Put the '67 heads, intake, & valve covers on a 455 and you'll fool 99 of 100 people. Deck the block to remove the numbers, and grind off the 455 on the rear if you really want to be sneaky. Oh I'm a little jealous of my dad's engine too, I'd love to drop it into '67! Yep, hope to see you in October! He's booked up for years to come. He's currently restoring a car for someone and has two more waiting so their turn. Plus he's got a couple more of his own that need to be restored. He's busy but it keeps him active in his retirement.
Here is the original dash cluster. The car originally had a clock but my dad wants a tach instead. He doesn't care if it is an original or a reproduction. After searching for almost a year, I finally found a tach for my dad. During that time there were a couple on eBay and posted for sale here on this board, but I always found them after someone else bought them. I've had a "parts wanted" ad on this board since last summer too. Also tried to buy a reproduction and couldn't find one of those either (out of stock). The one that I finally found is an original, tall number (early '70) version that is very clean and actually works. So this will allow the dash to fnally go back together. So here is the dash reassembled with the restored cluster, complete with tachometer. The steering column is the original tilt, that he disassembled, cleaned and restored. The shifter knob is an NOS piece that I found here on this board, the turn signal and tilt levers are reproductions, the heater controls had to be replaced because the originals were broken and not repairable, and the dash pad is also a replacement (the original was brown and also damaged). Since this a going to be a driver he wanted an aftermarket radio. The single front speaker was replaced with the 2 small ones as seen here before the dash pad was installed. A nice ashtray was located (minimal pitting) and replated so it looks nice and clean. Here you can see that he has begun installing some Dynamat to reduce heat and noise. After installing the dash, the LH door was installed. It was wet-sanded and buffed prior to installation.
Gary, Looking great!!Can you please take a closer pic of the package tray- where he glued it across the metal by the upper back seat 'tabs'? Similar to the pic above- just closer... Also, what, besides jute, did you use under the package tray? And is that jute for the trunk to back seat area??? THANKS!!
Took a look yesterday while visiting my parents and the only thing below the package tray is the jute padding and speakers. The vinyl along the front edge of the package tray is held down with spray trim adhesive. Yes that is also jute on the frontside of the rear seat divider board.
Not much to show for the trans except a finished photo since no photos were taken before or during the rebuild. The original BB code trans was long gone so this one came from the parts shed as a greasy core. The ID tag indicates that it originally came in a 70 Pontiac Grand Prix. It turned out to be in excellent condition internally so it was a very cheap rebuild. A stock TH400 is a strong transmission, so my dad just gave it a basically stock rebuild except for a HD sprag, some good quality clutches, and he did a couple of things to make the shifts a little more firm. The stock governor was also replaced with one that will get the shift points a little higher. The pan on it at this point is just a spare since it is being slid around on the floor. After the transmission is installed into the car the pan will be changed to something else. Havent decided yet what kind of pan to use. My dad asked me to pick and order a torque convertor for him. I read many posts on this board and talked to a few people to get their opinions. My first choice was a Coan 245mm convertor, but the price was just out of reach. What I eventually ordered was a 245mm converter from Transmission Specialties in Aston, PA. After speaking with them about this car I ordered what they call their best street/strip converter. Its also a 245mm converter and is supposed to be extremely efficient with less than 3% slippage. It has an anti-ballon plate, billet cover on the engine side, mechanical diode sprag (I had to do some research to even learn what this is), as well as furnace brazed and tig welded fins, etc. It sounds like a high quality piece and Im hoping that it works good on both the street and strip. The flexplate on the engine is an SFI replacement.
