‘63 Chevy II Pro-Touring Build

[64G-lark]

Fantastic build Brian. The car looks amazing. I have been watching it come together and taking notes as I’m building a 63’ myself.

[bkswede]

Originally Posted by 64G-lark

Fantastic build Brian. The car looks amazing. I have been watching it come together and taking notes as I’m building a 63’ myself.

Thanks for the kind words... following your
build thread as well... lots of great work and parts coming together on your ‘63!


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[RdHuggr68]

Originally Posted by bkswede

Made a trip to Eau Claire recently to meet with Kurt and check out some nice progress on the Nova. Wiring is basically finished up, but for a few items that will require mock up of center console (e.g., power window and lock switches). Kurt got the Vaporworx PWM fuel pump module mounted in the trunk (wiring is nice and tidy), along with the battery and the II Much fuel vent.

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The headlights are also mounted and wired up. These headlights are LED units with halos. The halos shine white most of the time, so they serve as daytime running lights when headlights are off. When the headlights are on, I can either leave the halos on or switch them off - I have them wired to a virtual switch on the Holley pro dash. When turn signals are activated, however, the halos shine amber and blink with the turn signals. Pretty cool, and excited to see them in action.

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We also got the radiator back from powder coating and it turned out great! We powder coated the tanks, top, bottom and sides. The fins weren’t powder coated in traditional way, but coated in a very thin coat of similar color to ensure no degradation of thermal transmission of the fins. We still need to deal with the radiator cap. We didn’t want to coat the cap as it has a rubber gasket that we were concerned about putting in the oven as part of the curing process. Instead, we’re going to have the cap coated with Cerakote, a product similar to a powder coat, but thinner and can be air cured rather than oven cured.

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We also got the catch can mounted. Went with a Mighty Mouse catch can. Will connect via a -8AN adaptor on the valve cover oil filler. We had to modify the fuel rail cover - drilled a hole and will connect a 90 degree elbow fitting with push lock hose that will connect to the catch can. Other line out of the catch can will plug into nipple on the intake manifold.

Attachment 73203

Kurt had moved the Nova on to a four post lift as we’ll be working on the exhaust next. Was cool to get under the car and see some of the work close up. QA1 carbon fiber driveshaft installed, and good look at the aluminum center section 9 inch rear end.

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Was able to get a few pics of the inner wheels.. calipers clear, but not by much!




Got a nice view of some of the wiring that was done under the car. I mentioned previously that the C6 Corvette PWM fan unit is wired with a nice splitter harness from Vintage Air that splits the output signal from the fan control unit in two into pigtails that plug directly into the Spal fan pigtail harnesses. Works awesome... we will need to secure the harnesses so that they don’t block the air flaps in the shroud, but is super clean.



I also installed multiple temperature sensors to monitor oil temps and power steering fluid temps. My C&R radiator has oil and power steering coolers. We wired in temperature sensors in the input and output lines so that we can monitor oil and power steering fluid temps as they enter the cooling unit and after they exit the cooling unit. Because these all feed the digital dash (rather than a physical gauge), it is easy and inexpensive to monitor this data in a digital environment where you don’t need physical gauges.




A couple of under car shots where you can see where we will run the exhaust from the headers...




For exhaust, I’m using Spintech oval tubing from the headers to an X-pipe to their 3000 series mufflers. The oval tubing is 3 1/2” wide and 2 1/4” tall, and the equivalent to 3” round tubing. The oval tubing will give us a little more ground clearance to tuck the exhaust up tighter to the floors. The mufflers are oval inlets and 3” round outlets. The round tubing will exit the mufflers and go over the rear end, angle toward the back corner of the rear of the car (the fuel tank has clipped corners) and will exit near the rear bumper. System will be Tig welded together but for a handful of V band clamps to take it off in sections. Once completed, we’ll coat the exhaust black. You can see one of the mufflers, the X-pipe and other oval tubing in the photo below. The exhaust components are sitting on lift in front of the rear tire.



A handful of shots of the Nova on the lift. First time it’s had front fenders on it in a long, long time. Kurt adjusted the front shocks and the rake is pretty close... looks great! We’ll tweak it again after all fluids are in and weight is settled in.







Great to see the continued progress! PFTE fuel line should be in this week and will be installed. Also, as mentioned above, exhaust will be a priority this week as well. Stay safe,

Brian


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I like the idea of the air flaps installed in the shroud. Is there anymore info in your thread on this idea? Great build info BTW, great information.

