🔧 BUILD Old school BIG tire Chevelle build for Sick Summer

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Alright, its time to get started on the car for Sick Summer 2024! This is my buddy Lous car, and has a great back story so lets start there. This is a 1968 Chevelle, and I think it was a 396 SS car. His Dad bought it in 1976 (see sticker) and raced it with a buddy for years. I guess the deal was it was his car, and he did all the chassis work. His buddy supplied the engine and drove it on track. They campaigned it for years, I think until the early 80's or so. I dont know a ton about it, but I hear it was a turbo BBC back then and went in the 7's. As the story goes he parked it when kids started being born. Eventually he had to sell the car I think in the 90s. I think his Dad had stayed in touch with the guy, and I know Lou did. Unfortunaetly Lou's Dad passed away, and not too long after the owner reached out to Lou to see if he wanted to buy the car back. He jumped on it, and bought it as a roller and its been sitting in his trailer just waiting ever since.

Once it became apparent the TA wasnt going to be ready in time for Sick Summer this year, I got after him to slap this thing together. It took some convincing but he came around. The general plan is I will work on the chassis stuff and he is taking care of getting the engine together. A few weeks ago I took my lil baby truck down to the hood to go pick it up.

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We cleaned some stuff out of the trailer, and re-strapped it down.
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Ready to hit the road.
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The whole drive was fucking terrible. I think the triler was tonge heavy, and it was swaying me around all over the place. Then shortly into my 2 hour drive my truck started fucking up, which was the straw that broke the camels back on getting a new truck.

ANYWAY, I got it back home in one piece and just parked it in the driveway for a bit after a quick check.
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I was terrible about getting any pictures of unloading it today. It was too damn cold. I should have taken a pic of it out in the street, but didnt have my phone on me. So you guys get the in the garage pics
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15lbs of shit in a 5lb bag
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I was pretty beat by the time I got eveything put away so that was all for today. I will go into the details on the next post with some more pics of the car.
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Broke EF

Broke EF

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  • #55
    Well I finally got to poke around the car some this weekend. I mostly just tinkered and looked around working on a game plan. Since Lou wasnt here, I took a shit ton of pics though, so lets enjoy.

    The starting point
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    Beefy
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    Some shots under the car
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    SO SAFE
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    First things first, good bye pool noodles
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    Next to go were the seats
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    Next to go was the fuel cell
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    This is... something
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    Turns out it had a single -8 feed, that is actually hardline (aluminum) for most of the lenth. There was a -8 vent line, and then two -6 nitrous lines that were capped off at both ends. Thats all coming out, nobody trusts 30 year old AN lines, plus we will need a return.

    I went back up front and took out the old nitrous tank which was being used as an overflow??
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    I had more time to mess around today so I got the saw out to start
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    Snapping blades is always fun.

    In the end I won!
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    I threw in one of the seats from the TA onto the modified sliders that the old seats were on. This setup may work great for Lou, so I am leaving it for now so we can see how he fits.
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    We are cutting the X bars out, and will adding swingouts to the door bars. We may do some other things, but depends on time and budget.

    I didnt realzie this was a manual car
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    While we are looking at ugly wiring.
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    I decided to rip out all this MSD stuff
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    Some real gems in here
    Jam everything under this one screw!
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    Wonder what this is
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    Sure, that makes total sense.

    Here is some of what was left under the dash. I got in there to start taking it all out and then decided I wanted to do something else instead.
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    The plan is to clean up most of this wiring of course. I will be rewiring all of the key components such as fans, water pump, fuel pump etc. Hopefully I wont have to worry about lights or other chassis things.

    That is about the gist of everything this weekend. It was a lot of time just digging around and seeing how things were done over the years. As I said this thing has been raced since the mid 70's and has had every combo imaginable in it over that time. Mostly just built in the garage with some buddies, so you can see where things were done, then upgraded, abandonded ect. Very very cool to see, and be a part of.

    Thats all for this weekend. This should be moving along decently quick since we dont have that much time before Sick Summer!

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  • #59
    Bob Kazamakis said:
    God damn those wires and hoses :rofl:


    The clean filled firewall is real good
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    Yeah I forgot to include the pics of the melty wires. There was a 12ga (maybe) that seems like it was the main power for the fan relays. I am not so sure I would use a 12 for one fan, let alone two or maybe three. There are two SPAL 12" puller fans, and a 16" pusher on the car. Who knows what was wired up or being used.

