New brakes!

I got three of the four wheels done today, but I kept getting interrupted. I hope to finish up the last wheel tomorrow and get everything bled out. I replaced the master cylinder, all four wheel cylinders, front and rear brake shoes, all three brake hoses, front drums, and ran the steel lines to the front wheels. I also cleaned and painted the drums while I was at it.

Here's a couple quick shots of the progress.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...psf6aae66d.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps85d00a55.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps2c7fab89.jpg

Looking good .

With that motor you have, I think I would be leaning toward disc brakes on the front and a power brake booster. Looks good, hope it stops for you.

Ray. It stopped ok in 1964 with this system. Besides, the 327 I built 20 years ago did ok too. ....and I really want to keep my aluminum slots and disc brakes won't fit behind them. :D

Also, ...I don't have anything left to prove to anybody. I don't plan on wringing it out like I did the first car.

I'm sure it will stop just find. Cars going to look great.

Thanks! I think it'll be fine on stopping power. As I said, I don't plan on doing many power slides or reverse 180's with this one. :p (I was a teenager and bullet proof when I owed the first one)

Woo Hoo! Another milestone in the Chevelle saga. I finished the brakes and bled everything down. WE HAVE WORKING BRAKES!!!! :D

Next on the list is to cut the front coils down and install the new rear suspension stuff. After that, I start wiring the car. We're very close to taking this thing for spin.

....I'm getting excited. :D

Alan, I think Ray was really trying to help. Before I redid my brakes it took me quite a distance to stop my car. And there were so many close calls with someone in a little Escort, or car about that size, that would cut you off and then slam on the brakes. Now that I have pretty much the same brakes that I have my Astro Van, I can stop on a dime. We just all want you to be safe, from all the other crazy drivers out there.

I dont drive that bad Ms Grumpy ,not all the time .

Oh, I know he was just looking out for me. I hope I didn't come off as ungrateful or mean. That sure wasn't my intention.

If I ever find a disc brake conversion that fits in these old 14" slots, I may convert it over a little later. I'm just happy I have a nice pedal now and I'll be able to take it for a spin when I get it running. No need to worry, I don't intend on driving like a fool with this car. I have manual disc brakes on my daily driver pick up and I regularly tow a car trailer that doesn't have trailer brakes. I try to leave as much room between me and the guy in front of me as possible.

I'm not offended, they do make disc brakes for 14" wheels. I just remember my truck with brake drums all around and how scary it was to drive after I put a V8 motor in it to get it to stop. My Chevelle stops mch better just using synthetic brake fluid verses the dot 3 fluid.

Conrats it won't be long now for that first ride.

A good day of progress today. I got my new heater core and blower motor in. Then I got the coils cut down.

I took a coil and a half out of each one which dropped the front end about 3". That sounds like a lot, but keep in mind it was pinned against the bump stops before, so now it's about normal to an inch lower than stock. It sits nice, but I have to get some more alignment shims. My camber went a little positive after I lowered it. It's still better than the 3 degrees of negative camber I had before.

I hope to get the rear suspension done tomorrow, but it looks like it's gonna be a busy day in the shop. As soon as the rear suspension is in, I can start to wire the car. ....getting closer. :D

The rear suspension is in. It has a pretty serious rake to it now, but according to my calculations, with the gas tank in and full, it should have a pretty sweet stance. That's tomorrow's project. Then I can start to wire it. I think I'm pretty close to going for a ride. :D

I cant wait to hear about your first trip around the block ,soon,real soon.

More good news for the day!

I got the gas tank in and new rubber lines on. I didn't have straps or hardware, so I had to make them. I could've ordered new straps, but they aren't terribly complicated and I wanted to mount the gas tank, NOW! :D

I didn't get to detail the back as much as I would've liked, but I'm in "get it on the road" mode now. I'll detail underneath it next winter. I have to make some throttle linkage and shifter linkage. Then all there is left to do is rebuild the carburetor and wire it. Here's how under the back of it looks.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...pse46f65f7.jpg

I'm still gonna clean and paint the control arms, so it won't look horrible like it does now.

Have you done anything to the rear differential? Gears? Posi?

For now, it's a stock 3.08 open end. That'll get me around for a while. I'd like to find a 12 bolt for it, but if I can't, I'll stuff this one with a posi carrier and 3.55 gears. I'm basically just biding my time to see what comes along. In the mean time, I'll be able to drive it.

I wonder if a mustang 8.8 has the upper control arm eyelets in the correct location? Those are dirt cheap and easily adapted to almost anything. I paid $125 for the last one I bought, 3.08 posi. Picked up a nice set of used 3.73's with a spare posi for $75.

Even if the eyelets are in the right spot, (which I don't think they are) they aren't at the right angle, so it wouldn't work anyway. It's easy enough to put eyelets and lower control arm mounting brackets on a 9" for an A body. I'd just rather have a 12 bolt under the car.

I got most of the linkages made that I needed today. I still have to finish the shift linkage and come up with a bracket for the kick down cable, but then I can wire the car.

.....and start it. :D

Looking good. Always nice to keep making progress.

I'm down to the nitty gritty now. I need to rebuild the carburetor and put exhaust on it and the mechanical stuff is done. I got all the missing brackets and linkages made this weekend.

Here's what I got done.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps544a22eb.jpg

From left to right is the trans shifter linkage, throttle linkage, e-brake cable bracket, trans shifter arm, and kick down cable bracket. All these were made from scratch from raw stock. They fit and look nice. (I think)

I put my pieces for the Chevelle on this morning. Everything fits perfectly. Since the car has the original center console and floor shifter, I wanted to keep that, but it's for a 2 speed power glide and I put a TH350, 3 speed automatic in it. The linkage I made makes it possible to use the factory shifter, but it goes into all the gears without issue. The throttle linkage, kick down cable and e-brake bracket all fit like factory units as well. I'm a carburetor rebuild and some fluids away from driving this thing.

