Needed to start another garage cause my build is so detailed.


here’s part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t seen them yet.


Part 1: https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showcase/getting-the-65-back-on-the-street-part-1.5529/


Part 2: https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showcase/getting-the-65-back-on-the-street-part-2.5551/



3/24/22

so as not to combine my projects, I have been posting in the 4spd garage I created to document the progress of the conversion. I did finish most of it aside if the console so I’ll keep updating this one as I go. I had the time to address the rusted floor and make the patches for it. Here is the link to part 1 of the 4spd conversion: https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/showcase/65-satellite-4spd-swap.5634/


I did get a pair of 67 b body floors from the garage and since this isn’t a full on restoration, I decided to use these for some patches. Not the same contour but made them work.




After tracing out the patch, I drilled out the spot welds and used a cutoff wheel to cut out the bad sections.



Found a little snack inside the frame rails when I removed the floor. Apparently there was a whole bag of skittles stored in there.



Patch panels are trimmed and prepped to weld in



Before welding them in, I treated the inside of the frame with Rust Seal to prevent further rust.



On the passenger side, I used some 16ga sheet metal and made my own patches as it wasn’t too bad. Mostly the bad spots were where the floor met the subframe and the seat brackets.



Driver patches rough welds before cleaning them up



Cleaned the welds and then sealed the welds with seam sealer. Then a nice coat of Rust Seal on the whole floor.



After i finished the floor and painted it, I totally forgot to weld in my subframe connectors. Fortunately I didn’t start putting the interior in. My subframe connectors are from US Car Tool and fit fairly well. I needed to do some minor trimming and grinding to get them to fit correctly.



Once they were trimmed to fit, i scribed the floor and then cleaned it down to bare metal to weld them.



Good thing the interior wasn’t in cause we had a couple fires to put out from the welding catching the new interior paint on fire.



8 hours later, we have two welded im subframe connectors. Still need to grind down the welds, put a layer of seam sealer on the welds and give them a coat of paint to match the subframe.



Now I can clean up the interior….again…and retouch the paint where I welded. Once that is done I can work on making custom brackets for my SRT8 seats.


5/3/22
Its been a little while since I had time to work on her so I finally got some stuff done.

It was now time to fabricate some custom brackets to mount the SRT seats. Given the height of the seats, I needed to make sure the brackets were as short as possible to not sacrifice headroom. When placing the seats in, the two front holes of the SRT seats matched PERFECTLY with the factory seat mount holes in the floor. I ended up using some 1" square stock and some angle bracing to make a bracket to align 3 of the holes. After several measurements we got a nice level bracket that works.


Completed bracket. The seats use the factory hole in the top of the hump of the floor.

Cleaned up the seats and removed all the factory brackets and wiring not needed


Left the carpet sitting in the driveway for several hours to lay out then dropped it in the car. I used a carpet kit from OC Carpets. The contours fit really well and with minimal trimming, it laid out nicely.

As part of the carpet kit, I also ordered the matching 4spd carpet and recarpeted the console.


Here is the 4spd console completed after taking apart two consoles (1 automatic and 1 4spd) and making one nice unit.


Mounted the console in and set the new seat brackets in place to make sure the seats fit correctly with the console


Completed console installed with the new custom shifter and boot installed


Next it was time to tackle the headliner. ***please note that if you dont have patience, then hire an upholstery company to do this. This was a very tedious and frustrating install for me. I marked and removed the bows from the roof and slid them into the liner. Placed the liner up and attempted to reattach the bows and it was not having it. The liner was not straight and would not sit right.


I ended up taking the bows out and using a tape measure to find the dead middle of the bow on each one. I then used a small piece of tape to wrap around the middle of the bow a few times so that I could feel it inside the liner. I then marked the dead middle of the liner with a marker. When I slid each bow into the appropriate spot, I was able to line up the mark on the liner with the small tape that I could feel on each bow


Now I was able to put the headliner up, starting with the rear and using the factory clip then worked my way forward install the the bows. Then I used a small plastic putty knife and slowly started working the edges under the liner trim. Now the fun part was using a heat gun and heating and stretching and tucking and heating and stretching and tucking. Starting from the rear corners and then going to the opposite front corners. Each time pull the wrinkles out while using the putty knife to tuck under the sides.


Finished liner installed and all the trim back in place. A few small wrinkles left but Im certain that once it sits out in the sun for a few hours, it will settle them down. All and all im very happy with how it turned out for my first one. Def saved some money but honestly if I had to do it again, I would pay someone to do it!


I then replaced all the rubber trim around the roof and windows


Installed some seat belts in the rear of the car (the wifes request). This car didnt have any from the factory so I ended up drilling holes and then adding sheet stock and huge washers underneath for added support


Put the back seat back in and mounted the front seats and tightened everything down. Here is the completed interior aside of running a power lead to power the seats


5/9/22
did a few things over the past couple days. Ran a power lead from the battery into the car to give the seats power. Ended up using a breaker and a fuse for extra protection. While I was in there, I cleaned up the wires under the dash and re mounted my gauges.

Went under the car and had to drill a hole through the subframe connectors to re route the fuel line. Once the hole was drilled, I seam sealed the connectors and then gave them a little paint to cover the bare metal. Here is the seam seal.

Fresh paint

Here’s the re run fuel line


After this was done, I filled up the trans, engine and radiator with fluid and fired it up for the first time in 7 months! She started right up and I actually drove it off the lift and down the street. What an awesome feeling! Almost forgot that I had to ground the neutral safety switch so the starter would work.



After going for a quick ride, I found a couple leaks. The reverse light switch is leaking and had to order a new one and the driveshaft was leaking through the pin hole in the yolk.


While I was waiting for the parts to come in, I finished the interior. Replaced the two front armrests.


pulled the door panels off to replaced the window felts


all back together

After struggling with the screws falling out of the armrests each time as I was trying to put them up, I came up with a quick way to hold the screws in place. Masking tape and poke the screws through and they stay in place.


lastly today I added the chrome window trim to the windows. After cleaning them up real good, I used clear gorilla glue in the channel and used painters tape to hold them in place while the glue dries. Once dried, I’ll pull off the tape and use a sharp razor blade to remove the excess glue.


5/18/22
Took the tape off and cleaned up the extra glue. Gave the car a good bath and added some nice floor mats


Took her out for the maiden voyage. 25 mile trip and she did great! Couple small leaks to fix. Got some fluid leaking from the reverse switch on the tranny and one out the little weep hole on the driveshaft yolk.


added a very fitting sticker