Truly amazing!

Jason

Rick, whats wrong with all the original glass that makes it unrestorable? also repo glass sometimes shows bright spotting when the sun hits it giving away its authenticity. its especially more noticable if your are wearing sunglasses when you see it. In this sitution you might want to consider finding original survivor glass even if you have to snap up a survivor malibu to borrow it from including the door panels which repops wouldnt suit this build correctly

Rick first you guys are doing an amazing job and thanks for saving this very very special car! Couple questions just for my knowledge the primer they used before paint is it black or dark gray and is that what would have been used from the factory? The over spray of red under the hood is that also factory correct again just for my own knowledge Merry Christmas!

The black primer you saw early on was epoxy primer to seal the body before any work was done after it was media blasted. The correct colored Rosette primer was used in the interior and underside floor pans just like the factory used. The overspray around the edges of the hood is very accurate and we see it all the time.

The glass was in bad shape due to many issues and three pieces were actually broken. If i could find mint used that would work but in 30 years of collecting glass I seldom if ever find mint glass.

Rick Iv got a set of door glass and quarter window glass that’s been in the garage since 1978 from a Kansas built 69 ss chevelle! If u think it might be something your interested in I could get it down and look at it and get pictures.

Is the car factory safety plate clear glass? or soft ray green tint?

Chevyman. Thanks for the offer but Leeds cars use LOF glass and Baltimore cars used PPG so that will not work.

It is all clear with no tint on the windshield. The fact that it is clear also makes it nearly impossible to find mint glass.

Thanks to Jason (SuperNovaSS) for having a keen eye and helping me procure a very hard to find throttle bracket for the Chevelle. These are like hens teeth to locate so I much appreciate you notifying me and helping me to get it bought. Merry Christmas!

Update; Of course the VERY day that the bracket showed up I was over in our warehouse climbing on the pallet racks when I put my foot on something in the rack designated for the Yenko. Low and behold, my original bracket from the car that I do not even remember finding! Now I have two. Alas, I was able to work out a deal with Phil Woj for some desperately needed parts and so I shipped off the throttle bracket to him in exchange for those pieces.

Phil was also kind enough to sell me his original NOS accelerator cable as my original had a kink right where it attached to the gear reducer. I little heat stamping of the correct markings and we were in business.

The pleasure is all mine Rick. I'm proud to have a small part in helping your bring this car back.


Merry Christmas,


Jason

Really neat seeing how quickly this is coming together. Gonna be killer.

Long weekend! After considerable research, help from Grady, Phil and Mike as well as a few others I was able to determine what actual colors our stripes were originally. Going back over several photos of the original and comparing them to others that sent me photos I think I got it right. Off to the paint store to find the correct color paints, purchase the correct width brushes and then making a jig I was able to replace the old incorrect stripes I had recently put on with the correct colored stripes. Since doing this I deleted my old posts so there would be no confusion. I also looked over the photos very closely and came up with what I felt was correct for the green check mark and yellow "M" or "3" that I found on our shaft.

OMG , I am copying your jig. Did Annie turn the drive shaft :hmmm:

Mike

She spun the tire which in turn spun the shaft. ;)

That's simply art right there! Spot on accurate. I'm going to add the orange stripe to my shaft....KC/L78/M21.

I looked up the part number ad added that. I had no visual evidence of it ever being there but since it was an ink stencil, I doubt it lasted very long.
I used a blue ink marker to lightly add the "blueing" of the welds, then cleared.

Next came the interior heater box. What appeared to be a very rough box actually blasted up quite nicely with a minimal amount of bodywork. Next we plated the brackets or brought them back to their natural finish depending on the bracket, painted the housing, applied new foam to the vent door, painted and reassembled it. The 982 was added only because I almost always see a number grease penciled there and it always matches the one that is hand written on the top left corner of the buildsheet. This is the same number we found on the fuel tank. We hope to retain the original 69B dated heater core as well.

Hopefully people look at these photos and understand why quotes to restore these can be expensive as they are very time consuming (to do them right).

Next was the outer heater box. Fairly straight forward as all that was required was blasting, minor body work, cleaning, prime and paint. The bird cage was glass media blasted. I have found that more often then not these heater core covers were dipped in lacquer. Since this is too large to dip I have to spray them and use a fairly high gloss same as the factory. The heater motor (original dated one) was stripped and painted semi gloss black using new dull zinc bolts to attach it. I have found the sealer to usually be grey in color even though it looks black from staining so we now always replace these with grey sealer.

The heater control was in pretty bad shape and required a full restoration (we do that on every car anyway) so this took some time but well worth the efforts.

The last part of the puzzle was the heater control. This can often be tough especially if the clear cover plate is damaged as the replacement ones suck! I was able to clean and then very carefully polish ours and brought it back to original. The rest of the unit was media blasted, the arms replated and cables cleaned. The black backing boards are never in good shape and have always shrunk so I replace mine with some similar material I found at Micheals, cut using the original as a template and replace. The chrome slider knobs sometimes clean up or I replace them with my dwindling supply of originals.

Rock on Rick. You are doing a great job on this car. An inspiration to all of us.

Phil W.

You and you're team are doing a fantastic job, love the pictures to document the hard work!

