New A body nut here

by pila Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:47 am

Greetings!
This is my first time here. My current cars are a '74 Malibu Classic (408 SB), and a '75 El Camino, which is a body-off project. I have a 508 cube Caddy engine bolted in the frame on that one, with a TH400, and a 9" Currie 9" Furd rear.

This is my 2nd Chevelle, the Malibu. The first one was a plain-jane coupe with a six cylinder stick when I bought it. It was so basic that it had no tinted glass, rubber floor mats, no radio etc. I replaced the six with a 350 (of course).

The El Camino is my 4th one. The first was a '73 that I bought used in Texas. I traded that one in for a new '77 Classic.
A year later I also bought a '76 SS from a friend.
The '76 got sold some years later, and I still had the '77 until last year. It rusted too far to restore (Michigan winters), and I stripped it and scrapped the body, and bought a '75 body which is getting most of the '77 stuff that.I rebuilt/restored That's my current project.

Hope you don't mind my long-winded intro! Very Happy

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.......

by pila Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:08 am

After browsing through some of the threads here, I see some political overtones that sort of ruin the idea of being here, like a score card etc. So I really don't care to get involved in this place.

by Malicruiser Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:24 am

Don't be too quick to judge. Most every person on here is completely unbiased, if they weren't then I would've never joined! The +/- on the right side of the screen is so you can give "street cred" to someone to whom you feel is being very helpful, informative, or just plain cool. If you feel that someone is being way overly negative to someone else then you can take away a "street cred" point. It's a very recent addition to this forum and is mostly there to kinda act like a pat on the back to someone you feel deserves it. Other than that if you could try to stick around I bet you'll find that there's quite an interesting mix of crazy old geezers Laughing

, and some properly raised youths like myself.

by Malicruiser Sun Jul 18, 2010 1:25 am

I'm Mitch by the way. Nice to meet you.

by badbiscayne66 Sun Jul 18, 2010 10:31 am

Stick around......I wont feel so old!! lol!

by BlackChevelleSS Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:52 am

by Roadcaptain S3 Sun Jul 18, 2010 2:28 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEZM29p09t4

by IndyG3 Sun Jul 18, 2010 3:21 pm

I had no idea that this was a political site...

by JB2wheeler Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:10 pm

Pila, you have it all wrong, we do not have Cliques like some of the other sites do. We range in age from about 15 or 16 thru ME, who is older than dirt. Just to givbe you a hint as to how old I am, I have been retired for quite a while. I like the vehicles you have owned and now own. I like those Caddy engines. Personally, if I still had all the cool cars I have ever owned I would not have to worry about where Social Security is going to. I now own a fairly nice 73 Furd LTD and a 78 Elky project car and a 74 Elky with 43,000 miles on the body and NO rust. My dad bought it new. It now has a Dart Big M 540 in it. I'm begging you, give us another chance. JB

by Andy 75 Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:32 pm

I am 78 yrs old and never had and accident, I never look in the rear view mirror except to shave, all the problems are behind me and cause me no real problem. People love me they alway pass me and shake there fist to say hello. Years ago folks used to wave with the hand open. Times change. Andy

by JB2wheeler Sun Jul 18, 2010 4:37 pm

Hello Andy. Looks like you have got me beat by a couple of years. JB

by The Dude Sun Jul 18, 2010 7:24 pm

Welcome to the site Pila. I hope the comments about President Obama are not the reason you do not wish to stick around. I don't take my political views or really anything seriously besides cars. Please hang out & show off your rides. We aren't as bad as we seem & like JB said, no cliques here. Just a bunch of A Body loving people. This site ranges from young to old - black, brown, white - & of course male & female.

by pila Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:17 pm

OK guys (and gals if any) You folks sound very convincing. I really wasn't sure what I was stepping into here, and I don't mean to insult anyone with my attitude about politics, so that episode is history, Anyway, back to the subjects at hand, the cars we all care about!

Current news is that I have the two cherry picker hoists sitting in place to raise my '75 Elco body off of the rotisserie. One of my sons will likely be helping me get the body bolted back on the frame. This part of the project is in a friends airplane hangar at a private airstrip, where I did aircraft maintenance some years back on a part time basis, while working full time at a big airport.

I have the front fenders done, the tail gate done, and the R/H door done. Just started the left door. I stripped all these parts with stripper,and they are primed at this point.
Last year was when I started on this, and had the body sand blasted on the bottom, inside the bed area, the firewall, and the interior. I used stripper on the outside finish panels.
A new windshield is suppose to arrive tomorrow (Monday) The rear window is in nice condition, and will go back in.

