I see your point, and when it's your own build you notice things like that.

But I promise you, if some jack leg comments on your intake pipe, he has some major issues. That is the last thing anyone will notice when you pull up and pop the hood.

Solution....install turbo(s)

Car looks awesome btw.

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Solution....install turbo(s)

Car looks awesome btw.

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I've definitely considered this. There are lots of threads on ls1tech about budget turbo setups. Maybe once I get it on the road and get a better feel for what kind of power I'm making.

Thanks for complement!

Well hello autoboard....I have a few updates worth posting.
Mainly drive-train related.
I my trans cross member snugged in, with the help of my brother. We ended up just drilling holes in the frame. One side was easy, the other didn't sit totally flush against frame rail, so it was a bit more of a challenge.


After crossmember was in it's final place, I took my measurements for my driveshaft. And then took them again. And then one more time. And then measured from the other end first, and again.

I ended up using C&T driveshaft near telephone rd and I-45. I was very pleased with their service. I spoke to them and finalized the order Wednesday at 2pm, and they called me Thursday saying it was ready. Unfortunately, we didn't discuss the slip yoke for the trans enough, as the one I ended up with was too big to fit.
Wrong yoke:

But C&T didn't disappoint, I stopped by the next day and he swapped out the correct 27-spline yoke in less than 10 minutes at no charge. Excellent!

As soon as I could, I got that thing in and it seems to fit great!

Pay no attention to the bare metal spot on the frame!

At this point, I was ready to test the whole driveline, except that my clutch just didn't feel right. It was very firm and didn't seem to be letting me shift very well even with engine off.
I decided to cut an access hole to reach the bleed screw, and I'm happy I did. I had it bleed properly in less than 10 minutes.
Here is where I drilled the hole:
That's right near the accelerator pedal.

Here is a test fit with an old body grommet I found. I will probably find a new one and silicone seal it from both sides.

I think we all know what happens after the clutch is bled and entire drive train is assembled:
Watch with volume

I tried to embed the video without luck.
Anyway, I really need to get my wheels picked out, as I'm basically confined to cruising on jack stands until then.
Guess I also need to have those rear rotors cleaned up a bit.

Have to use YouTube to embed videos.

Now get wheels so we can see some gotdam burnouts!

Love when you post updates. Great job on an amazing project.

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Love when you post updates. Great job on an amazing project.

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Thanks a lot!
I went back out to the garage this evening and welded some adapters on some cheapie mufflers my neighborhood let me borrow. He is a fellow gear head and has an awesome 56 Chevy that he cruises. If anyone has been to the cruise in at the Pearland Lowes, he's usually there.
Anyway, I'm going to fit the mufflers straight onto the headers (temporarily) so I can tune this thing without the neighbors calling the police!
I found a guy that's pretty well known in the LS truck scene that will come out to me and tune it.

As for wheels, every time I poke around on Craigslist, I come up empty handed. Maybe its sign I just need to go fit something to my car. Supposedly discount tire will test fit different wheel sizes and backspacing until I find what I like.
Silvy can you confirm?

Yep, they'll play around with wheel offsets and all that for you. The biggest issue would be having the particular offset wheel in stock, otherwise you'll buy a set of wheels and determine if you like the fit. If you don't like the fit, they'll have to order new wheels.

It can be a royal pain in the arse.


I recommend that you go talk to the guys at Discount, they really can get just about any wheel. Talked with one of the guys I trained the other day and he said he just had a guy order some 20x14 American Forces from him.

What I've always done in the past, just search forums and then search some more. As far as the wheel goes, you only need to look for a particular offset and width. Diameter is irrelevant.

Now, who are you using to tune? I still need someone to tune my '04 and I don't have the time to drop it off at a tuner's.

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What I've always done in the past, just search forums and then search some more. As far as the wheel goes, you only need to look for a particular offset and width. Diameter is irrelevant.

Now, who are you using to tune? I still need someone to tune my '04 and I don't have the time to drop it off at a tuner's.

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Here is what I've come up with just by taking measurements, with some input from the Chevelle forum. (They actually have an excel database with all different wheel and tire combinations that people are running. Pretty cool, but 100% fool-proof.

