Ironworks to build Fairway Chevrolet crate engine test car - 1970 Chevelle ZL1
 

This project should be a pretty easy one but a pretty interesting one as well. The guys from Fairway Chevrolet in Las Vegas, the dealership we buy all our Gm parts and Crate engines from contacted us about swapping the frame out from under this 1970 Chevelle that has been in the dealership stable for years. Don't worry it's not a numbers matching original car. They pieced it together years ago and put a 454HO in it. But as the owner describes, its just not fun to drive. We plan to fix that.

The owner of this car is also the owner of the 1957 Chevrolet running around with our chassis and an LS9 engine.

The plans for this car include an Ironworks custom chassis for a 1970 Chevelle, a new LSA engine with 6 speed trans, 18 and 19" wheels, custom brakes, fuel tank, and AutoRad core support. The car will not be repainted and will the interior color will remain the same to reuse some interior panels and maintain the original vibe and look of the car the owner loved.

Here are some pictures of how the car was when we picked it up yesterday in Vegas.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...hoppics001.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...hoppics004.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...hoppics005.jpg

We plan to get some more detail shots and weigh the car next week. If all goes well me MIGHT have this car turned around for SEMA in November. We will see how the cards fall.

Nice looking starting point. Love the maroon/deep reed interior with the black exterior. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Why run a staggered 18/19 combo, I don't understand,

Great looking starting point! Look forward to the build.

Going to be be NICE! .. ONE of MANY cars in that collection. :thumbsup:

Well, hell....Everytime I think I've seen my next project on this site, something like this comes up. Is that not one of the most beautiful front ends ever put on a muscle car?

My first car (the second is my 69 Camaro) was a 70 Chevelle with red interior, so this is hitting kindof a soft spot for me.

So First thing this morning we weighed the car and just as we thought she is pretty heavy with a ton of from end weight.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...oppics0012.jpg

Here is the total weight
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...oppics0032.jpg

Here is corner weights of the car.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...oppics0042.jpg

Tear down will begin now.

Whats the odds of me capturing (kind of) a picture of the very car several years ago.. Gives a small idea of the car collection. . Roger..

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...Picture008.jpg

That's it. All the new cars in the collection are behind you in this picture.

I agree.....way too small- that thing will take a 20 in the rear all day long:unibrow:

20"and 19"

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g.../71convert.jpg

I'm sure a 20 can fit, but the style of wheels we are looking at come in 18's and 19's. Plus the larger wheel will raise the ride height. Once we have it on the ground we will make final decisions. At this point we like the 18 and 19 combo we already mocked up.

Just because you can does not always mean you should. That is a phrase for building cars.

I'm not a fan of staggered wheel combos, but I see how you raise it with a bigger rear,

but I think anything 20 and over belongs on Impalas and the such vechicles, not a fan,

Sweet project Rodger! I've always liked that body style... I owned a '70 396 A/C car in Dusk blue...

This will be fun to watch!

Well things are getting torn down we are working on modifying the firewall and getting the interior on par with the customer wishes. Man that stock dash is huge, We are going to have to figure out a way to do update this dash. HMMM

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...oppics0033.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...oppics0043.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...oppics0052.jpg

Roger, thats going to be one more nice ride coming out of Iron Works when your team is done!

Thanks, Hopefully before the end of the year.

I think 20's would look good on the rear. But, of course Roger has to do what the owner wants. If 19's look good on the rear of a Camaro, a 20 wouldn't be too big on the rear of a Chevelle being a bigger car and all. I also understand the logistics of the ride height too. Just my opinion though. It's going to look killer either way. :yes: :yes: By the way Roger, when are we gonna get some pics of the frame?

Great looking project and I agree on the 18 - 19 I think it's a great choice

I didn't know that you were making a Chevelle Chassis. What other chassis have you done or started.

Here you go Marty...yep! :yes: :yes:

Yep I saw that also. I was concerned with it being designed and built by Sema. That is a pretty lofty goal. He must have a chassis that they have already designed

What I remember

Tri-Five
62 Bel Air X Frame
and must be a Chevelle.

the funny thing is I think I remember one at GG Columbus but my brain isn't working really good tonight.

