Above 1200 Sq/FT Cody's 33'x62' Garage

[madison069]

Then I cleaned up the driveshaft, but first I took a trip down memory lane and then proceeded to remove these yellow tags.


Now it’s nice and painted. I left the shop label on it just for memory reason.



I removed the old transmission pan and cleaned the mating surface. This transmission has maybe 150miles on it at the most so it better be clean inside!


Placed the new gasket on the new pan and installed it all at once.


And I also took the time to touch up afew spots and painted some bare area under the camaro, along with installed the driveshaft.

Hard to see in the pic but the shaft is back in place. I still need to put the fluid back in the transmission.

Oh and I took the time to also move the grills back onto the grilling pad since the sealer has cured. I need to clean the gas grill.


That’s been it for now, maybe today I’ll cut the grass and take the boat to the river.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Since I made the switch, I use them on my transmission pans and differential covers...I've had great results!

 

[madison069]

The inside of the old transmission pan, you can see the tubes going through it. But as you can see it’s coiled metal and not solid tubes. So, they are prone to weeping over time.


Now let’s work on the exhaust. First up let’s replace the old workout exhaust hangers that goes behind the bumper area.


Didn’t take many pics that led up to this point, but the headers aren’t even and so one is sticking out closer to the rear then the other. So, I had to cut off 3 3/8” off of this piece.


Now we are even with where the angle pieces goes to connect to the cross over part.


But I had to cut some length off the straight part of the crossover. So let’s chop it off

After reassembly I’ve found the muffler needs to move up another 1.5” so it can clear the u-joint.







I got some nice clearance up front but the rear half of the exhaust needs to move to the front some more.

I stopped for the night and I’ll look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow before I cut more off the crossover section.

 

[madison069]

Went to a all Chevy car show and saw this 1980 camaro and lots of 1969 chevelle. Usually I only see one or two 1969 chevelle but there was several here!



Then came home and finished up the camaro’s exhaust. Just need two more clamps (on order) and install the collector gasket.



Now I’m monitoring the technology stuff at a church event for the community.


Watching Lyle Lyle Crocodile



I’ll be pulling an all nighter out here as I have to take down the stuff,

 

[Bob Heine]

Didn’t take many pics that led up to this point, but the headers aren’t even and so one is sticking out closer to the rear then the other. So, I had to cut off 3 3/8” off of this piece.

Cody, I believe that's pretty common. The Hookers on my '72 Corvette are the same way.

 

[madison069]

Cody, I believe that's pretty common. The Hookers on my '72 Corvette are the same way.

Yea I think it was done to clear the starter on the passenger side by bending the tubes toward the front some unlike the driver side. At least that my theory, but wonder why they couldn’t make it 3” long after the tubes connected?

 

[Bob Heine]

Cody, it may be an attempt to make both headers have equal(ish) length tubes to the collector flange. With the heads staggered by the thickness of a connecting rod (0.94" on the small block) it makes sense the outlets would be staggered as well. I never measured the offset on the '87 Corvette (L98 Small Block) but it looks like about an inch.

You mention the starter and reminded me how many hours I fought to install the OBX stainless headers with the stock starter. Luckily, GM switched to Nippondenso gear reduction mini starters in 1989. They're a lot cheaper than the aftermarket stuff. It's a pretty big difference in size.

You would think they would mention the starter in the instructions. I guess they only tested the headers on '89 and newer Vettes (it's still a tight fit. You would also think whoever rebuilds these Nippondenso mini starters would make sure they can withstand finger tight connections.

 

[madison069]

Small detour, as the van needed some attention.
Apparently a coil spring broke on the van. So I went ahead and replaced both side. You can see the broken coil spring in this pic.



Then I proceeded to replace the driver side wheel bearing since I had it all part and the bearing was a little loose. I need a shop press cause this hammering bearings out and in is for the birds.
I ended up busting the old wheel bearing into pieces so here is a pic of a couple of bearing piece.


Hammering that bearing out with sockets just caused me to be sore in my hands, arm joints, and oddly my knees. I think a shop press is going to be added to my garage soon.

 

[madison069]

Cody, it may be an attempt to make both headers have equal(ish) length tubes to the collector flange. With the heads staggered by the thickness of a connecting rod (0.94" on the small block) it makes sense the outlets would be staggered as well. I never measured the offset on the '87 Corvette (L98 Small Block) but it looks like about an inch.