So I think more or less, I have about 4.5" on either side of the hub face to work with. .826" is supposedly the additional thickness of the disc rotor flange, but that seems way too much, so??
But it should be a good starting point for the tire shop to get a range.

So to sum up, I sure like the look of the "mesh" style wheel, like I posted previously.
I'm hoping to run somewhere close to a 18 x 8, and with at least a 255 width range.

Silvy, check out KHP:
KHP PARTS AND TUNING
Address: 1705 South Houston rd. Pasadena, TX

Basically he has a forum page on Houston Perf. Truck forum, I think.

SWEET JEEBUS NOT KHP

Definitely do some more research and tuners, don't use Houston Performance Trucks as a resource for anything.

Performancetrucks.net and LS1tech.com will be your more trustworthy forums.

I'm still going to recommend Bobby at Clear Lake Speed

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SWEET JEEBUS NOT KHP

Definitely do some more research and tuners, don't use Houston Performance Trucks as a resource for anything.

Performancetrucks.net and LS1tech.com will be your more trustworthy forums.

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Lol, why, what have you heard?

Really just a sh*t tune all around.

Well dang. He was priced very competitively and I was told he would come to me. Which would be convenient. Guess I can shuffle my attack plan around. I need, in no particular order:

• Wheels/tires
• Weather stripping
• Glass and interior
• Bumpers and associated lights
• Endless odds and ends
• Tune
• Mufflers

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If you install seat covers yourself, do it in the summer when the vinyl will be easier to stretch.

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That's a good idea. I've all but decided to go with the ProCar seats that are pretty much turn key, instead of trying to scrap something together from b-body seats and tracks and who knows what else.
These still look pretty period appropriate with the low back.

Those look good. IMO old B Body seats that people put in these cars don't look right at all - they're completely out of place.

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Awesome!

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Ugh. Long overdue update time......and not really much of one.

I ordered my weather stripping and bumpers a while back. Bumpers came in, weather stripping still not shipped.

I made some progress on the bumpers, but I had some bracket issues.....i was missing one on the front, and another front one was pretty badly bent up. I also spent some time cleaning them up:




I ended up going up to South Texas Muscle & Classic, I called and they said, "yeah we have lots of bumper brackets...." Just needed one or two brackets and the 4 piece front set starts at $100 plus shipping on all of the resto websites. I ended up swapping an extra glove box door I had straight up for the 2 brackets I needed. Win-win!

That place is pretty cool....they do restorations etc, but they have a huge collection of used parts. You can see a lot of their stuff on ebay and craigslist, which was how I found them.

So after I prepped the brackets I was ready for bumper install, which is really nerve-wracking by the way. These repro bumpers are a little thinner gauge, and the corners are razor sharp....move that around near your new, slick paint job.....yeah.
Here are the results:





This last pic really illustrates the issue I have with my rear frame cross piece. It is making the bumper bow out quite a bit. The ends look fine and fit flush with the quarters, but the center is noticeably misaligned.

Any suggestions on bending the cross piece back into proper place without removing bumper? I try a BFH and a piece of 2x4 without much luck.


Next came the front....here are the brackets all mounted and ready to bolt up:



If you note the bottom front of the passenger fender, you can see where it is pointing almost straight down. That proves to be a problem as the bumper wants to be there. So the first fit up was aborted and I had to reshape the lower fender piece by hand.

I used my heat gun to warm up the paint a little hoping it wouldn't crack, but the seam where it bends just had too much paint/filler/primer in it. Here is the result:

It sucks, but really no other choice. The body/paint guy didn't have the bumpers so it was hard to know where that piece needed to be. Should be an easy fix, as it's isolated to within that crevice.

I'm hoping my weather stripping will arrive soon, as that will be a lot of work that I can knock out a little at a time.
I also have been talking to a tuner I found that seems legit, but I still need to vet him with Silvy....

