Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

dashboard · 2K+ Club

RE: My 66 "renovation" project

Lost in the 60s · President

Thanks, Kevin. We'll figure out a time and place.

Lost in the 60s · President

I finally got a good pair of engine mounts and did a test fit of the new conversion oil pan with the original frame stands I bought. Lots of room between the engine and firewall now with the engine in the correct location. Even Stan's old headers fit pretty well.

Pic of the Scoggin-Dickey pivot ball adaptor.

The pivot ball on the adaptor could be 1/2" shorter to position the cross-shaft toward the engine more. As it is, the shaft binds on the frame bracket. The ball won't seat any deeper in the shaft, so I need to see if I can modify the shaft or cut 1/2" off the ball shank and reweld it. Plenty of room for the shaft and arms around the headers, so I'm happy about that. I will put the right header in my press and make a flat area on #6 tube that is less than a 1/4" from the frame for more clearance. I will also need to route the brake line to the right different than original because of that tube.

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

As I understand it .. it the steering shaft that is the big clearance issue with headers in a BB 66.. any way of checking that?

Lost in the 60s · President

Good point, Tony !!! I thought it wouldn't be an issue but looking now, if it runs between the upper arm bolts and the headers, there could be a serious clearance issue there. I will have to bolt in the sector and column to see where the shaft goes.

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

Ive seen some serious pipe dimpling in the past as well as people actually turning down the diameter of the intermediate shaft

SShink · 3K+ Club

Tony Hoffer wrote:

As I understand it .. it the steering shaft that is the big clearance issue with headers in a BB 66.. any way of checking that?

Mitch, that was one of my concerns with using the headers from a '72. The other was where the collectors ended up in relation to the floor. Wasn't sure if they went low enough.

I'd suggest you see if you can mock up the steering shaft before you go to more work on the headers.

Lost in the 60s · President

Looks to have plenty of space to the floor pan, but the steering shaft issue will be fully investigated tomorrow.... confuse

67ss · 1K+ Club

I might have a solution to this problem. There is a set of headers in steves 67 in my shed. He is not going to use them and I was going to take them out and try to use them in chads 69 chevelle when we put the 396 into his car. Maybe we can do a swap if the tubes are bent differently. Let me know what you think?

-- Edited by 67ss on Sunday 30th of January 2011 07:20:49 PM

Bungy L-76 · Active Member

Mitch, Maybe you could just file a little off the end of your Z-bar to get it to work better. Would be easier then modifying that pivot ball. Just a thought.

Bungy L-76 · Active Member

By the way, do you have a part number for that bracket? Did you get it from Scoggin-Dickey? How much did it cost? I'm going to need one.

Lost in the 60s · President

67ss wrote:

I might have a solution to this problem. There is a set of headers in steves 67 in my shed. He is not going to use them and I was going to take them out and try to use them in chads 69 chevelle when we put the 396 into his car. Maybe we can do a swap if the tubes are bent differently. Let me know what you think?

-- Edited by 67ss on Sunday 30th of January 2011 07:20:49 PM

That might work, Chris. The headers I have from Stan should be for 68-72, so they would be a better match for a 69. Any idea on tube size of Steve's ? He runs some pretty heavy equipment and the primaries might be too big.

You ever get time to see the '66 in Iowa ?

Lost in the 60s · President

Bungy L-76 wrote:

By the way, do you have a part number for that bracket? Did you get it from Scoggin-Dickey? How much did it cost? I'm going to need one.

There's no part number for it. They have them built and it has SDPC etched in it. Chris provided a link on the first page of this thread. You just call and they know what it is and take your cc payment. $60 for the part and $10.50 shipping.

I will see if I can cut enough off the frame end of the shaft tube. I really hate to modify a rare and hard to find original shaft tho... The guy I got it from thought it was bent and sent it to me for the cost of shipping !!!! The bend is SUPPOSED to be there. Not as lucky as Derek with his hi-po LS1 but still a steal... biggrin

67ss · 1K+ Club

These headers were in the car when steve bought it, they were attached to a 454 that used to be in the car so they should not be anything to crazy. They are still attached to the exhaust in the car so I have to get them out. I'll go remove them and make sure they are in usable condition and let you know. If they are OK maybe we can meet at steves house after I get off work some night.

No I have not had a chance to go to Iowa. I have to go out of town this coming weekend for a funeral. I will probably try and get down there the following weekend if this stupid snow would stop falling.

