Here's a picture of me in my 1973 Chevelle Malibu somewhere around 1995. I've had this car since 1985 (My parents bought it for me when I was in High School). When I moved to New England, the motor did not survive the first winter (I didn't need anti-freeze in California!!!), so it sat for several years. I worked on it now and then over the years, but I've only really started to work on restoring it for the past year and a half. I only work on it one night a week right now, as it's over a friend's house, and he lives 28 miles away from me...
Anyways, it's basically stock, with a slightly built 350ci V8, TH350 trans, and stock rearend. About 5 years ago I put a rebuilt motor in that I bought from an acquaintance. At that time, I also 'built up' the motor a little bit - I installed a Competition Cams '1/4 Race Cam' and a set of Roller-tipped rocker arms and some M/T Aluminum valve covers. I also slapped on a Corvette High-rise manifold and a Holley 650 Vac. Secondary Carb. For the exhaust, I bought an inexpensive set of headers, and had dual 2" galvanized exhaust installed with 'Turbo' mufflers. I installed an Accel Super-Coil and 8mm Silicone wires. For the tranny, I installed a B&M Street&Strip Shift kit. (Now she chirps the tires when she shifts! - Cool!)
It sat in my driveway for several years because I didn't have the money to work on it. Then one day I discovered that the floor inside was full of puddles, and worse yet - that they had been there for some time, as when I took the carpet out I discovered that the floor and trunk were rotted with 'pinholes' everywhere. ARRRGGGHHH! This car was from California - it didn't have ANY rust before!!! Now I had this to deal with. Man, was I ticked!!!
The seats were all full of mildew and smelled horrible. I researched the problem, and found that my windshield seal had dry-rotted, and when it rained, it was dripping in a little bit at a time. So, I put in a new seal in the windshield (and back window too). Then I ended up ripping out the seats and carpet. The seats were trash now, so that's where they went. The carpet was tossed, as was all the soundproofing. The car sat for a while, and I occasionally went to the parts yard to look for parts when I had some extra $$$. On one of those trips, I picked up a rear seat in near-perfect condition. It's red, but hey - I can always get it re-upolstered, right? I picked up a pair of power bucket seats from a 198? T-Bird for the front seats (I know, Ford seats in a Chevy should be a Sin, but hey - it's not like I'm putting a 351 in, now is it?). The original seat was the full bench seat. I didn't want to put in another bench seat - I wanted bucket seats. I remembered the seats in my best-friend's parents' car were awesome, so when I sumbled upon an 80-something T-Bird in the junkyard with the same seats in great shape, I grabbed them! For less than $100 I had a matching pair of power bucket seats. They need to be re-upolstered as well (more to match than for repair), but that didn't bother me - they work 100% and they are in good shape.
I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop here for now. In the future I'll add more pictures...
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11/27/2001
OK... I've been working on my car for a few hours a week the for last year or so. I was going to buy replacement floor/trunk pans and install them, but my 'everyday' wheels were getting pretty bad (an S-10 Blazer with 176K miles!), so I ended up trading it in for a new vehicle. The money I had put aside for floor pans ended up being used to purchase my new truck. Oh well... I'll get them purchased sooner or later!
In the mean time, here's what I've done:
The dash pad was in horrific shape. Years ago, when I was young (and stupid...) I had 'fixed' the dash pad cracks with some Bondo and spray paint. Well, 9 years later, it had cracked even worse, and the spray paint had chipped up everywhere. Oh well - a lesson learned. A friend of mine found a 1976 Chevelle sitting in a field, and found that the owner was going to turn it into a stock car. I could have the *COMPLETE* dash for $20!!!! WOW!!! It was in excellent condition, with no cracks at all. So, I spent an hour or so taking the dash out of my car so I would know what I was in for when I went to take the dash out of the other car. We went to the 'site', and I took out the dash. It was then that I started to look at other things that I wanted... Like the Factory Power Windows! So, $20 more and I had both power window motors, switches, wires, etc -- the complete factory harness! AWESOME!
