My Cam Research for the Experts Eye

Cost is always an issue, but being able to make a lot of the one-off parts and not paying for build labor has been a big help. I have more time than money!
 
Front Seat Belts ......

The rear seat has always had three lap belts - I left them in place.
The "new" Saturn bucket seats needed seat belts, so I first looked at options - lap belts, shoulder belts, and using seats out of a convertible that had self-contained shoulder belts. After consideration, I decided to go with simple retractable lap belts. Note that my car is a two-door hardtop with no B pillar, so there's really no good place to install a shoulder belt upper anchor. There are kits out there for the tri-fives to install 3-point harnesses into both sedans and hardtops, but the hardtop installation looks sketchy to me. The shoulder belt is way too low.

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, I bought proper DOT tag retractable lap belts, got them from Juliano's Hot Rods.
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I needed to make outer brackets, so I used .125 steel plate. I first made a cardboard template of the needed shapes - each bracket is comprised of an inner and an outer bracket that were bent as needed and then welded together.
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Here's the inner half of the bracket that bolts to the seat frame which in turn is bolted into a body brace.
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Inner and outer halves clamped together to check fit and alignment.
After welding, the top edges were trimmed down.
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I made a groove in-between the two brackets so I could get a good weld into place.
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Ground smooth, they turned out nice.
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Primered and painted, then bolted into place. I had installed the lower trim panel on the seats to ensure that there was enough space for the seat belt bolting. As mentioned, the brackets bolt into a body brace, so it's a strong installation.
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Front Seat Belts .....

The inside fixed part of the belt was pretty straightforward - the Saturn seats had an anchoring point, so I added a small spacer and bolted them into place. This is the side of the seat that will be against the future center console, so most of the framing will be hidden.
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Outer seat belt bracket installed, this will be the side where the rachet housing installs.
The plan is that the vertical part of the bracket will extend through the carpeting. That bottom seat support rail will also be covered.
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I decided to let the paint cure overnight on the outer brackets before attaching the seat belt, but you get the idea.
The seat belt will be able to pivot slightly to be out of the way entering/exiting the car.
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Miscellaneous .......

I also installed the center cap onto the steering wheel.
It's a larger diameter wheel, but I really like the classic styling so I'm not getting another steering wheel.
I had replaced the idler arm bushing with a complete bearing kit, known as "poor man's power steering". It's actually not difficult to turn the wheels on this non-power steering car even at low idle speed.
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And here's the cleaned up trunk. Nothing fancy, I used spray can bedliner for a texture finish.
You can see the access panel for the fuel pump, the battery box, and the 10 ga flat panels I welded in for additional strength.
I'll get a simple black .25 thick rubber mat for the main area and I will also have a spare tire in there.
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Trunk Repairs .......

Speaking of the trunk, it needed extensive repair.
I'm no pro builder, but my equipment and skills are better than 35 years ago when I first built the car, so I couldn't ignore what needed to be done.
In addition to just looking beat to hell, the perimeter seam was in bad shape and needed proper reinforcing and sealing.

Started with removing the plywood flooring. Funny that even though I had done this many years ago, I remembered small details.
That stuff on the plywood is remnants of glued down carpet padding. As you see, I'm not doing the carpet thing, just textured steel.
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This is what was underneath, a proper mess.
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For the perimeter, I ground out the seam to get rust and deterioration out, also ground down some crummy looking patches I had done.
This was all previously hidden by carpet on the floor and carpeted side panels.
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I made edging for the perimeter seam out of thin gauge steel strips.
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They were bent into place, then welded in.
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After welding fiberglass and body filler were used to smooth and seal the joints. Seam sealer was applied underneath.
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It was months of work before the trunk was ready for the 20 gauge flat panels to strengthen the floor.
The lumps and bumps were also worked down.
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You can see the cut-out for the fuel pump/sender access panel. This turned out to be a great idea, made life a lot easier.
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Interior Body Repairs .....

