Now Complete Restoration / Pulling my 1969 'Bee down for strip and paint

[BLK 68 R/T]

Car looks mighty sharp in that color     

[birdsandbees]

THANKS!

Got my foil backed insulation in today, dome light wire in place, headliner teeth and bow clips installed as well as the front windshield trim clips.

Ready to install my headliner now..

[birdsandbees]

 

[green69rt]

THANKS!

Got my foil backed insulation in today, dome light wire in place, headliner teeth and bow clips installed as well as the front windshield trim clips.

Ready to install my headliner now..

Did you do anything to the trim clips to prevent corrosion?  I remember taking mine off and they were in pretty sad shape.

[birdsandbees]

No I didn't, but good point with the new ones I probably should have RPM'd them or something. My old rear windshield clips are still green and pretty much like new, but of course they don't make steel like that anymore!  My front clips are AWOL, so not sure how they looked, the lower ones were rotted I know that, but I wish my old upper ones weren't missing so I at least had some spares. Kit was 2 clips short..

[birdsandbees]

Got my upper firewall "blanket" insulation glued in place and the main part of my firewall pad in place with the plastic pins.

To add to the crap / bad reproduction parts thread. While the die cut insulation pad from REM is spot on, they then supply cheap generic push pins to install it. I had to buy the correct OEM pins from elsewhere and I should have bought 2 packs... as what pisses me off even more (as the co owner of a plastic injection moulding business) is the cheap soft plastic crap the "correct" pins are made of. After breaking a few I got smart, reamed the holes a tad and pushed them in my hand on a punch. Between the new junk and the old ones I didn't break when removing I got them all in place.

[birdsandbees]

 

[tan top]

looking good      .. I had the same trouble with the OEM type repop firewall pins  , i found warming them up a little first with a hot air gun & smearing greese on the point , worked for me ,

[birdsandbees]

Thanks TT ! Those are the kind of tips that add to the thread for anyone down the road. Hopefully once I have my car back together someone can follow a lot of this to get theirs back together if they didn't take detail pics on tear down. I have thousands, and even that isn't enough some days! 

Fighting the flu, that my wife was nice enough to bring back with her from Cuba, so not getting a lot done. Should have listened to my Father when he said "always wear a condom and never kiss them" ! LOL

Got my restored wiper arm assembly bolted into place and snugged up. Terrified with the harder foam in the gasket kit than stock that I'll crack the housings. Going to let them settle for a few days and see if they need another turn of the nuts.

Steering column plate loosely in place, along with a new clutch rod boot.

Can anyone tell me if the foam gasket should be in the open that much, or was the original trimmed back closer to the openings edges?? 

[birdsandbees]

.. can anyone help with the steering column foam gasket question above???  

Still basically couch bound with the flu, but had to take the resto shops pads back that I brought my hood home on. Picked up my rear interior trim panels and headliner channels, as well as all my bolts blasted and painted. I still have to paint some of the tips where they'll show, but glad to pay vs me doing all those bolts. Just really glad I convinced one of the shop workers to do them one week that the owner was away, as the resto shop owner wanted nothing of it and wanted to black zinc plate all the hardware sighting we'd just chip the paint tightening. Light on the paint, a good 6 point socket and a piece of plastic wrap between bolt head and socket and "Bob's your Uncle" !

Managed to sort enough bolts and clips to install my battery tray.. and back to the couch   . Still need to drill for the tray brace... one step the shop missed as the inner fender doesn't come drilled. Makes sense since the '70 uses a different battery tray.

Hoping to be healthy enough to get the headliner in tomorrow, then Ebrake pedal assembly, clutch/brake pedal assembly, brake booster/master, front brake lines, heater box, wiper motor etc so I can put the dash back in and stuff the engine back in place on the K frame in the near future.

[Lennard]

I don't have the answer to your gasket question, but I gotta say that you're doing an outstanding job!

[hemigeno]

Can anyone tell me if the foam gasket should be in the open that much, or was the original trimmed back closer to the openings edges?? 

Here's what we did on my car...

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Geno.. guess it stays as is! Just seems like a lot of foam to simply get dirty. 

[birdsandbees]

Well this flu is certainly kicking the shit out of me. Going to get Trump to impose a travel ban on the wife..  

Almost forgot I bought the kick panel insulation kit, got the uppers glued in place.

Dollied my front headliner attachment clips back into shape, ready to install and marked their locations so once the headliner is pulled onto the teeth I can easily burn the holes and install them.

Put some small head screws in every mounting location.. mirror, sun visors, coat hook, seat belt snap, etc. so once I have the headliner in place I can easily find and exacto knife a x and remove the screws.

Also decided to use some HD Tarp tape to block all the C pillar holes, so hopefully the mice never get to my headliner again.

Got my headliner bows all wire wheeled and clean, ready to install to the new headliner. Need to clip all the bow pockets to length by transferring measurements from the old one as it fit well. Also note my old headliner.. had a liner, unlike Legendary's repop. Did the originals have a liner??? My "old" one was put in in 1989.