Once we got back to his garage, I noticed that the dash wasn't quite perfect - It was originally RED, and had been painted blue, and it wasn't painted very well. So, for the winter months, I carefully worked on restoring the dash to a nice dark-blue. I also bought some new guages from people on eBay.
With the dash out, I found that a family of mice had once inhabitied my heating ducts while the car sat for several years. Well, things didn't smell too great, and they had packed quite a bit of 'stuff' in the ducts. So, I ended up removing the complete heater/ac system and restoring it. Everything got dismantled and cleaned. The metal diverters got wire-brushed and sprayed black. It looks like new again. Now I'm designing an computer-controlled system for it using a microcontroller. I'm going to replace the vaccume motors with RC Servos, and control them with an OoPic microcontroller and an LCD. I've got all the parts, I've just got to find the time to put it together...
I'm also going to replace the 'idiot' lights with an LCD display that will show various stuff - IE: The actual temp of the motor, the Oil Pressure and the Voltage. I've already designed that controller, and have it setup to display the voltage and temperature currently. I've bought the oil pressure sensor, and have yet to find my "Mighty Vac" pump (which can be used for pressure as well) to find out the resistance for different pressures to display the pressure accurately. -- Why didn't I just put in the guage package dash? Because I like the "V" speedometer! I think it looks much cooler than the round guages... ;-)
About two months ago, I pulled the engine out and put it on a stand in a friend's garage. I partially disassembled it to find out the exact Cam that I put in it 9 years ago. It's a Crane Cams "Energizer 260 H10". Now I know what I'm working with... I've cleaned it up and put a fresh coat of paint on it. The Cast-iron intake manifold was pulled and replaced with a Weiland Stealth Aluminum intake. The stock fuel pump was removed and replaced with a Carter High-flow pump. I got a huge 14" round by 5" high air cleaner. I replaced the stock timing chain cover with a new chrome one.
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6/17/2002
Here's what I've bought for my car over the past few months:
Used distributor (Bought via eBay (it's from a ~1970 350) and I re-conditioned it to like-new condition and installed the Pertronix ignition under it with a brand-new cap.)
Halogen 'H4' Headlights. I haven't tried them on the car yet - They look nice, and I've tried them with a 12v power supply. The beam pattern seems pretty good just 'messing around' with them... I'll see how good they are the first time I drive my car again at night...
LED lights - I'm incorporating them into my side markers first, and have enough to do the rear brake/turn lights and plan on putting LED's in the front turn signals too. I'm planning on illuminating the dash with LED's too... They've come a long way, and are quite bright now! (And as long as I don't drive them at too high of a current, I should never have to replace them...)
Still to do... Major stuff:
Floor pans - The roof leaks really did me in while she sat for several years... (And while I'm at it, I need to weld-in some mounts for my non-GM power buckets.)
Put the engine back in! It's been in the garage since early October! I can't wait to drive my car again!
In a word - PAINT... Years of sunshine & New England weather are showing, and not in a good way... With that comes some minor body work (no dents or rust holes though unless you count the floors...)
'Minor' stuff:
Install the power window assembly in the passenger's door. The weather turned cold too quickly last year to finish both sides.
Put the dash back in the car - it's been out of it for over a year now...
Work on my digital dash & heater controls. I've got a full 'spare' dash to play with, so I will initially install the 'plain' guages/idiot Lights dash, and when I've finished my 'digitalized' version, I'll install it... (I haven't done much w/ them since my last update. Lots of things to do, but so little time...) (And, yes, I did make up that word... The dash will still be 'analog', but I will have several digital readouts as well. Most of them will be hidden until the key is turned on!!! ;-) )
The GM High-Torque Mini-starter was installed. It took a little tinkering- the bolts needed to be about 3/4" shorter than 'stock' bolts, so I had to cut them down about 1/2", and used a couple of washers on each one so the 'knurled' part of the bolt was working as expected.