You mention the starter and reminded me how many hours I fought to install the OBX stainless headers with the stock starter. Luckily, GM switched to Nippondenso gear reduction mini starters in 1989. They're a lot cheaper than the aftermarket stuff. It's a pretty big difference in size.

You would think they would mention the starter in the instructions. I guess they only tested the headers on '89 and newer Vettes (it's still a tight fit. You would also think whoever rebuilds these Nippondenso mini starters would make sure they can withstand finger tight connections.

I thought about replacing my starter with one of those smaller units. But I think I’m gonna run this one til it croaks since I already got it back on the engine. Luckily it’s not too hard to install on my engine and header combo but boy is it heavy!

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Cody, I've been keeping an eye on marketplace for 20T press...haven't been quick enough on the draw for the lightly used units. May have to just wait until HF puts theirs on sale again and go new.

 

[madison069]

Cody, I've been keeping an eye on marketplace for 20T press...haven't been quick enough on the draw for the lightly used units. May have to just wait until HF puts theirs on sale again and go new.

I’m watching for Labor Day sale myself. I suspect they will be reduced or a coupon will come out.

But like you those on the market place has been close to store prices and I just can’t justify paying new prices on used equipment regardless how little it got used.

 

[zmotorsports]

Just read through your shop build and Camaro project Cody. Nice work on both.

 

[madison069]

Just read through your shop build and Camaro project Cody. Nice work on both.

Thanks! Been a journey with everything but slowly the projects get closer to semi finished!

 

[madison069]

Trying to decide what i want to do for a shifter. I have a dual gate hurst shifter but it needs some cleaning and possible new parts. They sell a rebuild kit for $60 and it would be fine as long as nothing is severely damaged or worn. I can also get a new shift cable for about $90 but I'm missing the clip that holds the cable on the shifter. It's possible I can find that clip but I just haven't looked yet. A shifter rebuild company might can rebuild it but they took the dual gate off their rebuild form so I have to contact them to see if it's something they still offer. But the prices of $300-400 makes me wonder just what are they offering that's worth that price along with they add more to that price if there is wornout parts along with add $125 to rechrome the shifter. So, with the cost of paying someone to rebuild it, I'm leaning towards doing it myself. Then again, maybe I'll just buy a new shifter but that's expensive too. It's got some surface rust, but after I sprayed it with lube I was able to shift it through the gears. I'm certain if I was able to clean everything up better, it will shift more smoothly. Hmm, just something to think about.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Tough decision...the Dual Gate is a rad setup. Always wanted one for my Z28 when it had the auto in it.

For what it costs to rebuild at some of those places, you could pretty much have your choice of shifters, and your halfway there or better doing it yourself.

 

[SilverJimmy]

I’m pretty sure all the cable and cable hardware is Morse design and is available at any marine/boat shop. I know I can go to any of the ones in my area and most of the mechanics have a junk drawer with many of those pieces in them.

 

[madison069]

Tough decision...the Dual Gate is a rad setup. Always wanted one for my Z28 when it had the auto in it.

For what it costs to rebuild at some of those places, you could pretty much have your choice of shifters, and your halfway there or better doing it yourself.

I do like the dual gate shift concept. Plus it came with the camaro and I always played with it while pretending to drive the car. It does have some slope in the shifter handle. Seems the rivet that holds the handle to the shifter is loose so I need to either install something else beside the rivets to reassemble it or try to hammer the rivet tighter. Also, the hole that a rod fits in is wallowed out. Seems a popular fix is to install a bronze bushing in the hole. So I got some measuring to do. The shifter handle needs to be polished too. I don’t know if I want to re-chrome it but I do know I want to give it a polish at the minimum. I spent 15 mins taking it apart during lunch. Now the messy time consuming part.

I’m pretty sure all the cable and cable hardware is Morse design and is available at any marine/boat shop. I know I can go to any of the ones in my area and most of the mechanics have a junk drawer with many of those pieces in them.

You might be right. I wouldn’t be surprised if all shifter cables were coming from one manufacturer these days anyway. I’m gonna get the shifter rebuilt first and if it turns out good I’ll get the cable from somewhere. I did find a cable for an Oldsmobile that was the same length and same ends as the one that came out of my camaro for $50 and it’s new. So there’s that going for me.

