As you can see the updates are now happening once a month, which is understandable based on the complexity of this build.
For those that are purest when it comes to a classic muscle car, I decided to do something unorthodox when it comes to a 1968 Olds 4-4-2; I decided to add a rear wing on, which only became available in 1969 model year. I always thought that they wing took away (in a good way) the slop of the trunk lid. The was a major decision, since trunk lids are extremely hard to find and I would have to have a few holes drilled into the lid in order for the wing to be mounted on. What the hell, you only live once. I also had a nifty idea, in that the head unit that I was installing required a GPS antenna, so I asked if the GPS antenna could be mounted inside the wing so that it would not be showing. I was really not a big fan of having that tiny square GPS antenna sitting on the dash by the window. MMC did some testing and found out the wing permitted signal to come in without any degradation to signal strength.
MMC also asked if I wanted to vertical stripes on the fender, which was an option in 1968. I definitely wanted that.
They sprayed Z-Chrome on the entire body to protect against rust. For those that are curious:
Z-CHROME™ RUST DEFENDER™ bonds to bare metal, fiberglass, aluminum, old paint, and body fillers. Contains a zinc phosphate additive that increases adhesion to all surfaces. RUST DEFENDER™ is a total sealer preventing bleed-through or staining.
For those that are purest when it comes to a classic muscle car, I decided to do something unorthodox when it comes to a 1968 Olds 4-4-2; I decided to add a rear wing on, which only became available in 1969 model year.
John also referenced a high-end shop that could do the installation of some of the electronics. I knew this was not an easy task for anyone. I decided to take a trip to Hagerstown, Maryland and see the shop for myself and speak to the owner. When I got there, the shop seemed like any other custom stereo shop. I spoke to the owner and as we progressed, I told him that I want the wiring done in some specific ways, such as I want connectors soldered to the wires, L.E.D. lighting, H.I.D. headlights with halo and a list of other nits that I wanted to make sure they followed. Trust me, I was not being overly bossy and what I wanted was reasonable and expected on what is quickly become an extremely high-end and expensive build. The owner insisted on doing it his way, which was to crimp the wires, use wiring that I thought was of low quality, and just use H.I.D. lighting and leave the rest as regular OEM wiring. He even got an attitude with me when I insisted that that was not good enough. I was actually floored by his insistence. I later found out that MMC gave him an approximate budget, based on what it might cost them if MMC decided to do the work (electrical is not their specialty and I respect them for outsourcing that). I could only conclude that he wanted to keep as much of that budget as profit by offering to do it his way rather than what the customer wants. When we got back to MMC’s shop, before I could utter a word, John and Rick both told me that they were not going to use him. They saw the attitude as well.
Here is the original email exchange:
