A Small GN Update

Just a little update for today. With the holidays and the blizzards there isn't a huge amount to update on... plus we're waiting for a few key components to move forward.

The first pic in this set is of a stainless bracket for the detent cable, the next pic is spark plugs and 10mm Taylor plug wires. The next pic is new "bumperettes" the first thing that gets hit on the front bumpers.

The next series of pictures is of parts for my braking system.

The next pic is of some of the stainless fuel lines I ordered. All of the coolant lines and fuel lines are being replaced with stainless variants.

The next few pics are of the inner fenders being finished. They look awesome.

The next 2 are of the custom driveshaft I ordered for the car. It's from Denny's and it's a beast. It's their 3.5-inch "nitrous-ready" shaft but in my case will be "boost-ready" :)

THe next pic is the wiring nightmare that Ken's pulled out of the dash. There was a Greddy boost controller and some intricate alarm system (with antennas?!?) that was all pulled out. The wiring harnesses were returned to original condition.

The last few pictures are the start of the interior. The headliner, carpet, steering wheel, etc, are all new. The seats and stuff will be cleaned up but they wanted to get everything in place to make sure I had it.

I didn't have a map/dome light so I ordered that, and the shifter panel had a few holes in it but luckily they're pretty common so also pretty cheap.

GN December Update

November Update (what they did in November...)

The car is really coming along and I've been ordering some of the final touches on the car (interior pieces, battery, etc).

The entire driveline is mounted, the engine, transmission, driveshaft, etc. is all ready to go. The intercooler, radiator, etc is also mounted. The turbo is mocked up on the engine but they did run into a snag. I had ordered a downpipe with external wastegate but it hit my headers and the frame. I have real ATR stainless headers and ATR stainless exhaust for the car, and unfortunately ATR is no longer in business so their products are becoming increasingly rare. The downpipe I bought ended up being a Chinese product with a cheap wastegate anyway. Some of the trusted vendors out there sell some real crap and offer little to no help.

So I had to find another company to make me a downpipe for my situation. With this downpipe I also had them put an oxygen sensor bung on it (for the FAST engine control system) a Tial wastegate, and I'll be using an AMS boost controller.

My wheels came in from CCW and they look spectacular.

GN November Update

This update shows the Spal cooling fans and then some of the front-end components being painted.

The next few pictures are the guys mounting the engine. You can see a few of Ken's other projects in the background.

After the pictures of the door hinges being painted is the pictures of the hood. The original hood I had must have got bent up during one of the times it was moved over the years or something because it didn't line up at all with the header panel. I found a guy that I bought another hood from. He ran a body shop and said that the hood was pretty much perfect and ready to go. Needless to say the pictures following show the massive amount of junk that was used to make it look good and how bad some people are at body work.

The bumpers are shown in the next few pictures. They were bumpers from the parts Regal. Pretty much every person I ever talked to said that you can't use the Chrome bumpers and turn the black. Well Ken's did and they look absolutely awesome. The bumpers were sent off to be de-chromed and then finished at Ken's.

Next few pictures are of the stainless fuel lines, stainless oil coolant lines, etc. Any lines in the car are being replaced with stainless steel lines.

The next few are of the complete set of GM NOS Emblems I found from a guy on the forums.

The next few pictures are of the FAST engine/fuel management system that I got from Hartline. It was put on someone's car but never ran. I'm not sure if he didn't pay his bills or what happened but I got a good deal since it wasn't "new". All of the needed Caspar's harnesses and everything else is in the boxes. It also came with a data logger so you don't always have to have a laptop in the car to log data.

The front dash panel was cracked a bit and pretty gross so I picked up a new one.

The next few pics are of the deep tranny pan I bought. It ended up being a prototype that was shipped to me on accident. It's on it's way back and the correct one is on the way :)

The next pics are pretty close to the current condition of the car. The trunk lid has been painted and mounted and the back end of the car is pretty much ready to go. The doors have been hung and are ready for paint. The front fenders were mocked up. The passenger side fender was a NOS fender and is perfect but the driver's side must have been in a wreck at some point. It was about 5 pounds heavier than the other side and didn't line up right. The fender from the Regal parts car wasn't acceptable either so I had to get another one on the way.

The windshield was replaced and looks great.

I'm starting to see the end of this project in sight, which is a little disappointing. I really love this whole process and I'm sure this isn't the last car that I'll have Ken's build. Most of his customers are repeat business and I know why.