New Project begins, 1974 P6 3500 V8

Hi mrtask, thanks for the nice feedback, yes its not the most pleasant of tasks, I'm actually using a handheld gas blow torch not heat gun as stated, just tickling it so it scrapes of easily, a few burns in the process ! It'll paint the whole underneath in red oxide, lay on new UPOL stonechip and then over coat with satin black chassis paint. I've mounted an SD1 clutch master cylinder next to the brake M/Cylinder, same as I did with the red car, this is almost an identical resto, I had a braided flexi hose made up to go from clutch master cylinder to the slave cylinder, you might be able to see the old pics on my old thread, will make heat shield and use heat wrap around the exhaust manifold.
To make into manual pedal box I removed it and the auto brake pedal, sourced another auto brake pedal & all the bits, cut and move the pedal arm to the other side of its mounting where the shaft goes though if that makes sense, I then cut both pedals to the same size as the throttle pedal, painted in blk, put it all back together & fitted back in the car with new return springs.
The car will be same as the red once, hopefully same Crager wheels, USA style No plates, lowered. Paint will be a metallic Blue called B5 Blue used on the late 60's MOPAR muscle cars such as 68/70 Dodge Chargers, Dodge Super Bees, Challengers ect. Teh blue on the 69 Firebird is a nice blue. Black Vinyl roof and black box pleat leather interior. Lots to do and very tight budget called Mrs Waller, credit card has been hidden from me ;-) Can only seem to load one pic of my car but several of the US cars, PIA!
Cheers Damian.
 

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To make into manual pedal box I removed it and the auto brake pedal, sourced another auto brake pedal & all the bits, cut and move the pedal arm to the other side of its mounting where the shaft goes though if that makes sense, I then cut both pedals to the same size as the throttle pedal, painted in blk, put it all back together & fitted back in the car with new return springs.
Being as spares are a bit scarce in Cape Town, I used an ex-2000 LHD manual pedal box with the gentle attentions of an oxy-acetylene torch to achieve the necessary bends in the pedals to fit the RHD box.
As I only had an old SD1 master at the time, I made a bracket to fit it next to the radiator and made up a linkage to actuate it from the pedal. It works fine, but when I put the car back on the road, I will fit the bits from a 3500 Manual that I bought a while back.
 
Updated pics if they load, on going rust repair to inner wings, next will be red oxide, UPOL stone chip & coat of chassis satin black :)

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Updated photos, painted on the red lead, also now sprayed on the Gravitex UPOL stone chip (no pics) will paint on the satin chassis black tonight and add more pics

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Starting reassemble on the suspension now, I've modified the front springs and the spring cups to lower it , hopefully it'll be ok...
I'd rather do it this way then shorten the front strut as easier and probably cheaper to replace the spings & spring cups than the strut.
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Interesting way to do it. I see you have taken off one coil, If you don't like the height I suppose you could take off more as the other end of the spring is still ground flat.

It looks like your shock absorber split pin is in the outer hole, it should be in the inner hole in order to compress the mount rubbers to give proper support.
 
Yeah I thought the second hole was the correct one, was a bit of pig to get it on, I'll sort it though as don't want any movement, I may even change to poly versions but I'll see how these new rubber ones hold out. Hopefully this will drop it enough to achieve the look I want, I re-used the rubber cushions too so its not metal on metal. I'll hopefully have it back on its wheels in few weeks, still need to clean & paint the front struts & ask my dear wife for possible money to get 2x new front caliper's......wish me luck, ;-) (I'll get new split pins too, safety first ;-) )
 
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Do you have any photos comparing the before and after height of the front end? Or hasn't it been fully put together yet? Would indeed be the easiest way to lower the car, mine sits just a bit too high in the front for my taste...:p
 
Hi Thijs,
Have a look at the pics at the beginning of this thread as these are when I first bought the car , it did sit fairly high at the front but I discovered on strip down the upper link bushes were seized so hardly movement in the arms, this may be why perhaps.
Yes the car still on axle stands/ramps but I'll post some pics once its back on its wheels and hopefully looking lower!
Pic is from its Ebay auction, you can see it sits high at the front, the other pic is the red car I sold back in 2014, this was lowered and is how I want this one to look.
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Last project sold back in 2014
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Yeah I thought the second hole was the correct one, was a bit of pig to get it on, I'll sort it though as don't want any movement, I may even change to poly versions but I'll see how these new rubber ones hold out. Hopefully this will drop it enough to achieve the look I want, I re-used the rubber cushions too so its not metal on metal. I'll hopefully have it back on its wheels in few weeks, still need to clean & paint the front struts & ask my dear wife for possible money to get 2x new front caliper's......wish me luck, ;-) (I'll get new split pins too, safety first ;-) )

I believe I am correct in saying that one member has had issues with poly shock mounts. They were too stiff and the resulting lack of flex caused the steel ring on the end of the shock to break off.
 
That's not good!, I'll leave the new rubbers ones in then, last thing I'll want is that type of failure whilst driving :)
 
Hopefully the person concerned will see this and comment, I cannot remember if the shock was standard with poly, or gas adjustable aftermarket with cylindrical poly mounts.

I am using standard rubber for this reason and I have found that they don't last long. I am prepared to keep changing as necessary as they are low in cost.
A worthwhile mod is to thread the lower pin and fit a shallow nyloc nut, this makes fitting a lot easier, and you can set the pre load of your choice.
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