I only hope some time in my life to have both the budget and the garage space for this kind of project.

 

You should really have it bead blasted to bare metal instead of trying to sand it down. It will be a lot easier and give you a very nice base to work worth. Also, remember not to let it sit with bare metal for very long (no more than a day or two). Surface rust will start very fast and be invisible until two years down the road.

 

Ive got a heat foil thingy that Im putting on the underside of the tranny tunnel. LS1 produces more heat than a rotary (2 exhaust pipes instead of 1)


Updated pic -




And if anyone is wondering how Im gonna know how to bolt everything back togehter....

 

A couple of points.

If the LS1 gets better mileage than the rotary it puts out less heat. Burning less fuel per mile means there is less heat to get rid of.

You can order new stickers from the dealer for the door jamb.

Sand blasting can warp the panels if you use the wrong type of media. You also need to becareful to not fill up all the places in the body with sand (beads, whatever) you can't clean it all out.

Chemical stripping is very messy and strips paint off in places you can't respray. It also leaves a lot of edges to feather.