St art ing at the front of the car I discarded the front bumper to give the car a little more streamlined look. I also did away with the chrome on the grille and added a valance panel underneath.

On the sides of the car I welded the running boards to the rocker panels and the rear fenders. I think it cleaned up the look of the car by getting rid of a lot of body seams. I am p art icularly pleased with the outcome of having welded the rear fenders to the body.

Moving to the deck lid I opted to round off all four corners of the lid. This is a very rounded car and it just didn’t seem right to leave the squared off corners of the deck lid, especially the top two corners.

At the rear of the car I spent quite a bit of time hacking, chopping, and welding in search of the perfect hidden license plate housing. In the end I think this flip down door really completes the look.

Opening the door to look inside the car I decided to move away from the considered norm of painting the dash the same color as the exterior of the car. Instead I painted the dash a silver metallic color to compliment the gray interior and gave it a red stripe for the sole purpose of bringing the outside in. I think it worked out pretty well.

I could talk on and on about things I did to this car, the changes I made during the process of building this car, and whether the end result is worth all of the effort. Instead, I think I’ll discuss a few of the more important factors such as time, money, and budget.

I never enter into a project this size with a written in stone time line. I do know from experience roughly how long a complete rebuild such as this is going to take, but if that time frame comes and goes and the car isn’t finished I don’t get into a panic over not having the car finished. A build like this takes as long as it takes.

So how much time did it take? I spent roughly four hours a day, five days a week for almost two years working on this car. You can calculate the total if desired while I go on to the budgetary aspects of a build like this.

I won’t disclose how much money was spent on this build, but I can tell you that I know the amount right down to the last penny. Is the car worth the amount of money I spent building it? Yes, without a doubt.

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to over the years who thought they could restore an old car or build a hot rod for a few hundred bucks. They seem almost shocked when I tell them the job they are considering will actually cost in the five figure range if not a lot more. What that tells me is that they never bothered to work out a cost budget, which is the easiest thing in the world to do, especially after the invention of the PC.

Most home computers come equipped with some form of spread sheet software. What’s a spread sheet? It is little more than a page filled with limitless rows and columns, each one of which can be summed and totaled to your he art ’s desire. P art names can be listed, p art sources can be listed, and p art prices can be listed. That gives me a proposed budget before I ever turn a wrench and lets me continually compare my actual spending to my estimated spending. You’ll be surprise d h ow thrilled you can become seeing the actual cost of a buil d h overing below the estimated cost. This is a wife pleasing moment.

What p art s should be listed? I list every conceivable p art the car will ever need. I’m talked about everything, including the price of solder for making wire connections and the cost of hand soap for cleaning up before dinner. Yes, I know listing p art s can be a daunting task, but list everything you can think of and don’t hesitate to add rows to the spread sheet as you move deeper into the project and find more p art s you need.

Once the initial p art s list is complete I browse catalogs, Internet sites, and even call my local p art s store for prices. Each p art is priced and the source is named. Six months from now when I need a pair of power window regulators it helps to know where I got the price listed on the spread sheet.

One thing I don’t do is include the cost of labor in the budget. I do ninety five percent of the labor myself and my labor rate varies depending upon my attitude on a given day. The remaining five percent of the labor cost is rolled into the cost of the p art . A good example is engine work. Engine p art s only cost so much. It is the labor to make all those p art s work correctly that drive the cost of a good engine through the roof.

Something else I don’t list on the spread sheet is tool cost. Those are considered capital expenses as they don’t leave with the car. But I do pay close attention to tool cost because every car built needs special tools, some of which may be used once then stored until the next car comes in. For that reason I never buy cheap tools. I purchase quality only. You can buy the cheap stuff, but you will be replacing it quite often. It doesn’t take long to over run the cost of a quality product. That’s one reason I keep an Eastwood catalog on my desk and another reason I so blatantly mention Eastwood product numbers at every opportunity. As I said, I like quality, and I especially like dealing with companies with quality people. Thanks Eastwood, and John, and Joe, and Nick, and John. This has been a pleasure.

Will I let Eastwood into the shop for another project? Maybe. I have an A/C Cobra replica collecting dust in the shop at this writing. Send some feedback and we’ll see.

Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for the e-mails. Thanks for this opportunity.

Project car provided by:

Larry Lyles

LPL Body Works, LLC

Amarillo , TX 79109

www.lplbodyworks.com

This is the Eastwood Fender Roller # 31158 in action. We’ve all seen them, the low rider or 20-inch wheel ride with the fenders all bent to heck because the tires rub the fender edges during a turn. It’s an ugly look.

I can’t tell you how many first generation Mustangs I’ve hammer and dolly worked the fenders and qu art er panel wheel opening flanges to get them flat enough, or flared enough, to accept wide wheels. Nor can I tell you how many imports I’ve witnessed with the fenders bent out of shape due to the tires rubbing. It’s just plain ugly.

This machine is the cure. You’ll need about five minutes to mount the machine and maybe fifteen minutes to roll a flange. That will keep the wheel openings looking good and maybe even save you to price of a tire or two.

Okay, here’s a few tips. Try warming up the wheel opening area using a heat gun (#43522) to keep from cracking the paint as you work. Keep the heat gun at least twelve inches from the paint. Any closer and you’ll need my services and I charge a lot to fix burned paint.

Don’t try to get a full roll with one pass. Let the machine slowly massage the flange into shape. Light pressure is better than heavy pressure in that it allows you to watch the movement of the opening as you work and keeps the stress on the metal down. Stressed metal is not good. It results in cracked paint.

Don’t be alarmed when the fender pushes outboard as the roller works, especially with imports and small trucks. These rides are made of very light metal and the panels move….a lot.

Don’t try to completely flatten the lip of the flange. That can lead to the paint cracking. Besides, a soft roll looks better.

Do take your time. Do read the instructions. Do show your new flares to your buds. They’ll be impressed.

Project car provided by:

Larry Lyles, owner

LPL Body Works, LLC

Amarillo , TX 79109

www.LPLBodyWorks.com

Let’s st art with the easy ones, the axle ratio and tire diameter. To find the axle ratio jack up the rear of the car and turn both rear wheels the same direction one full turn while counting the drive shaft revolutions as the wheels turn. In this case I know my rear end ratio is 3.42.

To determine the tire diameter I sit the car back on the ground and measure from the floor to the center of the rear axle. That measurement is 13.5-inches. Multiply that times two and I have the accurate diameter of the tire with the full weight of the car on it. 27-inches.

Next I need to know which drive and driven gears are in my GM T350 transmission. To do that I remove the speedometer cable and the speedometer housing from the transmission. The cable is screwed into place, the housing is held in place using a retainer.

With the speedometer housing removed I can see the speedometer drive gear mounted on the transmission tail shaft inside the unit. Mine is red. The pic is a borrowed cut-away view for demonstration purposes.

GM uses four different colors of drive gears - Gray = 15 teeth, Red = 17 teeth, Blue = 18 teeth, and Yellow = 19 teeth.

The driven gear will come out of the transmission with the speedometer housing. Mine is green which means is has 42 teeth.

GM uses twelve different driven gears. 34 = Light Green, 35 = Orange , 36 = White, 37 = Red, 38 = Blue, 39 = Brown, 40 = Black, 41 = Yellow, 42 = Green, 43 = Purple, 44 = Dark Gray, 45 = Light Blue.

Armed with this information I can now determine if my speedometer is accurate or if I need to change to a different driven gear size. Here is the formula.

1001 = Driven gear teeth

Tire revolutions per mile = 20168/Tire diameter

You can do the math if you want, but my calculations come out to equal the need for a 43 tooth gear, or in this case a Purple driven gear.

You can also go to the web and google up a speedometer calibration program that will do the math for you.

Project car provided by:

Larry Lyles, owner

LPL Body Works, LLC

Amarillo , TX 79109

www.lplbodyworks.com

The rear suspension is a little more forgiving. Back here I installed adjustable coil over shock absorbers that will allow me to increase the tension on the springs to push the rear of the car upward, or release a little tension to allow the rear of the car to drop. As the car now sits I have a slight rake to the front which I think is about perfect.