My 135A Alternator is installed... That took a little tinkering as well - The combination of the Weiland Stealth intake, a new Water pump and the aftermarket alternator made quite a 'trick' to make the stock bracket fit. First of all, the Intake's bolt hole is about 3/8" further back than stock. And the water pump seemed to stick out 3/8" too far forward... So the whole bracket needed to be modified to fit properly. We did a bit of metalworking with a torch, hammers and a wire-feed welder and modified the bracket so it lines up pretty good. It fits a little tight, but it fits! For the higher-current alternator, I replaced the 10-guage charge wire with the only thing I had handy that was bigger than 10-guage - a 4-guage wire! It's only about 24" long and goes directly to the battery.
We created a 'custom' power-steering bracket that bolts to the head. The 'Stock' mount was on the Exhaust Manifold, and now that I've got headers, it had nothing to bolt to! I had seen a bracket on another car at a show, so I gave my friend the rough specs, and he cranked out a neat bracket, almost exactly like the one I'd see on another car! ;-)
I modified my Ignition system: 1) The PertronixII was installed, 2) I installed a Relay that's switched by the ignition switch to give a nice hot 13.8volts directly to the coil from the battery. (One of my previous flaws was that I had POINTS, and had used the resistor that came with my Accel SuperCoil (50KV!). Well, the car's ignition wire was already a resistance wire, so I was probably only running 6v or so to my neat, big coil... Combine that with the points, and no wonder it ran so poorly!)
We started the car. It runs much smoother now that the coil is wired properly, and with the electronic ignition. I haven't driven it yet - I need some more tranny fluid as it's low & slipping right now...
Still to do... Major stuff:
PAINT... It looks like I'm going to have the car SandBlasted - after my friend spent over 4 hours stripping the passenger's side of my hood (with a Chemical paint stripper), he showed me the rust spots under the paint, and said that if I I want my paint job to last more than 5 years, I've got to get it sandblasted to completely eliminate the rust. (I understand, however I have to come up with the cash to do it now!!!)
Floor pans & Seat mounts.
Put the dash back in the car.
Install seat belts, Carpet, etc.
Find or create a new Headliner. Unfortunately, it's the 'bow' type, and I only have a couple of the original bows... How could I have lost them??? OH well...
Other 'Minor' stuff I still haven't gotten around to yet:
Install the power window assembly in the passenger's door.
Work on my digital dash & heater controls.
Fabricate mounts & install my LED lights- I bought lights at a Truck stop for my front turn Signals (2x6" oval amber) and 4" round red LED Lights for my tail-lights. They're gonna look MINT!!! (I've already 'mocked' them up with a rough fitting and taped them in place...)
I drove my car. My first test was on a rainy night, and even though my carb is in need of repair or adjustment, I could barely keep the tires from spinning. Ok, ok, I know it was wet out, but my 'old' setup would hardly spin the tires, even in the rain. Once I got it to grip well enough to accelerate to about 40, I leaned on the throttle a bit more, and fishtailed my way all the way up to about 70 or so before I let off and started to slow down. (BTW - 70 was a 'guesstimate', as the dash isn't in the car right now, but I was screaming along pretty good!!!)
The next test was a few days later, on dry pavement. As noted, my carb needs work. My car idles great, and accelerates great if you slowly ease the throttle up. But if you stomp on it, or even just move the throttle quickly, it hesitates, and even dies... But when I held the brake from a stop and slowly revved the engine while in Drive until my tire started to break loose, I could let off the brake and burn out and take off like a bat out of hell, all the while increasing my pressure on the gas pedal until it was fully open. She moves quite good despite the carb is goofed up at the moment!!!
So I am going to try re-building the carb first (after all, it's probably more than 15 years old, and although I remember re-building it about 9 years ago, it's been sitting for a good majority of that time...) And if that doesn't work, then I'll just buy a new carb. I'm sure somebody could figure out the proper settings and/or problem with my existing carb, but why go though the trouble... I could be up and burning in 20 minutes with a new carb!!!