    Gav'sPurpleZ said:
    Dudes back in the day figured out a way to make things work and go fast.
    This is a really cool project.
    can't wait for more updates
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    Oh yeah. I was talking to Lou about it last night and he said they did most of everything in the garage, but here and there they would farm out bigger work. Which really explains the cage specifically. Some of the cage is VERY nice welds, and 1-5/8" while some (door bars) are so so welds and 1-3/4" He said they had the main hoop done probably, and then added bars later as it got faster. The 1-3/4" stuff is likely mild steel, while the main hoop etc, is molly. Same goes for wiring, you can see some that was done nicely, and then times where changes were made for different combos. To me its all really cool history of the car, and tells a story. I am not shitting on any of it by any means even though its not how I would have done it.
     
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  • #61
    IDAFC21 said:
    jesus that wiring :ROFLMAO: Thats where I would have been OUT
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    Its really not THAT bad. This car also doesn't need a ton in the way of wiring anyway.

    As you may or not know, I was sick as fuck the last week so I haven't worked on the car. I did start putting together a list of parts and pieces we need. Lou has been working on getting a cam spec'ed out now that the heads have been checked over. I am working on figuring out the converter as well. So things are happening, just nothing you can see yet.
     
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  • #65
    Small update this week. I just worked on getting more stuff out of the car and trying to make some decisions on different things.

    I started by taking out the last of the old AN lines. Pretty straight forward, but I did end up cutting one of the nitrous lines. I was throwoing it all out anyway, but for some reason I was carefully removing everything complete rather than chop it out. Anyway all of the old line is out now so I can start running the new stuff.

    Then I stared at the batteries for a while and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. I am still not entirely sure. I may end up completely redoing the main power and grounds. I also may have to reign in my OCD and just clean things up some. Its not that its bad, its just not how I would do it at all. AND I am pretty sure the kill switch would not do anything to kill the car.

    After that I got to work pulling the wheels off the car. Always a llittle sketchy doing this on the lift. I really need a bridge jack.
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    Getting the rears off was a bitch
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    So much room for activities!
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    All done
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    This is a big stack of tire!
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    Thanks to SRT41320 SRT41320 I got some new meats ready to go on this week.
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    I am basically to the point of just waiting for parts. I think I am getting a seat and brackets tomorrow. Lou has bought some stuff this week. I think converter is ordered, and he figured out a cam today after some stress. Basically he was going back and forth over the details of a custom cam, and then figured out it would be like 6 weeks. So he ended up getting something decently rowdy but off the shelf from Howard Cams. Hopefully the bottom end and heads are finished up this week so he can get that together.

    Still got a long way to go, but at least there was some progress this weekend.
     
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  • #70
    cap42 said:
    Lovin it, I'd rip out all the wiring and start over vs chasing your tail and trying to figure out what's what with so many different combo's and wiring done on this car over the last 50 years. Can't wait to see more!
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    We dont really have the time or budget for that. I think I have mentioned this, but if not here we go. The engine will be on a Holley, so fully stand alone. I am also going to rewire all the major things like fans, water pump, fuel pump etc. The only existing wiring will be the main power (maybe, and maybe only some) and then whatever it has for lights. I have planted the seed for a complete rewire though, but that will have to wait for now.
     
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  • #71
    I forgot to post about the tires the otherday. I got home from work early on Tuesday, so I decided to load up and head over to see SRT41320 SRT41320 .

    Comparison of a rear tire next to the wifes rear wheel
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    All loaded up
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    The man himself working on a front
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    One down
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    Time to balance
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    Trying to figure out what the hell to do with these
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    Turns out the rears had tubes in them. We should have known, but we all run radials so we didnt.
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    Had to get that SOB out of there.
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    And off
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    Turns out it is a 15" X 15" wheel! We didnt have tubes, or valve stems that could seal the larger hole so that was all we did for the day. Tubes should be here Monday and he can get that all wraped up.

    I also hear parts are rolling in.
    Bottom end should be done next week
    Heads shoould be done next week
    Cam came in today
    Converter is ordered
    Trans is at the shop and should be done next week
    He picked up the AN stuff today
    I got a seat and mounts the other day

    I am going to try and get the seats figured out this weekend. Probably cut out the cage and clean up wiring. Next weeknd Lou should be coming by with all the real goodies and we can start on the engine assembly.
     
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