Pace car build

[cougman67]

It’s difficult to believe the quality of the seat covers. I wish I’d purchased Foam and seat material and had them fabricated locally.

[cougman67]

It must be a slow day for everyone. I noticed there are 22 people in this section. I guess the virus has us all staying home. I had a few touch ups done on the pace car and had them polish it while there. This weekend it was more assembly both inside and out. The exterior is basically assembled.




Ignore the snow.

[qikgts]

Looks real sharp!

[JTurbo]

Amazing transformation, congrats!!!!

[JustinL]

Looking good man, this thread was a great way to spend time in walking through. She was saved!

[cougman67]

Coved weekend update.

I never expected to be this far along at this time. It’s amazing how much you can complete when your stuck at home. This weekend I spent time converting my doors to fit my 1979 door panels.

What you need:

1979 donor door including the hardware. The door mechanism is slightly different as well as some of the rods for the lock and door latch.

See below for details.
I removed the hardware from the pace car door.

I then removed the area where the door handle is located. I then overlapped it using the existing steel as a template. I welded it using a stitch weld.



I worked on the door panels in between welding and test fitting. I removed the vynil parts and dyed the hard plastic.

[cougman67]

Here are a few pictures of the soft parts.



The part number of the vinyl on the door panel. It’s easy to remove I’d anyone is debating removing them.



This is how they looked after they were dyed

[cougman67]

And voila the door panels were installed.





For some reason the passenger door panel seemed to be small. If anyone has a manic plastic stretcher, please let me know.

The good news is that even though the door glass is different, I could make everything work.

[cougman67]

If anyone has NOS door pulls, please let me know.

[cougman67]

Another successful weekend at home. I cleaned the wheels, installed the carpet, console and stripes.
Wheels Before



Wheels after

[cougman67]

I purchased the inexpensive carpet and it didn’t fit well. It seemed to be 90% scale and had a very poor quality of carpet. I the purchased the good set and was very pleased with the results. You may also note I have a matching set of leather shifter and emergency brake covers.

[cougman67]

Yes, I am still waiting for the stereo for those of you wondering why wires are still hanging.

I couldn’t wait and installed the stripes. I’m not happy with the installation but have no one to blame but me.

[cougman67]

[Foureyedjoe]

Hey really nice car. Quite a transformation. I'm also from Alberta. Can't wait for the snow to go away so I can finally enjoy my 85

[wraithracing]

The car looks really good! Congratulations! I just wish they would correct the reproduction running pony decals. It catches my eye every time. Oh well, at least they are available I guess.

[jlehma13]

The car looks fantastic. Why unhappy with the stripe install?

[82GTforME]

Patrick, you've made amazing progress over the last couple of months. It is nice having some extra time on your hands!

1. Door modifications are great. I had a chance to get some 79 doors a bit ago but never thought about ever needing them. Glad our two 79's have good condition ones!
2. Door panels look really killer! Can you go over the process of dying versus painting? One day I may need to do something similar on some other plastic parts.
3. Door pulls; why do you need replacements? Yours look in pretty decent shape. I found a spare used set in vaquero for spares for myself in the event I need to replace in the future.
4. Exterior; the paint looks great in the pictures but IMO the decals make the entire car pop. What a difference they make to the whole look of the car! I do not know what the issue is with the reproduction decals myself so I am sure no one without a discerning eye will notice!

[cougman67]

The door pulls look ok from a few feet away. What happens is the bottom wears out and bulges out. The rest of the interior looks so good that the door pulls look bad.

I agree the stripes make it pop, the biggest issue I found was installing the straight. I had everything in place and tried to follow most of the YouTube how too videos. They don’t work and I had to improvise. I would suggest everything, marking each one with tape or a marker and using your eyes to follow the body lines. In most videos they tape the stripe in the middle and install it 1/2 of the stripe at a time. That doesn’t work on a full panel stripe. Put the soap/water mixture on the panel to allow you time to move the stripe around before final installation to make sure it’s straight and square. I wish I would have done that off the start.

It’s also a good idea to have someone watch over the work to keep everything straight and true.

[JTurbo]

Looks great. I never re-striped my PC. Your pics almost make me want to reconsider...

[JTurbo]

Looks great. I never re-striped my PC. Your pics almost make me want to reconsider...

[NAVYCAT]

wow!!!!!!!! she is looking great so far, love it

[erratic50]

Looking really nice

has anyone ever made a list of the things that are off with reproduction stripe kits? Is it possible they just don’t know?

[Foureyed81]

Car looks awesome man. I can not wait to see it at a car show in maybe 2021? LOL Damn Pandemic. I am front line so I am still working away.

[BMW Rider]

The decals really make the car. Nice job on all the work.

[cougman67]

Today I installed the fender liners. They are just like I remember, a pain in the ash. To clean the liners, I soaked them with bug and tar remover, scraped the excess tar, followed by a wire brush and finally steel wool. I am reasonably pleased with the results.