 

[bj383ss]

That is a hard decision. The shifter is an integral part to any hotrod. I have the old Starshifter in the Caprice that is setup to bang through the gears. Love that thing. At the same time I really like the old school look of the Lokar I put in the 64'.

I have never seen the dual gate does it have the ratcheting action on the far right column?

Bret

 

[madison069]

That is a hard decision. The shifter is an integral part to any hotrod. I have the old Starshifter in the Caprice that is setup to bang through the gears. Love that thing. At the same time I really like the old school look of the Lokar I put in the 64'.

I have never seen the dual gate does it have the ratcheting action on the far right column?

Bret

The right side is where you can slap the shifter into the next gear. Suppose to stop in the next gear when you push it forward and go no further. I wouldn’t call it a ratchet shifter. I got a hurst pro-matic2 and that’s a true ratchet style shifter. But it can be interesting for day to day or weekend driving. Also, I think the pro-matic needs attention too as I got it used from a friend long time ago and I have to sometime play with it for the ratchet to catch the gear when shifting from drive to another gear.

 

[Bob Heine]

Cody, like all the automatic equipped '68 GTOs, mine came with a dual gate and it worked flawlessly for the 9 years and 100K miles I owned it. I expect you'll be able to rebuild yours and having it work like new for a fraction of the price for a new one (or the rebuilder).

 

[madison069]

Well, I got the shifter back together. But there is still play in the shifter. Basically there are two metal pieces that wraps around a rainbow shaped piece of metal that keeps the shifter in line when pulling and pushing. Kinda hard to see here.

The other side of the circle bar piece in this pic that the shifter is attached to, you can see the rivet that would hold it.


But it does look good.




So I need to decide how I want to correct that problem. Taking it back apart isn’t an issue. But once I cut those rivets to get the metal guides off, what do I do to correct it to make it tighter?

But basically the handle can go forward and back about 1/4” before it starts moving the cable.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Wow, that turned out great!

 

[madison069]

Wow, that turned out great!

Thanks!

I realized I posted a photo of the plastic trim before I touched it up with a $15 chrome paint pen. Here is one after touch up,

 

[madison069]

So I took the shifter back apart to assess the slack in the shifter guide. After experimenting and trying different thickness of metal, I settled on this sheet metal I had in the scrap pile. After drilling out the river to the bottom of the c-piece I then installed the shim basically and put another rivet in the assembly.



Just these two shims really tighten up the shifter. So i reassembled the shifter and put it back in the car. Not it’s nice and tight with no play before the cable will move.

While I was assembling the shifter in the car I figured why not use the cable I have to ensure it’s the right length. Boy is that cable stiff! Without the cable I was able to move the shifter in gear with a nice even force. Was it alittle tight yes but I think it will loosen up more with use. But with the cable I had to really pull it. I might spray lube down the cable to see if it makes a difference just for giggles.


So I got under the car to install the transmission mount and bracket. Well, looks like I’m gonna have to modify the bracket since it’s not lining up with the pan bolts. Which is weird since this bracket came with the car and was on a th400. Maybe it was just held on with one bolt back then? Oh well that was 25 years ago. Also, I apparently stripped the thread in one of the pan bolt hole so I ordered a helicoil kit to repair the hole. See how this goes without removing the pan.


Once I get the bracket modified and get the bolt hole repaired I’ll make sure it all works and then order the new shifter cable.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Grease that shifter up where your new repairs are and it will last you your lifetime! Glad it was an "easy" fix.

 

[madison069]

Grease that shifter up where your new repairs are and it will last you your lifetime! Glad it was an "easy" fix.

I'm looking for a dry lube to grease the point of repairs, possibly graphite but I do have a can of spray silicone that I use for window guides. I did put a thin coat of high temp grease between the widest point of contact that provides the pivot point between the shifter and the cable but didn't want to smear the grease on other points as they are more exposed. During some research I saw where Hurst used to make a lubricate for their shifters but as time went on, they started to not recommend lubing shifters that are inside cars to reduce the attraction of dirt.

Another thing I thought about while making the shim was the rivets. I am wondering if the current rivets will be good since the original was solid rivets. If the shifter does loosen up at the rivet point, I'll be getting solid rivets for the next repair.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

If it comes down to a no grease situation, you could always put in a poly spacer I guess.

 

[madison069]

If it comes down to a no grease situation, you could always put in a poly spacer I guess.

