Project - Attitude Adjustment for sale now

Where did you get that battery tray? I looked all over and couldn't find one for 73-77 so I cleaned mine up and painted it but it's got holes where at some point acid ate through it. You car looks great!

Here you go ...

https://www.thepartsplaceinc.com/product/1973/1973-chevrolet-chevelle-malibu-battery-tray-gm-338566/1392

With another weekend and a little more good weather i got a little more accomplished. I popped under the car with the intent of finishing up the exhaust. Little things like installing new hangers and clamps and making sure everything was aligned properly. I noticed it looked a little off but couldn't put my finger on it so off to google i went looking for specs and pics. Come to find out i had the mufflers in backwards ... DOH!!! So 3 hours later the passenger side is back in and aligned. I also figured out i need 1 more hanger on each side. The moral of the story kids is be prepared to redo any part of a project this big ... lol.

Once I had that done i was feeling a bit abused so i decided it was time to sort my carb and linkages. After a very great deal of fruatration with not being able to get my spacer plate mounted i realised that this intakes holes were tapped to a different depth so the hardware i had wouldn't work. Eventually I decide to just toss it and mount the carb directly.

My next steps are to button up underneath on the next nice weekend i have amd put it back on the ground. I need to install the new gauges and double check any plugs i missed. Hopefully i will have it started in about a month ... Maybe ... Hopefully ... LOL

I also need a little advise. I want to have disc brakes in the rear. Which is better for our cars ... Disc brake conversion or full axle swap from a different car? Part of the decision is that i will want limited slip/posi and a sway bar as well.

I think getting a rear end from a 90's B-body would be the way to go. If you need to build up the budget to get the parts retail, the time between now and the target date could be used to look for deals. Of course if I did this, the moment I pop full retail, the best deal ever would show up.

I would suggest getting the combination valve from the donor car. Or you could figure out a way to modify the one on your car. The only difference is the valve for the front brakes that allow the rear brakes to pressurize first doesn't exist in a disc/disc combo valve.

Take this for what it is worth. In my opinion ,if I had it to do over again. I would not have converted my rear over to disc. I have the disc/disc distribution block , disc / disc master cylinder , in line proportioning valve , new stainless out to the rear wheels. ( you can see this set up in my write up in my restoration thread ) Countless hours adjusting the rears. Hours with tech support. Honestly , I do not think I "greatly" benefited from the conversion on a car that I drive 2500 miles per year. Money ,time , etc. If your looking for cool factory....SPOT ON !! I may have been better off with a big 11" drum convert....less money , time ,aggravation. You talk about being beat-up ! Take that same money and buy a NEW steering box....no rebuilt. All new. ( that's in restoration thread too) Best money I have spent !!!

Strictly my input......

bigredlaguna wrote:I think getting a rear end from a 90's B-body would be the way to go. If you need to build up the budget to get the parts retail, the time between now and the target date could be used to look for deals. Of course if I did this, the moment I pop full retail, the best deal ever would show up.

I would suggest getting the combination valve from the donor car. Or you could figure out a way to modify the one on your car. The only difference is the valve for the front brakes that allow the rear brakes to pressurize first doesn't exist in a disc/disc combo valve.

Thanks for the input. Which "B" bodies are best? These are the caprices if memory serves ... so which model is the best donor for us? Will the suspension plug and play so to speak?

impalamonte wrote:Take this for what it is worth. In my opinion ,if I had it to do over again. I would not have converted my rear over to disc. I have the disc/disc distribution block , disc / disc master cylinder , in line proportioning valve , new stainless out to the rear wheels. ( you can see this set up in my write up in my restoration thread ) Countless hours adjusting the rears. Hours with tech support. Honestly , I do not think I "greatly" benefited from the conversion on a car that I drive 2500 miles per year. Money ,time , etc.  If your looking for cool factory....SPOT ON !!   I may have been better off with a big 11" drum convert....less money , time ,aggravation. You talk about being beat-up !   Take that same money and buy a  NEW steering box....no rebuilt. All new. ( that's in restoration thread too) Best money I have spent !!!

Strictly my input......

I will take another look at your build thread. The reason for the disc conversion is that this  car will absolutely be tracked several times a year. I fully understand what it take to switch to discs, I have done it on 2 VW's and 1 Chevrolet so far. I will be installing an entirely new master cylinder and booster set up along with the proper adjustable proportioning valve. I have considered just installing the disc conversion on my rear-end since these are decent rear-ends ... but if I'm under there already and there is a possible swap option to give me better gears, with a posi/limited slip, AND get disc brakes ... well I just get all excited at that prospect. But, this also raises the question of bang for the buck. Since our rear-ends are not a bad thing which should I do? I will need to re-gear this one , along with a new carrier, and posi unit, and convert to disc brakes. Or do I install something different like the above mentioned "B" body axle? I'm not scraping the bottom of the barrel budget wise, but all the same I can't afford to spend all willy-nilly either lol. So basically bang for the buck on a car that will absolutely see track time which is why I want to ditch those drum brakes ..

thanks for all the help

Zaptiah , Fully understand now the intent of your ride. My car is strictly street driven. No track time , auto cross or things of that nature. I'm 4040 lbs with a 1/4 tank of gas. Neither track worthy or auto cross. My set-up is definitely over-kill.