-- Edited by 67ss on Monday 31st of January 2011 08:26:17 AM

Lost in the 60s · President

Seems the "cars apart" clock is working faster than me too. Yesterday, I got to work on replacing the rear main seal, oil pan and repairing the timing cover from the previous hack job. I got a new balancer too, as the old one was really hammered from a re-install and one pulley hole was stripped. When I removed the rear cap to facilitate the seal change, I discovered an 0-ring I didn't know about. It was pretty hard and flat so I made a quick run to Polar Chev for a new one.

Once I got all that button up, I installed the clutch.

Then I moved on to finishing the left lower control arm assembly. When I went to install the bushings last week, I discovered I had a different arm on the left and it took larger bushings. I had to order one from Speedway Motors. The new one had a thinner inner sleeve and the 1/2" bolt was a little loose, so I pushed the sleeve out of the extra and it was the same outer diameter for a swap. While I had the sleeve out, I noticed the new one didn't have the little grooves for the grease in the urethane, so I used a hacksaw blade and made some grooves to fill with grease too.

Then I turned my attention to the throttle set-up. The car had a cable and pedal when I got it and I was going to retain it, even though it is a little crude. Then I got to digging thru my GTO parts and came across a pedal assembly for cable. I took the cable off the GTO and installed it all on the Chevelle. The only unknown is if the cable is long enough. It's really baffling why Pontiac was using throttle cables since '66 in their A bodies but Chev didn't get them until 69-70 ??

Once that was done, I cut out the shifter hole in my new floor pan.

Today, I installed the bellhousing and newly rebuilt ( by Steve aka bungy L-76) M 20 transmission. Also set up the Hurst shifter I had for it.

Then I set it all in the chassis to test fit the shifter location and headers to steering shaft fit. Shifter came in right on target !!!

With the drive train in for weight, I was able to install the right control arms, spindle, spring and top it off with a new KYB shock.

Next was to install the instrument panel and steering column. I HAD to throw the seat in and sit down.

The shaft is a very close fit.

Figured I better bolt the sector in and check installed fit too. It actually improved the rag joint clearance as it pulled the shaft down a bit.

One tube is barely touching but I will"dimple" that with a pipe after I remove the headers again. Unfortunately, everything I installed today, except the suspension, has to come back out again for final finishing.

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

I remembered those being tight..Yours is about as good as Ive ever seen them get

Lost in the 60s · President

Tony Hoffer wrote:

I remembered those being tight..Yours is about as good as Ive ever seen them get

Those are the Hookers I got from Stan with 2" tubes too. I have another pair of generic headers I got from Chris with smaller tubes but they swing out wider than the Hookers and fit worse. The Hookers make a tight turn and actually clear everything else very nicely on the left. On the right, number 6 cylinder tube is almost touching the frame and I will use my press to flatten it a bit there for more clearance. Plenty of room to the floor too. Wish I could get them ceramic coated before final install but that's $200 I don't have...

SShink · 3K+ Club

Lookin' good Mitch.

Glad it looks like the headers will work out for you.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Looks like it will be driveable in no time. Motor mounts due to arrive today, delayed because of the storm in Chicago. Hope to test fit the engine to the brackets today.

Lost in the 60s · President

Pulled the engine/trans back out to finish front brakes, suspension and steering. I hand bent the two front brake lines and welded a bolt to the frame to attach the distribution block. I had to run the left line under the cross shaft. It was too short to go outside of the bracket and would've had to make 2 90° bends in a very short space. Once the fenders are on, no one will see this anyway.

The used calipers I got were nasty rusty, so I ran them thru the blasting cabinet and then disassembled for new seals. They appear to have never been apart before and date code to '72. The fluid was dark brown inside and had mixed with moisture to form a gell and caused rust pitting in the bottom of the housing. None of the damage will interfere with operation, so I cleaned them up, put the new seals in and shot a few coats of caliper paint on them.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

M, Check your PMs

Lost in the 60s · President

Front end is coming together. Steering sector and sway bar are still hanging from the drying rack and will be installed tomorrow. At that point, the entire suspension, brakes and steering will be complete.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

M,

When you are putting the steering back together do you have some rough numbers to work with? I've never done the take apart put back together to that depth on a car. Can you just count the threads prior to disassembly, install back to that point then head for the alignment shop?

bowtie · Secretary

That's what I have done, just counted turns and shims to get off, then put back to same. Oddly enough, both cars got different wheels and tires, then went to get aligned. NEITHER needed an alignment.

