Project code name Cheese Wedge

[hondaguy72]

I've been busy. The projects I have just seem to have no end. The 1984 crx I restored will be for sale soon, even though I promised myself I would keep it forever. I'll never find another one as nice as this one. I've opted for the non gas saver third car, a 1976 2wd GMC Jimmy. That has been getting some attention, but so has this project.

I expect the seats to be back from the upholsterer in the next few days. White with yellow piping.

On Monday the chassis was brought over to my place for panel fitment. I'll take some pictures tomorrow and post them. The body work process takes longer than steel cars due to the very long cure time of repairs. I'm still missing a drivers fender which I will probably have to fabricate from scratch.

[hondaguy72]

Here are the money shots:

[hondaguy72]

The tray under the seat needs attention. Battery out-gassing and fluid takes it's toll on the aluminum panels. POR15 paint is coming to the rescue.

Here are the tray before shots:




After about 20 minutes with the air sanders including a die grinder with roloc discs and a DA sander with 120 grit, then coating:



There isn't much I could do about the pitting. I wouldn't want to use filler since it is much softer than the metal and the coating doesn't bond that well to it. I'll be finishing the tray today and continuing on with the body panels. I hope to have the body done in two weeks.

[hondaguy72]

More progress:

Tray completed and batteries at home:


Area around the Left turn signal in final stages of repair. All other cracks have been mended:


Doors are pretty close to being ready for paint. Cracks have been repaired and filled:

[hondaguy72]

Even more progress:

Rear quarters have been final prepped and sprayed sunburst yellow in Krylon Fusion rattle can paint.


The interior is back from the upholsterer. Not bad.

[hondaguy72]

Much more completed since last post. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

[hondaguy72]

I've pretty much finished fabricating a new driver's fender.





Finished the inner door panels as they had to be opened up to repair the door skin cracks.

[hondaguy72]

Upon inspection I found that the right front brake assembly did not exist! Someone pilfered it! A full factory brake assembly is nearly impossible to find and not that great to begin with. I did some research and found a possible front brake kit made to work with golf carts. I picked the kit up from buggies unlimited for the economy price of $350 (lol) I've never spent that much on any brakes for any car I've owned. At least there was a nice surprise when opening the kit.



Wilwood calipers! Very nice.

After some figuring I found that the kit wouldn't fit without some doing. The hubs needed to be flipped to back space the rotor correctly. Here's what the setup looks like installed.



I also finished up making the final drive connections with the traction pack and was rewarded with the sound of electric bliss. More to come.

[hondaguy72]

I've been horrible about updating this thread as I've made progress.

Brake update:

The brakes work just fine, although I don't see them being too effective above 30-35mph. I've put about 8 miles on the chassis now just driving around the neighborhood. These cars are a bit scary to drive. The steering is overly heavy and yet vague at the same time. 40-45mph for a short burst would be as fast as I'd want to go.

After changing out the differential fluid the car has now seen 30mph on the flats. It had been closer to 28mph prior.

All the electrical is finished up with all LED lighting less the headlamps and tail lights. I could swap in 1157 conversions in the rear, but the incandescents are bright enough. In all likelihood the headlights won't be used on a regular basis.

I almost forgot to add, the vehicle is basically done. I'll get some final shots of it posted in the near future.

[hondaguy72]

One shot, one vid.




Click to see vid. Probably will take forever to buffer.