I found a guy that at least had the 'bows' for the headliner, and they're in route to me now. So my headliner 'chrisis' is over -- I can make a now use them to make a new headliner...
You'll never guess what else I found -- a set of Hurst T-Tops!!! YEP! They'll be going on my car, and it will be one of the most unique Chevelles in the country!!! ;-) I'm a happy camper -- That was one of my 'dreams' for my car!!!
I mentioned the LED lights -- Well, I've done some work on them, and they're gonna look pretty cool. I've come up with a way to 'retrofit' them to fit using stock lenses, so you don't even know that they're there until they are turned on. The front turn LED's are a much lighter color amber than the deep orange lights that are 'stock', but they still look quite nice. The round red taillights that I'm using in the rear lights are pretty neat-- through the factory lenses the 61 led's produce a 'starry' effect. Pretty cool if you ask me!!! (Pictures Below!)
I've done some work on my digital display 'idiot light' replacement system. For the elecronically inclined, I now know how to use a Hall Effect sensor to detect current, and to measure it! So this means that I can add an accurate ammeter to my display! Cool! It also means that I'll have my digital display in the car before the Summer Nationals next summer-- Double COOL!
I found an Austrailian electronics manufacturer that sells Keychain remote controls & matching receivers at prices that can't be beat in the US (even after shipping costs from Austrailia - can you believe it?), so what that means is that I can create my own alarm system, with any feature that I want... Even a neat LCD display, etc!!! (Yes, I'm going all out on the technical gadgets that I'm building into my car... I love electronics projects!!!)
The biggest project at the moment is the Paint. In order to do it right, I've got to strip the car down to the bare metal. I don't have the cash at the moment to do this, otherwise it would already be done. And now that I've got the t-tops on their way, I want to get them installed before I do anything with the paint/ (Makes sense, right?) And I'd rather do it now while I've got most of the car apart, then later, when I'd have to take everything apart again, and re-paint the roof, etc... Too much work to think about unless it's done *NOW*... But nonetheless, I'm happy - I found my T-Tops!!!!! ;-)
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11/18/2003
*YIKES* It's been over a year since I updated this site... Ouch...
Anyways, here's where I'm at now...
I bought a parts car last November. No Motor/Trans/Interior or Lights, but everything else was there. It got Tons of great parts! For example - a couple of gems are 1) The stainless quarter-window moldings and 2) two brand new front fenders!!! ;-)
My Carter fuel pump was leaking, and pretty badly!!! So I pulled it out and replaced it with a blockoff plate and installed an Purolator Electric Fuel pump and a HUGE fuel filter.
My friend installed my floor pans, and we both repaired the roof. We still have to do the trunk floorpan. (I have a complete pan in excellent condition from my parts car.)
I installed newer seat belts out of a 1988 Olds Cutlass (Mine were corroded and non-retracting...)
Finished retrofitting all of the other lights with LEDs -- Side markers & Front turn signals. I installed the side markers but still have to install the front turn signal lights. (I'll install them soon) (Installed 6/2004)
I bought some air shocks to lift the rear up a little bit -- it's sitting almost 2" lower than the front right now. (And yes, I did install new springs, but they only brought the car up about 1"...) So, I'm going to use the air shocks to bring it up another inch or two. (Installed 7/3/2004)
Now that the roof is complete (just a few things to fix here and there), I've re-installed the back window and side windows. I also put the door trim & seals back on. She's starting to look like a car again now! ;-)
Lots more to to... But things are starting to come together... I'll try to post pictures & update here more often...
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(Sometime in here... Don't remember the exact date...)
The price was right ($200), so I bought a 1977 GMC Sprint to restore... Body-wise, it needs rear quarters and floors, but other than the 'usual' trouble spots, it's pretty solid.