I would have thought with as much as your on here your would have remembered more then that. We have actually had a 64-67 Chevelle frame for a few years that is under quite a few Chevelle projects. When this customer asked me to sell him his 2nd chassis for this Chevelle project, I knew I would be able to modify the 64-67 chassis to the 68-72 dimensions. These 2 chassis's are very similar and the way we have these designed you just have to plug in the new dimensional numbers. I waiting on the test piece for the rear kick up and then I can finalize ride height as 68-72's cannot sit as low at the 64-67's.

Since we are not painting the car and just adding some cool parts like a billet dash and other cool odds and ends to meet the customers expectations, SEMA is possible. If it happens cool and if it does not that's fine also. I'm not going to cut corners to make it happen. It would be nice to go to SEMA and not have to babysit some cars for once also. We have no reasons not to knock this car out in no time at all. It's really just a frame and engine trans swap with some custom parts like a billet dash, with some interior parts and air conditioning. The customer loved everything about the car except for the way it drove. We plan to change that.

Okay sounds fair and yes my brain is going in my old age of 45.

Looking forward to watching this build.

Progress pics

Getting the pedal assembly mounted in the car.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...17-2012008.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...17-2012006.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...28-2012005.jpg


Getting the car cut out for Mini tubs
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...28-2012004.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...28-2012006.jpg

We got the LSA engine dropped off by the customer last Friday on his way to Join us at Pleasanton for the weekend. He drove his LS9 powered 57 from Las Vegas and knocked down 21 mpg. I was giving ride to potential chassis customers and I think I sold a chassis for every ride we gave. I like that ratio.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...27-2012037.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...hoppics006.jpg

We will begin working on the engine harness and getting the fuel tank built as we finish construction of the chassis.

Enjoy

That is just NICE!! Looks like a good ,fun, clean, enjoyable car to drive from Vegas! The 21 MPGs that is just icing on the "Chevy" :thumbsup:
Roger

Can you show more detail on the min tubs? I'm contemplating this issue currently with my 70. How much do you see gaining on this?
Thanks,
HEEP

Edit. Just realized that I forgot you are installing one of your chassis. That's not going to help me on a measurement. Would still like to see a little more detail though on the tubs.

HEEP

Rodger that 57 has one of your chassis under it?? Sweet ride, did you guys build the car for him or just built the chassis?

I will post more as we get the new chassis under the car in the next few weeks and set up the tubs. We are just laying out cut lines and building the parts to build the mini tubs. We should gain 2.5" per side with the mini tub and our new chassis.

The car was built by Rods and Restos in Centre Alabama. Neil Lea the owner of Rods and Restos wanted to use one of our Tri-5 frames for his build. The owner of the 57 lives in Las Vegas Nevada and owns Fairway Chevrolet. Greg the owner of this car and the 57 joined us for the weekend in Pleasanton. he took delivery of the 57 last Wednesday and drove it the following day to Pleasanton. Then on Sunday morning drove it back home to Vegas. I gave rides in the car to potential customers and may have sold just as many crate engines as we did chassis's. This car is kick in the pants to drive.

When the customer got to drive this 57 this summer at Columbus from the Hotel to the event, upon arrival Greg asked about purchasing a chassis to put under his 1970 Chevelle. He was not happy with the way the car drove stock. So here we are building a chassis for a 1970 Chevelle.

Any thoughts on offering the tubs for sell? As far as I have seen, no one offers these. I'm still debating on which way I'm going.

HEEP

I suppose we could but they would be more then if some one stamps out a set. I will be making parts to do 2 cars at on time. I don't have any idea on cost till we are done.

http://abcperformance.net/mini%20tub%20kit.html

is supposed to be coming out with 68-72 kit, not sure when.....

I will keep that in mind for future projects but Broc is knee deep in making the tubs already.