Lost in the 60s · President

dashboard wrote:
M,

When you are putting the steering back together do you have some rough numbers to work with? I've never done the take apart put back together to that depth on a car. Can you just count the threads prior to disassembly, install back to that point then head for the alignment shop?

I replaced EVERY piece of the steering and suspension bushings, so started from scratch. I will do a tape measure toe set before heading out. Caster/camber are what they are till then.

Lost in the 60s · President

The chassis is now done. Installed the steering sector and sway bar. Everything is tightened and greased.... smile

I started on little things that take a lot of time. I had to trim the center of the dust shield for the bell housing and installed that. I then decide to test fitthe starter and discovered the starter didn't fit the bellhousing !!! I have 7 starters here and luckily I had one with the correct cast iron nose cone for this bellhousing.
I then looked at how to get the engine pivot ball to seat further in the cross shaft tube. The tube bound up on the frame bracket because the tube needed to move towards the engine more but the engine pivot ball was bottoming out in the tube. I cleaned all the old grease out of the tube and saw where the tube had been reamed to .870 down about an inch and then stopped, leaving a smaller diameter. I didn't have anything to extend the hole size in the tube, so I ground down the pivot ball to match the smaller inside diameter. I had to grind .100 off to get it down to .770 to fit. It now extends all the way in and the tube no longer binds on the frame bracket.

seagrams72 · Active Member

Lost in the 60s wrote:
I replaced EVERY piece of the steering and suspension bushings, so started from scratch. I will do a tape measure toe set before heading out. Caster/camber are what they are till then.

Tape Measure in my garage = Best alignment I have had in my car. Taking into account I have taken it to multiple alignment shops in the past.

Getting to the point where you want the counter to run faster so you can get it on the road.

Lost in the 60s · President

I completely dis-assembled the instrument panel Monday and sandblasted it in the driveway. I knew it had bondo in the bottom where the dash had been hit pretty hard by something and bent. Once I blasted all the bondo off, I spent 3 hours metal bumping it back into shape and sanding the old grinder marks off. It isn't perfect or as good as Eric would do but it looks pretty darn nice. I painted it yesterday and assembled the upper switch panel today. Forgot the camera for all that. I then tackled the dreaded wiring harness. Got the fuse block hole cut out in the firewall and block mounted. I then assembled all the gauge/dash light sockets on the bench and inserted them in their proper holes.

I'm STILL waiting on the new bezel set I ordered last week. I thought/hoped it would be here today and I could complete the instrument panel assembly.

Lost in the 60s · President

Fuse block and main dash harness are in as well as the pedals and dash pad. The bezel set came tonight so I assembled the instrument panel. I realized I need to hook up the heater cables to the box before I put the dash in so that is next and then the dash goes in for good... smile

Lost in the 60s · President

Been a while since I posted and I have been working on it but life gets in the way and slows progress.
Instrument panel and steering column are installed.

With the steering shaft installed, I bolted up the headers and tightened the engine mount bolts and installed the crossmember. I also swapped out the intake manifold for one off a '69 390hp 427... emote.img?ID=15282

Poured the oil in the dizzy hole, primed it and dropped the dizzy in. Blasted and painted some vintage pulleys I dug out of a 35 yr old box too... emote.img?ID=15268

Had to throw one wheel on to see what it looked like again and make sure they cleared the calipers. All systems are go...

SShink · 3K+ Club

Lookin' good Mitch! emote.img?ID=15282

What's next on the check list?

seagrams72 · Active Member

Looks good, I think our cars are at the same stage right now. Dash looks clean.

Lost in the 60s · President

Well, we're back from Texas. DANG, it would be nice to live a warm climate year 'round. Harley's on the road and 30 yr old cars with only surface rust...

The day before we left, I thought I would throw the driveshaft in. No dice, it's TOO LONG....

Wondering if the '70 8.5 diff is longer than an 8.2. I need 1 1/2" to get the shaft in.

Yesterday I filled the new master and bled it and plumbed it in. I've never had so many issues with leaks. 2 of the new preformed lines wouldn't quit leaking till I had them so tight it seemed they would snap off. Then the copper washers at the banjo bolts would'nt quit seeping. I finally got one to quit with a 1/2" ratchet and socket and the other one stripped the bolt. Again, I've never had to tighten those bolts like that to stop a leak. Seems the washers are harder than the originals and won't seat. I ordered a new banjo bolt and washers this morning and should have them around 11:30.