The motor actually runs fairly well (other then stalling every time I put it in gear), and the transmission slips, so it's not too bad mechanically. It needs a good tune-up,
and perhaps a new Carb. The tranny was 'slapped' in by the previous owner, and doesn't even have the dipstick installed or the vaccume connection...
But the price was right, and all of that is (somewhat) easily fixed!!!
I plan on swapping out the '77 'nose' (grille/headlights/header panel/bumper) with those of a '73 as I don't really like the look of the 77's nose, and I'd like it to look like my '73 Chevelle...
But that's another project... (and probably another web page...) I probably won't get around to it until at least next year... (I've got to focus on my Chevelle First!!!)
2/10/2004
It's only been a few months since my last update, and it's winter, so my car's currently parked in the back yard.
Here's a picture of the LED brake lights that I retrofit into my Chevelle brake lights:
The 4" round LED Light
Behind the stock lense - DIM
And ** B R I G H T **
Note: I turned them 90 degrees so the 'bars' go up & down instead of left/right.
I finished retrofitting the front LED light assemblies into a set of stock front lenses. Due to space limitations, I chose to disassembled the 'factory' LED light assembly (2"x6"), and re-work the circuit board to fit inside the 'stock' lenses. I also kinda had to do this anyways in order to 'split' the front turn signals into two segments for my sequential turn signals! ;-) Here's a couple of pics:
The Amber 2x6" Oval LED light
Here's how I retrofit them behind the stock lenses.
(Sorry, I didn't take pictures of the conversion... :-( I'll post pictures of the finished result sometime soon.)
A picture of the little red side marker LED light that I put behind the stock lense:
I've done some more designing/programming on my electronic components for the alarm, Remote Starter & custom dash digital displays. (But nothing to show here... Yet!)
2/15/2004
Here's some of the pictures I've promised of my LED Taillights!!! (Note: These were taken at 8:00pm tonight - Very dark!!!)
Just the taillights on
With the brake pressed
Here's where I put my Backup Lights!
Here's a couple of pictures of the side marker lights, which are also LEDs
I've started to work on the body work -- I've stripped the paint off of the entire driver's rear quarter, and part of the driver's door.
I still have to do the passenger's side, trunk lid and taillight section. (We already did the roof when we repaired it, and there's no need
to do the fenders as I have two NOS front fenders!)
6/18/2004
Lots of stuff is getting done now!!! Just 2 weeks to the New England Summer Nationals!!!
Here's what I've done recently:
I've been doing more work on the body - I finished stripping the driver's side of the car down to bare metal and primed it. Also stripped the hood (mostly).
I dis-assembled the nose (Grille, Headlight buckets, etc) to re-paint them. So far I've reconditioned the grille and extentions, the bumper trim extentions (rubber), and the Driver's headlight bucket. I've still got the Header and Passenger's headlight bucket. (I started to work on the Passenger's side bucket, but found that it was bent up pretty badly (inside the bucket). So I'm going to use my 'spare' one -- It's also bent, but not nearly as bad.)
I stripped about 75% of the passenger's side down so far. I will finish the rest and primer it next week.
Here's a picture of my 'naked' car... (6/5/2004)
Lots of paint work to be done!!!
At this point in time, I chose to shift my attention to the Interior for the immediate future -- The exterior can be done quicker with my friend's help over the next couple of weeks, but I can't drive my car if the interior isn't installed!!!! So, here's what I've done on the interior:
Stripped down the door jams and painted them up nice.
Cleaned up my sill plates - they had paint on them (From very sloppy painting of the door jams years ago -- Oops!) and some dents from the last 30 years. They're far from perfect, but they look pretty good now.
Bought a new carpet and am currently installing it. It's pre-formed, but since I've got the T-bird seats, I've got to trim it to fit properly around them as the adjusting mechanism and motors are quite low, barely missing the floor itself, nevermind the carpet!
