MBGA!

(aka Make Brown Great Again!)

:P

Seriously though, brown has come a loooooong way imho.

Porsche ‘Anthracite brown metallic’

https://i.postimg.cc/Wz33m2nQ/54055-...1009-C7-F4.jpg

Not sure what this color is from Jason Graham Hot Rods, for Bob Metranga…

https://i.postimg.cc/C5QKmWrd/62-BFA...58-AFCD5-F.jpg

I like the shade of brown on this Porshe. It's pretty sweet...

That truck is a very deep brandywine.

I know it's probably too dark for you Jody, I just like everything about that Porsche and color. It just works!

It would be beautiful, not my theme color at all, but would be beautiful. Goes with my wheels too. I'm not counting it out at all.

T7 bronze

That color looks good on those Mopars.

Progress?
 

Jody,
Its been 4 months since we have heard anything on this Chevelle. You OK?

Jacob,

I'm okay, just a lot going on. Hopefully be back on it soon. :thumbsup:

Well, got something done lol. I wasn't happy with the original tunnel mod I made for the T56. The normal ones from American Powertrain, Tin Man Fab, Bowler, etc. were all too small overall, so I spliced the Tin Man unit with the rounded piece I was using before. Still have to fit two side pieces, that part should be easy. Top pic is what I had, and the bottom pic is what I ended up with. I like the flat top better.

I like what you did, it looks factory.

More progress

Nice!! A few more small things checked off the list. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Nice progress!! I know you've been wanting to get those parts of the project done... 👍🏻

Trans tunnel is pretty much done.

Looks really nice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make sure you have adequate driveshaft clearance to the tunnel with the driveline / u-joint angles properly set and the suspension at full bump travel. It would suck to get the car painted and start assembling and then find you have a clearance problem.

It's probably been 15 years now, but I had to slice out and raise the tunnel on my car from the firewall all the way to under the rear seat to have proper u-joint working angles and good driveshaft clearance at full bump travel, plus a bit more clearance for safety at my low ride height. I know Roadster Shop sets their frames up for low ride heights so it might be an issue on your car as well.

Didn't help I have a 4" driveshaft and was shooting for the absolute minimum working angles on both u-joints (about 0.7 degrees, just enough angle so the needles would spin to avoid flat spotting)-- that meant the transmission tailshaft had to go quite high and also had to angle the rear end "nose up" quite a bit.

Of course, with single and double CV driveshafts now being available you have a potential workaround if you need a little more driveshaft clearance and don't want to cut the entire tunnel out-- you can run increased (and mismatched!) working angles compared to standard u-joints and not have any vibration concerns.

I know I should do it, but was hoping I could get away without it lol. Roadster Shop does it on all their A bodies. I checked full droop and it clears but it's close. That was with stock height body mounts, RS gives you 1/2 height mounts.

I think painter Jim has a "guy" who can do this for me.

If RS does the full tunnel replacement to all their builds with their frame, it’s probably needed.

Be sure to leave extra clearance to take into account for the floor flexing downwards a bit if you ever put 4 people in the car.

When I reworked my tunnel I removed the bump stops from the rear axle, pushed the axle all the way up until the axle tubes hit the frame to simulate a worst case scenario, then set 1” high spacer blocks on top of the driveshaft and set the new tunnel sheet metal on top of those spacers to make sure there would be at least 1” of clearance to the driveshaft, and then tack welded it in.

Makes for lots of driveshaft room (and the tall vertical walls of the new tunnel section actually help to stiffen the floor in bending from front to back) but it does make the carpeting job a bit more difficult as you can no longer use a standard Chevelle carpet kit. I used a standard Chevelle carpet kit for the sides but had to have a local upholstery shop do the tunnel carpet, they cut matching material and sewed welting on the ends where the tunnel portion met the floor portion.

Also had to rework the rear seat lower frame and springs in the center to accommodate the raised tunnel. It still looks stock over the tunnel, but I wouldn't want to sit there anymore... LOL

You car is awesome, great work!

If the floor is flexing to the point its a problem with hitting the driveshaft you have many other issues . 4 people in a car shouldn't "move" the floor more than 1/16 ..1/8 inch max

Under load, I could see it being more....

The floor will flex a bit with more passengers in the car, and flex more over bumps and under load. I agree that no way it should move 1”, but what I was trying to say is leaving extra clearance for the driveshaft is much better than not leaving enough… replacing the tunnel is not a job you want to do twice.

It’s also a good idea to leave some extra room just in case you ever change the transmission or rear end later and things have to be adjusted a bit for proper u-joint working angles (different transmission length, different rear end style with a different pinion height relative to the axle centerline, etc.)

My Chevelle is low, but not un-driveable low. I had the family in the car a couple years ago, my 16 yr old son in the back…now 18…and we hit a bump coming off a bridge here in N. Ga. The driveshaft kissed, and I mean just barely smooched the rear tunnel/floor crossmember. It left a faint mark on the driveshaft that only went about half a revolution, so it was sure enough just a faint smooch.
Got it on the lift that evening and expected it to be a re-paint of the driveshaft. It wasn’t bad at all. I put two turns in my adjustable rear coil overs, and we never had that happen again. It’s close back there at ride height…very close. I wish I had cut that all out Jody and fabbed it all the way back, by re-doing all the crossmembers, but I did like your doing yours and only opened it up enough to get my T56 mag in. My front u-joint sits directly under the front crossmember and to get my angles right, the 1350 joint misses the crossmember by maybe 1/8”. It’s all very close. I run a custom HW 3” driveshaft because I’d have to raise the car up some with a bigger but stronger 3.5” driveshaft.

