'67 Chevy II Project

[DavidBoren]

It's great that you are taking the time to resurrect this car. The body work is looking really good. Taking the time to do it right and put it all together square and proper will really pay off.

Even if everything fit absolutely perfect (which it never does), there is still so much unseen work that goes into something like this.

Good work.

[wiedemab]

Thanks - - it's not rocket science, but it does take time to do it right (especially for me!). I laugh every time I try to explain to someone outside the hobby what I'm doing. I'm pretty sure, they don't have the slightest idea, but even with the little that they comprehend they look at me like I'm a dumbass!

[syborg tt]

Originally Posted by wiedemab

Thanks - - it's not rocket science, but it does take time to do it right (especially for me!). I laugh every time I try to explain to someone outside the hobby what I'm doing. I'm pretty sure, they don't have the slightest idea, but even with the little that they comprehend they look at me like I'm a dumbass!

That's funny I often wonder if those people are right.

My favorite is when you tell people how much you have in a build and they tell you they could build the exact same vehicle for 1/4 of what you have in it and the best part is when then tell you they could do it in 1/2 the time it took you.

ps Even though I will never re-coop the money I have spent on my cars I just like doing it.

[DavidBoren]

The satisfaction and personal gratification of doing the work yourself is a huge part of it. Indeed.

I see it as an investment. Both in handling/performance and reliability/safety. Production standards have improved, sure. But you never know what you are paying for until you tear it apart. That's true for a 40 year old car, and one fresh out of the factory doors.

When you build it yourself, you know every bolt is torqued correctly, every seam welded proper, every inch of metal is coated, every measurement is square... That's what makes a car last. That is what makes a car safe.

You can buy a new CTS-V for $70k and still just have a production car, albeit a very nice production car, but production nonetheless.

Or, you could buy a used CTS-V for $20k, and put $15k into it with some elbow grease, and have a dialed in, tuned, faster, safer, more structurally sound vehicle for half the cost... And it's still a Cadillac.

I love the CTS-V, so I used it as an example. But the comparison works as a concept.

People who can't replace the ink stick in a click pen, or change a light bulb without calling the landlord, or operate a fork without going blind... They don't, and won't, understand why we do what we do. That's fine. They can buy the new stuff, somebody has to. We need people to buy and wreck new production vehicles so we can get low mile engines for our swaps.

[wiedemab]

I hear you! --Amen!

BTW - -I've also been pondering a used CTS-V for a DD....Can't quite pull the trigger while I'm building the Chevy II though. I'm trying to stay focused.


In other news - Dad and I tore apart the 5.3 mock up engine, stripped it down to the bare block. Interestingly enough, the bearings looked immaculate and there is no ridge in the cylinders. I think it's definitely a candidate to be freshened up for the Suburban after serving its purpose at a mock up block.......We shall see. I've never built an engine, so I think I may do it just for the sake of doing it.

[wiedemab]

I moved some things around and cleaned up the shop. Got started on the front-end.

I got the front frame sections and firewall, located them with the mounts that I made prior to tearing the car apart. I then welded them into place (checked everything with the frame specs first). Welding them into place consisted of installing the DSE connectors and adding another locator x-member on the frame table. Adding that x-member allowed me to remove the bolt in location so that I could bolt up the DSE front-end and check it for squareness, parallelism to the rest of the car. Since the upper locations were also removed, I could adjust everything to be right on prior to assembly it again. There is enough play in everything that you can put it where you need to.

Public service announcement - if someone wasn't very careful in putting a car back together from being torn down this far.......you could easily make a mess. I've probably been overly critical, but the alternative scares me to death. With all of the money I've spent on this thing already, I can't afford to ruin it!

OK - enough rambling - - Pics

This pic shows how I located the frame sections using a spare factory x-member.

[wiedemab]

Making sure everything lines up (all still just mocked up)