Let me warn you. Get the ride height correct before delivering the car to the front end shop for an alignment. Even a slight change to the way the car sits can alter the setting on the front suspension. If you change the stance of the car after having the front end aligned it is imperative that you have the front end aligned again.

The next things this ride needs are fluids. The rear axle needs a qu art of axle grease, the automatic transmission will require roughly two gallons of Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF), the engine will need five qu art s of motor oil, the power steering unit will need about two qu art s of power steering fluid, the radiator will need two gallons of antifreeze, and the windshield washer tank will need a qu art of washer fluid. To be certain the fuel gauge is working properly I’ll add at least five gallons of gasoline to the gas tank.

After fluids I can power up the car and give the electrical system a final once over. I check the lights, the turn signals, brake lights, license plate light, interior lighting, and lastly the sound system. When I’m satisfied that no wires are smoking and all circuits are go it is time to bring out the Affordable Fuel Injection manual and go through the recommended st art up procedure. The best way to do this is to fold the manual open, climb into the driver’s seat and st art reading.

Step One is to turn the ignition switch to the ON position and listen for the fuel pump to turn on for a few seconds then turn off. Turn the ignition switch to OFF for at least ten seconds and repeat. The fuel pump should cycle and turn off.

Next I check the fuel system for leaks. If none are found it is time to st art the engine. The engine should st art without having to depress the accelerator pedal. After the engine has warmed to operating temperature I can set the timing.

To do that I disconnect the single lead wire located behind the distributor. With this lead disconnected I rest art the engine and set the timing to 6 degrees BTC (before top dead center), kill the engine, reconnect the lead, wait at least ten seconds and rest art the engine. A code 42 may show on the Check Engine light and if so disconnecting the battery for at least one minute before rest art ing the engine will clear the code. At this point the fuel injection system should take over the engine management and yield a lot of nice driving.

Air Conditioning.

Charging the Hot Rod Air, air conditioning unit is not a do-it-yourself task. The system must be mechanically evacuated until a vacuum is created within the system an d h eld there for at least an hour before adding R134a refrigerant. The amount of R134a introduced into the system is also critical. This p art icular unit calls for exactly 1.8 pounds of R134a refrigerant. An under charge of gas will result in insufficient cooling while an over charge of gas can damage the system.

It is also a good idea to have the shop doing the work to introduce a leak detecting charge to the system as they fill it. Generally a leak in the system will reveal itself when the system initially refuses to hold a vacuum prior to adding the R134a. However, on occasion the leak will be so slight that it takes several weeks for the system to leak down to a detectable level. What’s a detectable level? No more cold air out of the vents. A leak detecting charge will contain a dye that can be seen at the sight of the leak no matter how slight the leak. Finding any leak won’t be difficult.

Project provided by:

Larry Lyles, owner

LPL Body Works, LLC

Amarillo , TX 79109

www.LPLBodyWorks.com

In the end I decided to stay with the old school look that has been prevalent throughout this build and went with American Racing Wheels, Torq Thrust D style wheels. These are fifteen-inch wheels that are seven inches wide with gray painted spokes and a brushed aluminum rim.

How did I settle on fifteen inch wheels that are seven inches wide? Fifteen inch diameter wheels are the most common sized wheels out there and since the theme of this car has been and still is old school the choice came naturally. To determine the correct width all I had to do was to figure out the needed tire clearance and the wheel offset and that left me with the correct wheel width.

Okay, there is a little more to it than that. The first step to determining wheel width is to determine the tire clearance. If you mount a fat radial tire on a seven inch wide wheel you automatically have a total tire width of about nine inches. I have eleven inches of rear wheel well space as measured from the inside edge of the rear fender to the inside of the wheel well. Subtract nine inches of tire width from the eleven inches of wheel well space and I end up with about an inch of clearance on the inside and an inch of clearance on the outside. Thus the need for seven inch wide wheels.

That’s the easy part . The hard p art st art s when you pick up the phone to call the wheel guy an d h e asks about the desired wheel offset. What’s wheel offset?

Off set is defined as the distance from the edge of the back of the wheel to the mounting flange. In conjunction with off set you will also hear the term “back spacing”. These are two different measurements but result in the same outcome as far as wheel widths are concerned.

