HPI Customs : "Modern" Pro Street 70 Chevelle
 

So here's our latest Chevelle project. Its a bit of a departure from our typical pro touring stuff, but we had to spice it up a bit!

Our customer had already done this car once, and was totally unhappy with the frame he got and never got around to finishing the car. The decision was made to tear it apart and start over, and luckily we got to take it on! Its powdered by a Dart motor, and we are going to be focusing on "street" and not "race" so its getting full interior, full 3.5 inch exhaust, tightly fit cage, and a ton of pro touring style components with a big nast motor.

We are running the billet specialties street lites all around, ssbc brakes, and speedtech front suspension. for the frame we took our chevelle k brace and modified it for teh back half style frame we built. Lemons headers up front, into a custom exhaust we are building from 3.5 inch tubing. Full aeromotive fuel system, CA chassisworks rear suspension which we added a chromoly wishbone and a chromoly anti roll bar too. Fab 9 housing, and the list will grow!

Wait till you see our front motor plate.......

Heres the before:

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/.../beginning.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_2852.jpg

and our new frame

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...0chevelle1.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3335.jpg

Some more pics

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3336.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...suspension.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3333.jpg

When life hands you lemons, install them! (2 1/4 to 2 3/8 stepped to a 4 inch collector and 3.5 inch exhaust)

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...lle/lemons.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3472.jpg

Sick car keep the photos comming !:thumbsup:

It looks awesome!

Tyler that looks great. The smallest part of the headers are bigger than the exhaust pipe was on my Camaro when I got it. Sweet build.

Haha ya they are pretty massive headers. Its funny how you do a few 2.5 inch systems, then 3 inch seems huge. After doing a bunch of 3 inch, it looks small when you do 3.5!

Just finishing off the exhaust routing tomorrow. It is going to be sweet! Flowmaster 50 heavy duty series as we know this thing is going to be way too loud!

Because of the huge case size of these mufflers, we had to get them up higher into the car for ground clearance. Instead of putting them out back, the customer preffered to keep them under the rear seat area so we modified the crossmember AM style for the exhaust. yes, they had to be 5 inch diameter pieces of tubing!

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3780.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3782.jpg

So got the rest of the exhaust tacked together. keep in mind its 3.5 inch, so the bends are not tight radiuses and we had to work to keep the ground clearance, but its all great! Looks just like a really big normal exhaust system! I was all for an x pipe or crossover, but we got the no no in this case :wow:

Its all mild steel as it is going out for coating. it will still be TIGed though


http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3811.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3812.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3816.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3819.jpg

Very nice Tyler

Jesus that thing looks like a monster! :thumbsup:

Oh it is a monster!!! Can't wait to hear this thing, it is going to be r-tarded!:unibrow:

Top notch work there Tyler, looks great! Am I missing something in the pic, how will you remove those headers if needed?

the headers are 8 individual tubes and flanges. The flange at the head is split into 4 pieces per side, and they are into a slip fit connector. I am not sure of how well this holds up, but its a race car thing that Lemons must do regularily for clearance issues like this. Probably will have to get some stage 8 locking header bolts or something to help keep them in place

Once that car gets running it is going to give children nightmares...

Too sweet man...

It sure does tuck up nicee and tight. Very Nice.

those headers are the best thing ever for a big motor chevelle. we got em on our 66 with 2.25" primaries and they fit outstanding. no problems with leaks whatsoever with just regular header bolts. didnt like the copper gaskets so plain old felpros do the trick. just be prepared to cut the inner fenders out alot to clear them.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2...xseven/119.jpg

best picture i could find.

Nice chevelle!! (Yeah thats TWO exclaimation points :thumbsup:

Got most of the rear end finished today on the Chevelle project. Its a Fab9 housing, with wishbone mount, antiroll bar mounts, gussets and tie down bars for trailering.

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3932.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3930.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3928.jpg

Just gotta throw it in the jig and install the housing ends!

Ok here's an update! Chassis and all its components went out for powder. Here's some of the other goodies that ended up on the chassis.

Aeromotive A1000 pump mount
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/.../pumpmount.jpg

Frame gussets/fishplates
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...le/gussets.jpg

Front brace with integrated tow/tie down hooks, as well as the mid and front plate mounts
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...elle/front.jpg

Custom Mid plate
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/midplate.jpg

And the focal point of the front end, a CNC machined Motorplate!!!! Its o-ringed on each side of the water pump too!
http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...motorplate.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...otorplate2.jpg

Also, Jeff if you look close you can see we added a gusset on the rack mount and changed the whole driver side rack mount. We changed the input shaft angle, and made a nice laser cut mount with gussets.

