Spent the morning pulling the starter out the car. Not much room to get it out not to mention laying on my back working on it. Wish I had a shop and a lift. Starter is drawing to many amps, so now I will need to get it rebuilt and put into the car before next weekend.

Starter over at the rebuild shop. Should get it back tomorrow.

Rebuilt another horn assembly. Now to get them blasted and painted then I'll have functional horns on the Chevelle.

I don't have any horns so one of these weeks I'll have to go junkyard diving and see if I can scrounge some up. They want an awful lot of money for the reproduction ones!

My buddy Lou told me last saturday that my Elky made him sad seeing it almost dragging the ground as it needed new springs and the air shocks replaced .He knew I had the parts but due to my surgery I could not install them so he suggested that I bring it to his home shop and put it on his lift and he would change them for me .We decided on today for this to happen ,he put my new station wagon springs on and the new coilover shocks to replace the ever leaking air shocks .Man does it ever ride good now and looks much better too .I basically held the light and handed him tools and stayed out of the way .It's great to have friends like Lou and I am going to return the favor helping him on his outbuilding when Im all healed up.

I haven't looked at the repros in a few years. I know they use to be pretty generic, not really a reproduction of the original Chevelle horns. I have a couple extra passenger side horns, non-functioning. You pay shipping and you can have them.

John, you're a lucky guy to have a friend like Lou.

Nice friend, Always good to have friends willing to help.

I agree ,Lou is a good guy ,I met him at a swap meet a long way from home and gave him some part I had for free and I got to talking to him later that day and found out he only lived a short distance from me and we began hanging out together at our local cruise in and found ourselves fast friends ,that was about 2 years ago.

Finally got around to putting a coolant recovery system / tank on my '71 Chevelle. I know they did not have one from the factory back in the day but I like the idea of being able to top off the re-cored 4 row Harrison all the way and a bit of reserve in the recovery bottle. Also keeps an air bubble out of the radiator and hopefully will lessen any corrosion to the shiny new cores. I used a w/s washer bottle and mounted it to the lower portion of the pass. metal inner fender below the battery. Put a couple rubber washers between the mount and the fender. Same system as I put on my restored '71 Chevy fleet side 4x4 which works great.

We drove the 72 convertible to a cruise in today ,it was so hot not very many cars showed up.

I'll take you up on that offer. Just sent you a PM with my address. Let me know how much shipping is. Thanks!

It has been so hot here this weekend, 90-95 degrees with blistering sun and high humidity. I planned on doing a show or two but I ended up with a summer cold and felt miserable all weekend. Feeling better now just Hoping the upcoming week I will be able to make a few shows and maybe catch up with the Michigan Chevelle guys.

Taking the wife to work just now. I was following a nice 70 SS red with black top. Just seeing them out driving around brings memories. Back when they were just normal cars all over the place.

Must be a show somewhere near Ashville ,Nc as we have seen all kinds of cool cars heading that direction from Flat Rock .

I might have a couple also. You can have the originals rebuilt. I know I have seen a name on the other site.

Christine lives. Brought the car home and after about 15 minutes I heard a honk from the car, I thought. About 15 minutes later I heard another honk. And 5 minutes later the horns were blaring. That's a first.

She is mad because your thinking of selling her. Now if the radio starts playing oldies. Better watch out.

Don't know what bee got in my bonnet. But i caught up on work and doing chev work today. Anal retentive stuff. cleaning the floors and checking things nobody will ever see. Getting it ready to under coat. LOL it will be under carpet or undercoating underneath. Joke is anyone who knows anything would be suspicious they did not look that good new. Can't have waves or imperfections before undercoating and rocks nailing it under there. Oh no.

Anyway I am having a good time playing today. I need it undercoated. I got a bunch of stuff here already to do once that is done. Tank lines and such.

I ordered a bunch of Sandisk cruizers yesterday for it. The tiny ones hat do not sick out. I going to put different music on different ones and use them like tapes/DVD's. 50's On one High school stuff on anothere etc etc. I don't need 8GB of music on the same one. Makes it to hard to find what your in the mood for. In the mood for led Zepplin and ZZ Top pop that one in deal.

Since I had the starter issue and the weather has not been that great, mine has just sat in the garage. Got to many other projects to work on seems like so the Chevelle has been on the back burner.