Things have been moving along pretty well on the Fairway Chevrolet 70 Chevelle project. We have had some issues with the scatter shield not being deep enough for the dual disc clutch, but we finally found one that works with our magnum Trans. We decided it would be easier to adapt the alternator and power steering bracket from the LS3 Corvette system into the LSA system to gain rack and pinion input clearance. Looks like it will work just fine.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...17-2012003.jpg

We have been cutting up the wiring harness to get the best lay out for our application and get the harness ready to install a millspec connector.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...11-2012012.jpg

We ordered a NewPort engineering wiper motor but had to reclock it to clear our master cylinder mod we did. It splined so that is easy. Drill and few new holes and reinstall.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...17-2012014.jpg

We cut all the springs out of the stock seats to install some sheetmetal to have our interior guy build the seats from foam for that perfect feel and height. We also shortened the seat risers 1" to get down in the car a bit more.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...12-2012008.jpg

The dash bezel was cut from the stock dash and sent to Bob to scan into Solidworks and set up for our desired gauges and switches. It should be cool. You can see the Ironworks Ron Francis fuse panel bracket and ironworks LS2 ECU bracket have been cut and trimmed to make mounting these parts much easier.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...12-2012010.jpg

We bought the biggest heat exchanged we could to fit infront of the AutoRad core support and started making the brackets to mount it with the ZL1 intercooler pump that is on the way from the dealer.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...17-2012011.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...12-2012007.jpg

Here is JPEG file for the 68-72 Chevelle chassis I have been working on. I'm pretty happy with it. It's now time to stuff the details in the chassis that will make it an Ironworks Chassis.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...isComplete.jpg


Thanks for check out the progress.

Progress Update

You can see the use of our Hot Rod Fab parts brackets in under the dash of this car for the ECU and the fusepanel. We are working with Bob on the Billet gauge cluster design and should have some design directions going very soon.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...25-2012010.jpg

The mini tub construction if coming along nicely.
We need to weld and metal finish these hand build tubs.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...25-2012008.jpg

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...25-2012009.jpg

We got the Tilton reservoir mounted up on the firewall. We plan to paint the yellow top black to make it disappear but like the clear base design for ease of level checking. We also reclocked the wiper motor, it just looks better on the firewall this way and gives up master cylinder and valve cover clearance.

http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps28d16857.jpg
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...psbd88e534.jpg

The engine and trans assembly to begin wiring harness mock up.
http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/t...ps92d95564.jpg

More to come.

Very Cool.Rodger I really like the Reservoir,It's Differant.:thumbsup: ABC performance in Michigan sells stamp's Deep tub's (Nice pcs.).:thumbsup:

Ok Rodger - I gotta ask..... do have like an LSA-tree growing out the back of the shop somewhere? :faint: I like that it has become the baseline on your builds these days. :hail:

Digging the project!

G.

I like to build my own tubs so we can be sure to get the car as far down as we want with the widest tire. Most aftermarket tubs taper in somewhat and kill you clearance. Plus we can do cool stuff with the bead roller to make them match our rear firewall. I like this Tilton reservoir because it cost like 125 bucks or something, kinda of a good bang for the buck part and it's not some cheap machined street rod looking reservoir that has 3 caps. Every company that knocks off parts has one on their site. And to buy 3 custom machined unit would cost a couple hundred for each master.

It seems that way, We have 4 LSA engines in the shop in 4 different projects currently. This 70 Chevelle, James Shipka's 69, a 57 nomad project, and Darrell's Project Slow Motion 67 Nova. We should have a few LS9 Engines here in the next few weeks as we are starting 2 projects with those power plants. All I can say is almost all these engines were purchased though the Performance Parts Division of Fairway Chevrolet. Brad Oaks the Parts manager will take care of you on your crate engine purchase. As our Frames sales continue to grow and sell them selves we beginning to do more and more of these kinds of projects. I kinda like the challenge. Make something cool with a pre-existing set of guide lines.

Looks first class Rodger:thumbsup: If it was my car I would leave the cover yellow because no matter how hard I tried brake fluid would be splattering while bleeding the clutch and brakes and eat the paint.

If you use the right fluid or bleed it with the caps firmly tight you won't have that problem... HAHA

Thanks

I am always working by myself so I use a Motive Products power bleeder which works but can be messy.
Is there really a fluid that won't eat the paint?