70 Chevelle performance project
 

Been on the site for a little while now, and I must say that you guys are a dedicated and talented bunch of enthusiasts.
I'm a 40 year old gearhead, who does electrical contracting out of necessity. It pays the bills. My passion is cars. I'm a performance and technology nerd. If its cutting edge, I'm interested. I've had my hands in a lot of cool stuff. I've built a couple high end builds for show. Both were trucks. The first one I built for myself, and its won just about anything ISCA could throw at it. It's been featured in truckin' and Sport truck magazines. It's won the coveted Boyd Coddington award. 1 of 400 he ever made. Not trying to boast here, just laying some ground work. I'm pretty picky. A perfectionist actually. I do my own work, and I do it right. I've worked with cars since I was a teenager, and its a passion. I've worked around quality people, and I believe that makes all the difference. I worked for an engine builder who did a lot of cup engines, and other types of racing engines. He taught me how to be patient, and why attention to details matters. He also raced asphalt late models, and I worked on his cars. He taught me chassis. Years later, I was able to afford my own asphalt race team, and what I learned from him, engine and chassis wise, was invaluable.
All the while I've been a fan of the 70 Chevelle. I've had many chances to purchase a nice one through the years, but passed. I'm not one to just buy a car from someone, and enjoy it. I have to make it mine. It's a disease. I'm in Georgia, and around here, if its a 70' it's worth more than say a 71' in the same condition. I don't know why. But it's true. So when it came time to begin this project, finding a nice donor car at a reasonable price was impossible. So I found a suitable 71' in my price range, and pulled the trigger. It's a decent car. An Alabama Craigslist find, that had been in the same family since it was new. It will be a 70' clone when I'm done with it. Nothing wrong at all with a 71'. Just not what I wanted.
I'm looking to build a 70' that will handle well, as I will surely go dodge some cones. It must have a decent amount of power, high 400, to low 500 horse, with gobs of torque. The car must stop well, and be above all else, fun to drive. I don't want to use the pro-touring title, but I guess that's the overall look I'm after. I've owned a couple of corvettes, so I'm kind of spoiled with what I'm looking for in a overall package. This will be fun. I have tons of pics to share with you guys, so be patient. This will take a while.


Started with this. Bought it November of 11'
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Another view. Gotta love those wheels. I just realized that my cat is in the first pic, and a partial of my dog in the second pic. That's funny.

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So, the first order of business was getting the car apart, and seeing what I had to start with.

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So I got the shell up on a rotisserie, and quickly saw that I needed floors, and the trunk pan had issues as well.

So I made a quick trip over to Year One, and purchased everything needed to convert my 71' into. 70'. I began with the floors, and made quick work with them.

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I left my tranny tunnel opened, because I knew the t56 would require more room.

Overall the only rust issues I have ran into are the common floors, trunk, and bottom corners of the rear window, which was an easy patch.

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I am not, repeat, am not building a show car. I will drive this car. A lot. Having said that, my paint job will be a quikie. It will be nice, don't get me wrong, but I'm not gonna spend up all of my home equity doing it. I've been there and done that. So I'm gonna spend nearly all of this cars budget on chassis and drivetrain. I considered an aftermarket chassis, but I love fabbing my own stuff. I knew That I wanted a true coilover car, and I had a direction that I wanted to go. I looked at my GM frame and started with measurements, and went from there. After spending a lot of time on my front end, I realized that I could buy the Global West extended travel kit as cheap as I could build one, so that was first in line.

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It's built very well.

The install was really simple...

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Weld the perimeter and a couple of other key areas and your done.

On to the rear end coilover setup. I removed my factory upper spring bucket brackets first. I then installed a crossmember after many measurements were taken. This crossmember was inset into my frame with a holesaw, instead of flush mounting it, on each side for strength.

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I then braced this crossmember to the factory crossmember diagonally.

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Scott, I was waiting for you to start a build thread. :yes: I know this will be sweet. Keep the pics coming. :thumbsup: I'm suscribed.:woot:

same here! There can never be too many GM A-bodys to steal ideas from! :rofl: Looking forward to watching this one!

I had ABC Performance, in Michigan, custom build me some custom boxing plates. They build a lot of boxing plates, but this was the first set they built with lightening holes in them.

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I added another crossmember in front of the axle, that my two tubes that run front to back, tie into. I added trussing off of these tubes, into my new boxing plates.

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damn, looking good! I really wish I had done this to my chevelle. I didn't put a lick of stiffening to it other than a roll cage....:hail:

:hail: :hail: and :wow: :wow:

Welcome to the site. Where in GA are you located? I'm from GA and am trying to move back to the ATL and mountain region. I love it there. I just need to find an engineering job first.

Love what you're doing with the Chevelle. Do you have plans to build the engine or just run with what it has to offer stock?

Thanks Dug, I am going to try a "big bar, soft spring" setup that used to work well for me when I raced NASCAR late models. I am gonna dodge some cones, and being as how these a-body frames are as flimsy as a fly swatter, I figured I better try something. I might cage this car also, which would really add a lot of stiffness. I'm on the fence with the cage, due to the weight. I've already added more weight than I wanted to.

Thanks man! I love your build. It was one of the first I looked at on this site.:thumbsup:

Thanks! I'm in Dawsonville, about 1 hour north of ATL. As far as my engine goes, I worked with Mast Motorsports to "pick it up a tad". I'll cover more of the engine side a little later. It's a pretty mild LY6.

I like Dawsonville. Gorgeous area. I've been through there a few times and loved it. You're not far from AMP. Any plans to visit or have you visited already?