After the brake fluid fiasco, I decided to transfer the radiator to the new core support. No big surprise that it was completely jury rigged to the old one and I'm not going to butcher my vintage replacement support to make it fit again. It's only a 2 row copper and may not be sufficient to cool the engine anyway. The PO said it would overheat on the highway. When I took the car apart, I found the lower hose was soft as mush and assumed it was sucking shut under higher rpm and was the cause of the overheating but with the fitment issue of the 2 core, I'm now looking at just replacing the rad with a CORRECT one.

I don't feel like I've made any progress lately.......only discovering more issues to deal with....

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Welcome back, enjoy the weather. Our projects seem to go that way sometimes, every project I've undertaken with the Elky this winter has been one step forward two steps back.

My tranny, gas tank, audio upgrades, interor mods all became far more involved than they should have been. At first I thought it was age, but then I realized where ever there was an opportunity for something to go wrong, it did, in some cases several times. Now I'm ready to have the new headliner installed but the sunvisors are on back order.

We did have two really nice weather days last week though.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

Get the correct measurements and have the driveshaft turned or a new one made at Catco. We get a pretty nice discount through them.

Lost in the 60s · President

The rear axle that's in the car is out of a '70 Buick and won't be staying. I crawled around under it and the GTO today to measure the 12 bolt. The 12 bolt that I put in the GTO seems to be 1" shorter and that's what I need for the shaft to fit. At some point in the next few weeks, I need to roll the GTO back in the shop and swap the axles.

I got a new banjo bolt and washers today and finally got the front brake hoses to seal up. They are now gravity bled and also the rears. Probably a mute point to bleed the rears, since the axle is coming out soon....

Bit the bullet and ordered a correct 4 row copper radiator with shroud from Hinshaws today. I was going to try to re-use the generic 2 row but after I saw how badly I would need to butcher it and the support to make them fit, I decided to just do the right thing now instead of later. My cc is really hurting...

Bought more sand paper, rust converter and paint to so I can get started on the inner fenders. After tomorrow, I will be working 12 hour days thru the weekend hauling sand to build a levee in Stillwater, so the car will sit yet again.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Good luck with the rear end swap. That will probably lead to some work on the rear control arm bushings, if you haven't done that yet. Then Shocks. That new radiator should work much better. Looks like quite a bit of flooding down this way. Woke up to a snow covered lawn this morning. Maybe Easter will bring drivable weather.

Lost in the 60s · President

jim larson wrote:

Good luck with the rear end swap. That will probably lead to some work on the rear control arm bushings, if you haven't done that yet. Then Shocks. That new radiator should work much better. Looks like quite a bit of flooding down this way. Woke up to a snow covered lawn this morning. Maybe Easter will bring drivable weather.

The control arms in the GTO are all painted with new rubber bushings. The lowers are from a '70 with the reinforcements and a sway bar. It will all get swapped into the Chevelle..

MN DOT figures it will need to close the lift bridge in Stillwater sometime Sat or Sunday. We woke up to 2" fresh snow and it's been snowing all morning. The shop driveway is too soft to plow after last week so it will just have to melt.

Lost in the 60s · President

Took a few pics today. Hard to see much progress as it's all been little things.

The brake system is all sealed up and bled, until I change the rear axle. I also ran the tubes for the mechanical water temp and oil pressure gauges I got from John D. Installed the spark plugs and a couple looms to hold the junk wires till I get all new stuff later in the summer.

Installed the vent cable, dimmer switch with harness and parking brake assembly.

Put the core support on yesterday and tried to install the radiator. Decided to go a bunch further in debt and get the right one instead. That should be here next week.

Lost in the 60s · President

I didn't have to work today so I decided to tackle some body work. I had cut out an old patch that had been brazed over the hole and 1/4" of bondo smeared around to blend it a while back. Got up the nerve to cut the rest off and start fitting the replacement panel. I work REALLY slow at this as it's not a technique I'm comfortable with but man, 4 HOURS to get that patch to fit right was a bit much. Give me a floor pan to slap in any day over something that will be seen. Oh well, it should look good when it's done. Next is to hold it with screws and test fit on the car. Hope it's close to aligning with the door edge.

.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Looks great!

Lost in the 60s · President

Looks good on the car too.....

Lost in the 60s · President

Worked on the left fender today. The original was too badly rusted to save, so I got a replacement form Karl. It, too, has a rust hole and fairly deep crease but the brace is solid on the back. As I was cleaning it up to assess my course of action, I noticed the original color under the old trim panel area looked familiar. I cleaned it up good and took it outside for better light and lo and behold, it is the color I want to eventually paint the car...Aztec Bronze...

