I like the look of the exhaust tips you used. What are they off of or what type are they? Can’t wait to see more pictures of them.
Steven
They are generic stainless exhaust tips I found at Tognotti’s. They had to be modified a bit to get them to fit. If you look close at the picture you can see that they were notched top left and top right to clear the tank and the spring shackle. I had em notched so they would have a longer profile on the underbelly of the exhaust tip. I figure once they are painted black inside you wont see the notches. They run real close to the tank so I will have to shield the pipes a bit.
That is a tight space but you made it work. I didn’t notice the notches till you pointed them out. I don’t think anyone will notice after you paint the inside black. If they do poke them in the eye with a stick. 
Steven
Yeah, if I think it is too noticeable, I will work out some kind of perforated screen to put in there. I got all of my headlight pieces except for my probe brackets which I have yet to fabricate.
I will probably drop most of it off for powder coating on Monday. I stopped by a powder coater and he was confident he could coat the pot metal without damaging it. So I will take him a scrap grille and get him to confirm before he moves on to the grade A 68 pieces I selected.
Then I am going to drop off some metal work to my welder. Feels good to make some progress. I wish I had all of these metal working welding skills. If I had let things like not having skills get in the way of embarking on this project,…I never would have!
I picked up the powder coating today. The color of low sheen black came out great. For the most part everything came out great. There are a couple of pieces I will may have do again with a new part due to some warping. Good thing is I have lots of cores. Specifically, the driver side headlight door’s chrome grille warped a bit from hanging and/or the door warped a bit. Either way they are not fitting together as well as the passenger side. I may try to have a pair of doors coated without separating the chrome from the door. But all in all I am very pleased considering I knew the risks of powder coating. Surprisingly the main part of the grille came out great with only minor distortion to the thin grille bars. Nothing that cant be straightened out with a wooden spoon. This was what I was most concerned about because grade a pieces are hard to come by. I had everything blacked out including the little headlight trim rings and I think it is going to look great when I reassemble them. Here are some pictures.
Hopefully my metal man calls soon about my other project…
Those parts look so nice, great job!
Very nice!!!
Very nice. I can’t wait to see pictures of everything put back together. A good looking grille.
Steven
Thanks guys. So I tried to gently bend one of the headlight door grilles that was warped. No such luck. I broke it in half! It was surprisingly easy. Well back to the powder coater with another set of doors…This time I think I will have him coat them without taking the chrome grilles off. We’ll see what he says.
It will be a week or so before I reassemble these. I need to do a big batch of hardware with the oil and phosphate. All of the j clips and bolts etc. Then I will be ready to reassemble the halves.
Bummer. At least you’ve all those cores to play with!
“I’m strong to the finish, cuz I eat my spinach…”
I went out into the garage and began looking for some good headlight doors in a pile of about 15 doors and wouldn’t you know it, there were only a couple of 68 doors. Unfortunately, they are not going to get the job done. Just my luck. So I got on the computer last night and ordered 2 grade A doors from WCCC. I also ordered up a set of NOS inner plates to replace the one that got a dent during powder coat. Why do I have the feeling I should have rattle canned the grille and been done with it!
I picked up a vibratory tumbler at Harbor Freight to tumble the bolts before I do the phosphate and oil finish. I have done a couple of batches already. It takes a while but is easier than blasting. This thing is awesome so far. I will keep you posted.
Tumbler note: Do NOT trust it on a counter/bench…had mine running on the counter, watched that sucker for 15 minutes…didn’t budge. Went inside, came back 30 minutes later, it’s on the floor, busted. GAAAAAAAH!!!
Awhile ago I used a old rock tumbler that I picked up at a garage sale cheap - it worked for a few bolts that could fit in it, but that was it. Took an awful long time but it worked ok before the motor went out.
If I needed to do that again Id buy one thats supposed to do that.
I put a sticky tool drawer liner down on the bench because I was afraid it would walk. My bench is level, but maybe I should tilt it towards the wall. It has 20 or so hours on it now. I have noticed it gets pretty hot. I thought it was the same as the one made by eastwood which allows water in the drum, this one is dry only. I don’t know if that would improve performance or make mud because the parts come out with a thin film of dust covering them. This made me think they were not done. After a quick rinse, I was impressed how clean the parts got. I am going to order up the manganese today. I have several more batches to go before I coat em. I want to do as many as possible in one shot.
Dan,
Digging the high level that you obviously are doing your car to. 
Thanks Bob, I am learning as fast as I can. It won’t be perfect but it will be cool.
I received my headlight doors from WCCC today. They are excellent. When they say grade A they really mean it. It is almost a shame to powder coat them but it will make the coating that much nicer.
I spent the day doing the brakes on my daily driver, a 2006 Honda Civic Sedan. Lol that little demon in the background. I even installed a new set of headlights since mine were getting cloudy. If you can believe it, you have to remove the whole front bumper to change the headlamps. It didn’t take long, thanks to a couple of youtube videos on the subject. Probably need to pull the engine to change the oil.
I’ve got a 67 coug with a 2009 civic sedan setup! It’s my work car though. Looking to get a late 80s-92 vw gti or toyota mr2 as a beater for whenever I quit the job. Thought about doing some local auto-cross stuff if I can pick one up cheap enough and upgrade suspension and brakes.
I always liked the mr2, looks like a fun driver.