Slowest 1970 Chevelle build!

[Berg]

This is going to be one of the slowest builds on this page. I'll start off with me, then the car. My name is Kevin and I've wanted a Chevelle ever since I was a little kid. I was almost born in a 1972 El Camino or a 1973 Suburban. I love Old Chevy trucks and cars. As far as my hobbies go, I'm really into the 73-87 GM trucks but I love them all from 1947-99. I graduated Highschool in 2001 and always thought I'd have my old Chevy pickup or a Chevelle as my car. I didn't get the Chevelle until graduation (no, it wasn't a gift... I had to buy it myself) so I used my 1984 K5 Blazer as my first truck I ever had on the road. I volunteer at my local Fire Department and i'm a 1st Leiutenant of Engine Co. #2. I work for a neighboring Fire District also. I have a 25' Chris Craft Catalina 251 with a straight inboard Chevrolet engine. I love the beach and I live on an Island so you better love the beach if you are surrounded by water. Ok enough about me...
The Chevelle was purchased kind of local from behind a former strip club where it sat neglected since 1987. The car was originally code 45 green with a black vinyl roof and dark green bench seat interior. The cowl panel has rot, it had half 1/4's put on by the second owner as well as a 400CI out of a 71 Monte Carlo with a 2bbl carb. The A/C was left tied up underhood and the engine was half out of the car. The only performance mods were headers, and the exhaust being hacked beyond recognition. The car looked like it was painted as a class project for a school somewhere. The jambs were left the original green and overspray was everywhere. The rocker panel on the passenger side was molded into the front fender. The bodywork was very crude but it did happen to come with a real GM SS hood that still had the sticker on it. The guy told me it needed an engine and that is why it has sat. He had it listed for $3500 but after pointing out all the rot and problems and telling him a regular Malibu not running would never be worth more than $1,500 I left paying $1,800 and he towed it back to my house for that cost. The next day I took a better look at it, hooked up everything under the hood and hit the key. I could feel the ignition switch sticking. I jumped out the switch at the base of the column and it cranked over and eventually fired after filing the points and a little fresh fuel in the float bowl. I found out the fuse panel and ignition switch had issues from the windshield leaking and rotting out the cowl panel. I had the glass resealed as a temporary fix so I could drive it for a while.

[Berg]

[Rank]

Welcome... and I'll race you! Not on the street but as to who can make the claim of the slowest build!

[Berg]

It turns out the car was built in Flint, Michigan if I remember correctly and has power brakes and power steering. It even has the boxed lower arms and F41 frame stiffeners. It had the bigger radiator (i'm guessing due to having air conditioning) and also has a single 3/8 fuel line with no return. The history on this car is sketchy but it turns out it was from the town next to mine. It took me countless trips to different DMV's to register this car. In NY state, there weren't titles issued before 1973 but I did have the transferrable registration from the original owner, which I guess technically makes me the second owner. The original owner is now in his late 60's and did not return any of my phone calls or answer any of my written letters. I found his current address and he refused to talk to me about anything. Not a very nice guy and didn't seem too into cars. The DMV said I needed the original owner to reapply for a regi and have the car inspected because it was so long since it was on the road. After all else failed, I went back to DMV with my girlfriend. She wore a skimpy little shirt with a cute skirt to match and pushed em up real nice... Apparently that's what I was doing wrong the whole time because we walked out with a set of license plates that day! Shortly after, I enjoyed the car for a very short time before the master cylinder went. Boy that was a wild ride! Luckily it didn't go until I backed it into the garage... literally! Without warning the pedal went to the floor and I put it into the garage door. Good thing those are real bumpers because it made a mess out of the door but the car had a little white scuff on the chrome that wiped right off with my shirt. The next time I had it out, I blew a brake line and decided to replace the front lines and hoses. After that, I lost oil pressure and decided that was going to be it for a while so it sat for a few years. I got sick of seeing it sit like that so I cleaned it up and gave it a better black paint job- more to preserve it than anything.

[Berg]

[Berg]

Rank, you are on!!!! I am the king of unfinished projects so I must warn you that this may take a while!

[Berg]

Here is the 1968 427 L88 that was turned into a .060 over with 454 5140 Nitrided Forged Crankshaft making it a 468. It has short skirt pistons and low friction file-fit rings with 7/16 GM Connecting rods. It is running a big solid flat tappet camshaft with double roller timing chain and roller rockers under the old Cal-Custom valve covers. It has a deep sump pan HEI and a few other goodies like 7/16 hardened pushrods. It is a 3963512 Block with a set of 3919840 heads. This is a pretty wild engine with a 14:1 compression ratio. It is bolted to a built TH400 with a high stall converter (I think around 5,000rpm) and full manual valve body and a deep sump aluminum pan. After I dropped this in the car I finally admitted to myself that it was way too radical and yanked it back out. This engine makes NO vacuum at all so the brakes would have either been converted to hydra-boost or I would have needed a big can and a vacuum pump. I decided I'd like to drive my car on the street but I don't want to take apart this engine so i'm going to drop in a bone-stock 454 out of a Suburban. I know it has small heads, and flat top pistons, a cast crank and 3/8 rods but it will be nice for cruising for now. Besides, I bet i'll be getting around 18-20 mpg if I tune it right and step down to a rear gear in the neighborhood of 3.42's or so.

[Berg]

It is a small pic because it is off my old phone but this is the truck my 468 came out of.. It is a 49 Ford F-6 dually fire truck that was cut down and shortened to the wheelbase of a regular cab longbed pickup and made into a truck for a special kind of Fire Department racing. There are a handful of trucks like this around NY State and any of you guys local enough to come out to some tournaments, I say do it! There are some videos on youtube of these trucks running. This truck currently sits in the museum at the Fireman's Museum at Hudson, NY.

[Berg]

I will be converting this car to a 4 speed Muncie. I picked up what I believe to be an M20 from 1966 or 1967. I got a GTO 4 speed console and original round handle shifter along with this, both would be incorrect for my Chevelle. I'm planning on putting on a Hurst Competition Plus shifter and hooking up the reverse lockout. I have a floor shift steering column I will be swapping in but I'll save everything original to the car and throw it on a shelf somewhere in the garage. Back to the transmission:
Case casting# 3885010
Tailhousing # 3857584
Side Cover # 3884685

I believe the gear ratios of this transmission to be the following:
2.52, 1.88, 1.46, 1.00 with a 3.11 reverse. It has 2 rings cut into the input shaft, 10 spline input/27 spline output with passenger side speedometer hook-up.
it has the 1" countershaft with stud style shift shafts. I'll get pics sometime this week to show you guys... I'm still waiting on a Bellhousing. I would like to throw in a 621 even though i'll be using the smaller clutch and flywheel but i'll probably end up with a 403 casting. I plan on running the bench seat with no console, it would be different plus I already have all the materials to rebuild my bench seat. I'll hang onto my buckets for a while just in case I get the urge but they need to be rebuilt.

[Ms Grumpy]

Berg sounds like you got a pretty good deal on the Malibu. And even with the problems you described, it sounds like you know exactly what you want. Slow and steady wins the race.

But speed is nice too....