🔧 BUILD Taws697's 1963 Biscayne Build! the anti-swap. Engine updates on page 5

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After reading the thread on user participation, I decided to start a build thread. I got the car back in 2018 but never made a thread because 1, it’s not a turbo LS or blown coyote and 2, because I move so slowly on it. I may fail miserably, but here we go.......

1963 Chevy Biscayne 2dr post. Laurel green with a fawn interior. Straight 6 with a 3 on the tree. 40,000 mile car completely untouched with plastic covers on the seats. This thing is bare bones. It has 1 option which is a push button radio, nothing else. No side mirrors, single speed wipers, no reverse lights, manual steering and brakes. The original owner down in Kentucky passed and his buddy sold it to me out of the estate. I got the original owners manual, accessory book, dealer ice scraper and even the statement of origin. These are pictures of when I picked it up.

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taws697

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Do you plan on driving it on the highway at all? If so, do 4.11's.
At this point, I’ve kind of accepted the fact that it won’t be a highway car. My plan would be local cruise nights, banging gears stop light to stop light, and racing at Glory Days, Fallout, and Uncle Sams Pie eating contest.
 
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greasy

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Thanks, I’m actually surprised with how well everything linedup. I’ve been told it won’t yield me much on my mild N/A build, but I’d imagine it would be fairly beneficial for you.

I am thinking so, but me doing this it would probably make it necessary for me to retune the car. If I am going to retune the car I might have to do other things. Fucking slippery slope :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
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taws697

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I’ve started removing things on the front clip of the car. I pulled of the hood and front valence. I did my best to clean the undersides of them and prime/paint.
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When removing the front lip molding from the hood, I wound up snapping a few of the studs unfortunately. So I had to unfold the aluminum at the ends and slide out the steel mounting plates. I cleaned them up and welded new studs to them. Then painted and reassembled.
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I’d like to give a shout out to zenriddles zenriddles for sandblasting my hood hinges and latch. They turned out excellent and I painted them with a gray phosphate paint.
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I also picked up a different engine stand for the 327 so I could bolt on the flywheel and scatter shield. Now I need to remember to bring home a dial indicator and magnetic base from work. Then I can check my bellhousing alignment and see if I need offset dowel pins.
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Now to work on tearing into the front clip more. I’d like to gather everything else I want to get powder coated chassis black. Coming along slowly.......
 

taws697

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I got the front-end of the car stripped down pretty far. There’s a handful of small items I still need to remove before taking everything to powdercoat.
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After running the dial indicator around on the bellhousing, I determined that .007” offset dowels were required to get the alignment in spec.
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Shout out to Mook Mook for a killer deal on a McLeod clutch. I went with the Super Street Pro. So, last night I installed the pilot bushing, clutch, bellhousing, and trans. I’ll have to pull the bellhousing again to install an adjustable pivot ball. I’m pretty sure I’ll need one to get my air-gap in spec.
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taws697

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So after installing the headers, I determined that I had quite a few clearance issues. I wound up dimpling them a little more and also grinding the frame some. I sent the headers off to Jet-Hot a little over a week ago. Their shiny/polished finish is standard but I asked for them to be done in the cast-iron color they show on their website. They came back saying it would cost $250 more! Needless to say, the headers will be the standard polished color which kind of ruins my theme. I haven’t decided whether I will just leave them or rattle can them with Cast iron header paint.

I also ran into an issue with the Powermaster starter I purchased. I bought it because it had a factory look to it, but it did not clear the headers. I sent it back to Summit and determined that Powermaster was 5min from my house in West Chicago. They sent me home with this mini starter that will hopefully do the trick.
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After 3 tries, I finally got the correct install kit to put an Hurst Comp Plus shifter into a 63 Biscayne with a 69+ Muncie. I got the hole cut in the Vinyl flooring and I’m crossing my fingers that I got it in the right spot. The vinyl is brittle and I’m trying to preserve it the best I can. Bel airs and Impalas have carpet and nobody reproduces the vinyl for Biscaynes.
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I started getting all of the clutch linkage ready to go. I rebuilt the Z bar assembly and test fit everything. Because of the Lakewood scatter shield and fork, I needed a longer fork pushrod. I happened to find that the one 63 vettes use is 1.25” longer so hopefully that will work out.
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It kind of feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps back when it comes to making all of these aftermarket parts work together. I’ll get there eventually.........
 

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