Bought a headliner, which arrived today (6/18). But upon opening the box, I found that it's the WRONG COLOR!!! It's Burgendy! Bummer!!! I called the company today, and they shipped the right color (Black) out today, and they're paying for the return shipping too. They said my order got mixed up with somebody else's order. So, who ordered the burgendy headliner for a 73-77 Chevelle??? There's more 'Forgotten Generation' Chevelle Junkies out there too?!? ;-) Anyways, I should have the right headliner by the end of next week, so I should hopefully have pleanty of time to install it before July 2nd! (The first day of the Summer Nationals)
Installed my retrofitted front turn signal lights (LEDs).
Installed new wiring to support the sequential turn signals.
I finally installed my sequential turn signal controller. My turn signals are now sequential in both the back and front! Pics and/or Video clips to come soon
Fixed the passenger-side power window switch. (The connector was damaged from the donor '76 Chevelle)
Bought some good used interior parts off of eBay. They should arrive by next weekend (Hopefully!) -- Upper & Lower door panels and rear trim panels.
I took a chance and bought some Vinyl/Fabric Spray Dye and sprayed my rear seat Black (it was RED). I've only done a couple of 'coats' so far, but there's almost no hint of red left now! It's going to look quite nice!!! I'm really impressed with this stuff! It's much easier/cheaper than $200 or so it would cost to have it re-upholstered!!! I'm going to use it to make my seat-belts black too (I took them out of a parts car I had - they're currently Burgendy, but NOT FOR LONG!!!).
7/5/2004
Ok, the New England Summer Nationals have come and gone... I didn't get my car to the point where I wanted it to be, but it still looked pretty decent for a Work-In-Progress vehicle. The hood & header were still in a red sealing primer, and the passenger's door was in primer too. But the rest of the car was Metallic Blue and looked halfway decent. Here's a picture:
Here's a current picture of my work-in-progress car...
Looking much better than a week ago!!!
So here's my list of what's left to do before it's what I would consider it to be in 'great' condition:
Fix my exhaust leak(s)... The low clearance of my cheap headers, combined with the 'off-road' conditions of the park the show was held in caused my exhaust headers to scrape several times, creating exhaust leaks...
Finish body work and paint the whole car with a 'real' permanent paint job.
Re-install the body trim (lower door & fenders, window trim)
Install the Headliner and the rest of the interior trim. (Also involves fitting my front seat-belt retractors a little better and making a hole in the rear arm-rests for the belt to come up through.
Finish programming and install my Custom Alarm/Remote Starter system.
And the fun stuff...
Install my LED-equipped dashboard
Install my CD Changer and MP3 Player
The LED and LCD displays... Etc...
6/20/2006
Yikes! I just realize it's been nearly two years since my last update of my car page! Wow, time goes by very quickly now!
Since I forgot to update my web page, here's a pic from last year:
At the 2005 New England Summer Nationals
And here's a list what little I've been able to do the last two years:
Tuned up the car to run great! It has a little issue with starting at times, but I think that's the Pertronix ignition giving me too much 'startup' advance timing for my cam... Maybe I'll swap it out for an HEI distributor. Any opinions on that?
Fixed the exhaust leak(s) (Until the headers scrape again!)
Installed air shocks to pick up the backend a bit and help with the header clearance issue. I was very suprised that the ride is much better now too.
Painted the whole car. It's a horrible paint-job, but was just intended to seal the primer to keep it from rusting. I need to have it painted professionally, and I'm currently looking to get some estimates... (Preferrably in the Central Massachusetts area.) -- Email with any suggestions!
Installed my basic stereo (Head unit & speakers) MP3, Amps & Subs to come later, maybe this year.
7/10/2006
At the 2006 New England Summer Nationals
Ok, the New England Summer Nationals was halfway decent this year -- But man was it HOT! I think it was over 90 the whole weekend! I think I lost about 10lbs just in sweat... (sorry, Too Much Information!)
