Underhood dress up inspired by Janschutz

[ko67]

I made some underhood dress up changes inspired by John Anschutz' great 68 coupe. He gave me a bag of stainless flat head machine bolts to use for the fenders. These bolts are mill finish and needed to be polished. John polished his by hand with increasing grits of sandpaper. I resorted to the watchmaker's technique of polishic screw heads on the lathe. My screw polishing set up is made for screws that are tiny. I adapted a dremel and my larger sherline lathe to polish the bolts with cratex abrasive rubber bits and buffing felts. I also purchased and installed a filler panel that fills the gap between the radiator and the grill. Rick (fast68back) has one at it looks great. John has a filler panel that he either made or bought on ebay. The panel I used came from a company called undercover innovations. It is aluminum and is anodized satin black. I added some finish washers that made from 1/8inch stainless spacers that I counterbored to allow the bolts to fit flush. The maker of the panel also says that it can make the car run cooler by diecting airflow to the radiator. I doubt this, but it looks very nice.  The pics below show the lathe setup, a before and after on the polishing job on the bolts, and pics of the bolts installed on the fenders and with the filler panel. Looks nice, thanks to John and this filler panel idea, as well as the bolts.

[67 Fastback]

Looks awesome  :10
Bill

[janschutz]

You Welcome Kevin.  It looks better than mine, seems you took it to the next level.

[silverblueBP]

Nice work Kevin, looks great  :10

[lethal289]

well done!

[blue65coupe]

very clean, looks awesome

[rsalway]

NICE!

[Jonk67]

That looks really clean, I was also impressed when I saw John's car in person, you had a good example to work from.
 
The metal filler and the rubber seal you have above it should help with cooling, to some degree, as it forces more air to go through the radiator vs. over through the gaps you closed off. At least that's what I've read and it appears to do.
Jon

[Midlife]

It must be nice to have a lathe to fool around with...I'm jealous!  Good work!

[AzPete]

It must be nice to have a lathe to fool around with...I'm jealous!  Good work!

Dang....sold one when I left Az. to RV for the rest of life.......

[OlBlue67KO]

 :good  Looks nice and clean, may have to work this into the schedule as well....... :good

[Coleman]

Sharp!  Nice work Kevin.

[BobV]

Looks great!!!

For those without a lathe  :), I polished THOUSANDS (literally!) of those bolts with a cordless drill, sitting in front of the TV at night. I used 2 grades of scotchbrite pads, followed by a little Mother's Mag & Aluminum polish and a soft rag. Chuck the threaded end of the bolt in the drill, and 30 seconds later it's shiny...



 

[Dne']

Darn, the ideas just keep popping up! That's really clean looking! Where did you get the bolts if you don't mind me asking? I suppose a person could use a cheapy drill press or even a drill mounted to polish the heads of the bolts? That looks so nice!!! :10

It must be nice to have a lathe to fool around with...I'm jealous!  Good work!

[dbfire]

Got this off another site awhile back.

The two resources you can use are:
http://www.mcmaster.com/
http://www.alloyboltz.com/

The majority of the body bolts are 5/16"-18 x 7/8" length. Figure on using 100 of these to do most of the car - fenders, underhood, trunk, etc.
For the Export brace, you need 4 of the 3/8"-16 x 1" length bolts.
For license plate and some of the front valance bolts, you'll need 1/4"-20 x 7/8" length.

I used 18-8 stainless steel, as these are non-structural body bolts. A dab of anti-sieze on each never hurts. The bolts themselves are "Flat Head Socket Cap Screws". For the bolts, Alloy Boltz is the better resource - he can sell them to you polished or unpolished. PLUS, he offers the correct 7/8" length for the 5/16-18's. McMaster makes you choose either 3/4" or 1" (I found a mix worked best, as 1" was too long for hood-to-hinge, and 3/4" was too short in other places!) Mcmaster.com only offers unpolished stainless - you CAN polish them yourself with a drill, scotchbrite, and polishing compound. Not hard to do at all.

Here's what I used:
1/4-20 x 7/8"
Alloy Boltz PN # 25SF87
Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A541

5/16-18 x 3/4" - Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A581
5/16-18 x 7/8" - AlloyBoltz PN # 31SF87 (PREFERRED)
5/16-18 x 1" - Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A583

3/8-16 x 1"
Alloy Boltz PN # 37SF10
Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A624

For the Countersunk finishing washers, I STRONGLY preferred the Nickel-Plated Brass ones from McMaster.com. They offer stainless, but the nickel-brass is lower profile with a better appearance. You WILL NEED a finishing washer with each bolt, as they have countersunk heads.
Part numbers are:
1/4" - 92922A029
5/16" - 92922A034
3/8" - 92922A035

For the Whizlock nuts (aka Serrated Hex Nuts), once again Mcmaster.com is the preferred supplier - you'll want 20 of the 5/16-18, and 4 of the 3/8-16 per car. The 3/8 are used for the export brace, while the 5/16 are for the outer shock tower cover and horns.
5/16-18 - 93776A441
3/8-16 - 93776A461

[garner67]

WoW, Kevin... you do have the patience and attention to detail of a watchmaker.  Nice work!!!

Oh, and dbfire, thanks for the nice bolt/part number breakdown.

[KBMWRS]

SWEET :10

Very nice clean look. :10

[Dne']

yes, thank you!!!

Got this off another site awhile back.

The two resources you can use are:
http://www.mcmaster.com/
http://www.alloyboltz.com/

The majority of the body bolts are 5/16"-18 x 7/8" length. Figure on using 100 of these to do most of the car - fenders, underhood, trunk, etc.
For the Export brace, you need 4 of the 3/8"-16 x 1" length bolts.
For license plate and some of the front valance bolts, you'll need 1/4"-20 x 7/8" length.

I used 18-8 stainless steel, as these are non-structural body bolts. A dab of anti-sieze on each never hurts. The bolts themselves are "Flat Head Socket Cap Screws". For the bolts, Alloy Boltz is the better resource - he can sell them to you polished or unpolished. PLUS, he offers the correct 7/8" length for the 5/16-18's. McMaster makes you choose either 3/4" or 1" (I found a mix worked best, as 1" was too long for hood-to-hinge, and 3/4" was too short in other places!) Mcmaster.com only offers unpolished stainless - you CAN polish them yourself with a drill, scotchbrite, and polishing compound. Not hard to do at all.

Here's what I used:
1/4-20 x 7/8"
Alloy Boltz PN # 25SF87
Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A541

5/16-18 x 3/4" - Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A581
5/16-18 x 7/8" - AlloyBoltz PN # 31SF87 (PREFERRED)
5/16-18 x 1" - Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A583

3/8-16 x 1"
Alloy Boltz PN # 37SF10
Mcmaster Carr PN # 92210A624

For the Countersunk finishing washers, I STRONGLY preferred the Nickel-Plated Brass ones from McMaster.com. They offer stainless, but the nickel-brass is lower profile with a better appearance. You WILL NEED a finishing washer with each bolt, as they have countersunk heads.
Part numbers are:
1/4" - 92922A029
5/16" - 92922A034
3/8" - 92922A035

For the Whizlock nuts (aka Serrated Hex Nuts), once again Mcmaster.com is the preferred supplier - you'll want 20 of the 5/16-18, and 4 of the 3/8-16 per car. The 3/8 are used for the export brace, while the 5/16 are for the outer shock tower cover and horns.
5/16-18 - 93776A441
3/8-16 - 93776A461

[blu67]

Looks really nice.