Lost in the 60s wrote:

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Did dashboard change his name ???
Best hold off with installing that new front suspension. Might need it for the next car.

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 Yeah I fixed it. Larry and Kevin's avatars look so similar with the dark 64/65 view, all GM looks the same. Lol

If I found a barn find like this 71 I would do a factory original resto, so the front suspension will go into the one I have for someone else to enjoy. Lol

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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I can't find any info on if the HC's had vinyl tops to determine if it started life as that.

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In 71, a Heavy Chevy would have a 134 VIN

SShink wrote:

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Oh yeah, since Bruce posted about his Chevelle has the control arm braces, I looked and sure enough my '71 has them as well.  I'm not sure where the theory about only 12 bolts having them, but the '72 vert I restored also had them.  I think it's kind of hit and miss, or as someone said...with the lives these 50 year old cars lived, who knows if someone added them or if it came with them originally.

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My '69 did too (250hp 2bbl 350/TH350/10-bolt 2.56 open rear), and I have no reason to believe they were added since the car was so unmolested when I bought it, and still wore its original wheelcovers, 14x5 wheels, and had whitewalls... obviously never hotrodded before I came along and ruined it. 

My theory is anything with 350ci or more probably got them. 

SShink wrote:

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Lost in the 60s wrote:

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Did dashboard change his name ???
Best hold off with installing that new front suspension. Might need it for the next car.

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 Yeah I fixed it. Larry and Kevin's avatars look so similar with the dark 64/65 view, all GM looks the same. Lol

If I found a barn find like this 71 I would do a factory original resto, so the front suspension will go into the one I have for someone else to enjoy. Lol

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 Surely, your friend in NE sent you more pics to entice you...

.....

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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If I found a barn find like this 71 I would do a factory original resto, so the front suspension will go into the one I have for someone else to enjoy. Lol

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 Surely, your friend in NE sent you more pics to entice you...

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 I created a new post in the Members Section about the barn find.

Passenger side front suspension parts are out, cleaned and painted the inner fender, frame, and some of the steering linkage along with wire wheeled the parts I'm reusing and painted them up.

First time I've had to cut a shock apart to get it out since it was larger than the opening in the bottom of the control arm.  Not even sure how they got them in other than putting the spring in at the same time as the shock.  And, they look like some sort of pre-historic coil over shock.  Lol

Now that the temps are decent enough I can heat up the shop more regularly, I hope to get the new parts in this week and start on the driver's side next weekend.

Looks like the lowering springs are just a little shorter than the stock ones.  

Made some more progress over the weekend.  Now onto installing the rotors, calipers, booster/master, and prop valve.

I also realized that 4 post lifts make for great tables to put tools on when working on the car!

Just came across this pic on the net. Don't know if it is original, but the grille and headlight bezel highlights appear to be painted argent silver.

Made some more progress this weekend in spite of driving to Des Moines yesterday to meet my Kansas City Chevelle club friend that brought me the '71 HC/Base coupe interior panels, then driving back and watching our 9 month old grandson overnight (absolute joy but I'm a little sleep deprived today!).

Suspension is all done other than need to torque the control arm bolts once the car is on all four tires again.

Removed the stock drum brake booster after lots of cussing of the 1/8 per turn on the bolts since there's very little access to get to them.  I even had to use a cheater bar on them to break them free.  

So, now I'm noodling installing the new prop valve down on the frame instead of under the master cylinder like the kit says.  Then it's on to bleeding the brakes, a front end alignment, and then some drive time!

Wow, yeah, those panels are in REALLY nice condition..

Lost in the 60s wrote:

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Wow, yeah, those panels are in REALLY nice condition..

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They really are in good shape other than the rear passenger side chrome is delaminating some but it's good enough for driver quality. 

Kind of a neat story of the 71 that they came out of. The guy that sold these to me is from Kansas City and bought a $100 raffle ticket for the car that was at a high school raffle down in the SE US, and he won it!

It was a decent car so he freshened it up with a new Malibu interior, flipped it, and built a beautiful 69 Le Man's blue SS convertible that he already had with the funds. 

If I could only find a raffle like that!

Getting closer to getting out of CAC.  Installed the proportioning valve down on the frame instead of under the master cylinder for a more factory look.  Had to pick up 3 adaptors from Napa to make the new one work, and need to fasten it to the frame but it's all connected now.

I bled the brakes with a Mighty Vac handheld tool, and there's fluid at all four corners now.  Hopefully I got all the air out and hope to do a test drive sometime today after I get the wheels back on and tighten the control arms with the weight of the car on them.

I've scheduled an alignment for tomorrow using Derek's magic stock settings, so hopefully all goes well and I can get in some drive time on Sat. when it's supposed to be in the upper 50's! 

That looks so much cleaner than the prop valve hanging under the master...

Out of the CAC club and back on the road again!

My local mechanic got her aligned, bled the brakes, fixed a couple of exhaust leaks I found crawling around underneath, and took her for a disc brake burn in with a some 50-20 MPH slow downs.  It stops nice!

