The chassis on Graemes car was very rotten in the usual places. Had this been the only issues then it wouldn't have been so bad but there were also a lot of body issues and a rotten windshield frame to boot.

The laborious and unpleasant task of stripping the many layers of paint. This started to uncover some real horror stories.

And this is what we were all waiting for...The specially built 350 cubic inch 430hp small block motor, complete with aluminium heads and serpentine pulley system.

The original windscreen frame upper rail removed and the replacement piece let in.

There was extensive damage to the right hand rear wing, here a new one is bonded into place.

The engine hooked up to the T56 6 speed transmission. at the time there were no off the shelf kits for this conversion so it all had to be figured out. You can see transmission mount needs to be moved further back.

Whilst all this was going on we set about repairing some more of the bodywork. Here the right hand inner fender has been removed for repair.

With the body back on temporarily, we modified a 700R4 crossmember to take the transmission and this worked well for us. We had to figure out how to get the shifter lever through the factory console next.

Once the transmission mounts and linkages were figured out the body was removed for the last time so everything could be cleaned and painted. Looking good!

A close up shot of the shifter and transmission mount, we used a Hurst shifter lever and made our own end for it to bolt to the shifter. The final picture shows the differences between a stock crossmember and our modified tubular assembly.

A close up of the Steeroids rack and pinion steering.

And the rebuilt rear suspension showing the Smart Struts, rebuilt trailing arms and driveshafts

This shows the transmission/bell housing adapter plate and the Ceramic coated headers. I have never been a fan of headers but Graeme insisted on this one....

The engine bay after its final coats of satin black, the wiring looms have been cleaned and repaired where necessary and a new wiper motor installed. You can see here the MSD ignition control box installed under the fender.

And then it was back to bodywork, we spent a lot of time on the headlight fit and they looked superb by the time we were done. The shifter was finished so the hole size could be finalised and tidied up and a retainer made for the shifter boot, the notches in the fibreglass around the tunnel are for J-nuts. 

By now the bodywork is finished. There was a lot of work here. We wound up replacing the RH rear fender, the tail light panel and rear valence, the bonnet, and a door.

Here is the car in primer and blocked, just about ready for topcoat.

And this is what it is all for, fresh in Marlboro Maroon and looking awesome.

So begins the slow process of fitting all the trim, starting to take shape now!

When it was all over Graeme flew down to give the car a couple of days good shakedown to iron out any snags before the long trip back to Scotland, he looks pretty happy!

Part of the shakedown was a photoshoot with Mike Key for American Car World magazine.