Replaced all 4 ball-joints and all 4 tie-rod ends. Drives and rides much nicer now! ;-) (I didn't get to the A-Frame bushings yet)
Installed my LED-illuminated dashboard. So now the turn signals in the dash sequence just like the front and rear signals do. I can also see my high-beam indicator much better, even in bright sunlight. (Which comes in handy if it's overcast and/or raining)
Installed one of the 7-character 7-segment displays in the dash (in the left-most un-used warning light location) I'll be installing the 2nd one soon (in the 'Tailgate Ajar' light location)
I finally "Bit the bullet" and modified my dash for a standard 'din' radio. I had put it off for so long as I had seen many 'hack' jobs that others had done with their dash and I didn't want mine to come out like theirs. But I think I did a really clean job and the final result is great. (I'll put some pictures up soon.) So what did I put in you ask? A low-cost, but big-features CD/MP3 deck that even has an SD media slot and a USB port. Currently I've got about 1,000 songs on a USB-attached 4GB Laptop Hard Disk. Here's the details:
Insignia™ 40W x 4 iPod™-Ready CD Deck with CD-R/RW/MP3/WMA Playback (Model NS-C51111) (Pic)(Link)
SoundStream D100 Amp (US Made) in bridged mode for subwoofer (120W) (pic)
Pyle 4" Two-way speakers in front doors
Pioneer 6x9" Tree-way speakers in the rear deck
Filter caps on the front speakers to remove the bass. (4" speakers don't like much bass!)
MTX Electronic crossover (Feeds the subwoofer and the rear speakers)
Rockford Fosgate Punch Sub-Woofer (Thanks to my good friend Rob!)
Installed my interior light that also has individual map lights for driver & passenger. (I just had a bulb hanging on a couple of alligator clips previously while I got around to it - can you say ugly?)
Converted my license plate light to LEDs. I created a custom light with 6 super-bright LED's that is a little bit brighter than the original incadescent bulb. (But much whiter!)
I finally got an estimate for a professional paint job -- It's going to be between $4300 and $4800. So it looks like I'll have to save up about $5K to get it done... Pretty much what I expected for a 'real' paint job, but I can't afford it at the moment so it will be another year or so... :-(
Still to do:
Adjust my carpet to fit better
Install the headliner
Fit the front seat-belt retractors better and make openings in the rear armrests for the belts to come through.
Dye the seat belts black
Finish my prototype 'Idiot Light Replacement LCD'. I have the 'modified' dash in place (that holds the LCD module), but don't have the LCD in place currently.
Finish my prototype remote starter/alarm and create a PCB to install it permanently.
As always - A REAL Paint job...
9/19/2009
Yeah, I know... it's been 3 years since I updated my page... Oops... I haven't had much 'free' time on my hands the last few years as other things have taken my time.
So, here's what I did get around to doing the last 3 years...
Installed the new Headliner finally... I don't know why I put it off so long! It looks AWESOME!
Replaced my stock distributor and Pertronix Electronic Ignition module with an Accel HEI distributor. WOW, what a huge difference! The car starts perfectly now, and has better power. (Yes, I'm kicking myself for holding off on that!)
Replaced my right-front spindle with the one from my parts car after the bearing failed last year and I had to get towed home. :-(
Replaced the left-front bearings after investigating 'slop' there too - the outer bearing was in somewhat rough shape, but the race was perfect. Now she goes in a perfectly straight line down the highway again, and doesn't 'drift' at all...
Installed a battery cut-off (was tired of having a dead battery after letting her sit for more than a couple of weeks)
The ADS PQ10 (40Wx4) Amp that I was using for my Front & Rear speakers died, :-( so I re-wired my system to power them directly from the receiver. It actually sounds pretty good, maybe even better than with the PQ10!
One thing I've been thinking about doing is putting the L31 350 V8 out of my old 1996 GMC Yukon into my Chevelle - It's got 214K miles on it, but ran like a horse. It needs a new CPI module (replacement is now MPI), which costs about $400, and a new starter, but otherwise would drop right into my Chevelle.
