🔧 BUILD Shawns 1971 Impala Donk

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Interior/Top
LS Swap
Wheels
Sounds/Music
Suspension/Brakes
Paint
BOOST TIME!!!!

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***Check out the tabs to save you the headache of reading this whole thread, also post 3 has a current mod list***

Well boys and girls my new project is finally home. Ive always had a hard on for the Donks (71-76 Caprice or Impala) and always told myself since 1994 that I was eventually going to build one. My buddy mike at the time had a 74 Caprice Vert with 30's and Vouges (google them if you dont know what they are) basically 30 spoke cragars and vouge tires. Its a classic old school gangster look. Over the years he built a few more and sold them and always offered them to me first and I declined because of my love of G Body's as well. When I bought the Regal a couple years ago, I really looked hard at the Donks and believe it or not they were going for half of what they are going for now. Even last summer they coulda been had for about a 1/3rd less maybe a little less for what they are going for now. I was set on a 71 or a 75 for 2 reasons. 71 is the most sought after and fetches the most money as its known as the ACE. 75 because it was the year I was born, and thought that would be pretty cool. Didnt care if it was a HT or Vert, kinda preferred that HT as I dont think Chgo weather is weather for Verts. Pay a extra $10k for a Vert, no thanks.

So when my buddy and I made a deal for the Regal months ago and I knew he was serious. I got serious in my search for a donk. As most of you know I went to Miami for 4 days last month. Had a shit load of them lined up to look at and found either garbage or guys that wouldnt move off what I thought was too high of a price. Few that I thought were too high, have actually sold since then, so I'm thinking price wasnt too high. While in Miami I met this dude Josh and him and I clicked and became friends. Super cool white boy who is in to donks as well, not generally something you see white boys building. He told me he would keep his eyes and ears open and if close enough would do the leg work for me. But told me if he found something I would have to hi-tail my ass down there asap as when they are priced right they sell in hours. Just so happened we decided to go down to Orlando this weekend because we found $61 RT airfare and the biggest donk/g body show just was going on. Figured I might be able to buy something there. Called Josh to tell him we were coming down and if he planned on taking his car to Orlando. He said he might know of a 71 going up for sale with a motivated buyer. I said well fuck let me know asap.

Touched down in Orlando Friday night and had to be up early Saturday to cruise to Ft Lauderdale to see this 71. Pull up to this gated community with $1m+ townhomes and get buzzed in by security. Pull up to the house and she was sitting in driveway and looked as clean as the pics I was sent. Took it for a ride, BSing with Josh, my buddy Ralphy and the owner of the car. Talking about everything from sports to woman to cars. Come to find out this rich fuck is a collector and has 2 other 71's besides the one I bought, and just purchased another on top of 6-7 other cars he has. I guess the Wife has a rule, every time he gets a new one something has to go lol. While BSing I kinda feel him out and get the idea he doesnt want this car going to a black guy who is going to ruin it with big wheels and a LS swap lol. So I played my white privilege card with him. He was asking $25k and very easily had him down to $20k. My final offer was $17.5k and he said he would sleep on it. Told him if he agreed in the morning then it was his job to get it to Orlando before Sunday night. He woke me up about 8am saying the car was mine and was on the way to Orlando. He showed up, we exchanged cash and paperwork, took it off the trailer and parked it at my Airbnb. We were going out for the day/night, so I pulled the coil so the fucker wouldnt start in case someone wanted to steal it lol. Also backed it in so a tow truck would have a hard time stealing it as well.

Talked to a few of the Chgo guys down there for the show and got lucky as one of the haulers had room for me to get her home. Car was dropped off in Midlothian today at $how and Go Customz and turns out Playboy a friend of mine just opened that shop up. Does nothing but suspension and motor work. Talked pricing about shortening my rear end, coilovers all the way around, new axels and adjustable control arms to squat this car. Basically a "California Lean". Front end will sit at stock height with a 26" rim and the rear end will squat 3-4" lower. I have some 26" Billets but probably going to put new barrels on the rear rims. Right now they are a 5.5" lip and I want that 7" lip on the rear, hence the reason for shortening the rear end. Most of you think of Donk and think of those 71-76 sitting on fucking 4x4 suspensions with 30" wheels. Yes those are donks as well, but not the look I'm shooting for.

Shawn1112

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So your head unit is receiving power and ground from where everything else is powered and grounded?

For part of your Diagnostics I'd suggest listening to the music with the bass subs and amps turned off and keeping the front highs and mids.
Head unit is getting power, switched power, and ground from the factory head unit wire harness.