Suspension parts are getting happy with each other, and hope to get some miles on this weekend.    I'm pretty happy with the ride and stance from the short drive, and guessing it will get even better.

Now onto fixing the cigarette lighter, dome light, add a tach, and on and on...

ghaasl wrote:

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Stan, saw the car in person today. I must say, it looks FANTASTIC! Great job and looking forward to cruising with you on some club events this spring/summer.

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Thanks Gavin!  Sorry I didn't get a chance to chat yesterday, as while the air museum was small, there was so much to look at. 

It was a good shakedown first time cruise and discovered some new bugs to work out since it was the first time really getting some speed on the road.  Hank claimed I was doing 80 mph when he kindly followed me to St Paul for a QA check, but I checked gps going home and I think the snow tires on his Mustang make his speedo 5 mph fast.  Lol

1. LOUD plastic rattle sound from the passenger top cowl area over 60 mph-Turned out to be the plastic cowl cover that was rattling against the cowl, which I modified and think is fixed now.

2. LOUD rattle coming from the drivers side exhaust-I made sure it wasn't contacting the frame or floors and discovered the rattle is coming from inside the muffler where I'm guessing the baffle came unwelded.  So going to replace just that one muffler for $30 and drive it this summer since it's a 2 inch exhaust system (and narrows down to less than that in some places, even though I have a new set of headers and the Pypes H pipe system sitting in the shop.  I'm not ready to install it yet, as when I do I want to clean and detail the underside first.  

Here's a video of the muffler 'rattle':  

3. The trunk lock mechanically locked up with Bob's drum brake parts in it.  I ended up drilling out the lock to open the trunk, and ordered a new trunk and glove box key/locks.

Ahhh the fun of working out bugs on a 'new' to me Chevelle.  

Good find on the exhaust!

I was concerned that the latch could be the problem not the lock. Good you got it opened.

I can come and pick the parts any time.

Haven't seen the Thrush logo for awhile!

Replacement for the rattle muffler. 

Spent quite a bit of time on one of my least favorite things...exhaust!  The new muffler is in and it's back to sounding the way it should, at least enough to get it through this season so that I can install the Pypes system I have sitting in the corner of the shop.

I also spent a lot of time trouble shooting why the Courtesy/Lighter/Clock fuse would blow instantly when putting a new one in.  After tearing most of the dash, the door switches, and the dome light apart, I was able to find two things and now everything works (other than the clock of course):

1. The courtesy light ground wire that connects to the headlight switch was disconnected.  Not sure if it fell out, or if the previous owner disconnected it trying to trouble shoot the fuse blowing.  So I reconnected it.

2. The dome light housing and cover looked new, and for some reason there was a green wire with a ring terminal on it that was screwed into the housing and into the roof.  Somehow it was shorting the 12V to ground, so I cut the wire and now everything works.  It's confusing me since that's the grounding side of the circuit, but it fixed it.

I also replaced the lighter since the inner element was super corroded, so now I can run the GPS, Bluetooth receiver, etc.  Oh, and now the dome light works!  Finally, while I had the dash pad off, I went ahead and replaced all the bulbs. so now have full lights across the dash.  Sometimes, it's the little things.

I also figured out why the vent controls don't work...MICE!  At some point the car had mice in it as all the rubber vent control lines had been chewed off.  Looks like that's next on the project list, and now I need to decide if it's time to swap in the complete round gauge Monte dash (after being Chevelleized) that I got from Bob W. a couple of years ago.  

Jon H wrote:

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Sounds to me that it is about time to start that frame off restoration.

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 It's definitely turning into a 'frame on' one for sure. 

I think Karl may be onto something

BLyke wrote:

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I think Karl may be onto something

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 All that condenses down to 2 words.

Obsessive perfectionism...

A little more cloning going on with the interior door panels that are now Heavyized!

Two of my Chevelle buddies in Kansas City hooked me up with a set of '71 base coupe interior panels, which are the same as the HC panels since it was a 'base model' and didn't have the Malibu chrome stripped panels.  These are now as rare as hen's teeth and growing in value since the aftermarket does not make them, and a lot haven't survived over 50 years.

This set was a light blue originally, but someone had already painted them dark blue, so I didn't feel too bad painting them black.  While I liked the blue better, to change over the whole interior would have been a lot more effort and cost, so black it is for now...Lol

I did my best attempt at some fine line taping and covered up the chrome and white strips to not have any paint bleed through, and I think they turned out pretty good. 

The pic with the door panel off shows the original green color of the car, and the door panels I took off had been painted black from the original green as well.

I went to one small show this year, and a couple of guys got all excited when they saw it was a HC, then looked inside and said...'Oh, it's a Malibu.' so now I'll have everyone fooled.  

Next update will have to do with the Rallye rims I'm working on.  

SShink wrote:

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A little more cloning going on with the interior door panels that are now Heavyized!