It's been almost a month since the last update so here is another. I checked his log book and at this point he has 780 hours into this restoration. It is finally time to install the engine and transmission. Before sending the headers out to be coated, everything was installed to make sure there were no clearance issues. It would have been disappointing to have the headers coated and then discover that something had to be dinged or modified. Thankfully the T/A 2 headers fit very nicely and did not require any modifications to fit the chassis. So it was all taken back apart and the headers were taken to Nitroplate (www.nitroplate.com) to be coated. Nitroplate is located here in Nashville so it saved some time and money not having to ship the headers. Cost to coat these headers was $300. A shiny coating would draw attention to the headers so the cast iron color was chosen instead. This makes the headers a little more subtle in my opinion. Another reason for the cast iron color is that my dad wants the engine of his car to look like a mildly modified car from the 70s, and shiny headers were just not a common thing back then. After getting the engine and transmission in place we noticed something that was strange to us. The heater hose fitting on the Edelbrock intake comes straight up. The factory intakes are angled. So to keep the hose from collapsing, a piece of metal tubing was bent and placed in the rubber hose to force it to keep its shape. The correct heater hose bracket for a non-A/C 70 455 seem to be very hard to find so for this car a Chevelle bracket was just modified to hold the hoses. It isnt exactly correct but it will function fine an still give a somewhat original look. When the Holley 950 HP carb was bolted to the engine there was another small issue. This carb does not have any vacuum ports. So for the vacuum advance on the distributor to work, a Tee was placed in the line that goes to the vacuum modulator on the transmission. The baseplate of the carb also doesnt have a large port for the PCV hose like a stock Qjet so a short line was just run over to an available port on the intake. The fuel lines are Chevelle parts and the junction block was sourced locally. All of this is pretty well covered by the stock air cleaner so none of it really matters. So here it is with the air cleaner in place. A couple of spark plug wires got burned on a header on the dyno so replacements need to be cut to length and installed. The valve covers will be replaced later with 70 model pieces. Before the transmission linkage was installed both pieces were sent to our local plater. They are not very visible but a bunch of other stuff was being sent to be plated and adding these to the box of stuff only cost a couple of dollars so why not have them plated too. Some correct appearing air cleaner foams will be purchased later. These were some that were left over from something else.
Here are update photos from today. New windshield has been installed. Since this is not a concours car there was no reason so spend all the extra money for a date coded glass. It is amzing to us that a brand new shaded windshield only cost $100.00 (exact price). The butyl adhesive was about another $15. Next was attaching the engine accessories and getting things buttoned up. Finally located a power steering pump reservoir that wasn’t beat to death with a bunch of dents and a good torque convertor cover. The torque convertor cover did have a couple of small dents to hide and the end of it had to be trimmed because the headers interfered. The big block brackets for the power steering pump are reproductions from The Parts Place. They seem to fit fine. The belts are inexpensive belts that were sourced locally. They have a very similar texture to the original belts and don't stand out like an aftermarket cogged belt. Since they don't have GM part numbers the script was just removed completely so they have nothing printed on them. So here it is mostly complete with almost everything installed on the engine. Sure doesn’t look like an engine with 571 ft-lbs of torque. The Performer dual plane intake really makes it look very stock in my opinion. The radiator core support was installed this week. This one is a ’71-’72 style NOS replacement that had been hanging in my dad’s shed for the last 22 years. He bought a couple of extras back then because they were still available from the dealer for just barely more than $100. He figured he might need one in the future. Never knew it would be over two decades later. It had developed a little light surface rust so he sandblasted the entire thing. The original ’70 radiator support was in very bad condition and was not worth repairing since 100% originality is not the goal. Even many Buick guys won’t notice that it is a ’71-’72 part. The headlights are the reproduction halogen T3 units. He’s bought these for customers' cars but we really don’t know how well they work because those cars were trailer queens. We’re hoping they are as bright as they are advertised to be. If not they will be swapped later for generic aftermarket lights. The new plastic tabs came from Michael Garrison and the rest of the hardware was taken from our '71 parts car. A new engine harness and forward lamp harness make things easy. Just plug in and it's ready to go. At this point all the lights were checked and everything worked perfectly. If you are ever in a pinch and need this style spark plug wire holder, these came from the “HELP” section of the local chain auto parts store for a couple of bucks. Since this is not a numbers matching car there was no need to track down a correct # alternator or worry about date codes and then spend a bunch of time and effort to rebuild it or send it out to be restored. The is an AC Delco rebuilt replacement unit that is straight out of the box except for the fan and pulley. The fan and pulley were extras that were laying around in the parts pile so they were replated for a few dollars and swapped onto the rebuilt alternator. The alternator only cost $47.49 so there is no excuse for anyone to have an ugly alternator anymore! The original horns didn’t work but luckily the parts car had a pair that did. They were beadblasted and sprayed gloss black from a spray can. I checked the log and there were exactly 789 hours of my dad’s labor recorded to this point. I need to add up the last to pages in the log to get the total amount of money spent so far if anyone is interested in that amount. We figured it up today and there should be about $5500 left to spend on parts to completely finish the car. Therefore it will not make it to the GS Nats in October. If the parts were all here it could be easily be completed by then. Until more parts can be purchased, here it sits.