Here is how it works. If a seven inch wide wheel has a back spacing of 3.5-inches (the distance from the mounting flange to the inside edge of the wheel) it also has an off set of zero. That means the mounting flange is centered in the wheel (7 - 3.5 = 3.5). If a seven inch wide wheel has a back spacing of 2.5-inches it also has an off set of negative 1.0-inches. (7- (2.5+1.0) = 3.5) Negative off set simply means the mounting flange has been moved inboard, or closer to the inside edge of the wheel. A good example would be a seven inch wide “deep dish” wheel. This wheel coul d h ave an offset of up to negative five inches. Positive off set would be more like a wheel you see on newer vehicles where the wheel looks basically flat. The mounting flange is located near the outside edge of the wheel.

To determine what off set will work best I st art by laying a straight edge vertically on the axle mounting flange then measure the distance from the mounting flange to the inside edge of the fender wheel opening. That measurement is six inches.

Knowing that a seven inch wide wheel with a zero off set has a measurement of 3.5 inches from the mounting flange to the outside edge of the wheel, plus roughly one more inch taking into consideration the width of the mounted tire, and that leaves me with roughly one and a half inches of clearance between the tire and the fender. That’s not bad, but if you take a closer look at the pic you can see I’ve added a half inch wheel spacer to the axle for the purpose of doing some comparison work to see if adding more off set to the wheel would improve on the look. In the end I elected to go with seven inch wide wheels with a zero off set an d h ung the wheel spacer back on the wall.

You should also notice that I used the rear wheel well to make all of my calculations. Front wheel wells are always deeper and roomier to provide the needed clearance for turning and therefore don’t lend themselves well to calculating wheel sizes and off sets. You should, however, test fit the wheel of choice on the front just to be sure no clearance problems exist.

As for tires I’ll be going with BF Goodrich Radial T/A P215/65R 15 tires on the front and BF Goodrich Radial T /A P225/70 R15 tires on the rear. How does the car look with this combination? Nice!

Next are the windshield and center door pillar posts covers. To make these panels I cut matching pieces of Lauan plywood, two for the windshield pillars and two for the door post, then covered all four pieces with 1/8-inch thick foam and the light gray vinyl.  A little silicone adhesive will be used to hold them in place.

After that I covered the sun visors using the light gray vinyl. Luckily I still had the frames of the old visors which I refinished using the same metallic gray paint I used to paint the dash. Next I traced the outline of the old visors onto sheets of cardboard adding an inch all around. The idea here is to have enough cardboard to sandwich over the old visors. Since passengers always need a mirror I took an auto parts store mirror and glued it to the right hand visor. After the glue dried I add 1/8-inch thick foam to both visors.  That gives me a flat smooth surface to glue my new cardboard covers over the old visors.

To complete the new covers I cut an opening for the mirror in the right hand visor then covered both covers with 1/8-inch thick foam.  Finally, the new visor covers are covered with the light gray vinyl then wrapped around the old visors. The results are a couple of very nice looking visors.

Finishing the Trunk

            The trunk compartment gets basically the same treatment I gave the cab of the car. I start by making new side panels using the light gray vinyl then cover the floor pan with carpet.  Also notice in the photo I added a Painless Performance battery cut off switch (upper right rear corner). What’s the hole in the right trim panel? I’ll be adding a switch panel here that has a switch for the trunk light and a push button to open the driver’s door.

Project provided by:

Larry Lyles, owner

LPL Body Works

Amarillo, TX 79109

www.LPLBodyWorks.com

            Carpet first, then console? Or is it the other way around? Actually it is both. I need to install some of the carpet before the console can be mounted, but because the console will be built in place I’d rather not have all of the carpet installed. Building the console in place means a lot of crawling in and out of the car, a lot of wood splinters from the construction and errant drops of glue hitting here and there inside the car as I cover the console with the dark gray vinyl. This is no environment for pristine carpet.

As you move through the next few photographs notice that the side trim panels are not in the car. Leaving them out will let me extend the floor pan carpet past the bottom edges of the panels and that insures that once the trim panels are installed the carpet will be tucked neatly beneath the trim panels with no gaps or exposed areas of the floor pan showing.

