CIA Impala Rebuild Project

2/18/18 I knew the tint needed to go.  The back window was peeling as was one of the side windows.  Having removed the tint on my own vehicle years back, I knew the only way to accomplish the task was to use a steamer.  Unfortunately it makes a huge mess and it is easier to do with the windows out that in.  I needed to replace all the window rollers anyway so out they came. Removing the door windows really isn't that difficult.  Once free, I put them on my workbench and removed the tint using the steamer.  Thankfully the tint came off with very little effort as I hoped.  I then flipped the windows over and polished them using my buffer.  No cleaners I possessed was capable of cleaning them.  The buffer made short work of it. At this point I removed the old window slides installed the new rollers.  3 of the 8 were already broken so it needed to be done.  The new roller design is 100x better than the old ones but a real bear to install when installed in the door. Now c

2/11/18 Before taking it for a drive, it must be road worthy.  Had a bunch of safety checks as well as verifying all the fluids are full. With several missing lug nuts, that wasn't working for me.  I torqued all the wheel nuts to the proper value and installed the 6 missing nuts with ones I had laying around. The break fluid was black as night.  With the help of my son, we flushed the brakes until the fluid was clean and no bubbles present. Dan suggested I look at the nuts and bolts holding the front suspension together.  I am glad I did because there was one loose nut that was missing the cotter pin (Dan remembered that one).  I also found one of the control arm bolts was loose. The power steering hoses were not being held in place like they should.  One of the hoses was making contact with the steering wheel when it was turned to the right.  Using the factory brackets, I adjusted them so they were out of the way. Dan specified only Redline transmission flu

2/3/18 There are tons of tutorials on how to install the Z28 cluster into an Impala dash.  Thankfully Dan purchased a tested cluster along with the harness adapter.  It is more or less plug-and-play. After cutting the dash and fabricating brackets to hold it in place, it was just a matter of plugging it in.  I am sure I will have to make some adjustments once the rest of the dash is installed but for now it works great. I think the hardest part of the swap is running the tachometer wire from the PCM to the cluster.  Since I'd dropped the drivers wheel well dozens of times in previous projects, I knew it would be so much easier dropped than cramming my hand into areas I couldn't see. I ran the wire through the existing rubber grommet in the firewall. This actually was a pretty easy thing to do given the wiring was already done for me.  The only real issues I found one of the bulbs was burned out.  No big deal... In order for the oil pressure gauge reading pro