Looks awesome Gary great work. FYI I had the same converter in my 71 Skylark when it was fitted with an automatic and it worked really well! That shop is not far from me and I know alot of local guys that run their converters in all kinds of cars.
Thanks for the information about the convertor. I'm glad to get confirmation from another person that the convertor worked well. Hopefully within a couple of months the car can be road tested and we'll know for sure how well it works with this car.
Finally got some correct (reproduction) valve covers in place. Still need to get a more authentic looking oil cap though. Anyone that has these heads knows that a stock valve cover is not wide enough to fit unless double gaskets are used or the lip on the valve cover modified. My dad decided to just modify the valve cover lips. The original driveshaft was gone so a replacement shaft was made at a local shop. It has a 1350 U-joint in the rear so it will connect to the 9" rearend. The shaft was sprayed with some clear paint so that it doesn't rust instantly. Even though this car is modified, my dad decided to go ahead and put the ID stripes on the new shaft. The strip colors and location are based on the original driveshaft in a friend's '70 Stage 1 that was also built in Dec '70.
A reproduction gas tank was intalled a couple of weeks ago along with a set of new galvanized straps (no "dumb" black straps on this one). The US Steel logo was reapplied using a stencil that my dad had made. I know there has been a lot of discussion over the years about which reproduction tank fits a '70 GS properly. This tank came with th filler neck already installed. With the tank now in place my dad can connect a battery then reach inside and turn the key to start the car. May not seem like a big deal but it sure gets him excited to finally hear it run. Between the tank and the body is a tank pad from PGlade. If you want a tank pad for your car, I'd recommend these because it is the right size and is the closest thing to original that we've seen. After getting the transmission in place, the pan was swapped for an aftermarket deep pan that holds a little more fluid than the stock pan. Several aftermarket pans are available for the TH400 but my dad picked this one because it looks like something that was around back in the 70s.
Looks Incredible just as expected, those wheel blocks are a great Idea you can have the car jacked up with the stress points where they are intended. I'll be borrowing this Idea, I'm still learning from you keep the pictures coming. Thanks
Loving it! Can`t wait to see it with the front clip back on! How bout a video with the engine running as is currently in the car ray:
Not saving you wouldn't do this, and I'm hoping Gary must did (he must have) ........... Just make sure the blocks are screwed (and maybe even glued) together so everything you have worked on doesn't get a huge dent in it when the car falls off of unscrewed blocks of wood. :TU: ---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ---------- Gary I can't remember if I asked this before or not. What type of tire and what size is it that you have on the car in the photo's. I can't tell by the photo's what they are or what size they are. Thanks
Yes the wood platforms are very well secured together with many, many large screws. No chance of them coming apart. The tires are P255 60/15 (27" tall) BFG Comp T/A with blackwalls turned outward. There will be an extra set of rear wheels with some drag radials on them for the trips to the drag strip. ---------- Post added at 09:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ---------- Dan, these were taken about a week ago. It's starting to look like a car again. My dad rode in my '67 recently and it got him all charged up, he's ready to drive and race his car. The rest of these photos were taken yesterday 11/4: The rest of the Dynamat has been installed The excellent used grille that was purchased from GSFred has been repainted.The three stainless pieces were missing from the car, so some original parts were found and polished and a new reproduction emblem installed. The lower metal piece that's painted body color was also missing from the car but Mr Big had one that he could spare. An Alumitech radiator was purchased and appears to be a very nice piece. After being painted gloss black the stamped tanks will blend in very well. Trans fluid temp is a concern with the 245mm convertor, so in addition to the deep trans pan he decided to also install an aux cooler. Sure it doesn't look stock but it should help prolong the life of the trans by keeping the fluid cool. With the inner fenders in place, the rest of the underhood components are now being installed. When I was there this weekend Dad was trying to get the reproduction fan shroud to fit (not easy!). It should be all buttoned up in a few days. He is waiting on a single clip and a small box of screws to arrive so he can put all the rest of the front end together. Hurricane Sandy has delayed the parts from arriving. In the meantime he is working on the pearl white interior door panels. Dan one thing that is slowing the progress down for the Buick is that he's been working on red Chevelle...it's almost finished.