I hope that someone will lend their experience on tracking the car with disc brake rear as opposed to drum brake rear.

When tracking , I do know that brake fade is an evil. And the disc set -up for the rear would mitigate that evil.

My $0.02: Keep an eye on the bolt circle if you decide to swap rears -- the 90's Caprice/Impala/Roadmaster went to a 5" bolt circle. IIRC earlier years were 4 3/4" like the G3. This may or may not be a issue for you.

thatfnthing wrote:My $0.02: Keep an eye on the bolt circle if you decide to swap rears -- the 90's Caprice/Impala/Roadmaster went to a 5" bolt circle.  IIRC earlier years were 4 3/4" like the G3.  This may or may not be a issue for you.

that is a really good point I did think of. If I needed to I could have the axles re-drilled or even get new axles with the correct bolt pattern. that's why I'm asking advise in cae folks here have already done something like this and have feedback/ideas

Most people refer to the 1996 Impala SS as the go to for B-body rear ends, but any of them with the same specs would work. They do bolt in directly once you put the correct bushings for your car in the ears on top (the only difference is the newer car's bolts are a different size- like standard vs metric). They usually come with 30 spline axles already, and if I were to track a car, the larger bolt diameter for the wheels would be in the plus column. Not sure what gear ratio you want to end up with, but most of the 90's stuff had 3.42 or similar ratios. The only issue may be the park brake cable routing, but I think even this might be simpler than the older setup.


Three options on lug pattern.
1) Leave them mismatched
2) Get some stronger aftermarket axles with the small pattern
3) Swap the front spindle/rotor for the larger pattern on the front. I think this may get you a larger disc in the process. I might be wrong about this.

Thanks for the tips Bigred i will look into that and see how it stacks up

Your right BIGREDLAGUNA , swapping the front rotor / spindle combination will lend the bigger rotor.... to the 12".
I have the set-up on my car but I opted for going with rotors from a 90 Camaro with the 1LE option to retain the 5 on 4 3/4 bolt pattern.

They could be converted simply by replacing the rotor with a rotor from a 5 on 5 car too.

Mine are from a 95 CAPRICE so it fits the 9/16 ball joint as in cars from the factory. If you go with the IMPALA SS spindles, you would have to change the ball joints to the 5/8.

And just a heads up....my complete set up for the front ( spindles , rotors , calipers , flexible brake lines).... in my thread as well.......... may be coming available....assembled !! So you would unbolt connection at the upper / lower ball joints and outer tie rod end.....and slide mine in!!

to be continued.........

I will keep an eye on that. I think I may want to keep the original 5x4.75 sizing ... telling the wife I need to buy another set of new wheels so soon could get me dead ...

Well a brief update, sorry but no pics this time. I had a rare midweek day off to help one of the kids with some stuff over their Spring Break. After I got that done I actually had a couple hours and finally finished up my exhaust. Final torquing will be after the first 20 min run to break in the new cam.

I also finally got the car back on the ground on all 4 tires . I also starting installing the new gauges and tach. I'm going to ask my Son to try to help me this Sunday to get it up and running finally ....

O.K. I know its been awhile since I posted anything. I got kinda busy with real life and when I got a chance to work on the car I didn't take pics or video etc. I am finally getting a little less busy and that means one thing .... it's ALIVE!!! this was the end of the new cam break in ... happy to say it ran flawlessly with excellent pressure and temps. Those ceramic coated headers I got from Limey are just amazing ... just don't touch ... I know because I accidentally did LOL That priming tool I got on here was also a life saver ... so a great big shout out and thank you to everyone

https://youtu.be/StGXvwYyOww

What is next? I need to get the back window out and see how bad a hole I'm dealing with. I posted that way back when I first started tearing things down but didn't have time to get to it until now. The next steps will be to get the A/C installed and then fix that back window issue and then get the car repainted. I will try to take more pics now that I have more time lol

Way cool! Congrats!