Drive shaft
 

Hey Rick, did they teach paint striping in your Restoration school, or did you just wing it? Also about what rpm was that? LOL :worship:

Is the inner heater box a textured finish? I know I’m comparing to a camaro again but just curious how similar they are on finishes and markings. I’m not expecting any real findings as I’m sure it’s all been pounded to death by restorers; I’m just trying to educate myself a little on the chevelles.

I spray on a few coats of a very flat black followed by a dry spray to give it a rough surface. It is as close as I can get to the original finish. It is very similar to what I have found on Camaros as well.

Spent the whole weekend at the shop making sure I keep on schedule. Jamie and crew are meeting their deadline on the body and paint so I better not fall behind on my end. Annie and I completed the restoration on the e-brake pedal and brake/clutch pedal. I was very fortunate that both were in excellent condition so after much soaking in Evapo-Rust it was time to do the fine detail and finish work.

The e-brake pedal was pretty much straight forward and just a simple restoration. The pull handle was a little more difficult. The reproduction handles are wrong and though NOS handles are not impossible to find we have been trying to retain as much of the original parts on this car as is possible so we decided to restore the original. Much sanding, buffing and paint filling later I think it turned out ok. The main housing is treated bare steel and NOT painted. The pedal was dipping in black lacquer just like was originally done.

:)

Dan

The clutch/brake pedal was a little more involved and took a little more time and effort. The same process was used in that we soaked the assembly in Evapo-Rust first, cleaned with hot soapy water and then sealed it. The pedal assemblies were blasted and then sealed after first dipping in black lacquer paint. The inspection marks were all replaced exactly as found. Many hours restoring this part which again is why restorations are expensive if you want them done right.

After posting these pictures a very observant reader pointed out to me that the original clutch/brake pedal pads are different than these, what I thought were very nice reproductions and were missing the boarder around them. So now the search is on to find mint original or NOS brake/clutch pedal pads with the small boarder around them. This is the kind of critiquing that I promote on this site as it is how we all learn so thank you for that input.

:)

Dan

The steering column was done over the coarse of last week at night and on Christmas morning. These usually take us about 8-10 hours if they are in good shape. I can buy these restored for considerably less money from some outside sources but again, I would prefer to do ours and our customer's in house. Everything was duplicated as found including paint markings and decals. Note the ignition switch has the red painted mark on it which I rarely if ever see on 1970 Chevelles. Like all parts of our restorations, we rebuild EVERY component even the electrical switches are disassembled, cleaned and relubed.

:)

Dan

As my grandfather used to say in leu of swearing:

HOLY-SNAPPEN-OLE-SNAP-ON-A-VICH!!!!

Rick, these parts are so similar to my Cutlass, I plan to restore each item as time goes by a few per winter, column, emergency brake, etc.

Amazing!!!

Ryan W31

Yes, Similar....but different.

Dan

Super job Rick! Since you asked, my KC car had a blue insp. mark on the clutch pedal, and a purple daub on the upper brake pedal. Appears all else is exactly as you've pictured.
On the column, those aluminum washer inserts that have the yellow crash indicator thingys, did you squirt something in there or use a yellow paint? Asking because if I was to assume, I'd say they were filled after the column was installed to get the position correct. I've seen that yellow mold spew out between the aluminum washer and the metal bracket. Didn't know if there was anything available to duplicate this???

Jerry

The yellow injected plastic was actually used to hold the shim mounts in place and designed to break loose in case of an accident. When I restored them I heated them up and pushed the plastic out, restored the complete unit and then injected hot melt plastic back into them to hold them. I then had to paint the yellow over the plastic as I could not find yellow hot melt. These were originally injected as a unit before they were installed on the column.

Rick, I noticed that you cut out the seal with an exacto knife. Here is something that I found very interesting and might save you a lot of time, and make higher quality parts too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hejUzvfGuY8&t=286s
My wife actually got one of these for Christmas. I had found this video a few weeks earlier and I was excited when I found out she was getting one. When I mentioned how useful it would be to me she got that attitude and said that I would not be using it. :no:

69 Chevelle Restoration...
 

Rick...not that you need to showcase your skills...but, this incredible story on the Yenko restoration is the best brochure a business like yours could have. Your attention to detail is amazing...and I know a certain gal is helping it to make it truly "one of one' :wink:

Karen and I send all the best to you and Annie for a happy and healthy 2019 :beers:

Tom

I restored the steering column intermediate shaft months ago but thought now would be a good time to post it since I restored the column. The shaft was in pretty rough shape. Somewhat rusty and collapsed from the accident so I had my work cut out for me. I disassembled the entire shaft, determined the finishes that were originally on it, media blasted it and the restored it. I had to reinject the plastic into the shaft after determining the correct length. The original owner has sprayed a lot of the engine compartment with black spray paint so much detective work was used to determine what was original and what was spray canned. After that was done it was all finished and reassembled.

Lovely images :)

Dan

Rick that shim or retainer that holds on those 2 square blocks does anyone reproduce these! Very nice job btw and thanks for taking the time to share your build with us!

I have never had to replace one of these so I never checked. I have to believe these would be fairly simple to find however. If you need one i can check my parts bin when i get to the shop and see if i have an extra, just let me know.

Yes I do need one! When I pulled my black 69 apart it had broke in half in the accident it was in!

chevyman, I have only 1 left. PM me your address and I will put it in tomorrows mail. Happy New Year.