64 more door chevelle

[Hotwire]

Been working on everyone else's junk, getting fatter, laying around watching tv and playing video games. Been saving up, received a bonus from work, and have sold a lot of the extra project parts.

Put the feelers out for a project for a couple months and think I've nailed it. This one is going to take longer than any other project I've had, more money, and patience. I've done the mild, I've done the try to please everyone, this b!tch is going to be rowdy AND was picked up at the beach, hence the name project Salty. (I know, won't hold up to you players, but it will be for me )

Brother insisted on driving his truck



Made it to the guy's shop, lots of eye candy!







Painting a freaking helicopter!

[Hotwire]

1964 2 owner more door chevelle Malibu. Right now has a early/mid 80's 305 and original powerglide







Dude's father bought it brand new in 64, drove it forever, started a restore on it but passed away, son got it. He tried to continue the resto work but failed miserably, lost motivation. His mother came down with leukemia, needed money, brought it to this guy's hot rod shop and asked what he'd give him. Shop owner bought it for $2500, sold it to me for $2700.

It's got a ton of jackassery that will need to be undone, but this is going to be around awhile, test my patience, and my wallet.

Plans are better suspension than the blazer, LS 6.0, T56, long tubes, BIG cam.

Going to start out getting it "right" as far as wiring and what not goes, lots of bare wires twisted together and left, wires straight off the battery with no fuse, etc. Skin is crawling just typing that.

[Mwilson]

cool project I helped restore a 1965 years ago

[72chevy2]

[Randtheman]

Nice project! I agree with getting it "right" first.

[Hotwire]

Thanks guys, it's about ready to come off the stands and test runs down the side road.

[Hotwire]

When I talked with the shop owner we hit it off pretty well, he's a cool guy. Got down there, he reached in and it fired right up. Ok.. did the walk around, bs'd some, then he brought me in for the in depth tour of his shop. Oh, the car was still idling. Finally get back out, pay him, get the title, car still idling. Prep trailer, hop in, run out of gas.

Get it on trailer, get to gas station.





Go around pulling all loose lights, trim, emblems off so nothing falls off coming home (3.5 hrs). Door and fender trim held on by widdled plastic trees inserted in the back. Got it all taken care of, nephew arranged all the emblems on the driver's seat while I talked with a homeless couple admiring the car. You know you did ok when a homeless guy tells you you stole it.

Get home late, dark out, everyone is ready to be done, no interior lights. I rush, hop in car, crush every emblem with my fat ass. Ok.. then car wouldn't start so we push it into the garage. I notice I can hear everyone behind the car clearly but don't think anything of it. Get it in the garage under lights.. no back window. Idiot just propped the rear window in the car, not a drop of glue or anything. Gouged the driver's fender on its way out too.



Battery was drained from trying to start with no gas, pop charger on it and it fired right up. Doesn't sound bad for a 305. Exhaust is crimped pretty good, has the old school high compression sound to it. Rear tail pipes are held on with plastic strapping.

Got a chance to get under it last night, took a minute to get it jacked up, and had a good laugh. First had to jack it up by the frame horn by the sway bar mount, damn thing is LOW.



There's an AutoZone somewhere cleaned out! Same look on the other side, actually splurged and had metal bolt style expanders on the back coils.



Normal neglected hot rod





How it sits



And first purchase/unjackassery item complete.

[TooFast98Cobra]

Goodbuy! Looks fun

[fast?yea]

Very cool. Good luck with it!

[Hotwire]

Thanks! It's already been a steady learning curve on wiring and assembly. I'm used to late model stuff, this is easier and harder at the same time. Rust in light sockets and unwired grounds are getting me. I'm enjoying it and getting some good laughs on po's work.

Quick shot of engine bay as purchased. Going to clean it up soon, there's so much to do I'm seriously struggling with add!

[Hotwire]

Casting #s on the block says GM 5.0L and 14010201. Shop owner said he thought the engine was original, but when I saw plastic sensors and o2s on the logs, I knew different. Looked up the casting numbers, one site says 80-85 camaro/nova 305, another site says 78-79. Doesn't matter, I kinda know what I'm working with, all good. The way the exhaust sounds I really thought it was a 350. It's very deep and has a high compression pop, when you walk behind the car the exhaust rattles your pant legs. Figured out it's 2" crimped pipe with glass packs, seriously sounds like a 12:1 350 though..



