Thread: Everybody that is currently building a car...

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Falcon that does look good since you kept it stock looking . Takes off like a rubber band I bet engine to weight ratio .

Well hit the 60's here today and guess what some motivation hit me also . I got up hit the Peotone,IL swap this morning . Came home cleaned up a little in the garage and did a little wall art with some things I acquired over the long winter . Seeing cars pop up this Mustang will be plated this year He$$ or high water .

The Chevette should make a great sleeper Falcon, very nice work inserting the small block!!! The 'bird looks plenty buildable, unless there's some twists and tweaks that don't show in the pics.

Been making a bit of progress out to the shop... The floor is tacked together and back out of the car for welding, the 'puter and wiring harness for the 'hemi is off to be modified and should come back in a couple weeks. This week I'll finish off the floor for the back of the car, finish fitting the front end, install the door latches and solenoids, and power window solenoids. Got the gauge panel and surround from Dakota Digital on Friday, it's gorgeous as they always are. I'll get a shot of it when it's mocked up. Anyway, here's some progress pics from the shop....

Dave that floor pan/tunnel looks sweet! With the rear fenders on it has a mean stance to it. Ought to make the owner real happy! How's your own camero coming along. It sounds like you have been busy in the work shop, probably limiting the personal shop time. I'm still waiting on motor mounts, but can't wait to get the engine in and fired up!

Haven't done a thing on my own stuff, Steve. Did manage to snag a 302 and AOD out of a Grand Marquis for my buddy Greg's Galaxy. Engine needs to be gone through, probably end up being a 347.... Other then that, nothing but shop stuff.....

Dave those door openings must be bigger then in the pics . I am taking a floor and tins class in May to help with doing my floors when I am ready . Should help with the design and be helpful with the tricks of installing one .

Originally Posted by bluestang67

Dave those door openings must be bigger then in the pics . I am taking a floor and tins class in May to help with doing my floors when I am ready . Should help with the design and be helpful with the tricks of installing one .

No trick to it. Just take a piece of 20ga. and whittle away everything that doesn't look like a floor......

Falcon- that unibody structure looks pretty torn up to mess with, but if Dave says its good it must be good. Is the "bigger" engine a 3.8 to his old 3.4 or is the wrecked one a v8. If he has two v6's I would just do a T Top conversion on his driveable car and call it a day. Once making one cut to remove the roof skin the T Top structure is right there for you and you can use the wrecked T Top car for the roof panels, seals, trim pieces etc. These cars are waay too cheap now to bother fixing the wrecked one imo...

The unibody did get hit pretty hard but it didn't get the framerails. The only thing that looks like it got moved was the top of the stut tower. We got it running yesterday, drove it down the road and it feels like it drives straight. I got pretty close ties to a good local collision repair shop so I'm going to cut away all the obviously mangled parts, have them put it on a frame machine and see what it looks like. It's a shame, the car was really nice and well taken care of before it got hit. Thanks for the advice. I agree, I wouldn't fix it for myself but if he wants to put the labor into putting it back together and the shop can straighten it to where it'll align properly, I'll let him try it. It'll be a good learining experience for him even if it never hits the road again.

Got a new project as a father/son project. My son has moaned and groaned want an old car until I finally gave in. Now he get to experience stop light to stop light overheats.....suspension scrub.....body work the old fashion way.....and worrying about when the next gas station is coming up.

I'm proud he wants to learn all of this. He has my sickness....all evolves around old cars.

Got him a 65 El Camino off Ebay. Fairly solid machine. Dropped conciderably with springs and dropped spindles. Disc brakes (GM Metric) all around. We got it home in one piece.....but...had a heck of a time with overheating. Did fine on the free way at 65 MPH (3200 RPM's). Really hated the stop lights here and there though. Got to 220 a couple of times.....and 230 the last mile before we got home. Did the emergency cold spring water straight to the radiator thing.....got temp back down.....fired it up to get the cool water back in the motor....shut down. Motor seems fine. Time for a different radiator and plan ditching the electric fan in favor of a good clutch fan with shroud. Question....I always "heard" that a crossflow cooled better than a comparitivley sized downflow radiator. Is this a left myth? I wouldnt think it would make any difference. The reason I ask is because most of the radiators I've found are anywhere between $700-1200....crossflow. I found a fella on Ebay that makes a downflow aluminum (3 row) with more fins per inch.....guaranteeing good to 850 hp or money back....for $220. I'm leary about bargain prices....what do you think? He seems to have a great rating on Ebay and making radiators is his specialty. His store is Classic radiators

There's a couple other things than need changed. Someone cut most of the frame out for the big tires. I'm kind of uncomfortable with that....going to set him up with some sort of a Xbrace (tubing) to help stiffen up the rear most portion of the frame. Here's a couple pics of the new project.

This project will most likely get finished before my own. We're going to get started on the interior once we get all of the driveablity bugs worked out.

Here's some pics of its present look....

Dave G

Looks like a nice starter! That engine looks new, and the body and interior are already nice. Nice gift!

I've always wanted one of those. Looks like a nice starter to me.

Tom

Update on the Elky. I think my cooling problems evolve around 3 things. Obviously the main reason is the type of motor.....large cam (high lift), compression verging the limits of super unleaded.....second I believe the radiator is slightly too small and dont care for the electric fan arangement.....third I had a huge ammount of vacuum on the gas cap on my first stop for a fill up (feel I may have been running lean the whole trip home).

We're just about to head out and dig in to the Elky to figure out what we have as far as small problems.

Dave G

Stove some friends run the down flow with extra fins with some big blocks and cooling is fine for parade duty . Lean burn will make it run hotter as we all know but they may have cut it back to save fuel engine looks like its ready to talk to a neighbor . Good luck I know you will get it and congrats to the son for following the family tradition . Clean looking Camino not much left to finish it . Good starter for him to get some hands on . Since he is young he may even get your truck done for you .

Teach him about the fuel line and engine heat . Give him the tubing bender for another lesson on safety and why its done in metal . Hate the line to wear out a hole and start leaking around the headers.

Great looking Camino, one of my favorite years. I love the big meats on the back.

Yeah....we've got a slew of saftey issues squared away already. Still need to do the fuel line......align the front end (some serious camber lean on passenger side front only).....and stiffen up the frame/install wheel tubs......and installing 3 point 2" saftey belts.

Today we did a slew of things.....fixed signal lights....headlights.....heater switch.....wiper motor....aligned the doors and hood.....repaired door pawl (wouldnt release).....adjusted end gate. And today my son did his first oil change. LOL's. Proud to see him all greasy and rubbing his fingers cause he jumped right in on a hot motor. I told him the oil was still just a tad to hot. For the first time we used Mobil 1 (took Dave's advise in an older thread). Always been a Castol man but that was normal engines....figured I'd give her a treat this time.

Shrunk out a few small dents and tried working the large one out with an off dolly and shrinker but not making much progress. May try the heat gun/compressed air tomorrow.

My son has this ......grin that just wont stop. Its got a healthy cam profile...lift and a mid centerline....with the Flowmasters it sound real good at the light. But I have to admit....those mufflers would have to go if they were my daily driver.....resonance at freeway speed for 2 hours started getting to me. I couldnt hear a thing once we got home.

Dave G