It would be best to re-build it and get the compute re-programmed to eliminate the cats and emissions junk, but it would be nice to have a roller-cam Vortec 350 in my Chevelle...
But it would be a TON of work, and I still haven't made up my mind. And with the new Accel distributor, my car is running AWESOME now and pulls quite well... so we'll see... What I need is a GARAGE, then I'd tear that motor out of the Yukon and get to work on re-bulding it and setting it up for installation into my Chevelle, but alas, I don't have one right now!)
Anyways, I haven't put a 'to do' list here - it hasn't really changed in the last few years. Lots of things I want to do, so litte time and Money... :-(
Current Specifications:
1973 Chevelle Malibu Coupe
350 Engine: (Mild build)
Stock Block/Heads
M/T Aluminum Valve Covers
Crane Cams "Energizer 260 H10" Cam (Spec Card) (AKA "1/4 Race Cam" when I bought it)
Competition Cams 1.52 ratio Roller-Tipped rocker arms and Chromemoly Push Rods (Link)(Picture)
Custom sequential turn signals. Both the front and rear lights sequence for turning. Something like this ON off - ON ON - off ON - off off (animation/movie soon)
All of the Turn/Stop/Tail and Marker lights have been retrofitted with LEDs behind the stock lenses (Pictures Above!)
Removed the Vinyl Top -- The roof was rotted anyways, so now it's been repaired and is a 'hardtop' now
Headlights were replaced with Halogen "H4" type -- quite bright!
Big Tires (at least for my 14" Mags): Front-235/60SR14 Rear-265/50SR14 (10.5" wide tread!)
Rear Spoiler from a 85 Firebird (A friend was going to throw it out, and I placed it on my trunk and thought "That looks pretty good!", so I drilled 4 holes and mounted it! I think it looks great on my car!)
Interior:
Full Power Bucket Seats from a 198? T-Bird
Re-conditioned Dash from a 76 Chevelle
Cadillac Visors w/lighted mirrors on both sides
Auto-Dimming Rear View mirror
Three-point seat belts from an 1988 Olds Cutlass
Power Locks (From a newer GM car, but switches look stock)
Factory Power Windows (From a '76 Chevelle, full factory setup!)
Electric Trunk release (From a Ford LTD)
Custom Alarm System
Planned improvements (in the most likely order of completion)
Custom Alarm/Remote Starter using UHF Code Hopping remotes and a Microcontroller. (I'm almost done with this!)
A 'real' paint job. The current paint is only temporary to seal the primer to prevent rust from forming under it. It looks really good from 20+feet, but get close and you start to smirk...
POSI -- I have a complete POSI rear-end, and once I've put new gears in it and checked it out fully, it's going in my Chevelle! (It's got 2.7x gears in it now [yuck], I'm looking to put 3.73's in there!)
Digital LCD readout replacing the 'idiot lights' - Temperature, Oil Pressure, Voltage, etc. (Already have a working prototype... Just have to refine a bit...)
Digital LED readouts for a digital speedometer/odometer/whatever in the un-used 'red light' areas on the left side of the speedometer. (I have two 7-character, 7-segment LED displays that fit in there perfectly and a prototype working already!)*NOTE* One display is already installed, just need to program now!
Custom Heater controller using a microcontroller, R/C Servos and an LCD. (Have all the compents -- Just have to build it!)
I've got a 350/4-bolt block in my cellar ready for rebuilding... (Or if I can come up with the cash -- a new High Performance 'crate motor' would be nice! Even better would be a BIG BLOCK! GRUNT-GRUNT! ;-)
And as mentioned in my 9/19/2009 update - I have the 1996 L31 Vortec 350 from my GMC Yukon... That's a possibility too!
Overdrive and 4.11 gears would be great!
Off-Frame restoration, or restoration of my parts car frame and swap my body to it... ;-)
Please email me if your a 73+ Chevelle 'junkie' like me... ;-)
Last Updated 7/10/2006
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