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I used my heat gun to warm up the paint a little hoping it wouldn't crack, but the seam where it bends just had too much paint/filler/primer in it. Here is the result:

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Dang... I feel like I'm going to throw up looking at that and it wasn't even my time and $$$$

Unfortunately last night things didn't go much better, although i did get it mounted.
This was one of the more frustrating things I've worked on with this build.
My fender reshaping turned out really good, the bumper fits nicely on the passenger side.

However, the driver side gave me hell.
Blurry passenger side:



Profile shot:


Here is the trouble side, notice how close the top of bumper is to the fender:



And where I scratched the $h1t out of the fender (pay no attention to the pink phone):


On the driver side, I couldn't get one of my mount brackets to line up, and I actually ended up removing it totally.
This bracket was removed:



I had to shift the front clip assembly towards the passenger side and shim the bumper mount to just give me that small amount of clearance.

Anyone have any experience mounting bumpers? They are mounted and snugged up, but I'm really concerned about the bumper to fender clearance.

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Now that you've scratched the driver's side, don't be afraid to reshape the lower fender like you did on the passenger side. The weird angle is more annoying than the tight fit.

What are the gaps like around your hood and front valence? Can you pull the left fender in a little bit as well?

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Yeah you are right....that driver's side looks like it could bump in a bit....

I already have everything moved as far towards the passenger side as it will go.....radiator support and fender.

I may have to somehow manipulate the bumper brackets. I tried to pull the bumper outwards to reshape it some, but it didn't seem to budge much.

Well I tinkered a bit again on the front bumper.....added some more shims, and tried to look at using a bottle jack to adjust brackets.....not really any space to do that with the bumper on.

Just adding the shims caused more damage to the fender, so I think I'm done for now. Here is the result:


So i did a little touch up so it isn't so obvious:


The end result is a little larger gap between the bumper and fender....I think this will be ok.



In other news, the bulk of my weather stripping kit arrived yesterday, so I laid it all out and started on the low hanging fruit:


The door handle "paint gaskets" are hugely over sized.....may end up trying another brand:



The hood/cowl seal is long on both sides...I'll probably trim, but maybe after I get the hood on just in case. Otherwise it fits good:




Tail light housing gaskets:


Replaced the "quarter window seals" next....they go here where the quarter windows meeting the door glass:


Old crusty seal:




New seals. Also note the difference hitting the stainless trim with sandpaper makes....I took the trim back off and will work my way up to about 1000-1500 grit paper, then hit it on the buffing wheel to really bring it back to life:





I have another set of parts coming today of a few things I picked up on sale from Ecklers....hoping to knock out as much as I can tonight and over the weekend.....stay tuned!

Got some minor but relevant updates....I've been working on weatherstripping and trim a little bit. Similar to last update.

In addition to the cowl to hood seal, I installed the little bumpers for the fender to hood area...that means the hood is back on the car (for good, hopefully!).


About the time I started looking at the "roof rail seal" area where that weatherstripping goes, I realized that I'm missing the channel that it fits into. Turns out this is another piece that isn't reproduced for 64-65 Chevelles. I reached out to the same guy who has two 1st Gen chevelles down the road. He's been trying to sell them for a while but they are too far gone and he doesn't have titles. Same guy I bought my A/C controls and ashtray insert from.

Picked up the trim still in usable condition...see where it was attached to A-pillar and roof:


Kinda depressing to see one in this bad of shape....rust holes in this one EVERYWHERE.


My prize:




Here is a before and after some sanding and buffing....turned out pretty nice for something that wont show all that much:



The next item that needed attention was that annoying bow in my rear bumper...my brother and I attempted a futile fix last weekend that involved the rear hitch of my truck and a bottle jack. The result was a Chevelle being pushed across the garage floor.

This called for reinforcements. Here is our second attempt setup:


BEFORE:




AFTER:



Much better in my opinion....

Last but not least, I've been chasing a little gremlin in the motor. Symptoms are very hard starting and/or rough running(like 2 to 4 cylinders firing). I thought maybe injectors were clogging but I've traced it to the MAP sensor....either a leaky gasket or a failing sensor.

This is a video of motor running after troubleshooting it a while....I figured yall would enjoy it.....I did:
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(youtube video embed fail)

Very good

dat lope doe