It has been too hot and humid to play with the convertible ,took the truck to a swapmeet yesterday though and sold some stuff.

I have been sick all week. I spent to much time out in the heat and humidity and paid for it. But I did pull my car out last night to go up to the local A & W drive in Cruise night. We ordered food and right about the time the food came out...it started raining.

I wasn't going to let that bumm me out, I pulled out an umbrella and sat there and ate my food. David and Jacob got a little wet, but oh well, they didn't bring an umbrella. lol

It isn't a chevelle but it is chevelle related. Yesteday at the family reunion my brother brought the charger and my uncle brought the super bee. I kept getting ask when I would have the chevelle for the car show in the parking lot at family events. My Cousin was missing this round with his 700 HP or whatever it is Roush mustrag. We are a bunch of gearheads in my family. Mom said after mine is done we should charge admission to all the people driving by and stopping to gawk LOL.

My brother, uncle and I stood around comparing problems with the restorations. Did this happen on yours kinda thing. And this is what I did to overcome it. So we had a good time. As usual some of the older people were just as impressed with the van. Why aren't you showing it today with them.

It just isn't the same it is a nothing vehicle. Same shape and restoration done or not LOL. But I got my honorable mentions and that was nice.

It is rough just knowing I am so close but can't cruise it around yet. My uncle is a good supporter. He said mine sat for 20 years while I raised my kids. Just got other shit to do. He said don't worry it will be done soon. His only been done and driving 2 years. This is the first year for my brothers to be out. He still needs weather stripping and windows in it on the doors.

My brother went to Philmores with his afterwards. Literally the dairy whip meeting spot. After they close we got permission to just go hang out in the parking lot. It is a hillbilly meeting spot for all the car guys. We all grew up together riding dirt bikes back when this place was all farms. Now we still do the big kid thing with the cars there.

We went from riding in the field next to it in the back. To sitting in the parking lot trying to not get tickets leaving. You know how those car try to get away from you going sideways on corners. Pipes all cackly and loud LOL. I swear some people just never grow up.

I hope growing up is not a requirement as I wont make it .

I have walked past my 72' several times while working on my truck. :(
The 69' is buried under the lean to and covered with a tarp. Sadly, it is the farthest thing from my mind right now.

I am hoping to finish the body work and get it painted in 2-3 months.

I have to agree

I think it is cool that you have a family that is into older cars chevymaher. I think your mom may be onto something by charging admission, maybe it could help with the resto costs. lol

carpoor you at least have plans and are working toward a goal. Many cars sit for years with no thought at all of working on it. I think that you need to take the tarp off of the '69 once the '72 is done. Out of sight out of mind. Gotta give it a chance. lol

In wikipedia under grow up fail. Look it's me.

When I was a kid the saying in my family was this because of all the cars.

The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

Seems women entering the clan not understanding needed pep talks.

And I miss my other uncles 71 monte. That finally fell due to rust. 2 crate motors that thing had over the years. Who knows how many trans. It had ungodly miles on it. Cream yellow color and had cragars and side pipes since he got it in 73. It was a blast from the past looker tho. He always kept good paint on that thing. I drove it to a prom one year.

I love those Monty's too ,dont see them much here anymore .

Hard to believe the Chevelle has just been sitting in the garage just been to busy working on other projects around the house. I haven't been to a show at all this year. I payed for 2 shows, but the car wasn't running a few weeks back.

I was thinking yesterday. Winter is apparently when the chevelles time is to do things to it. I got work backing up. But that is a good thing.

But Ray just take her around the block a few times. My goal this summer is just push it outside in the sun to let that top cure a little.

The way time flys wifes school be back in soon, Last round and then I can start getting things for it again. Van and truck been needing maintenence. I got to look at the trucks brakes.

I had to pull my car out of the garage yesterday for a large party we had for Audiokarma.org and the SMAC club. I was running around all day and then one of my friends showed up. After I put the food away I walked up to hubby and told him that I was going to take my friend home. I hadn't driven my car in a while so I started her up and just enjoyed taking the drive. She may have been dirty from not being covered in the garage but I still made a pass out on Woodward before going home.

