practice car.
Tom
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Practise car or not,It's gotta feel good looking at the finished product...
Man, what a fantastic job for a do it yourselfer,that really demands some
