1978 Caprice, the new on-going project! (Yes, I'm still alive!)

[murphmobile2]

Wheels are on!











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[murphmobile2]

Sounds good to me.

Panning to polish up the paint now that it is sanded in 4000?

Nah... I noticed the paint is wearing pretty thin finally. It honestly needs another respray, but it has been about eight years since I did it.

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[87gtVIC]

Sounds good to me.

Panning to polish up the paint now that it is sanded in 4000?

[murphmobile2]

Not much of an update yet, it rained a couple of days ago, went out with some 4000 grit and wet sanded the whole car down while it was raining. The car now has a dull shine, instead of just being dull.

I did fire it up again, even though I haven't moved it yet...

https://youtu.be/T01Ds5PW3F4

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[murphmobile2]

I never even knew they were an option, but once again, GM was getting into their odd ball 80's tech at that point, lol.

I do plan to lower it some too, but for now I'm ditching the rear air shocks and cutting a coil off of each of the front springs. That'll get it sitting right! Damn front end sits up super high!

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[Brown_Muscle]

Good to hear from you! Looks like you've made some nice progress. I think it'll look sharp with those wheels. Now you just have to lower it

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh, that's neat. Probably just an unmarked vacuum gauge. I believe Lincolns had that too, although they used lights; red, yellow and green.

[Tiggie]

So much good space for cool gauges... but 1970’s GM and their MPG gauge! I remember reading about something similar in the owners manual of my mom’s 76 Cutlass. I want to see oil pressure and volts!

[murphmobile2]

So it looks like my cluster is about all the fancy it can get, lol. But... They had an optional cluster with fuel economy on it. I've gotta find one of these now!



I did also finally get my new wheels in the mail, classic black D window wheels! 15x7 and 15x8 of course!





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[DerekTheGreat]

Thanks everybody! I'm glad the old forum is still alive too!

...I'm also not sure a gauge came there on these, each one of those little squares is a dummy light, lol. Maybe it was just for symmetry... I'll have to ask on the Caprice page.

I'll tell you what's crazy about the blue gauges, they don't bother me one bit, but in my other car I have red gauges and I swear they make it harder to focus at night...

Great way to pass the time, these forums are

Yeah, I'd like to know if there was something optional, please let us know what they say back at the other forum.

There are a lot of varying factors between the two cases that are accounting for that. Like maybe the gauge faces that accompany the red lights are white or the letters are. This will cause some of the white to be reflected back toward your retinas, resulting in strain.. My case in point is that you try this: Get a blue light (a dim one) set up with a switch or something. Have an alarm clock with the old school red display plugged in as well. Get that room nice & dark and then sit in it for about 20 minutes so your eyes can adjust to the darkness. After that time has elapsed, look at the red display first. You'll notice your eyes don't strain or hurt/adjust. Look toward the blue light, then turn it on and report back. There's a reason laptops & cellphones have the option to reduce blue coloration at night

[murphmobile2]

Thanks everybody! I'm glad the old forum is still alive too!

I've always loved the wood wheels, I loved it when I had one in my '85 Vic. I wasn't a fan of it in 13" and the 15" just feels right. Giggity. I'm also not sure a gauge came there on these, each one of those little squares is a dummy light, lol. Maybe it was just for symmetry... I'll have to ask on the Caprice page.

I'll tell you what's crazy about the blue gauges, they don't bother me one bit, but in my other car I have red gauges and I swear they make it harder to focus at night.

There seemed to be a little bit of glue under the top too, but not much. Maybe it just seemed like glue, but it ripped clean off lol. No staples either! All that really held it down was all the trim, for the most part at least. Mine had more rust on the sides of the top, the actual roof was fine. I also ground all of the studs off and bondo'd it all smooth.

My new wheels just came in today too! They're rather bland but I'm excited. Had them shipped to the parents since they're both retired, and the lady and I work full time, so picking them up later this week!

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[87gtVIC]

Looking good.

[packman]

Nice!!! Was your vinyl top held in place by the sides; by the top of the window frames; and bound together by staples in the center of the roofline? I see you took off the plastic hold downs at the bottom of the rear pillars. Wish I had done that with my Malibu

On my 1978 Malibu; the vinyl peeled back from the rear pillars. I had enough of it and ripped it off. No glue or anything else like on the box Panthers. Underneath where the staples were; was a lot of rust as the staples wore down the roof metal. Hopefully Chevy did it differently with the B-bodies.

[DerekTheGreat]

He lives and so does the car! Still looking good. Although blue is the hardest on your eyes at night, certainly not a color I'd self apply.

[Tiggie]

The woodgrain wheel looks awesome.

On the instrument cluster, right side. What gauge was optional there. Man it’d be cool to get a tach to fit there.