 The rebond padding is glued into place. I’m still using Eastwood # 520001zp

adhesive to get everything stuck into place. Notice that I didn’t pad the drive shaft tunnel. No need for padding here as the console will cover the bulk of the tunnel. Also notice that I left an inch of space between the rebond and the edges where the carpet will tuck under the side trim panels as well as along the sides of the drive shaft tunnel and around the seat mounting brackets.

This reduces the amount of material build up that has to be forced beneath the side trim panels once they are installed. It also allows me to carpet the drive shaft tunnel and glue that carpet directly to the floor pan.  That, in turn, allows the floor pan carpet, once it is installed, to overlap this selvage edge for a clean look.

Console Construction.

            The plan calls for a console that extends the full length of the cab. It will start just underneath the center of the dash and work its way to the rear of the cab where it will transition into a center arm rest for the rear seat passengers.

The console will also serve as a conduit for the wiring that leads to the rear of the car and for that reason will become a permanent fixture inside the car. Once completed the console will give the illusion of being two separate pieces, a front section and a rear section. That’s because the rear section will only be half as wide as the front section.

            As mentioned above the rear section will basically be an elongated arm rest. I’ll add a couple of cup holders for passenger convenience as well as a power outlet to plug in those digital gismos kids can’t seem to do without these days.

To make the panel visually appealing it will be twenty inches wide at the front and twenty six inches wide at the rear. That gives me a st art ing place so the next step is to make the side panels.

To make the side panels I use the same heavy cardboard I used previously to construct the templates for the door and qu art er panel trim panels. I use the largest sheets possible and glue each one into place over my wooden framework until I have a base for the foam to be added next. This base needs to consist of at least three layers of cardboard to give it the needed strength to hold the foam and vinyl coverings.

To make the curves at the back of the roof I cut the cardboard into smaller pieces and carefully sculpt the needed curves. I don’t use any staples here because once the sides have been covered and shaped the cardboard will need to sanded smooth using a dual action sander with 80-grit sand paper attached. Imperfections such as overlapped edges of the cardboard will telegraph through the foam and must be remove. The 80-grit will easily remove those edges.

A final note to the last pic is that I didn’t bother to extend the cardboard or the foam to the center of the roof panel as most of this area will be covered by the center section. I also used qu art er inch thick closed cell foam gluing it into place over the cardboard using Eastwood # 520001zp adhesive. To remove any wrinkles that form in the foam, especially in the corners, I pulled the foam at the base of the wrinkle until the foam smoothed out. Any wrinkles that didn’t pull out were sanded smooth using 80-grit sand paper.

Also notice in the last pic that I cut the foam along a very straight line where this p art of the headliner will meet the center section. This straight line is essential to the overall look of the headliner and was drawn using the center section base panel as the pattern.

Notice that the center piece is flipped over exposing the push in clips. I didn’t want to risk damaging the clips by pushing them through the plywood then pulling them back out in order to remove the panel. Also notice that I cut an opening for the dome light in the center section.

The next step is to cover the side panels with vinyl material. I st art by coating both the foam and the vinyl with adhesive (520001zp). The adhesive is allowed to dry to the touch before attempting installation. This is a very important step as allowing the adhesive to dry will let me lightly stick the vinyl to the foam and if needed lift the vinyl to reposition it without worry of tearing the foam. Only after the vinyl is in place and wrinkle free do I press it firmly to the foam. I repeat this exercise on the left side and the roof is ready for the center section.

Since I’ve already constructed the base of the center section out of Lauan plywood all that is left to do is cover it with a layer of eighth inch thick foam and cover that with the darker vinyl material. Why did I switch to the eighth inch thick foam and not use the qu art er inch thick foam? Using the thicker foam would make the edges of the center section stand proud of the side panels and create a shadowing effect. The thinner foam prevents that. How does the final product look? I think it looks pretty good.