Hell, I don't know why I over think this, but I could just spray white lithium on the contact point. It's covered up by the console and it's not going to be a daily driver. So just how bad can it really get if I sprayed lithium grease on it?

 

[OutlawDrifter]

Hell, I don't know why I over think this, but I could just spray white lithium on the contact point. It's covered up by the console and it's not going to be a daily driver. So just how bad can it really get if I sprayed lithium grease on it?

Honestly my factory Z28 shifter had white lithium on it when it was removed...so I'm with you, it would probably be fine.

 

[Cane]

Hell, I don't know why I over think this, but I could just spray white lithium on the contact point. It's covered up by the console and it's not going to be a daily driver. So just how bad can it really get if I sprayed lithium grease on it?

I have a '79 Hurst/Olds that came with the dual gate shifter. It had white lithium grease for lube.

The factory cable for it has a plastic piece where it connects to the shifter that would break fairly easily. I ended up making a piece out of steel to encapsulate that mount because I got tired of buying cables.

Luckily they also hooked up the column shift linkage so if you broke a cable you could still shift it by grabbing the ring where the column shifter would go and turn it by hand.

I never used the gate part of the shifter.....it shifted real nice without it.

 

[madison069]

While I waited on some parts, I decided to tackle a garage project. I have poor internet connection in the garage and while looking up parts is a task of walking back up to the house and do the search and then go back to find part numbers if I forgot to get the old part. It just turns into an ordeal that wastes time. So I got the cat6 that I’ve had on standby for awhile and started running the new line by using a dowel rod to guide it through the brick wall of the house to make the connection to the house router.



Inside the house it came out of the hole that the fiber optic cable did. I ordered a split cover so I can make this area look a little better without disconnecting the fiber optic.


Then I started the task of clearing old wires and running the new cat6 on the side of the house. The cat6 cable has UV resistance sleeve on it so hopefully it holds up in the weather.

Nice and neat along the brick wall. This second floor height is for the birds… I’ll have to take the finished pic tomorrow as I didn’t get it. But there’s no droop of cable anymore. That always bugged me. I used fuel line clamp that had a metal band covered with rubber insulation. Secured it with tap on into the grout.

Then I passed the cable into the attic. Seems I keep forgetting the mess of telephone wires up in the attic of the garage. Previous owner must of had 2 phone lines in the garage. Oh and the cable between the buildings were actually telephone cable and not rg6. But here is the mess of telephone wires in the attic.


I’ll get some more pic’s tomorrow, but these are the ones I had for today’s post.

 

[madison069]

Posting live from the garage!

So here are the side of the house after cleaning up the cables and putting a new cat6 in place.

This side I took down the junk wires that was still here.


Nice and neat along this side of the house.

The lines between the house and garage.


I left the telephone distribution blocks in place but cut out all of the extra wires that was not needed. I figured if for some reason in the future I would need them, I have them in place. The telephone wires runs into the house’s main setup. Like I said, this place was a business so there was two or three different phone line systems.



Then I got the new router installed, ran a cable to the tv. Set everything up and on the internet went!



So why didn’t I just install a termination plate in the ceiling? Why didn’t I mount the tv to the wall? Cause I don’t know if this is the long term setup. The tv was free from a friend, just waiting for the remote to get here. So far this is a spur of the moment deal that I wanted to get internet in the garage but haven’t really thought out the layout for where the tv should go. Long term I want to change out a lot of the shelves and toolboxes and so on. So who knows I might need to move the wires. I also will need to put an outlet behind the tv where ever it lands for a permanent home, but for now an extension cord does the job.

 

[madison069]

Got the remote and now got the tv going.

 

[SilverJimmy]

Oh how I wish my head was small enough to tuck my ears into a cap! Lol! Sorry, but I really don’t get that fashion statement!

 

[madison069]

Oh how I wish my head was small enough to tuck my ears into a cap! Lol! Sorry, but I really don’t get that fashion statement!

One size fits all hat don’t fit my head well either. I have to buy 7 3/4” or 7 7/8” size hats to fit my head right.

 

[madison069]

Picked up this Coleman cabinet off the side of the road Friday afternoon. So I hung it up to put the wash towels and microfiber towels in it to keep clean.


Went to a Concert Sunday night, ZZtop and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think they put on a good show!