Yes, that’s part of my plan
 

Turbocharged400sbc

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Going to your head unit configuration and deactivate the onboard amplifier so that it only operates the 5 volt preamp outputs to your external amplifiers. Sometimes it's a loop of wire that you have to cut in the back or a dip switch your head unit is amplifying your music but it's just not going to any speakers it's still draws juice though. Unless you're preamps are extremely current intensive and it's a preamp only head unit
 
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Shawn1112

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Going to your head unit configuration and deactivate the onboard amplifier so that it only operates the 5 volt preamp outputs to your external amplifiers. Sometimes it's a loop of wire that you have to cut in the back or a dip switch your head unit is amplifying your music but it's just not going to any speakers it's still draws juice though. Unless you're preamps are extremely current intensive and it's a preamp only head unit
Okay and totally understand
 

Shawn1112

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Kinda curious as to the drinking vs repair ratio last night :rofl:
I disconnected both the trunk and dome light before I got hammered. When I put the car in the garage last night. The digi dash was out again. So I’m pretty confident one of the 2 was the issue. I’ll know when I go out there and pop a new fuse in and go for a ride.
 

Turbocharged400sbc

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Also looking to getting some of these bad boys to switch over powering some of your car's systems with relayed power instead of running through your aging ignition switch.
These are f****** 70 amp rated relays I grab them typically off of Cadillacs although other vehicles and makes use them for powering ABS pumps fans Etc. You can tell because they have a 10 mm wide terminal for the main power side and it's silver plated.
I haven't readily Found A supplier for the terminals that go into the plug so you need to cut as much of a pigtail as possible to splice into your system fortunately Cadillacs are set up good enough that you can typically hack out most of the harness if you see a 4.5 or a 4.9 L front wheel drive caddy it usually has at least two of them.

To buy a brand new relay it's like 70 bucks
I've put 40 amps through one with zero voltage drop try that with your typical 30 amp or 40 amp relay and you're going to drop voltage no matter what you do because the terminals are just too f****** small.

I still think it's b******* that they're sticking with the 14 amp current rating on the tiny 1.5 metripack/GT connectors even with all the fuel pump sending unit terminals melting at just 10 or 11 amps

20220828_081503.jpg
 
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Shawn1112

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Disconnected those two but the fuse got blown again? Is that not indicating that something else is the culprit?
Well I thought while disconnecting them something touched and blew the fuse. But I was wrong. Coming home from the car show. As soon as I turned the bass knob up, it blew again. So back to square 1 lol
 

Turbocharged400sbc

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They may have tapped into that system to feed power to the dash as well as to the head unit and he's just finally reaching The Perfect Storm at this point

Did you look at your head unit owners manual?
It has front rear and sub preamp outputs correct or does it have front rear mid and sub outputs?
Kill the internal line level amplifier to start with but it may just be you are a drawn too much juice just feeding your preamps.

I am correct in assuming that by the description of your Dash being out that it is also powered off of this circuit? You need to wire up relays that are power and grounded to the rest of the amp wiring to feed your head unit and let that fuse just power the relay turn on and your dashboard and interior lights
 
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Still no snout for supercharger which is no biggie.

Being I’m doing a 9” rear end from Quick Performance. They can custom make it to any length. So I went ahead and ordered new barrels for my rear rims. I’ll have 7” lips DEEZUZ DEEZUZ yes I can put a $100 bill on them lol. It will stay a 26x10, the inner barrel will be 3” and the outer will be 7”. So tires will fit and no other mods needed to fit the new barrels. That’s the beauty of 3pc rims.

Only downside which isn’t a huge deal as the season is almost over. Measurements for the rear end can’t be taken until the rims/tires are mocked up with the new barrels. Once that is done, the car is down until the new rear end shows up and is installed. Sammy’s in Joliet will be doing this for me as my rear suspension will also need work. Coilover mounts and anti-roll bar all have to come off the old and be installed on the new.

Rolandos who did my paint offered to do it over the winter as my drivers rear 1/4 needs to be repainted (warranty issue). They also do custom suspension work and anything else you can imagine. Im not saying this will happen, but I’m also not giving it the opportunity to happen. If I ever have an issue with the rear suspension, I don’t want any finger pointing. Don’t want the boys at Rolandos saying it Sammy’s problem and vice versa. Both are stand up shops imo, but as mentioned I don’t want to have either shop be able to point fingers.
 

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Also, my valve covers and timing cover are currently powder coated orange because Chevy lol. I’m kicking around the idea of painting the blower lid and valve covers the same color as the car. Only issue is the timing cover would stay orange. Unless I just tape off everything around it and spray paint it black.
 

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All this stuff going to be installed over winter or jumping on it now?
Originally when I was told 4-5 week lead time, I had planned on installing it this year. I ordered June 5th and figured I'd slap it on mid July lol.
Being I'm now doing a Quick Performance 9" with a 4.10, I'm going to do everything after the car is down for the season which may be very soon. The 9" is going to take a month to get. But before doing that, I need to have the new 7" barrels mocked up to get the correct measurements for the 9".

I'm waiting to hear if my car was chosen for the HUGE lowrider show at Navy Pier Oct 15th. The promoters are dragging their feet on which non lowriders are being selected. They tend to lean towards car clubs over solo riders, so I'm hearing thats the hold up. If my car is selected then I'll take it to Sammys for the mockup the week of Oct 17th. If not then I'll probably due it sooner which means the car is down for the season once that happens.
 

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