I fixed the carburetor. Who does this stuff??!! Somebody swapped the metering blocks front to back so the primary block was in the back and vise-versa. One of the accelerator pump diaphragms was in upside down, one accelerator pump arm was bent, wrong jets, clogged squirters in a "rebuilt" carb, etc, etc, etc. I can't imagine why it didn't run right on the other guy's car. :rolleyes:

I have a few things to fix, like a couple leaks and and some odds and ends, but man, does this thing ever sound good. It doesn't show in the video, but this thing is LOUD!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=621uz...ature=youtu.be

WOW ,that sounds mean ,it wont be long now .

I wanted to have certain things done when I began to wire the car. I THOUGHT today was day I was going to get started. Well, that didn't work out. I got all the inner fender extensions in and the headlight buckets. I figure all the electrical components should be in the car when I wire it, so I keep bolting more stuff to the car and keep running out of time at the end of the day to get started on the actual harness. :rolleyes:

Anyway, today I actually got the harness out of the box and intended to mount it in the car, but I discovered I needed to fabricate a mounting bracket for it. (non-stock unit)

So here's what happened today.

I got the headlight buckets mounted.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps376f20c9.jpg

I got the inner fender extensions in.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps9844d581.jpg

I got the battery tray mounted.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps3b140821.jpg

...and the battery where it belongs.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...psbf739efc.jpg

And finally, I got the alternator cleaned, painted, and installed with a new belt.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps6a49824d.jpg

I'm so close, I can taste it!

Oh, I forgot to mention I fixed my leaks too. The coolant leak was the t-stat. When I put it in, the T-stat itself slid a little so it wasn't seated in it's groove. The fuel leak was a bad flare in the hard line. Both my fault. I guess I just wasn't paying attention when I did them. Oh well, it happens. They're good now, though.

You have been very busy ,keep it up.

That is looking sharp. We all waiting with our fingers crossed for you, for the big day. Don't rush it make sure everything is ready before you fire it. .

I already posted the video of it running. I hot wired the coil. A few posts ago I put the link up. It sounds pretty darned good too! Sometime in the early part of next week I should be able to take it for a drive. (yay!) :D

Finally, ...FINALLY. I started to wire the car. I got most of the engine wired in, the fuse box mounted and all the wires roughed out to where they go. I think I can have it done tomorrow. (There aren't too many circuits in a stock[ish] '64 Chevelle.)

Here's everything roughed in.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps770f94b7.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps0b59b457.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps010d08cf.jpg

Since I'm not using a stock harness, I don't have to use the bulkhead connector on the back of the fuse block. This allows me to better hide the wires for the head light and engine harness and give me a cleaner look.

I remember it running a while back, just waiting for the big start up in the car with everything hooked up.

Ha! Me too! :D

I need to mount the front and rear glass so I can take her out for the maiden voyage when it's wired. That's the reason I put off wiring it until the end. I want to drive this thing!

I have a slight leak in the trans at the kick down cable. I may just do a service on it and replace the cable completely. I DON'T want ANY leaks under this car. So far, I've gone through quite a bit to keep this thing dry underneath.

Today I started to really make headway with the wire harness. .....and then I ran out of connectors. :mad:

Anyway, I did get it to start with the key and got the headlight harness under the hood finished up. A trip to the parts store tomorrow and I can have everything working.

Well, I guess I should of expected this. The Chevelle has been sitting for so long, NONE of the electrical components are any good. ALL of the bulbs, ALL of the switches, ALL of the motors are bad. I'm wiring away and go to test things and nothing is working. What the......? I test the wires and everything checks out ok. Then I ohm the switches and components and nothing is working. :mad:

I got so upset, I set the control arms and tightened them up, then dropped the car off the jack stands and pushed it outside. I fired it up (with the key switch which works, amazingly enough) and dropped it drive.

Yes. I drove my Chevelle to the corner and back. In the process, I scrubbed about 1,000 miles off the back tires. :D Horsepower is DEFINITELY NOT a problem. Man this thing goes like crazy! There's a ways to go with it before I can drive it any distance, but I don't have to push it around anymore.

I got some parts in for the Chevelle this week. I have headlights! I'm still dragging my feet getting everything else working, but it's getting there. Slowly but surely.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...psd08ebb88.jpg

Here's everything wired under the hood. I tried to hide all the wires as best I could.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...psbf28da8e.jpg

That is one clean engine compartment ,you are doing a great job.

Thanks, John. I'm trying my best. :D

I agree very clean look.

I still have to mount the wiper motor, but I'm going to drill the fire wall under the motor so you don't see the wires. I may also get different plug wire looms to clear up the top of the engine a little more. The blower motor is a similar set up. The fire wall is drilled behind the fender the rest of the wiring is under the dash, out of site.

I don't plan on running in the rain much, but even if I do, the holes are grommeted and sealed.

The weather has finally broken and it's getting warmer. I'm gonna take a break from the C-cab project and get back on the body work for the Chevelle. I hope to wrap up the Chevelle in the next 5 or 6 weeks.

This is what's been taking up my time recently. It will be a 1923 C-cab delivery when I'm done. The parts I bought are the engine, trans, rear and front axle. Pretty much every other part was fabricated. The spring was bought, but the perches, shackles, mount and frame were all made in house.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...psc67187e2.jpg