Very common on these cars - the front part of the wheel well gets rusted out.
Both rear wheel wells were like this, I'm just showing one side.

My first "fix" those many years ago was to cover the damage up with a sheet of steel - not very good.
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Here's the damage.
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I cut out the damaged steel and made my own repair panels, starting with a template.
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New repair panel welded into place. This was the first pass.
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After grinding down the welds I added seam sealer.
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Then painted it over, should be good for the next 30 or 40 years!
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Interior Body Repairs ......

Besides modifications needed for the Saturn Ion bucket seats, I also did repair to the tunnel and to some floor areas.

The interior floor area was solid but definitely needed some help and modification for the new bucket seats.
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The tunnel looked pretty bad. That was my welded in patch panel when I was trying to learn how to weld. More brazed than welded.
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I cut it all out and rolled a new repair panel, welded it into place. This was just the first pass.
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Finished tunnel. That's a template for the inner rail of the bucket seat. In order to keep things level I needed to install cutouts into the floor.
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A few other places also got some weld repairs.
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Bucket Seats .....

As mentioned, the floor needed to be modified for the bucket seat rails, but I wanted to ensure that the new supports also connected to the body braces for strength and rigidity. The new seats also had to be ergonomically correct for different people to sit comfortably.

For each seat.......
After sorting out location and height requirements, I cut out the floor where I needed a new support for the inner seat rail.
This is looking down at the floor cutout, right next to the tunnel. The narrower support is for the seat rail, the wider support is for the driveshaft safety loop and is attached to a body brace. Both were used as seat rail supports.
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Here's an inner rail support. The narrow brace is what you see in the picture above.
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Test fit (about a hundred times).
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Fully installed with seam sealer.20201029_131052_resized.jpg

Here's both sides installed.
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And the underside was sealed up too.
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The seat rails also needed additional supports to get them to proper height.
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I asked a number of friends and family (different sizes, heights) to sit in both driver and passenger sides and see how the seat positions felt.
I wanted to ensure that the seats worked for different people, not just me.

I'm really happy with the final installation. The seats can adjust for forward/back, seatbacks, and height, making them work well for just about anybody.
 
pictures are nice, so few of us ever took or even thought to take pictures of our projects.

I don't see how any serious CAR GUY, can get by without a few shop tools,
like a decent WELDER, maybe a decent belt sander, a DRILL PRESS, and a 20 ton hydraulic press.
 
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Will I did ..... kinda. LOL!

That's not me in the pic without a shirt, that's my friend David and his wife Sharon. We worked together when I was in high school. The TBucket was built at his house in a ONE car garage while I was in school at Okla State Univ. Took roughly two years working on weekends, the car was about 80 minutes away.

Notice the price of $159.95 in the top left corner.

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The car just after graduating from OSU and moved to Houston in 1980 for a job. Loaded it inside a Ryder truck and towed a 1976 Toyota Celica behind.

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Today
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So sorry for hijacking your thread, but I just couldn't resist now that I can't drive the car anymore. Had to take a trip down memory lane!!!
.
 
I'm very sorry ,
you can't drive the T-bucket any longer!:crying::facepalm:
 
Misc ....

Other than driving the car around, haven't done much, but that's ok. My intent is to find any glitches while everything is breaking in.

1. I'm not happy with the shifter operation - I think that the cable is old and binding. Despite careful adjustment, it just doesn't feel that smooth putting it into or through the gears. Sometimes it's not just the inner cable, but like my speedometer cable, the outer sheath seems to take a set that affects the inner cable. I'll probably just replace it, easy enough.

2. This one could have had a bad ending. I had noticed what looked like a bit of clean oil on the intake, turned out to be a slow gas leak at the accelerator pump diaphragm. This was an older part, still sealed in the package, but evidently age may have taken its toll.
Anyway, I ordered another one, not a huge issue to replace, just pull the front bowl.
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Tunnel Access Panel ......

Another one of those minor things that doesn't get done right away.
It's been helpful to be able reach in to the top of the bellhousing to get the hard line situated that runs to the TH400 vacuum diaphragm.
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Cleanup and paint.
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And installed, another detail done.
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Tachometer ......