[birdsandbees]

 

[CDN72SE]

Coming along nicely. 

[lukedukem]

Thanks TT ! Those are the kind of tips that add to the thread for anyone down the road. Hopefully once I have my car back together someone can follow a lot of this to get theirs back together if they didn't take detail pics on tear down. I have thousands, and even that isn't enough some days! 

Fighting the flu, that my wife was nice enough to bring back with her from Cuba, so not getting a lot done. Should have listened to my Father when he said "always wear a condom and never kiss them" ! LOL

Got my restored wiper arm assembly bolted into place and snugged up. Terrified with the harder foam in the gasket kit than stock that I'll crack the housings. Going to let them settle for a few days and see if they need another turn of the nuts.

Steering column plate loosely in place, along with a new clutch rod boot.

Can anyone tell me if the foam gasket should be in the open that much, or was the original trimmed back closer to the openings edges?? 

I will be one of those who uses this build thread when its time to do my 69 super bee. I need to finish my boat this year, Hopefully next winter i can start on it. I have followed this thread from day one and it has been great and informative. 

Luke

[birdsandbees]

Thanks Guys! Just got off my ass and went at it this morning.

I think the headliner is similar to us lads that build airplanes working themselves up for weeks, if not months, on doing a wet wing fuel tank using some nasty PRC two part compound. I have just under 2 hours into what I accomplished in the next 16 pictures. Zero glue at this point, but will need a bit around the B post and a few other places.

Marked a center line on all 6 bows and did the same on the headliner loops. Placed each bow.. curling it along the loop and then cut the loop about 1.75" shorter than the bow on each end.

Put the rear two bows in place and then installed the rear tensioner clips. Next bow up into place and pushed the material taught to find the spot to make a small hole for the dome light socket to come out. Final 3 bows in place and then pulled taught and tacked on the middle two windshield teeth. Tacked on a couple rear window teeth and noted how tight Legendary was with material to make it to the sail panel teeth.. so tacked a few of those to make sure I didn't pull too far forward. I then worked from center to sides on the front windshield teeth to peg the headliner in place.

Mother is the need of all invention. Cut this "fork" on a piece of scrap strapping to push the headliner onto the rear window teeth.

Used the clips that I ordered, along the window sill at each bow location, after giving the material a good pull straight in the direction of the bow.

Like everything... you do stuff better either left or right. I got the rear window nice and taught on the drivers side, but the passenger side has a few wrinkles that will hopefully come out with steam or hair dryer.

Think she looks pretty good for only 2 hours work, no glue, no real fuss or curse words. Still needs some work, but it's time for a nap !! 

[birdsandbees]

 

[birdsandbees]

 

[birdsandbees]

 

[moparnation74]

Looks really good....I have never tried the no glue aspect....Are you going back and applying glue to some of the edges?

If you don't mind can you post the same relating to the sail panel boards....

[timmycharger]

    nice work! Brings back memories of when I did mine a few years back. 


Keep up the great work, love this build! 

[birdsandbees]

Looks really good....I have never tried the no glue aspect....Are you going back and applying glue to some of the edges?

If you don't mind can you post the same relating to the sail panel boards....

I asked elsewhere.. did the factory actually use glue, like everyone does now, or did they just use the clips I ordered via Legendary and then the additional 4 clips inside the side headliner trim held everything in place? I've seen so many headliners with so much extra glue under them wrinkle and crinkling that I thought I'd give it a go this way. Definitely need a bit of glue around the B post.. rear end of the back window and just to tack it in place on the A pillar (gets hidden by Plastic trim anyhow). I may take the contact cement brush and glue to the outer upper window lips as I trim the material off, but no spray can or gun of glue is going to hit this.

Too stuffed up to continue today, hope to be back at it tomorrow. Will definitely show the sail panel going into place. Looks like fold the front material under.. tack the upper to the rear window teeth and leave the bottom flap for the package tray to sit on.

[moparnation74]

Looks really good....I have never tried the no glue aspect....Are you going back and applying glue to some of the edges?

If you don't mind can you post the same relating to the sail panel boards....

I asked elsewhere.. did the factory actually use glue, like everyone does now, or did they just use the clips I ordered via Legendary and then the additional 4 clips inside the side headliner trim held everything in place? I've seen so many headliners with so much extra glue under them wrinkle and crinkling that I thought I'd give it a go this way. Definitely need a bit of glue around the B post.. rear end of the back window and just to tack it in place on the A pillar (gets hidden by Plastic trim anyhow). I may take the contact cement brush and glue to the outer upper window lips as I trim the material off, but no spray can or gun of glue is going to hit this.

Too stuffed up to continue today, hope to be back at it tomorrow. Will definitely show the sail panel going into place. Looks like fold the front material under.. tack the upper to the rear window teeth and leave the bottom flap for the package tray to sit on.

I appreciate you posting this...Looks really good and like how you approached it!....