After I got all the rust repair done, I reinforced the throttle pedal area with a heavy plate. It was already cracked and I was adding a Lokar Midnight series pedal and cable and I learned, the hard way, that the pedal stresses the metal and cracks the thin sheet. I added the same pedal to my '66 Chevelle a couple years before and had to add the plate after the fact.
Then I stripped the firewall bare and seam sealed it. Then I applied the Mastercoat rust encapsulator and let it dry for 2 days. It was still soft after 48 hours and was supposed to be dry in 24. I thought it would cure with their paint on it, so went ahead and shot that on. 5 days later, I scrapped and sanded the gummy crap off and started over, cleaning the metal until it was sanitized and tried the encapsulator again. It never did dry, so I got that off a second time and ordered my usual SPI epoxy urethane primer and shot it with that. All in all, I sanded that firewall 5 TIMES before I got a product that worked.
Finally !! Ready to assemble.
I went to put the e brake pedal assembly back in and couldn't like this...
Gave it crushed glass bath in the blast cabinet and then painted it with the SPI, along with a "few" other things my perfectionism got the best of me on.
I installed the subframe and suspension/steering systems in preparation for the new engine and transmission.
I upgraded to power disc brakes, Global West upper control arms and a Hotchkis 1 1/4" sway bar.
The car was built with a pg trans and I don't really care for automatics in muscle cars. I had a Muncie sitting on a shelf for about 8 years and "thought" it was an M20. I needed to replace the main case and rebuild it, so I got it down and it is an M21. I had bought all new Italian gears for it many years ago, and obviously forgot which trans it was. I still needed to buy the complete bearing kit and assemble it.
I had bought a, rather hard to find, Hurst conversion shifter for '67-68 Camaro's with console a LONG time ago, anticipating this swap.
