71SSclone

The pinion seal can be tricky (Disclaimer....Ive never done one on a Chevy, but use to be a Ford master tech and have done bunches of Fords) You have to get the pinion preload correct. Once we had a tech sell a pinion seal job (he was 1 step above a quick lube tech) I walked by and he already had it apart, I asked "did you mark the pinion nut and flange to the pinion threads?" He looked at me like i had 3 heads. "Nope" He just hammered it together with an impact. Guess what came back on a wrecker 3 days later? Now it needs a rear end overhaul, at the shop's expense.

Im going to do this upgrade also, have UMI rear suspension kit and a Moser rear end cover just waiting to be installed. Yours looks very clean underneath. Good job!

Can someone tell me what the numbers mean on the engine? Or point me in the right direction to decode the casting numbers on my 454. I figured it was just a standard 454 with rectangular exhaust ports, but it has HI-PER PASS cast in the back of the block on the passenger side, so now I’m curious.

Pics

Making some progress over the last few days. Engine and trans are installed. We are now working on the Vintage Air and the new American Autowire harness. Installed the 1-1/4 front sway bar. Waiting on the new rear suspension and other parts to be delivered.

Just noticed that my reputation score under my profile has hit 454!! What a great number!!

I thought about using glue, but was afraid the vapors might leave a haze on the inside of the new clear lens. I'll try a soldering iron. Using heat would replicate the factory method.

Now we have some color.

Now I’m restoring the instrument cluster. Disassembled the whole unit, painted the white behind the gauges. Didn’t realized the clear lens is mended to the gauge housing. I had ordered the lens, but not the housing. Quick search of Summit Racing and I had the housing. Has anyone replaced an instrument cluster lens? Not quite sure the best way to replicate the factory procedure. I have a soldering iron with a wide tip, bit of anyone has suggestions I’m all ears. I also painted the inside of the housing light blue to match the factory housing. I thought doing that would give the gauges a blue tint at night.

Next step was installing the radio, center vent, and A/C controls. Kind of pointless since I’m going to install Vintage Air, but I wanted the dashboard to be back together before modifying it. Sorry, no pics

More pics of putting the instrument panel back together. I bought new register vents, but had to swap out the vents in the housings for the left and right. After i cut the housing apart w/ a dremel, went to swap the registers, and the bushings were too small. Had to peel the bushings off the old registers and glue them on the the new aftermarket registers. Then epoxied the housing back together.

Nevermind. After taking it apart and reassembling a few more time, I got it to sit flush. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but it's all good now.

I bought a replacement clock from The Parts Place. After installing it on the metal instrument cluster backing plate, the new plastic housing doesn't sit down flush. So I tried the old plastic housing, and it also doesn't sit flush. I removed the clock and reinstalled the old non-working clock. Both the new plastic housing and the old plastic housing fit properly. Looks like the new clock is about 1/8" taller than the old clock. I'm thinking I could either shave down the round hole where the clock goes, add some washers to space the clock back from the plastic housing, or reinstall the old clock and just not care that it doesn't work. I would like to hear if anyone else has run into this, and what a recommended solution would be.