Louis' 66 Cal-look Build

[louisb]

Nice! Good to see the wheels are back in motion. Will you be using the '67 pan you already started on, or keep this one on it's original?

I will keep this one on its pan. I am kind of funny about things like that. I know where a Manx body is that may end up on the '67 pan.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Good, and so am I

[Sam K]

Good find! I know a few guys in Denver who would love to get their hands on something like that.

[javabug]

Hey congrats on finding a nice car.  You're gonna love working on a solid one. 

[louisb]

And in further news, Jeff "Ugly Duckling" Denham sent me some pics of my heads. The man is an artist.

















--louis

[Harry/FDK]

He's the best !

[louisb]

The '66 is now safe at home in my garage. Man this car has no rust. Should make for a much easier project. I am still busy working on my friend's '71 so it will be a few months before I can get started on it. Here are some pics I took of it in my garage.


























mmm, look at that original paint.






















As you can imagine, I have been pretty excited. Here is what I think the finished product may look like. (Color subject to change.)




--louis

[Jon]

Congratulations to a beautiful project car! Incredible condition!

[Donny B.]

Typical Arizona barn find although it was actually found in an aircraft hanger outside of Wickenburg.  Glad you like it Louis!

[louisb]

Finally got a chance to spend some time working on the '66. I mocked up the speedo and the center gauges. I have a minim-monster tach (3 3/8 w/ shift light) on order to add later. I also need to fill the trim holes in the dash grills and figure out how to clean up where someone hacked up the fuel gauge area.


Nothing like cutting a huge hole in your pristine paint dash:




Speedo:




Guage filler panel which I will weld in later:








Filled Glove box door I had done previously. Its out of a '59 but fits just fine.





Shot of the whole dash:





--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Stock grilles going back in on either side of the speedo?

[louisb]

Stock grilles going back in on either side of the speedo?

Yeah, I have always really liked the dash in the Wocket. Clean, simple but not to plain. The right side grill is out of the same '59 that donated the glove door so no gas gauge hole.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Cool. That's pretty much the same dash plan I have for my '67... except a little different

[louisb]

Spent and hour in the garage filling in the trim holes in the dash grills.







Next up, welding in the gauge filler panel, filling the ash tray hole & other miscellaneous holes.


--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

On the grilles... Make the slots on the top and the bottom meet. It just looks like something is missing right now, just my .02

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Leave the Dash Grills as they are Louis Looks Clean and More factory looking the way you have it why are you filling the ashtray? are you putting switches there?

[cal-look 56]

I think he's leaving the ashtray alone.  Meant the panel over the radio.

[louisb]

Leave the Dash Grills as they are Louis Looks Clean and More factory looking the way you have it why are you filling the ashtray? are you putting switches there?

Yeah I am going to put the switches and lights for the line loc, mag, etc there. The biggest thing I am struggling with right now are what to do about turn signals. I am thinking some small LEDs on either side of the speedo. Just not sure how that will look.

--louis

[Jim Ratto]

looks good louisb. Jeff's heads are too pretty to bolt on, aren't they? Ports look so organic.

cool job, keep me updated.

[louisb]

Jeff's heads are too pretty to bolt on, aren't they? Ports look so organic.

Yeah I still can't believe I have such a nice set of heads. (Or the engine for them to go on.) I have been trying to build this car for 14 years and it finally looks like it may come together.

--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Leave the Dash Grills as they are Louis Looks Clean and More factory looking the way you have it why are you filling the ashtray? are you putting switches there?

Yeah I am going to put the switches and lights for the line loc, mag, etc there. The biggest thing I am struggling with right now are what to do about turn signals. I am thinking some small LEDs on either side of the speedo. Just not sure how that will look.

--louis

Take the Speedo apart and add a light its not hard  LOL  like vw did

[Chris W]

Looks good. I would add lights to the speedo like mentoned. Here is my 914 Tach with oil pressure and gen light added.

[louisb]

That does look nice, but I don't think you can take Autometer gauges apart without destroying them. At least I have not found any way to do it yet.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Leave the Dash Grills as they are Louis Looks Clean and More factory looking the way you have it

If he was going for a factory look he would have left the dash alone...

Putting the switches there sounds like a good idea though.

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Leave the Dash Grills as they are Louis Looks Clean and More factory looking the way you have it

If he was going for a factory look he would have left the dash alone...

Putting the switches there sounds like a good idea though.

Did I hear a Noise coming from the Peanut Gallery?

[louisb]

Spent an hour tacking in the gauge filler panel. Lots of hand filing to get that fit. Going out of town for the holiday weekend so I wont get to do the finish welding until next week.





--louis

[cal-look 56]

That looks awesome.  I think I need to step up my fabrication skills.

[louisb]

Spent several hours in the garage today welding on the dash filling some unnecessary holes. Its moving along but I still have a bunch to do to the dash.

Someone had pulled down really hard on the grab handle and warped the area around the mounting holes so I cut them a little bigger and will fill this in.




Opened up the windshield wiper squarter thingy hole bigger to make it easier to fill.




Say goodbye to the dash vent.




Cut out the ash tray area and from this picture it looks like I did it with an axe. Need to clean that up a little bit. The cigarette lighter and the emergency flasher holes will go away too.







Donor late model dash




vent filler tacked in place.




window squirter hole gone, dash vent welded up and then metal finished. It will need a small amount of filler but very little.







Here I have welded in the gauge filler panel but still need to grind it down and hammer on it a bit. You can see that the emergency flasher and cigeret lighter hole are also gone. I ran out of steam at this point and decided to call it a day.




Hopefully I will get the dash finished up this week. I think I have also solved my turnsignal dash light issue.

--louis

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Hi Louis Looking good but the Doner late dash hah a different handle setup not the same as yours you need a 65,66,67 Doner dash

[louisb]

Hey Shubee,

I am just using the dash for filler material. There wont be any grab handle.

--louis