Your welcome. Trust me you will be amazed how great it works.

I told the wife about your idea and she's on board too! :idea:

Of course she is it gives her free time.

Happy Wife - Happy Life

New update with pretty new parts :)

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...e.jpg~original

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That is a thing of beauty!!!

Sure is, I keep going out in the garage to drool over the craftsmanship and quality of the welds.

I love the car and the idea of leaving the patina on it. however if you go with that look the wheels will not look right if your going with the old weathered look shiny wheels just look odd. or you could just plati dip the wheels to hide the shiny if you decide to paint it later you can just spray it off and your shiny is back. just my 2 c worth of input I like what you have so far keep up the great work!

More goodies delivered today.


DSE ford 9" with quadralink brackets narrowed to 52 1/4" and moser engineering 31 spline axles
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Awesome. Those inner fender panels are very nice. Wish I could tig weld like that.

Me too! I am dying to get going on this project but I am waiting to get the car into the body shop to have the right rear rail pulled. It is bent a little and I don't want to weld in the mini tubs or start on the 4 link until I know it's straight.

Well, the front brakes I got from ebay have the wrong brackets ( they sent me the base model brackets instead of the z51) :mad: so I am put in a position to make a choice here. These z51 rotors minimum wheel diameter is 18" however the brackets I have is for the base rotors which min. wheel diameter is 17" So I could buy the right brackets and run 18's or I could by the smaller rotors that match my brackets and run 17's

I am planning on having the car sit low and I think I could pull of 18's with no problem but I am really having a hard time making a decision. :headscratch:

think about what the tire size it you want to run as what I found is that 17s tend to have a little more sidewall and the overall diameter tends to be the same between 17s and 18s. If tire diam is the same in the widths you are looking to run, then go with 18s and run larger brakes. If you can save an inch on overall diameter, then the car would be 1/2" lower and maybe it is worth it to run 17s for that.

I like the look of more sidewall on older cars but by the time I really weighed all the tire options, I chose 18s as there is a larger selection in that wheel size and overall diameters were basically the same in the widths I was considering. In full slick options, there were only two 17" options and ELEVEN 18" options. Even in aftermarket street performance tires you will find a wider selection of 18s v. 17s.

For example, I was looking at 295 fronts and 335 rears. In Hoosier Radials, the tire diameter of the 17s and 18s are exactly the same in those widths, they just have a 35 series 17 and 30 series 18. So overall ride height and inner fenderwell clearance is identical so I went with 18s to clear massive brakes.

Unless you have a serious preference for the taller sidewall look of the 17s, I would run 18s. Oh, and if you change your mind, you will have more luck selling off 18s than 17s for all the reasons I stated above.

17's will be less expensive but not my much. However it is getting harder and harder to find 17's

I would stick with the 18's plus is anyone really going to notice your car is 1/2" closer to the ground.

Main reason I am questioning 17's vs 18's is 100% looks. These are small cars and I feel that 18's may look mispositioned. Either way I am going to run the same diameter and width tire. So yes the 17's would have more sidewall.



Side note, 4 link kit showed up today, I guess someday I'll have to start installing these parts I've been collecting but convincing the wife and a 4 month old that I should be working on the car hasn't been going so well.... :)

Also, the car is headed to the body shop tomorrow to have the right rear uni-rail straightened before I start the 4 link and mini tub install.

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here is my old nova with 17' and 18's. The smaller wheel openings do make it difficult to run larger diameter wheels on these cars without surgery.

https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/...03706884_n.jpg

[QUOTE=Musclerodz;550530]here is my old nova with 17' and 18's. The smaller wheel openings do make it difficult to run larger diameter wheels on these cars without surgery.


I do like the way your 17/18 combo looks, thanks for posting.

Hey Kevin,

Just thought I would share the link to this one.

ps - don't make yours to perfect like this one. Just make the engine bay look like this

http://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/eb...list-1967-nova

http://cdn.speednik.com/files/2014/0...ro-Touring.jpg

http://cdn.speednik.com/files/2014/0...ouring-LS7.jpg

That car is beautiful, I had it as my desktop background at work for a while. I really like those forgelines but they're way out of my budget. I know I dropped some serious coin on the suspension and it seems this would be another super high dollar build, but the rest of the car will be fairly budget friendly. To me, the suspension is where I didn't want to cheap out. You can't upgrade these clips, what you buy is what you get, where the motor and other items can always be upgraded down the road. Thanks for all the feedback guys, Hope I can have some in process build pictures soon just waiting for life to settle back down a little and see if I can scrape up some free time.