Here's the rust and crease.

After the 4 hour battle with the large panel on the right, I wasn't excited about cutting that much out of this fender, since it didn't really need it. I did need to address the crease first to releave the stress from that area before cutting the rust out. I first tapped it out from the back but the metal was stretched from such a sharp crease and now it bowed out. I couldn't get a good pic of that so I moved on to heating and quenching the area with cold water to get it to shrink. This was my first experience with this but after listening to Eric at Karl's and reading the "Keys to metal bumping" book, I gave it a try. I think it turned out really well for a beginner.

I sanded the burned paint off and saw that the area was fairly flat, so I used a magic marker to color it over and hit it with the DA again. The area in the circle has the brace behind it and I can't get at it to tap it out. I did heat and cool it a few times and it did draw some of the dent out. What's left will only need a skim of filler.

Then I marked out what I wanted to remove, cut it out and laid it on the patch panel to mark and cut that.

And here is the patch all fitted. This patch took less than an hour to complete and only 2 hours total was spent. From here, I need to sand blast the rust on the inside of both fender braces and treat to prevent future rust before welding the panels on, but I'm making progress with this task...

Lost in the 60s · President

Well, the left patch was a good idea that went terribly wrong. As I was welding it in, it stretched, warped and buckled so bad it looked like CRAP and would've needed a ton of filler to get flat again....

After I ground off the excess, I could see it had serious low areas.

I tried to build them up with weld and it only got uglier.

So today, I cut the whole mess off and fit the full panel I had, like the right side.

Once it was fitted, I sprayed it with rust converter and weld thru primer and went in for lunch to let it dry.

Like the right side, I welded as much as I could from the back with a copper plate on the front to limit the buildup on the outside.

All cleaned up.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Looks great, when are you going to install the front clip?

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Mitch, what are your plans regarding the quarters, truck, and paint? Do you want to do the whole thing this spring/? Is there an all GM show in Stillwater this June? Didn't see it listed on the event page; but thought you mentioned something about one.

Lost in the 60s · President

jim larson wrote:
Mitch, what are your plans regarding the quarters, truck, and paint? Do you want to do the whole thing this spring/? Is there an all GM show in Stillwater this June? Didn't see it listed on the event page; but thought you mentioned something about one.
No plans to paint beyond the doors. I'm going to have the existing paint color matched so it doesn't look too ugly.
Kevin, I'm in contact with Tim H now about the painter that Darren used. The entire clip is in individual pieces and will take much longer to re-assemble than the hour it took to remove it....
The All GM Show is at the Fairgrounds on June 5th.
The All Chevy Show put on by the Northstar Camaro Club is June 25th at Stillwater Motors.
You have 2 reasons to drive the Chevelle up here....

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Looks like I have a clear schedule for those dates along with the club night at NSP. Now all we need is good weather. Not like last year at NSP. Thanks.

Lost in the 60s · President

More delays.....

I got involved with another guy doing a production welding job. Biggest reason was for MONEY, which I need for paint for the Chevelle. I fabricated a jig to hold the chrome handles in place over the steel fingers. I can set-up and weld 2 at a time in 45 seconds. I made 100 pieces yesterday in 90 minutes. There are 2,900 to go..... Next week I will make another jig so we both can be doing this and get thru them quicker. I also ordered 4 toggle clamps to attach to the jigs for holding the handles. It will speed up the set-up time by eliminating the large C clamps that have to be removed/replaced every cycle.

The road supervisor for my Township called and talked about a LOT of roadside brush removal this Spring. I had been trying to get the previous super to let me clear these same areas for years but he wouldn't spend the money. Now the plowing contractor and the fire inspector are telling them it needs to be done to allow safe passage for their trucks... I'll be on that in the next couple weeks too. The biggest issue with the Township work is they only write checks once a month and if I don't get the work done and the bill in by May 4th, I won't get paid until the middle of June....

Lost in the 60s · President

This has taken another turn. I just ordered a set of 2 DeVilbiss paint guns from Eastwood. I am capable of painting OK and would like to move towards that goal eventually anyway, so instead of paying someone else to do this, I may as well invest in good equipment and start right now. It will get epoxy primer for sure and if time permits, possibly matching color. I took a fender to the local Car Quest and got the paint spectrographed to match...