LSA Powered 69 Camaro -"Lou's Change"

[Lous69]

I went to V8TV to see the progress on Lou's Change today. While I was there, Kevin asked me if I would like to go along on a shake down run of the car they are taking to SEMA this year.

The car is called S71. It's a 1971 Cutlass S. It is beautiful. The quality of the build is excellent. The color really pops in the sun. At first glance, it looks like a really nicely restored car with a stockish interior and nice wheels. Closer inspection starts to realize goodies like big brake rotors and other tell tale signs of serious performance. Raisng the hood reveals a huge 75mm turbocharger and a humonguloid intercooler hidden behind the grill.

Out of respect for all the things I know Kevin is trying to get done before he leaves for SEMA, I was reluctant to accept his offer to go along but with a little coaxing from Kevin and Trevor I let the voice inside me that was saying HECK YES!! prevail. Boy am I glad I did. That car is simply amazing.

We idled away and down the road waiting for things to properly warm up. The car drives and rides like any perfectly restored 71 Cutlass S. No squeeks, no rattles, not too loud and not too quiet. You could ride in this car all day no problem. Hearing each other talk was easy even with the windows down.

Eventually we got to a rarely used country road that Kevin uses for his shake down runs. All the gauges were saying everything was ready for lift off and up to operating temperature.

He told me that around the next bend there would be a long straight stretch and he would show me how the car accelerates.......

Oh My Gosh!!

That car is Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde!

When he first put his foot in it the car started to accelerate as you would expect but then the "expected" acceleration turned into unbelievable acceleration.

I don't know how to explain it exactly. I have a C6Z06 that accelerates with authority but this thing is very different. I would have to say the acceleration is more exponential than linear.

First you feel your back pushed against the seat. Then you can feel the seat being progressively compressed more and more as it just keeps pulling harder and harder. Things in your peripheal vision speed up and you get a kind of tunnel vision as they become more of a blur.

The long straight away was soon behind us and when Kevin lifted his foot the wastegate dumped its load making a very cool noise that sounded like surface to air missles launching.

Two words describe it: IN SANE!

I can't imagine how cool it is going to be for the owner of that car to literally blow someone in the weeds and when the job is done the wastegate will telegraph that "I'm done embarrasing you now" signal.

I now better understand why you Turbo fans are so into them.

Very Very Cool.

Here's a couple pics of that bad boy. For those of you lucky enough to be going to SEMA, I think it will be parked outside at the MagnaFlow display.

[Lous69]

Getting back to Lou's Change, I'm happy to report we've officially turned the corner and the body shell is now "coming back" vs. being disassembled and cut up.

I know I've said it before but I really appreciate the fact that V8TV does all this work with the shell welded to their jig so things will all be nice and square when its done.



Nick removed the inner and outer dash along with the upper firewall for replacement.





The lower firewall flange was still in good condition.





New dash and upper fire wall installed. A little more dolly work will make it all better than new.








The floors have also been repaired and look good. The trans tunnel mods are already done in order to clear the Magnum T56.

Since the repairs in the floor are all butt welds, a little more weld clean up and dolly work will make the repairs virtually undetectable.

[waynieZ]

Looking good Lou.

[214Chevy]

Some major work going on here. It's starting to come back together nicely. Keep up the good work!

[Lous69]

When I first saw the new body panels clamped to the car it made me nervous.

I guess you could say the body lines and gaps were in the same zip code from part to part but it was more than obvious a lot of massaging would be needed to get everything better than new.

Kevin and the rest of the gang at V8TV didn't seem at all surprised that the trunk lid did not match the tail panel which also did not match the quarters very well.

They first reminded me that in 1969 cars varied from each other when they left the factory plus over 40 years of use and abuse leads to a lot more variations in any one car.

They assured me they have seen worse and that they knew how to cure all the issues we were looking at.

Of course the goal of this build is to make everything fit even better than when the car originally left the factory.

Look at the "new parts just clamped together" body line mismatches between the deck lid, tail panel and quarters...





Here are just some of the tricks Nick and Nathan had up their sleeves..

First the desired deck lid gap behind the rear window was set. (Those miserable corner gaps will be fixed later by reshaping the deck lid corners).



The quarters were clamped on while paying close attention to the door gaps. (The door gaps will be further improved later too).



They decided it would be worth transplanting the rear drip rail from the original tail panel to the new tail panel in order to get the best results. Here it is tacked in place after numerous trial fits.



Since we wanted a tighter than new gap between the deck lid and the tail panel across the back of the car, the corresponding height of each quarter panel had to be adjusted.




To do that, each side was measured and marked where the new folds needed to be in order the effectively "lower" the quarter panels to the height of the deck lid.



A little cutting and notching was then done to allow reshaping things as needed to achieve the proper gap between the quarters and the tail panel.



To make the body lines and gaps between the tail panel and the quarters match up better required similar marking, notching and reshaping was needed.









It all started coming together better and better..










Now that things were looking good the tail panel could be prepared for final welding in place.



After a little more detail work, the quarters will be removed once again, prepared for final welding and then reinstalled permanently.

[Ketzer]

Amazing to watch but I don't think you are supposed to be giving away all those "secrets"....



Jeff-

[Lous69]

We'll have to see if Kevin reels me in for showing some of their "secrets" but generally, V8TV's whole philosophy is to show people how things work in the real world so they can either better do the job themselves or at least know what to expect in work they have done by others.

For me, it's one thing see their secrets but quite another to be able to replicate them. It takes serious skill and experience like Trevor, Nick and Nathan's to actually execute.

Glad you are enjoying the tread!!

[Jgpclone]

looking good

[cencalc6]

Nice Job on the Tailpanel,coming out very nice