Went and checked out the nova in the body shop today and to pay my bill. The trunk gap that was bad is now looking much better and they told me the right rail was push forward, up and out to the side, so I am really glad I decided to let them pull it before the 4 link install. Plus now the body gaps look better too. They only charged me $240 and that includes setup and measuring. They checked the entire car from the firewall back. :thumbsup:

I'll post some before and after trunk gap pictures when I get the car back.

Just curious, did they have a frame spec. manual for the car? Dad thinks he still has one, but we need to dig it out.

If they do have one, see if they will let you scan it! I'd love to have a copy.

Keep up the good work.

They did not have any specs, they just measured for square. I appreciate the offer but the car is already off their rack at this point.

Good deal. I need to dig out the specs anyway - - I'll need them for my car to verify it's going back together correctly. I'll start a build thread at some point, but it will only retain the factory inner structure and all other panels will be replaced (ie: Huge rusty mess!).

I'm really loving that the Chevy II's are starting to get some more attention.

FINALLY got to work on the car a little today. Dad came over to lend a hand and we got the front end swap accomplished in a few hours. We had to elongate the holes on the car to fit the subframe, but it worked out ok.

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Looks Beautiful !!

Thank you, I hope to start the 4 link and mini tubs soon. Stay tuned for updates.

Some more updates.... Not much left of the old car now. :eek:

Finished pulling the interior, removed the stock rear end and leafs, got the rear seat braces drilled and pulled. Also had to drill and remove the stock pinion snubber, the bump stops and began drilling the transport tie downs when the drill stripped out its gears. :mad:

Mocked up the sway bar bracket and inner frame rail sections.
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Nice work Kevin,killer parts to work with:thumbsup:

I love the progress. Keep posting pics

Thanks guys, I've been lucky to sneak out in the garage quite a bit lately. I am itching to get the rear end under this thing. Now I really need to nail down some wheel choices...

Keep the wheels simple and if your looking for a custom set that not that expensive look at Billet Specialties Forged series you can get a really nice wheel for not a lot of money. Plus you can get custom backspacing.

I am running into most "cheaper" brands don't sell a 9.5" and 11" wide wheels. They go from 9,10,12" wheels. I am probably going to end up with either vintage wheel works v40,v45's or a CCW wheel.

Anyone else struggle with the dse instructions and templates. They want to reference all their measurements off pinch welds. At least my car is all stock metal, but I am really stressing about making sure the 4 link brackets are dead nuts, and depending on what measurement spot I use makes a difference whether it's on or not. Also, they want to reference from my old axle center line, which I marked at ride height per instructions however my car was gutted out so, my ride height is different than stock. Maybe I am worrying too much, this is my first suspension job and I want to make it right, but with adjustable links should have some margin for error???? :underchair:

Yep there instruction kinda suck. But they do mark some incredible parts.

New C6 brakes from Kore3 are on there way. New black c6 calipers, hardware, 9" brackets and parking brake. DBA slotted 325mm rotors front and rear. Can't wait, Tobin was great to work with and is highly recommended.

:ups:

http://image.gmhightechperformance.c...eels-gmhtp.jpg

I placed an order for these weld s71 wheels in 18x9.5 and 18x11. I really struggled picking out wheels. I am still not 100% on these but I got a good deal, just spent too much on suspension and didn't want to drop more on forgelines. Just hope these don't look too drag racey which I know welds tend to do.

After doing the power tour last week. Less is better and I think these wheels will look great.

Thanks man, I've owned a ton of vehicles and not once have I been able to pick out wheels. I really do want some forgeline or hre's but it's just not in the budget at this time. I just hope I got the backspace right. :newbie:



Pretty quiet in here but I'll keep posting updates.

Got the sway bar mount welded in before running out of gas on the mig.
Also, rough cut out the wheel tubs getting ready to make some extra room.

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I agree also...wheels will look great. Wheels and paint are two of the hardest decisions and conclusions to come to.

Not to worry people are watching you and I am not talking about the government either.

Those wheels are perfect. I have already bought 19 inch tires for my project, but I am tempted to sell them off and go back to an 18 and buy some of these Welds because I think the whole lineup is cool and they are probably a pretty tough wheel.