I got all my work caught up for the moment. I am about to go do something to the chev. Anything LOL. I imagine back to going over the floorboards with a fine tooth comb. I got the shifter hump to put in but looking for dimensions. Seems like it only will fit in one place tho. Clean in the trunk and get it hospital sanitary and ready for speckle paint. Get in the jambs farther back cleaning out the silly buffing compound that is magic in its ability to reach the deepest parts known to man.

Well I did get alot done yesterday. I was under the car and found a bunch of work to do. I forgot all about the spots where I welded in the bucket seat tracks. Floor was basically done I spent a year on a lift doing the floor with the frame off of it. Fixing factory stampings and rock dents. You know stuff nobody will ever see but me changing the oil.

So I got some bodywork and Painting before undercoating to whip that back into shape. While I was doing this non sense decided the seal wheel well to quarter areas. They are getting additional non stock sealing. It isn't for sale so it don't matter if it is stock. Isn't like it going to ever see rain unless I get caught out in it. But I just want any rust proofing i can get. I will seal it while the interior is out still. Inside and then I am going to painstakingly do between the layers of sheet metal where it is folded over on the wheel side to. Keep water out of that little problem area these old cars have. Getting in between the layers of sheet metal. I already added drain holes there in the bottom front and back. A tip I learned when I was 16 from Jim. No water sitting no rust forming.

So anyway I am playing here resuming building the Pyramids. Ridiculous amount of detail work nobody will ever know about (except you guys) or see. Redesigning the wheel. But it is what i like to do. Try to eliminate the issues I had when I was a kid with these old cars.

I brought the car home from getting the top installed and took it in to get the front end aligned. The guy at Belle Tire told me the steering box was missing a bolt, it only had 2, but he got it as close as he could. When I looked at the steering box I noticed that the rag joint was literally falling apart. So I got a new one and tried to install that along with the missing bolt.

It turns out the steering box isn't stock. The 4 bolt holes kind of gave it away. Also the shaft that is much bigger than the stock one was apparently. I couldn't get the new rag joint on. Since I had no idea what it's from the guys at the parts store weren't very helpful. So I decided to upgrade the steering box to the Grand Cherokee one I've seen other people do. I also got a new rag joint.

When I tried to remove the old Pitman arm I ran into an issue. I couldn't get it off. I finally resorted to using a pickle fork (there goes my core return on the steering box) and got it off in intact. I had stuff planned with the kids the rest of the weekend so I didn't get it installed.

I did get the driver's side front window aligned and installed the door panel. The inner door frame has been bent at one time so it wasn't easy but it's pretty good for now. I also installed the sill plates and wind lace. Couldn't get my reproduction arm rest base to line up correctly and I was getting mad so I called it a day before I broke something.

Heading up north for a week's vacation on Friday so no more progress until I get back. But I plan to start putting some miles on it next month, even if it's just driving it to work.

I actually laid under it today for a few hours. I welded in bucket seat tracks deals after the floor was finished? Or so I thought. I am cleaning up that mess where it burned the paint off of it.

Still laying under it doing a artist rendition of what a chevelle floor should of look like. I doubt they looked this good factory. And I am just going to undercoat it when I am done. Am I just crazy it looks fine LOL. Then I can move on to sealing the rear wheel wells better than they ever were.

It is done I think I am make busy just to pass time. I feel better if I am just doing something.

My buddy who owns the gas station is begging me to trailer this POS down to his car show this weekend finished or not. If I had a trailer i would consider it. Looks good enough for a bunch of hillbillies to gawk at. There is a 69 camaro with perfect paint that goes there. I mean perfect. Can't outrun my 6 cylinder van but it looks good. He don't like me much now LOL. He don't wanna play anymore, he took his toys and went home.

I picked up a 402 and a 69' M20 recently. The engine was running, I took it partially apart to inspect it. All checked out good, and I bought it obviously. It will be a cheap way to get my 69' Malibu running and driving. I am going with the whole day 2/ratty muscle car theme. Should be fun...

Did some tear down on the 402 last night, wanted to measure a few things. I am going to have to run a cam with a decent amount of overlap to bleed off compression for pump gas. With the closed chamber heads, it comes in at a tick over 10:1 SCR. I think I have it narrowed down to a Lunati "bootlegger" cam. Should have a nasty idle, hope it's fun.