My '62 Acadian Build

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

RE: Cluttered

62Beaumont · Addicted!

RE: My '62 Acadian Build

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

You'll love a shed. Get all non-car-related stuff there, out of your way. (We do not have basements in Florida so that is not an option for me, and the attic of course is not sutiable for garden tools, bicycles, etc.) Cuts down on traffic in your work area too.

We have lots of places down here that build sheds to order, mine is 10'x20' with no doors or windows except 8' overhead rollup door (they have lots of options for doors/windows, I did not want a lot of access places), full finished plywood floor, roof vent, aluminum siding and roof, cost $3500 US delivered and set up including hurricane anchors.

Dave

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Dave, that incredible neatness is just plain wrong. Nobody's garage should be that neat.....

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

It's not that good now - there are car parts everywhere

Dave

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Here's some pics of the '63 Sport Deluxe gauge cluster I'm going to use.

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All disassembled.

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The plexiglass lense had some scratches in it, so I bought a sheet from home depot and used the old as a template and cut out a new lense.

I cleaned the gauge faces really good and bought some bright orange paint and repainted the needles. I also scuffed up the housing and re-painted it.

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4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Joel, are you doing this to make the rest of us feel bad about our cars and how we aren't working on them???!!!

The cluster looks great. Interesting that the markings on a 63 SD cluster are not the same as 65.

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Don't worry Carl, I only work on it a few evenings a week. Progress will be slowwwwwwwwwww.

The '63 SD markings are the same as the '63 Nova SS.

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Here's the '62 Acadian cluster. The speedo lettering is slightly different than '63. Can't really notice it unless you put them side by side.

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davelacourse · Poncho Master!

Nice gauge cluster! Adding the 4 real gauges sure makes a difference from fuel + idiot lights.

Where are you going to mount the tach?

I wish I would have thought to repaint my needles red-orange when I had my dash and gauges apart.

Dave

-- Edited by davelacourse on Friday 29th of May 2009 07:28:11 AM

forespeed · Poncho Master!

Joel, you said you cleaned the guage faces, I had an old set of guages and thought I'd clean them up a little. I used a wet rag to wipe the face and the black paint smeared over the white. The paint was so dead, apparently, it just wiped off the metal face like dust.
The only thing I could think of was to maybe shoot the face with clear in order to make it shine.

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Dave, I'm not going to column mount it and hide that pretty little clock, if that's what you're thinking. smile

Check the last photo of my first post, you'll see the tach sitting on the console. That's the plan of where it'll be mounted. Once the interior is all put back in I'll decide if I like it there.

Norm, my gauge faces must have been in better shape than those you had. Paint was solid so I just used a lint free cloth with some duplicolor wax and grease remover. Worked great.

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

I had forgotten about that picture, that's cool! Kind of like the mid-60's full size Pontiacs/Grand Prix that had the factory vacuum gauge on the console:

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Dave

-- Edited by davelacourse on Friday 29th of May 2009 10:48:46 AM

-- Edited by davelacourse on Friday 29th of May 2009 02:04:43 PM

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Progress has slowed...

Some parts primed.

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And some painted.

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I'm converting the steering to '63-'67 because '62 is a one year only design and the parts are much more expensive to replace. Picked up the steering box and pitman arm off a '63 Chevy II 4 dr parts car today.

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Also started sanding the engine compartment. I decided to repaint it semi-gloss, I dont really like the gloss black the previous owner painted it.

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80GPLJ · Guru

Nice work on the car and blasting cabinet

gparis7 · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Looking really good. I like the way you are doing the interior - some neat touches.

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

62Beaumont wrote:

Progress has slowed...

... started sanding the engine compartment. I decided to repaint it semi-gloss, I dont really like the gloss black the previous owner painted it.

Same here!

a few more parts to paint, waiting on a few backordered parts, but my progress has slowed too. Sometimes it seems like there's a big burst of energy and activity, then a lull.

And I am going with semi-gloss black in the engine compartment too, also the chassis and suspension/steering pieces and rear end. Gloss black in the interior, though

You're coming along great!

Dave

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Thanks guys.

Dave, Sounds like we're in the same boat. I get some things done and then it sits idle for awhile. My problem is there's a few things like painting, wiring, etc... that I don't really like doing so I put it off untill it needs to be done to get other stuff going.

Finally getting nice weather also puts a damper on working on the car.

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

Joel, I hear you about when the weather is nice, the best thing to do is go out and enjoy it. The weather here now is so hot going out is not much fun, so working on the car in the A/C garage makes more sense (just like heated garage in Canada in the winter), here the winter is the time of great weather and car shows and races in Florida, our seasons for (1) going out and having fun and (2) working on the car, are reversed from Canada

And I have been working myself up to finishing the other rear brake, hate those

springs, my daily driver has drums on the rear that need work (leaking cylinders) and I think I am going to take it to Midas or somewhere and have them do it

But you're like me, even the things we really don't like to do on our project car, we know we can do them, and when they're finally done, we can say to ourselves, there it is and it works like it should, and my old car is one step closer to where it is going to be.

Dave

62Beaumont · Addicted!

I haven't worked on the car in a while and now it's hard to get motivated again...

In the meantime I bought some old Hot Rod mags from '65 & '66 for some incentive and ideas for the car. There's some really cool articles and ads in them.

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Today I started to work on the car slowly by washing the engine compartment and continue sanding... hopefully the motivation will start again. Only sanded half the compartment.

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Hopefully it won't be too long untill there's paint in there so I can get to the fun stuff... brakes, suspension and the engine!

davelacourse · Poncho Master!

Bit by bit, it'll get done - and when that engine compartment is oh so pretty it will provide incentive to put that shiny new motor in

I still have to yank the old straight 6 before I can do my engine compartment ... I am debating whether I will fill in the holes for the voltage regulator (to be removed, alternator going on the big block), where the heater hoses were (removed, heater broken and not needed in S. Florida, some day will put in complete AC system), etc.

And hey, I bought a bunch of 50's and 60's mags, mostly Car Craft but also some other hot rod publications form back then, for ideas too! We're each going for a little different kind of car though - yours will be upgraded extra cool later model than my old rat. Nothing wrong with that kind of diversity

Dave

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I can relate Joel. Going to the lake has been interfering with car stuff!

Maybe it's time we had a coffee again to get motivated again.

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Carl Stevenson wrote:

I can relate Joel. Going to the lake has been interfering with car stuff!

Maybe it's time we had a coffee again to get motivated again.

Yeah that's not a bad idea to get the troops together for a round of BSing to get the blood flowing again for our cars.

57poncho · Uber Guru

Coffee i'm in

62Beaumont · Addicted!

Got some more work done.

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Found some GM stickers on the inside of the fenders, no wonder they're so straight and clean.

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Here's one spot the previous owner took a shortcut and just left the old rusted
headlight mud buckets in place. disbelief

Gotta get some new ones now.

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The semi gloss turned out really nice. I'm happy with the finish.

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I wonder why the inner fender panels are missing??? wink

I was just going to paint the engine compartment but now I want to paint the
front of the rad cradle, the under side of the hood, front susp pieces...

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Next I'll teardown the old front susp, then continue to paint.

Beaumont4008 · Uber Guru

Looking good Joel, I like the semi gloss black, looks more factory looking. What brand of paint did you use ? OF the shelf our did you mix your own ?