My car was fairly low, and before I sliced my floor my u-joint working angles were nearly 5 degrees with the transmission as high as it would go with the front yoke almost rubbing the tunnel and the rear end pinion angle adjusted as best as possible. Vibration at freeway speed was terrible to the point the mirrors were useless, I trashed the slip yoke bushing in the tailshaft in only a few thousand miles, and the rear balance weight on the driveshaft (4") would frequently "stripe" the floor over bumps with just me in the car.

My half ass fix for a little while was to take a hammer to the floor for a bit more clearance where the driveshaft was rubbing and also add the El Camino / station wagon bump stop spacers to the rear end which raise the bump stops about an inch. That stopped the driveshaft hitting the floor, but losing an inch of bump travel meant the car would hit the bump stops constantly over any little road imperfection. That made for very, very unpredictable behavior in turns over bumps when the bump stop hit the frame making the spring rate effectively go sky high resulting in instant oversteer... yikes.

After slicing the floor u-joint working angles were down to 0.7 degrees; zero vibration even at well above triple digit speeds and no more driveshaft clearance issues or rapid wear of the tailshaft bushing. I was able to remove the rear bump stop extenders and actually shave the rear bump stops down to get additional bump travel out of the rear suspension (that snowballed into having to rework and raise the tailpipes... worth it though.)

Also, regarding extra passengers in the car... this is an area where keeping the conventional springs in the rear of the car (if you have the factory frame) is an advantage compared to coilovers... because you can easily run air lift bags inside the springs and an onboard compressor to quickly accommodate the extra weight in the car. If it's just you or one passenger in the car, leave only 1-2 psi in them to maintain their shape and not alter your ride height or spring rate. If you put 4 people in the car or put a bunch of weight in the trunk, add some air to the bags via the remote control without leaving the driver's seat and keep your ride height where it should be and stay off the bump stops. That's something not easily done with coilovers unless you crawl under the car to adjust the spring seats. I can't take credit for the air lift bag idea... Mark Savitske from SC&C gave me that tip during one of our many long phone calls over the years. It was one of those "duh... why didn't I think of that?" moments when he mentioned adding the airbags to deal with extra passengers.

I've also installed the air lift bags and compressor on a friend's 70 Chevelle that's also rather low; it used to have frequent driveshaft to floor contact with 2 or more people in the car. Now he can now put 4 people in the car and a big ice chest in the trunk with no issues.

Even though I'm converting the front suspension on my car to coilovers and doing frame mods for them, I'm sticking with conventional springs in the rear just so I can install the air lift bags and compressor even though I've sliced out the floor and driveshaft clearance is no longer a concern for me... it's just a very convenient solution when it comes to putting 4 people in the car or a bunch of heavy stuff in the trunk. Since most of my friends decided to omit AC in their cars for reasons of simplicity or performance and I'm the only one who installed AC in my car (because it was my daily driver for many years) during the summer my friends often decide to ride with me so they don't roast. I guess riding in my car is cheaper and easier than adding AC to their cars...:rofl:

One of the best thing in these car's are their hidden wipers. I loved to have these cars.

What a great build! I recently went thru the driveshaft tunnel pain.... where my 4" alum driveshaft was rubbing under small bumps...... and under a big compression bump would've been BAD. So the rest had to be cut out and fabbed up for better clearance. You have done just about everything else... so you may as well cut that out too before doing carpet etc.

What kind of power are you shooting for? That RXT 1200HD is what I'm running and it will hold up to well over 1000rwhp in our heavy cars.
I missed it.. what gears are you running out back?

Yeah, I've decided to have the tunnel raised, much easier to do now. Plus I'm going back with the reduced height body mounts that RS provides with the chassis, which pretty much will make it a requirement.

This is just a street car that I plan to drive a lot. Maybe 800-900 rwhp max. I went with 3.50 gears and aluminum 3rd member from Currie.

Jody.........As you know it's more fun to "Drive" them rather than "Owning" them !!!..........LOL

Jody,

A friend of mine built that '50 chevy truck. The paint color is Canyon Beige & it is a Mercedes color!

Thanks!! Jim's gonna have to do a few sprayouts for sure, picking colors is tough.

True Ken. And I plan to drive this one a lot.

man SMALL ASS WORLD.. I hit you up on FB with my RS SPec chassis question LOL

You'll be very happy with that chassis. I have two of them here at the house, my buddy saw mine and ordered one for himself. He doesn't even have a Chevelle yet lol.

Now that's Pro-Active planning @ its best!

That or a guy with too much money to spend lol.

I think we know who hasnt bought the Chevelle now :)

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That's my bet... :D :yes:

It's finished!!!!!!!!!! NOT!!!!!!!!

But this is my color choice. I wanted a rendering that looked like it could be a photo, and Kris Horton has that ability. This isn't the finished product, but looks good enough to post IMO. I know it's not going to be a popular color, but I love browns and this is exactly the memory I had in my head. To me it's subtle, not super flashy which is my preference. Now can Jim match the color lol...

Spray it! Looks bitchen.