Two of my Chevelle buddies in Kansas City hooked me up with a set of '71 base coupe interior panels, which are the same as the HC panels since it was a 'base model' and didn't have the Malibu chrome stripped panels.  These are now as rare as hen's teeth and growing in value since the aftermarket does not make them, and a lot haven't survived over 50 years.

This set was a light blue originally, but someone had already painted them dark blue, so I didn't feel too bad painting them black.  While I liked the blue better, to change over the whole interior would have been a lot more effort and cost, so black it is for now...Lol

I did my best attempt at some fine line taping and covered up the chrome and white strips to not have any paint bleed through, and I think they turned out pretty good. 

The pic with the door panel off shows the original green color of the car, and the door panels I took off had been painted black from the original green as well.

I went to one small show this year, and a couple of guys got all excited when they saw it was a HC, then looked inside and said...'Oh, it's a Malibu.' so now I'll have everyone fooled.  

Next update will have to do with the Rallye rims I'm working on.  

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 Looking good, Stan!  I’m going to miss June’s cruise due to many grad parties.  But, we’ll be parked close for SMN in July.  I’m only coming that Saturday, but I’ll be there.  I’m dragging my dad along with me, he’ll love it as he grew up in the mid 60s.  

John D wrote:

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Looks good!
(I'm assuming the chrome strips are bonded/melt-welded on?)

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Yeah the chrome strips are like a mylar film that I think was heat pressed on when originally made. 

The door chrome strips are in good shape and adhered well, but the back ones are in rougher shape. I was very careful removing the tape after paint so that I didn't tear the chrome!

I guess I work better under pressure, so decided to create a new project that I'm shooting to complete in less than two weeks before SMN's, so I'm back in CAC. 

Rather than sink $1500+ into a completely new HVAC system, I decided to fix the vacuum lines for the controls and install an underdash AC only unit for about $600 all in.

The Heavy is an original AC car and everything is there for the complete system, but it's still set up for R12, so it would need to be completely gone through and then no guarantees it would work.  A wise man (aka Dashboard) told me after going through his entire original GM system, he would never do it again or at least plan on replacing everything, or a guy is just chasing the next weakest link.  

I found a company in Florida (Coolmaster) that makes a nice under dash mount kit with the Sanden compressor, condenser with a pusher fan, drier, lines, etc.

So, I ripped into the dash this morning and six bolts later, started figuring out which vacuum lines need to be reconnected where the mice chewed threw them that were in the car at some point in it's life.  

Let the clock start!

Karl

You order the new front speakers yet too ??
Man, you can create a mess in a hurry, eh...

My A/C is all original and work great with 134a. At 85* I had to turn the fan down to the second low speed.

Be glad to help sort it out.

Mitch-Yeah front speakers are on the list along with a new blower resistor since the fan runs on all speeds except the highest one.  I'm this deep now, so will go ahead and take care of those items too.  And yes, I like the deconstruction part, and as a kid usually took things apart and got them back together again and working without too many leftover parts.  Lol

Bob-I greatly appreciate the offer but with all the main components being 50 years old, I'm pretty sure they would all need to be replaced other than the relays in the system.  If this were a numbers matching, all original car I might think about keeping it a stock AC system, but I'm going to go old school like we did back in the day and install the under dash one.  My first 71 Chevelle had an under dash unit since it was a non-AC car, but it didn't work so it was one of the first things I stripped out of it.

Here's the system I'm looking at:

LINK TO AC SYSTEM

There is a 30a fuse near the heater/a/c box on the engine side of the fire wall that runs the fan for high speed only.

If yours is 50 years old, mine is 51.

I certainly don't know how well the under dash systems work as I have never run one, just very happy with mine. The new compressors are much more efficient, the new condensers are also very good, however I hope that is a generic picture as you should opt for a condenser that is specific to the car.

I did do a few changes to get my a/c working well, all very inexpensive, including resealing the compressor, adjusting the POA valve, o rings and weather striping around the rad, a/c core and fan shroud to cause all the air the fan pull is from the front of the car, this was a big improvement.

There is another alternative that I think would preform better that uses the existing evaporator, you then use the factory fan and ducting already in the car, the compressor, condenser and a POA replacement manifold get changed.

What ever you decide should be good, I'm always looking for spare parts, please keep me in mind.

Call me if you like, I’ll talk your ear off.

BLyke wrote:

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Wow Stan, did not realize it could be done so inexpensively.
Will be watching to see how this works out for you.

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 If your car is factory equipped with A/C and the part are all there in good condition than just reseal the compressor, flush all lines and both cores, assemble with 134a o rings, install a dryer, 11oz 134 appropriate oil and 3lbs or so 134a refrigerant, no big expenses. In my case there was no A/C parts on my car, I found a donor car that had a complete system except for compressor brackets, the donor was a small block.

My car is a non-A/C 

BLyke wrote:

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My car is a non-A/C 

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 You would be a candidate for the under dash, or a Vintage Air, Southern Air, etc type vehicle specific install.