Cheers!

Tyler,

Very impressive, top notch looking work. Any luck on the gauge pod yet for the chevelle?

Wait till you see the gauge cluster! I got the 3d drawing done, and a nice chunk of raw aluminum........ probably going to run it on friday!

Can't wait!!

Really Sweet Tyler

Ok how about finally an update?!?!?! The chassis is all assembled, and now we are onto fitting the body. Life gets hectic with a new child and house renos!!!!

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_4287.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_4288.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_4290.jpg

Wow very nice Tyler. It looks sweet!

Finally an update!!!!

So we did a trial version of our new billet body mounts for the chevelles. Got the body mocked up and started fabbing the cage!

The cage started life as an Alston kit (customer supplied it) so we modified the main hoop to follow the window seam, made down bars that follow the quarter window and rear window, and made new door bars that go through the dash along the pillar. Then we remade the windshield bar so its tucked up, mirror and sunvisors still work 100 percent and are still removable!!!

More to come.


http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5001.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5007.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5051.jpg

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http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5065.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5070.jpg

Nice job tucking it up tight to the roof. With the quarter window chrome it will be hard to notice.

Thanks!

Cages are a bit of a pet peeve for me..... I love how they reinforce things but I ablsolutely hate how they can "ruin" a hardtop car's look.

There have been a few shops and guys on here that absolutely knocked it out of the park on their cages!

We had to work around a prebent bar..... in hind sight I should have just given the kit to someone else for the cost of new material. Oh well!!!

Mocked up the swingouts, they clear the arm rests and door handle.

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5377.jpg

then took the cage out to do the sheet metal, got the tubs fitting.

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_5416.jpg

Also got the dash all trimmed..... the a pillar bars look sweet through the dash. Moved the pull levers for the floor vents too so no mods to the kick panels.

Amazing work! :hail:

Very nice work on the car there guys. Love the chassis work and those engine mounts are killer. Nice to see someone in Manitoba doing some great work. I'm from Winnipeg but migrated to Calgary in 1990. Back in my youth I used to run around in a Pro Street Vega that George Brazier built. Those were fun times for sure.

Look for my car next summer as I'm bringing my Blown 55 to the peg for a couple of weeks to cruise around with my buddy who wants to see the new build I'm doing. Probably coming out in July and will cruise old market square on Princess and up into St James before looping back down Portage. I hear they still run a good cruise on Sunday nights?

Keep up that great work on the Chevelle. It's gonna be sweet!

Nice to hear from a previously fellow Manitoban!

We will have this thing done for April -ish so when your in town look us up and we will give you a shop tour and go for a cruise

Been holding off on this one as we were under a SEMA crunch for the car that we took, but work is starting again so watch for updates!

So here's a long awaited update! We almost have all the floor pieces finished, will have final pics on friday with everything sanded and smoothed out.

The kicker here is that unlike most race car back-half tin, we welded nothing to the frame. It is all still a lift off body, so although the floor looks like it rolls over the frame rails and is welded to the frame, it is sitting on flanges that we made with the shrinker/stretcher.

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_6839.jpg

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_6840.jpg

We have a framework on the underside of the trunk pans on the pass. side for the battery box, and some trick fuel cell mounts that I will show you later! Also, the main pan in the back is all one piece from the rear seat area to the trunk lid. Where the seat back would go will be a rear "firewall" with some beadwork, and the deck panel will be a rolled piece as well.

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_6841.jpg

Oh yeah a new tunnel is going in, that open section is already taken care of!:thumbsup:

Couple more pieces made

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_6859.jpg

And a touch of nostalgia for you guys....a bit before my time but will still be a cool look in this thing!!:unibrow:

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_6862.jpg

Lightning Rods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice fab work Tyler! Watchin' this one.

[QUOTE=64pontiac;339833]So got the rest of the exhaust tacked together. keep in mind its 3.5 inch, so the bends are not tight radiuses and we had to work to keep the ground clearance, but its all great! Looks just like a really big normal exhaust system! I was all for an x pipe or crossover, but we got the no no in this case :wow:

Its all mild steel as it is going out for coating. it will still be TIGed though

http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_3816.jpg


beautifull work, I am curious as to why you wouldn't run an X/H-pipe?

Customer said absolutely no....... I would have put one in (I try to on everything) but he refused and was ultimately paying me so I had to cave.....

Some of these old school guys refuse to believe it works..........aka the engine builder