WHEW!!!!!!!! The last few weeks have been a blur of activity. I'm very excited to share this update of Project Sting Ray. As of Sunday, the body is on the chassis, and it looks like a car again!!!!!



Ok, so here's the sequence of events. Starting a couple weeks ago, here is what I had.

Bob and I spent a night and put the trailing arms in the frame pockets. That actually went pretty quickly. It is essentially only one bolt per side. The shims took a little pounding into place, but it think we got it.



Here's a close up view of the passenger's side trailing arm. The only part that was carried over from the original chassis was the parking brake pads. They had plenty of material left of them, so we just shot them with some epoxy paint and put them back in the car. Otherwise, the entire trailing arm assembly is brand new.



Here's a top down view of the TA.



Here's a picture of the front spring. In 1967, they had a part number tag on the spring and a two letter code sticker on the shock. These tags and codes were different between the base suspension and the upgraded suspension used on the big block cars.



Here's a shot of the body sitting over at dad's house. I did a bunch of cleaning underneath the body as well as painting some parts to prevent future rusting. You can also see the original wiring harness sitting on the table next to the body.



I had a nice day of weather, so I chose to paint some parts. Here is a before and after picture of the glove box door. It had some scratches on the black trim, so I painted it with SEMS brand Interior Black. It was a PERFECT match.





Ok, back to the chassis. Here is the last picture before we filled the diff with fluid. Originally the car came with a 3.70 rear gear ratio. For ease of street driving, I chose to step down to the 3.36 rear gear ratio. I hope I don't regret that decision. It is not fun to get the diff out of these cars. In this picture you can see the brand new posi clutch pack that was ordered for the car.



So, during another long day of work, we put the diff and the rear spring in the car. We also put the strut rod plate and strut rods in. The spring isn't original to the car I don't believe, but is a correct GM style rear spring. The strut rods are original, as is the strut rod plate, the diff housing and the strut rod plate bolts.



Here's a nice shot from that same night, just after we put the diff into the car.



And here's a shot looking towards the passenger side TA. You can see the new spindle real well here.



Now we're up to the day before the body drop. We spent 12 hours on the car that Saturday. Here you can see we've completed the front end of the car, with the painted original sway bar and new bushings and original clamps. For safety and reliability, we used new tie rods and end links, and a new steering shock.



Here's a different angle on the picture from above. You can see we're getting close to hooking up the rear end. Hanging over the frame are the anti-squeek straps for the gas tank.



Mid day Saturday, July 25th, 2009. The chassis is BACK DOWN ON THE GROUND ON TIRES!!!!!



Getting the chassis loaded up for the ride over to my dad's house, where the body is patiently waiting.



Getting close now. The chassis and the body are back in the same building. After this picture was taken, we detailed the chassis with all of the factory correct paint marks on the spindles, half shafts, steering box, etc.



Here's a shot from the rear showing the new gas tank with a printed picture of the original tank sticker.



A closeup of the tank sticker.



Back at home, my garage looks REALLY empty without the chassis.



So, here we are on the day of the body drop, Sunday, July 26th, 2009. My dad's 2000 red coupe in the driveway, the 67 chassis on the left, and the 67 body in the middle stall.



Here is the big event, the body coming down to meet the chassis. I had a bunch of great guys helping me that day. Basically, there was one guy at EACH body mount point. Everyone was watching for the body to clear the chassis. Everything went VERY well. No one got hurt, the body and chassis were not damaged, and it fit just great. I was very pleased. The whole event only took 45 minutes. But we spent a lot of time looking over the chassis and chatting.



AND DONE!!!!!!!!! Well, at least the body is on the car. On to interior, headlights, wiring and engine bay plumbing next. A friend of mine shot a video of the whole event. Once I get that I'll post it as well.



And finally, the engine in her "new" home.