It’s finally warmed up a bit in the last couple of weeks and my backs doing a bit better now so my grandson’s been coming over to give me a hand on the car. We spent yesterday clearance the transmission tunnel for the overdrive unit on the red car (we’ll have to duplicate this on the green car but wanted to see what we we’re in for and needed it done to get everything in straight so I can finish building the motor mounts).

OD 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr


By this afternoon we pretty much had it figured out and the transmission is resting on the USTC 46RH crossmember.

OD 2 by M Patterson, on Flickr

We have a bit more trimming to do and I’ll need to weld some flat-stock in to gain the strength back before we call it good. We were able to adjust the engine bit more. We’re not quite there yet but we’re close to getting the engine and transmission to the sweet spot they will live at.


A while back I had looked at the dash/gauge cluster in the Green car. It might have been OK when the car was mostly on the strip, but left a bit to be desired for something that gets driven on the street on a regular basis. The factory cluster behind the tach actually looks pretty nice, it even looks like they installed new gauges in it…..unfortunately nothing appears to be hooked up.

68 Cluster 1 by M Patterson, on Flickr

Oh well that’s what I built a parts car for. I didn’t mind using this for a basis to an aftermarket gauge cluster. And I could pretty much just work at the bench when my back bothered me.

68 Cluster 2 by M Patterson, on Flickr

I already had the speedometer, tach and 1 ½” gauge trio. I could not find a 1 ½” fuel gauge however and finally settled on a 2” gauge. Although not exactly the placement I would have liked had I found a 1 ½” fuel gauge this is what I came up with.


68 cluster 3 by M Patterson, on Flickr


I’m using the original locations for the headlights, wipers and hazard flashers (plus added a new switch for the fuel pumps) so I needed a portion of the original back plate.

68 dash 4 by M Patterson, on Flickr

I’ve still got a little to do/re-do on it but overall I’m pretty happy with it.

z GC by M Patterson, on Flickr