Well life certainly took a serious turn and I'm finally back to revive this thread to say I'm selling my dream machine. approx 1 week after my last post here I unfortunately broke my back at work. the short story is I have tried several times to get back into finishing the car but my back just wont let me do it anymore. This is obviously unfortunate as I got really far but the reality is I can't do it and building ti was the fun part for me. I could pay a shop to finish it but that doesn't really interest me and I certainly don't want to have that fight with the wife. I guess the only plus for me is that the values on these went up like crazy during all this time so if I sell it to the general public I wont loose any money lol. that said I would like to offer it up to you all first since someone here would actually love it like I do and not just see it as an investment flip like they've been doing with the 73's and 74's done here in the SE. I'm going to get some new pictures this weekend and post them up in the next week. Not much has changed wince the pictures in this post started. I have the interior panels out because I was planning on redyeing them all, even bought the correct SEMS dye. The suspension is sorted and anything worn was replaced. New wheels and tires as well. The original engine was rebuilt by a local nascar shop to be a true 350/350 spec motor that is nascar carolinas series legal. the only thing different was I had a dual plane intake installed as well as an edelbrock carb with electric choke to make it very street friendly. The shop estimated it would be in the range of 320hp in current trim. The seats and rear shelf have been re-upholstered in period/model correct fabrics and the carpet has been replaced. I installed an accurate replica wood steering wheel with real walnut and brass rivets etc. I was planning on re-painting as the last paint job it had wasn't good enough for me. Its a good 10 footer but I knew I could do better, just not anymore. It is a factory A/C car and I even have an original style A6 compressor setup for R134 to go int he car, I'll just never be physically able to install it. I have several extra plastics for the interior as I always bought them whenever I could find them, they seem to be the most difficult thing to find since 73's are kind of hard to find. If anyone here is interested please let me know, I would really like to see it go to someone who knows and loves these cars, but the wife says its got to go so if I have to sell it to one of the hot-rod flippers in Charlotte I will, they certainly pay well. I'll make a proper for sale ad on here is a day or two once I have some new pics. I have 12k in it as it sits (5k in the motor alone) and that's what I'll ask of you all, just what I have in it. I know they are selling for more but you all really helped me like no others when I started this and sold parts for super prices so this is my way to return that and offer it here for nothing more than whats in it.

Sorry to hear about your Injury and having to sell car .... Hope the Next owner treats it just as Nice as you have Your more than welcome to stay also even after it sells Sir

Really sad news for a sunny Saturday morning. Zap I wish you all the best in your recovery from your injury. Back trouble is bad news but the medical treatments are far better today for that than they were even 30 years ago. The important thing is to get better and don't do things that aggravate it like rebuilding a car. If you have extra parts I would recommend putting a list together and posting it here. All the best to you and your family.

Oh I will stay no doubt, I never left just lurked and read as I lay on the couch or bed lol. The 3rd gens are my favorites and I will never get enough of them

As for the back injury - I've come to terms with it. Whilst it is unfortunate and ended a lot of things for me, the fact is I survived and can walk normal again and do many of the mundane normal things I very much took for granted beforehand. the only downer is I have a thoracic spinal injury that is non-operable and I will never get back what I lost physically. So I do different things now - I may have lost some things but I went looking for new ways to live and its all good. I just cant work on cars like I used to, sad but not a deal breaker. that's really the reason to let this move on to someone who can finish it. I am getting to the point I hate looking at it because it reminds me I'll never finish it, I was probably 5 maybe 6k in parts and a bunch of work/labor away from having a real proper super rare show quality machine and I just can't do it now. So my way of making something happy out of something awful is to come here first to see if any of you all want a go at it. It'll get loved and finished and appreciated for being such a great machine and a rare bird at that as well. I just look at the upside now thanks to this injury, I'm still walking and talking and my heart is still beating which all were optional for a minute so everything else is bonus now

Zap,
I'm just wondering if you can get a mechanic to do the tasks you can't anymore and also scale back the goal from super car to typical car meet car or even occasional driver. Thankfully since you have normal walking and I assume you can drive cars and do office type activities that you would still be able to enjoy it.  I caveat that since this is a highly desirable and theft prone car you would need to  have a locked garage for it once drivable. If not then I would have to agree that selling it is the only realistic option. I hope you find someone that will keep you in the loop about the car in that case.

76Chevelle2Tone wrote:Zap,
I'm just wondering if you can get a mechanic to do the tasks you can't anymore and also scale back the goal from super car to typical car meet car or even occasional driver. Thankfully since you have normal walking and I assume you can drive cars and do office type activities that you would still be able to enjoy it.  I caveat that since this is a highly desirable and theft prone car you would need to  have a locked garage for it once drivable. If not then I would have to agree that selling it is the only realistic option. I hope you find someone that will keep you in the loop about the car in that case.

I thought about doing just this but once I got a couple quotes on the paint and body work I wanted (10 grand around here) I really lost interest fast. Its the down side to living in nascar country, sure I can get performance stuff easier and cheaper than most but getting actually mechanical work done like this is ridiculously expensive. I wasn't keen on the idea to start with because for me building it is the fun part. Sure cruising around is fun too, but I enjoy building it more than cruising it to show off. But cruising the vehicle you built, now that is where it's at.

Also, it is a currently a running driving, cruising project. It's on the road (current registration and insurance) and was driven last night (which is how I figured out it was peppy and fun ... first time I floored it) after I washed it and took some new pictures of it. It reminded me of another reason I have to let it go, I can't bend to get in and out of it well. And no worries about theft, I live in the 1950's area of NC where people are good and I keep it secured in a 1000 sq ft shop with a security system lol.