* I've started thinking that I ought to try and fit the engine block, bellhousing and transmission into the car and see how everything lines up before I send anything to the body shop. That way I'll know if I need to put any new mounting holes anywhere before the frame gets powder coated. Looking into that, I found that Summit Racing doesn't list any motor mounts for a Mark IV big block in a 1965 Impala. That's strange, because that engine came in that car from the factory. They list mounts for the small block and the W-motor, but not the Mark IV. And they list motor mounts for the Mark IV big block in a 1966 Impala, which are the same as the motor mounts for the Mark IV in a 1972 Monte Carlo, but, the engine mounts from the Monte Carlo won't fit onto the frame mounts in the Impala, so there must be something different there. Of course, there's no guarantee that the mounts in the car now are the mounts that it came from the factory with. Anyway, I decided to order a few other Mark IV-compatible mounts to see if any of them could be made to work (and return whichever ones didn't). I also found some mounts for a Mark IV big block in a 1965 Bel Air, which is weird, because that should be the same frame and mostly the same body as a 1965 Impala, so I ordered those to try them. A bellhousing is on the way, and I guess I better get the transmission on order soon.
* Friday I went to visit another body shop, Miller Streetworks. Looks much more promising than the other one, as far as what I'm looking to have done. I think I'll probably go there. I mentioned my motor mount problem to him while I was there, and he said he had a pair of mounts that should work. He said he'd removed them from another car and had nothing to use them for, so I could have them. I'm skeptical as to whether they'll actually work, but I hope they will because they look a lot more robust than the other options I've seen. And also, of course, they were free. Anyway, I have a few things to do still before I send the car to him.
* This weekend was the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona, and I spent a lot of time trying to watch parts of that on TV and online. This was the race debut of the C7.R Corvette, so I wanted to see that. Unfortunately, it didn't go very well. One car retired with overheating issues, the other car dropped out of contention when they lost 30 minutes changing the transmission. But, a few problems are probably to be expected with a new car, and the overall win and second place went to the Corvette Daytona Prototypes, which also had a terrible debut in their first race at Daytona a few years ago. So, nowhere to go but up.
* This weekend I bought a couple gallons of carb cleaner and some pans and soaked the engine parts that I'd blasted, to try to get all the last gunk out of their inaccessible nooks and crannies. After soaking, I blasted the carb cleaner residue off with Brakleen. This seemed to work really well and I think I'm finally satisfied that they are clean enough to use on the engine. So today I masked them off to get them ready to paint. I ran out of time for actual painting, though, so I guess next weekend will be painting day for that stuff. To get a pan big enough to soak the intake manifold and rocker covers in, I bought a floor pan from Autozone and bent it up around the intake manifold to make it deeper. Here's a picture of how that worked out:
Not real pretty, but it was effective.
* Today I went to Lowe's, and while I was there I found some aluminum straps that look perfect for putting blowout straps over the rear window. More to come on that, eventually.
* Lastly, tonight I watched the movie "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," just to verify that mid-'60s full-size Chevys are awesome.
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