Don't worry about the added weight. Just add more power to bring the power to weight ratio back towards your goal :D

Trey, I am up in the N. western part of the county, just a couple of miles from Amicalola Falls. It is a beautiful place to live, for sure.
Glad you mentioned AMP. I have been, in fact my son, who is 9, is a big fan of exotics, so we go over there to check out the lambos, and ferrari's. Itis quite a place, and I'm amazed they chose this area to build it.
I'm a very weight conscious guy. The cage would place weight high...exactly where I don't need any more with this boat.:lol: We will see.

The chassis in paint.

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When I left GA, AMP was still embroiled in legal battles. I had forgotten about it until recently when I heard it was finally built and open. I'm glad it seems to be working out. Road Atlanta is also in a very pretty area of the state. I hope to do some HPDE classes one day at either or both. Maybe even track days on my motorcycle :yes:

I can't wait til I return home.

One small step for man, one giant step for me. Now I can start building my roller! Paint doesn't look too bad for an electrician. I will not spray the body.

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Put my lower motor mounts in place, and front suspension arms on. I did not buy lowers that were designed for coilovers, so I knew all along I'd be modding my lowers. I wasn't sure how far I'd have to go, until I nailed down my ride height. I'm using 7" stroke shocks.

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This is at ride height. As you can see, I had to add 2" to the bottom of my arms, in order to get 2.5" of shock travel, which is about 5" of wheel travel. The modded arm is still above my crossmember at ride height. Should be ok, I hope.
I have always raced on Penske's, but I think I'm gonna give JRI a try.
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I installed all new steering items, and went with the infamous jeep Cherokee box, which is a 12.75:1 ratio, for a mere $75.00. :thumbsup:

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I bolted on some scrubbers. Probably not big enough for a heavy Chevelle, but we will see.

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Rear suspension pics...

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Are the rear coil over mounts going to be strong enough? I would think you'd need a double shear mount since the weight of the car is being carried through the mounts now.

I like the silver color.

I at this point am not sure. We ran these style mounts on our race cars, which were lighter for sure, but saw very high loads while cornering. I will mod what I have, if so. The silver color is the new silverado bright silver. It will be the body color also. I have never built a vehicle with the chassis/body the same color.

Nice progress, the frame looks great. I like the color.

Thanks Wayne. I hope the chassis works like it looks.
With the chassis out of the way (for now), lets move on to drivetrain.
I got a really good deal on a t56 that had been rebuilt. I came across this unit locally to me. The only snag about this tranny, was that it was a 96' unit. Pre-LS version. I knew I was going to put an LS engine in my car, so replacing the necessary items up front in the tranny was in order. And this was fine by me, because I'm the guy who enjoys this type of stuff. A lot! So I ordered a new input shaft, front cover, and bellhousing. Let the conversion begin!

This is the longer LS style input shaft on the right, compared to the LT-1 style of yesterday...
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The conversion is pretty simple, as long as you have access to some micrometers, and a way to fixture the tranny up in such a way to measure preload on the input shaft. You'll have to press a bearing race into the rear of the new input shaft, as they don't come pre assembled with the race. You'll have to play with a shim set under the race in the front cover, for the bearing you see pictured on the old input shaft. This is where you set your preload. Done.

Out back, I bought a 12 bolt, that just happened to be date coded a 70'. It needed to be totally gone through from absolute end to end, and everything in between. Yea for me, again, as I truly love this type of stuff. So I ordered a big stack of bearings and seals, a 3.73 ring and pinion, and a Eaton posi unit. Even bought a fancy rear end cover. Lol.

Here's the housing after I cleaned it, and checked it for straightness.
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I knocked out all of the races, and began the set up process. Here is most of the new bearings and seals, and the 43 year old 4.10 ring and pinion.
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lookin good! im jealous of all this progress!

For power, after much looking around and researching, I went with an LY6. This is the only regret I have in my build. And I say that only because of the iron block. I don't want or need the extra weight up front. I'm building this car to turn. I will NEVER drag race this car. So the added front weight won't help me at all. I will most likely swap over to an aluminum block in the future. But I'm gonna run hat I have for now. On the plus side, I am a big fan of the VVT engines. Always have been. They are obviously here to stay, so it's a technology we all need to embrace. Anyway, you know the drill. I took my relatively low mile engine apart to inspect, and I'm glad I did. Yuck, what a mess.

Here is a lousy close up pic of the engine, the day I got it to my shop. Pretty average condition.
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Here's a 90k mile piston. Corn gas?
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They all cleaned up nice, and measured well within spec, so I did a simple re-ring, and bearing, with all new gaskets, and ARP head bolts.
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I was blown away with what Mast Motorsports had done with the VVT technology, so after consulting them on a direction, I ordered a cam kit from them. A little better than 500 flywheel horses (although I'm WAY more interested in torque) with a cam kit, long tube headers, intake, and a good tune. That's pretty hard to beat, dollar wise, and plenty of power for me on this build.

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Went through the heads. Installed new springs.
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Bolted on an LS3 intake, and finished it off with a new Holley pan.
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Thanks man. This has been a work in progress all year long.

Got a really good deal on these from a friend.

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17" billets. No, they are not Forgeline, but for what I payed for them, you would have bought them too.

Rear shot of the rolling stock...

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Bolted the engine and tranny together, with a new TDP stage 3 clutch in between them, and finally set the combo in the chassis. It had been a while since mock up. I think they were glad to see each other again. ;)

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I built my own solid mounts during the mock up process.
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