I have an album on photobucket which I can post the link to here if it's OK to do that.

Regards to all........
Pila

by TWBouska AKA Wooderson Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:33 pm

pila wrote:Greetings!
I have a 508 cube Caddy engine bolted in the frame on that one, with a TH400, and a 9" Currie 9" Furd rear.

that sounds sick...ive been strongly considering putting a cad 500 in my 74 elco...i love the fact that they barely weigh more than a small block chevy, durable block, and are a cam, intake, and head porting job away from insane power.

by The Dude Mon Jul 19, 2010 12:30 am

Post up any pics you want as long as they are kid friendly. Smile

We are picture hounds here! Sounds like you are in the fun stages of your project.

by IndyG3 Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:32 am

I forgot to say hello ealier. Hello!
As said before, some pics of your cars would be appreciated. They sound very cool.

by Famstyle Mon Jul 19, 2010 7:48 am

WHATS HAPPENING??!!! TOO THE NEW GUY!!!! Thumbs up

by pila Mon Jul 19, 2010 9:56 am

I hope this works.......I'm not good at all on PC stuff...

https://s561.photobucket.com/home/steelybill/index

by pila Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:24 am

My Caddy engine is a .030 over '76 engine. I've ported & polished the heads etc, have KB flat top pistons, over-size valves, and the cam is a 274/282 duration, with .516/.525 lift. The heads have a clean-up cut, and the block is decked a bit for with a clean-up cut. The Rocker arm set up is aftermarket, with Comp Cams roller tip 1.7: ratio rocker arms, and push rods to fit. It's a low compression engine, 8.5 CR, which the cam was ground for. I built the pan to fit the chassis, and it almost did! Had to do a mod to get a bit more clearance for the cross-member etc.
The transmission is a TH400 from a Pontiac, which I rebuilt last winter, and I have a Transgo re-progamming kit in it. ( hope it works!) I'll have to get a drive shaft built when the time comes.
Since hood clearance is somewhat of an issue, I'm using the stock manifold, which I did some port matching and clan-up on, and opened the plenum up. Also made a phenolic 1" thick carb spacer, to increase plenum area, which according to the Caddy engine gear-heads, increases power.. we'll see......
I didn't want a hood scoop or bump etc in the hood, which would likely be necessary with the Edelbrock intake, since this is gonna be a daily driver, with the usual snow etc in winter.
The carb is the stock original Q-jet with a tuning kit, and is in the 800 CFM neighborhood, I'm told.

by IndyG3 Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:29 am

Very cool! What color will you Camino be when it's finished?

by The Dude Mon Jul 19, 2010 11:35 am

Judging from this pic I'd say red is a safe guess.

New A body nut here P1010630

Also wanted to say I like the idea of using a Furd 9". What are you doing about the bolt pattern & what did it come out of? Is the width close to original?

by 74chick Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:13 pm

Hi steely
Good to see you here.
Here is a good link for q-jets. And, yes that should be a 800 cfm.
q-jets

by pila Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:26 pm

Hi 74 Chick Very Happy

My El Camino is gonna be Firethorn, a slightly dark metalic red, which is likely familiar to folks with '76 & later cars.
The inside of the bed is painted with tinted rustoleum to sort of match the body color. I guess you could say I like Firethorn, 'cause my "74 Malbu is that color also.

The 9" Furd rear end is from Currie, modified to fit my Elco, for track width and with the correct brackets etc. I like the idea of being able to change the third member for a different ratio. Sort of reminds me of the 60s , and a '55 Chevy drag car I was involved with. We had various ratios to use, depending on conditions etc.

by JB2wheeler Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:42 pm

Pila, I really like your thinkimng on your cars, including the color. About that Turbo400, what bolt pattern matches the Caddy, the Chevy or the BOP pattern? I assume its the tranny that came with the engine. I wish I had your Currie rear end under mine, but I ran out of money and used Moser 30 spline axles into my 8.5 Oldsmobile 10 bolt rear end along with a 3.42 posi unit. The Olds rear end came from the factory in my 74 Elky. JB

by The Dude Mon Jul 19, 2010 2:54 pm

JB2wheeler wrote:About that Turbo400, what bolt pattern matches the Caddy, the Chevy or the BOP pattern?

BOP. It's actually called the BOPC pattern, but Cadillac usually gets left out in performance circles. It's a shame too because I'd take a Cadillac or Buick engine over any of the others if the parts availability was there. Chevrolet was the oddball on everything it seems.

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