Also got a quick shot of the high dollar hybrid synthetic exhaust hangers, must be a new product, I haven't heard of them.



Wife is already green lighting interior stuff as she's got bad allergies and I "think" she likes the car.. She mentioned something about a lot of dust in the interior, she's been checking it out. This could lead to good things!

It's got brand new tires all the way around! Super cheap 14's, more tread for testing purposes!

[Hotwire]

Driver's seat shot



Need to find the mfg of these synthetic hangers, they're crap!



Car already has upgraded front disc brake setup with dual master, came off 69/70 chevelle. It's a popular upgrade from drums.

Drivers side "slotted" rotor, one broken stud, one lug finger tight, 2 different size nuts..



On top of the lug nut fun, check out the bearing action on this bad boy! Pass side shows just as much play. I'm extremely glad I didn't try to take this down the road.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8k...w?usp=drivesdk

Passenger



I'm fortunate enough to have found a car that was meticulously maintained. There's a grease zerk in there I'm assuming.



Wondered why it had a high idle, one spring wrapped around the engine hook, rusted in half.. twice..



This one shows a couple.. wires going into the firewall through the ungrommeted hole is straight off the battery. It's normal to loop plug wires around your master, right? Check out the shock bushing and stack of shims, and you can just make out the o2 sensor in the bottom of the log (in between 3 & 5 plug wires).

[Blue70]

Be cool to see this one come together!

[RichardCranium]

Awesome to see you had a chance to share it over here Jeff. Can't wait to see the progress pics, I don't think it matters how much beer you drink when working on it either....its only going to get better.

You have a timeline for it, or is it just going to go with the flow?

[Hotwire]

Thanks guys!

Darren, no time line just yet, right now going with the flow. Trying to get it roadworthy and reliable, get the wiring straight, everything functional, while trying not to invest too much money into. Since it's an out of state classic I have to have it inspected by the license and theft bureau. If that goes through cleanly and I receive a title (all #s match on paperwork, don't think it'll be a problem), I'm going to throttle up a little bit and get some serious hard parts on order. Been holding myself back so I don't loose too much if it turns up a bad deal.

I haven't caught this thread up to date, trying to work it in with everything else I have going on.

On that note

Dear Craigslist, I love you.

BRP Hot rods mounts



Trans cross member



And ceramic coated long tubes





Guy selling these was an awesome dude. His Chevelle was the test bed for Hotchkis suspension and was a centerfold car for Chevy High Performance in '07. Hoping to get his suspension when he upgrades in March.

On the downside I've done some reading on BRP stuff, sits the motor high. Hope I can modify them (not much invested so won't feel bad cutting them up) to work and the headers not bang into anything. Waited quite a while for my first set of longtubes. Fully stoked!!

[Mwilson]

pretty

[Hotwire]

Thanks, I've waited 25 years to finally get long tube headers, this is an achievement for me.

Forgot to mention the seller of the longtubes has a crazy LS setup in his car with a NASCAR type front end/accy. Weird water pump, Ford distributor, etc. He had to push the engine so far back he couldn't use this setup. Oh, he also designs and manufactures the shocks that Detroit speed sells.

He was advertising the headers, I contacted him and he told me about the swap stuff, made a killer offer then packed up the fam and laid the ears back.

On to pics, worked on the front brakes but got no where. Drivers caliper frozen, wrong seals, etc.

Drivers outer race, didn't care to check inner, knew it needed to be replaced, besides the rotor being trash



File 13, trying to keep China away from this build, although all the bulbs I just got from Napa have it proudly stamped on it.



Rotor was cocked so far it rested on the washer, deforming it and rolling the edge over



Drivers spindle, not best of shape but useable



Pass spindle, looks like race was cut off or chiseled off in the past, same shape as driver side



How it sits. Removed as much crap from shield and caliper, have at least 1/8" covering on floor. You can see how black the grease was in the old rotor, it was liquid nasty.



Trans and engine mounts minus billet plates



Test fit with the broken rim, these might actually fit

[Hotwire]

Driver's side before and after, didn't go all out, not really concerned with looks at this point, just wanted the major chunks off





trans pan was leaking, figure cheap filter/gasket change. Now I'm wondering if this thing has 2nd gear



cleaned up



filter is nothing but screen/mesh



Buttoned up



This brake line had me laughing my ass off. Only thing I can come up with is no flaring tool so they did what they could w/ the extra length. All the bleeders are mangled w/ visegrip marks.



driver's pipe is seriously hitting the rear lower control arm



Found out the exhaust is 2" pipe, crimp bent, reason the 305 sounds like a 12:1 350..