Project provided by:

Larry Lyles, owner

LPL Body Works

Amarillo , TX 79109

www.LPLBodyWorks.com

Next on the list is the headliner. The important thing to understand is that this headliner isn’t like the one in your Toyota . It doesn’t fall down after removing a few screws. Once installed it is in the car forever. That means any wiring for a dome light, speakers, or anything else you might want overhead must be done beforehand.

Here is the completed frame work for the new headliner. Eventually this frame work will be covered with cardboard, foam and vinyl material to form the new headliner. Notice that the wires for the dome light have already been routed.

To make this frame work I st art ed by cutting new headliner bows from half inch plywood. Each one is cut about two inches wide an d h ave been shaped to fit the contour of the roof panel. Originally these bows woul d h ave been made of metal rods and woul d h ave extended across the width of the roof at various intervals. The original headliner woul d h ave been attached to the rods the same way curtains are attached to curtain rods and stretched across the roof panel. My headliner will be glued and stapled into place using these wooden bows as support.

Referring back to the first pic of the roof notice that I added qu art er inch thick plywood strips lengthwise on the roof to help position and secure the cross bows. Also notice the square piece of half inch thick plywood near the center of the roof. This is the mounting platform for the dome light. Finally, notice that I added additional qu art er inch thick plywood strips around the back glass opening and between the qu art er glass openings and the rear sail panels. I needed extra support in these areas to provide attachment points for the cardboard base panels to be added later. Everything you see here has either been glued (Eastwood # 520001zp) and stapled together using one inch long staples or screwed to the metal frame work of the car using one inch, # 8 sheet metal screws.

The next step is to add more insulation to the car. I’m using the same recycled foam rebond material I used to insulate the firewall earlier. It is glued into place on the roof panel using 3M # 8090 Super Trim Adhesive (520001zp).

Because I’m a novice at this I’m not going to attempt to install a full headliner. Most fabrics and vinyl materials come in fifty four-inch wide rolls and I need about eighty inches to span the entire width of my roof. In order to accomplish that feat I would need to sew two pieces of vinyl together.

To get around the need for sewing I’ll break this headliner into three separate sections, a left side, a right side, and a center section. The right and left sides will be covered with the light gray vinyl material and the center section will be covered with the dark gray vinyl. The result will be a somewhat dramatic effect and no one will ever suspect my inability to sew a straight line.

Project provided by:

Larry Lyles, owner

LPL Body Works

Amarillo, TX

www.LPLBodyWorks.com

Here’s a trick you can only pick up by watching the pro’s ply their craft. Before trying to cover the arm rest the edge of the vinyl is cemented to the work bench. It’s like gaining an extra hand when it comes to stretching the vinyl tightly over the arm rest. It takes a lot of stretching and pulling to get wrinkle free results. By the way vinyl has a grain that allows it to stretch more in one direction than in the other. Use that stretching action lengthwise on the arm rest to get a glove tight fit. 

To trim out the door panel I st art by covering the panel with ¼-inch thick foam. Notice in the next pic that I cut out the areas of the trim panel where the red stripe and armrest will be located then coated the entire panel with adhesive. You’ll have to pardon the absence of a pic of the light gray being added to the trim panel. Digital pics aren’t like 35mm. Sometimes they just go away and never come back. Anyway, on to the red stripe.

To make the red insert for the door panel. I st art by cutting a length of Lauan plywood to match the insert I drew on the door template pattern. I cover the piece of plywood with foam then cover the foam with a strip of red vinyl.

All that is left is to attach the arm rest and red striped panel to the door trim panel. I st art with a generous application of adhesive then screw and staple both pieces to the trim panel. The trick to stapling is in selecting the correct length staple, in this case half inch long staples work best. One inch long wood screws are used in the area of the arm rest where I added the scrap plywood for support. Finally both ends of the red stripe and the single end of the arm rest are wrapped around the edges of the trim panel and secured with staples. The result is a very nice looking door panel.

Be sure to notice that I added cut outs for the inside door handle and the power window switch.

The kick panels and the quarter panel trim panels are constructed using the same techniques used to make the door trim panel, with a template and a little Lauan plywood.  What are the holes for? The holes are for the speakers and the seat belt retractor. Yep, that’s what a little preplanning will do for you.