I'm sure you guys remember these Sun tachs..... this one's been in the car for over 30 years, still works.
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I decided to place it right at the center tunnel just above the other gauges.
All these will be relocated when I make the center console.
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I thought that the cup that holds the tach would be prone to bouncing, so I welded a small leg to the cup.
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I used my favorite rivet nuts to secure the cup to the gauge panel and to the floor, very solid.
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And done.
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Next is cleaning and polishing the original dash trim. It won't be perfect but I don't mind that originality.

After the first of the year I'll start on the interior.
 
Dash Trim Refurbish ....
A long journey!

As mentioned in 2024, the next part of this project was to focus on the interior.
Rather than spend for new trim (that frequently doesn't fit quite right) I decided to use that money towards new interior and trunk carpet - that part later. My car is that blend of restomod and although I've tried to keep a high standard of fabrication, etc., there's aspects of it that relate to it's originality. The dash trim is an original 1957 set and I like it in there, including its imperfections - for me it adds to the character of the car.

However, imperfections are one thing, but realistically the trim was looking pretty sad. I decided to refurbish it as best as I could, figuring that if it all went south I could still pony up for a new set.

Here's what I started with, dull, faded and lots of dings. That grid pattern is paint in the recessed squares which I planned to redo.
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The first thing I did was to work on the dings and dents. I didn't have the expertise to get it all dead smooth, but the end result was quite acceptable. After working on the dings, I wet sanded with 600 and 1200 paper, then polished in two steps with different polishes. The pictures don't really show accurately, but the finish was improved.
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After the pieces were polished I tackled the grid refurbishment. My plan was to paint the entire surface, then lightly wet sand until just the raised grid was exposed, leaving the new paint in the recesses.

I taped off the edges and started with a small section to see how it would go. I used black caliper paint - I like this stuff because it's a very moderate gloss, not flat and not super shiny. The test area was in the lower right of the piece. One thing that I found was that I needed to let the paint cure out for at least a couple of days - the test worked but I could see that the paint gloss needed improvement. In this case I had only let the paint dry for about 4 hours. I also refined my wet sanding procedure.
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Here's a piece masked off and painted over with the black caliper paint.
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Initial progress. Those spots where the paint didn't clearly get removed were each addressed individually.
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I was quite happy with the end results, but it was pretty tedious. Final wet sanding was with 1500 paper, initial wet sanding was with a small block and 600 paper, carefully and lightly, going only far enough to expose the grid.
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Dash Trim Refurbish ......
My version of "dash radio delete".

I decided that for now (or maybe permanently) I won't install a dash radio. Initial game plan is to put it into the center console to allow for more selection of the audio stuff. The current dash configuration - as you would expect for 1957 - is for a radio with two separate control shafts. You can get upgraded versions, but for now I'm not doing audio. If I do get new trim, it's available with and without a radio cutout.

What I decided to do was to make a center cover plate that would also serve as a power outlet panel and be somewhat decorative.

Here's the radio opening that would be covered.
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I started with a template that included positioning for two outer attachment bezels and two center power outlets.
When I wired the car I included circuits for power outlets, so the electrical was already in place.
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One 12v standard outlet and one double usb outlet.
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The cover plate needed to follow the contour of the dash.
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It also needed to fit snugly over the existing dash configuration, note the shaping at the radio shaft holes.
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I found some retrofit radio shaft bezels that were ideal for this panel. They formed the surround for the ss buttonhead bolts that attach the panel to the dash. In the picture below, I used the ignition switch bezel just to show what I was going for - the retro bezels are the same but without any lettering.
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I also thought about the look of the panel in the dash. For me, a black painted panel was too much just sitting there in the middle of the dash.
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I used some 3M brushed titanium wrap to cover the panel and soften the look a bit, make it less "weighty".
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Here's the almost ready panel. In this picture I was just waiting for the retro bezels to show up.
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