Buddy and I had bets on this being the horn but I think it's the wipers, still trying to track the wiring down, it goes down to the headlights, taps into factory harness, then goes back to behind the booster and taps into a different harness. f'ed up. bare wire twisted all over.



I'm about numb to things like this now. shoestring on the shifter linkage.

[Hotwire]

Going crazy. A.d.d. has fully got me. Start cleaning the garage, pick up a box with new parts, next thing you know there's door handles on the car, dash is blown apart, and I'm buffing plastic. Wth?



Wet sanded most of the lighter scratches and over spray off the lenses and cleaned out the gauges.





Also made a trip down to ATL, had a good wrenchathon with my racing cohort, got my rear glass from Picklington's in Charlotte, and picked up a great deal on a T56!

[Hotwire]

Made a Napa run, replaced all the bulbs in the dash, and cleaned all the ground connections. Nice results, will have to pick up some orange needle paint to refresh the gauges.

This is damn sexy.



I'm not really surprised that all 4, yes 4, headlights were blown. Checked connections, wiring, voltage, and grounds. All 4..

Replaced the bulbs, ditched the eyebrows, and noticed I had parking lights until I turned the headlights on then the front parking lights went out.



Did some googling, and found it's a 64-67 "feature". 68 lights stay on. Moved the front parking lights wire to an unused slot mimicking 68 wiring on the headlight harness following internet and now they stay on.



The reverse light switch is not working, wired in a cheap light up duck bill switch under the dash. It'll stay till the drivetrain is swapped as it's not worth investing. It's ready to come off jack stands and go down the road.

[Hotwire]

Getting real round here! Bellhousing came in, only thing lacking is bolts to keep it all together!



Blub blub tick blub tick bulb. Pass manifold has a leaky heat riser valve that seals up once it's warmed up. 20hp lid flip FTW!

[fast?yea]

those 10 spokes actually look really good on it, i wouldn't have thought that.

[Hotwire]

Originally Posted by fast?yea

those 10 spokes actually look really good on it, i wouldn't have thought that.

I was hoping they wouldn't look bad. Main reason for wanting to run them is I have a set already. If I do end up running them I want to spray them the greenish/gunmetal color that's on the rallies.

dat ass! Driver's license plate light needs a new receptacle. The spring that pushes the pin into the bulb center conductor is rusted out. I love the lenses though, they're little ufo shaped, thick, glass domes. Little rubbing compound had them looking brand new.



mangled lock with 1/8" drill to pop it out and get new ignition lock installed, gone in 60 minutes.



Not looking forward to figuring out what I got, what I need, cleaning, straightening, installing, etc.



Test fit the SS rim on the rear. Initial thought, 1 - 1.5" spacer may work. Might require BFH assistance, but I may actually be able to run them. Might be necessary to knock down the tire size to 255, really don't want to go that route though.



these studs kill me. that's the length vs a blue butt connector. Tried installing the rest of the new lug nuts I purchased but the threads are so mangled half wouldn't even start. I just put the old ones back on for now, they dragged so bad going on.

[Hotwire]

Awesome night!! Maiden voyage done, instead of quenching the fires it's just stoked them! Car drives decent, powerglide works, I was like a little kid driving a go cart for the first time. Permagrin.

Finally pulled the door panels out, they're complete trash. $350.. That's down the road.



Never got a pic of the finished brakes. Feel bad that I pounded this new cap in, was a really tight fit, ended up v'ing the lip so it would compress and fit, still seals like it's supposed to. And the brakes work really well. Unbolted seat, no seat belts, and those brakes led to a 3 stooge scene starring me.



Both headlight and wiper switch looked like this, completely nasty. Wd40 and 000 steel wool worked wonders.





Installed



Car came with a new bezel, waiting to install it. Got to get through theft inspection, title, then there'll be fab work on the trans tunnel and floorboards, then it'll get some love.

[RichardCranium]

Did you ever find out what the magic wires were on the brake release? Confirmed they were the wipers? That was my favorite nest egg you've found so far.