Monday, I decided to repair a siding at the top of my garage. When the previous owner built the garage, he added onto the garage that was already on the property. This vinyl siding represents the original garage as it's the only all wood exterior frame while the rest of the garage is cinder block. Well, while I was replacing the top vinyl piece since it broke, I decided to go ahead and pressure wash the siding too.

Here is what I started with,


Here it is all cleaned up.

I need to decide how I want to handle the rest of the garage since it's painted cinder block. I thought about cleaning it and scrap what loose paint I can get off and then spray it with some kind of paint. Just not sure what's the best paint is for cinder block.

I modified the shifter bracket for the camaro, I moved the rear hole back so it now lines up with the holes on the transmission pan. I basically cut the hole out with the narrow end of the outside opening off, then I flipped it over, so the hole goes toward the back some more and then welded it back in place. After cleaning the weld up with a grinder and hole file I hung it up to paint it black. Currently it's hanging around still to dry. Should be dry already but just didn't have time to install it.




I also got the transmission pan bolt hole repaired but didn't take any pics of that, just used a Helicoil kit and used the drill to cut the thread for the coil. I used a dabe of red loctite on the new threads to hold it in place. I also installed the missing two clamps on the exhaust and put the header collector gaskets in place so now the exhaust is finished up.

Along with removed the refrigerator out of the back room and placed it outside to defrost it. That block of ice wasn't helping the fridge any, I'm sure.

Other than cleaning and sorting stuff in the garage, that's been about the gist of my weekend. Hope y'all had a good Labor Day weekend!

 

[madison069]

Looks like I'm dipping my toes in the green power tools. a friend has been cleaning out her Brother in Law's storage units and house since he passed a few months back. Same person I got the craftsman totes from as her BIL seems to had a shopping addiction. She still doesn't know why he had all of this stuff as he wasn't a DIY type of person, he was a Cardiologist.

So, she asked if I was interested, and I said yes as I saw those fans and thought they would be a great addition for the boat....

Ended up with 13 batteries, 4 chargers, a spotlight, hammer drill, 2 power inverters to run off the batteries, two fans, a radio, and 3 boxes of unused drill bits. Oh, and 4 more craftsman totes. The area lantern that's on the left doesn't work so most likely I'm going to toss it in the trash.



I'm going to get all of the batteries charged up and put them in one of the totes. My thought is they could come in handy for emergencies situations when power is lost with those inverters anyway. I'll also put the drill to use to see how it holds up.

 

[OutlawDrifter]

I was all Ryobi before I made the switch to Milwaukee, they were good tools and served their purpose.

 

[madison069]

So I got the shifter bracket bolted in, installed the cable in place. Went to shift it with the shifter and it didn’t want to move at all. I’m thinking the cable is either in a bind, something needs to be adjusted or the cable is just too worn out.


I stopped with the shifter for now as I wanted to think about it some.

So I worked on the dome light. I’m installing a 94-200? Mustang dome light in the camaro. Some folks might question it, but I had one in my ranger and I loved the function of the dome light with map lights. So I sat down with an ohm meter and figured out how the light is wired from the factory. Ford does their hot wire as the switch and constant wires on their dome lights, while Chevy uses the ground wire to switch the lights on. So basically I just have to reverse the wiring and put a constant hot on what supposed to be a ground and then install the ground on the hot side of the dome light. A constant ground will go to the map lights switch and a switch ground from the door jamb switches will go to the main dome light. Simple but took a few mins to figure it out.


Also, you see yellow on the board, those are holes I drilled to match the camaro factory screw holes but there is a thin layer of metal that is in the holes so I put cheap plastic drywall anchors in the hole to prevent the screw from grounding out those metal layers.


I trimmed the anchors down after the glue dried.

Then I messed with the wirings to figure out how to route it and then started putting looms over it. I ran out of the 1/4” loom so I ordered more to finish it.

But check out how long the aftermarket company made this dome light wiring. It’s supposed to be like factory and apparently the plug goes into the trunk. There is a orange hot wire that goes to a trunk light. So I’ll play with the routing some more later.


Then I got 2 sheets of sound deadening material on the ceiling and just decided to call it a night. I’ll finish up tomorrow or Friday.


Progress is progress, just feels like one step forward and two steps back sometimes.

 

[madison069]

Oh I sprayed the contact points on the shifter with white lithium grease so I can rule that out.