[bkswede]

Originally Posted by RdHuggr68

I like the idea of the air flaps installed in the shroud. Is there anymore info in your thread on this idea? Great build info BTW, great information.

Thanks! The air flaps in the shrouds are just part of the standard Spal shroud system. The fans are part of a dual 11” unit, with each unit having three air flaps above and three air flaps below, the fan itself. Makes all the sense in the world to have those flaps so air can move freely through the shroud when you’re at speed and the fans aren’t running.




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[syborg tt]

Brian Brian Brian,

WOW this car keeps getting better and better and better.

So now that we see all the work you have done so far. I feel we need to know more of what your plans are with the interior.

[badbu68]

Nice and clean, love how modern factory it looks with everything tucked in and not hanging out.

[bkswede]

Originally Posted by syborg tt

Brian Brian Brian,

WOW this car keeps getting better and better and better.

So now that we see all the work you have done so far. I feel we need to know more of what your plans are with the interior.

Hey Marty,

Thanks for the kind words... my plans for the interior aren’t too crazy. I’m aiming for an interior that is a nice balance between function and good looks, but also some cool subtle details.

My first objective was to get rid of the stock gauge pod and replace it with something more fitting of a pro-touring car. I considered fabricating a new gauge pod that could hold an assortment of proper analog gauges; however, there isn’t a lot of space in a first generation Nova dash. I decided to incorporate Holley’s new 12.3” digital dash, which offered the ability for various dash layouts, all with the swipe of a finger - you can swipe between dash layouts by swiping the touchscreen, just like a smart phone. I was able to customize my dash layout by adding digital gauges and read outs to reflect whatever info I wanted to display that was captured by my Dominator ECU, or that I fed into the digital dash. Below is the base layout that was embedded in the dash. I had a graphics designer modify the template by changing the boost gauge in the Holley template to an oil temp gauge (cost $50 on Etsy)...



We fabricated the dash to mount the Holley digital dash in place of the stock gauge pod...




Replaced keyed ignition with push button start and keyless locks, similar to newer cars (digital guard dawg)...



Front seats are Recaro LS-C seats from some model of early 80’s Volkswagen, which were rebuilt and recovered in black leather with diamond pattern.



For backseat, I’m using an early 2000’s rear seat from a BMW 3 series, which fits very nicely. Almost perfect width (the photo below doesn’t show the panels that cover the wheel wells and will need to be trimmed a bit)... purchased on eBay for $175... Interior shop will recover the rear seat to match the front seats (I purchased an extra hyde of leather from the guy who did my front seats in order to match the rear seats)



We’re building a center console to house A/C vents, vintage air controller, power window and door switches as well as cup holders. The console will look somewhat similar to the one in this very nice ‘63 Chevy II.



Momo steering wheel that I had recovered in same leather as my front seats, and added red stripe at 12 o’clock, as well as red stitching...




I’m having custom door panels made by the interior shop I’m working with... again, nothing too crazy, but will incorporate arm rests into the door panels. The headliner is black suede and the center console and door panels will be some combination of leather and suede to match the seats and headliner. I’m also using Clayton Machine Works door and window handles, and pedal covers; as well as matching shifter and steering column levers.










Will add custom black carpet and some black anodized sill plates. The stereo and amp will be mounted in the trunk behind the rear seat, completely hidden and controlled via RF remote. Speakers are mounted in the front doors and rear package shelf, as well as an 8” subwoofer mounted in the trunk. Thanks!

Brian


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[bkswede]

Got a few pictures from Kurt showing some progress made on the exhaust this week. Front part of the exhaust pretty much done and TIG welded together... and were starting on the pipes from the mufflers to the tailpipes.




Kurt also got the front bumper polished and hung...


I’m going to try to stop by the shop early next week to check out progress in more detail. Kurt said they also got the rear sway bar mounted, the fuel lines run from the tank up to the motor, as well as fuel filler neck and fuel cap. Guys were also working on exhaust from mufflers to tailpipes today, and hopefully will have that finished up early next week. Stay safe,

Brian


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[cantcatchmitch]

very nice exhaust work, Nova floor pans are not very friendly for keeping exhaust up nice and tight.

[bkswede]

Originally Posted by cantcatchmitch

very nice exhaust work, Nova floor pans are not very friendly for keeping exhaust up nice and tight.

Thanks - we’re really trying to keep the exhaust tucked up tight so you don’t see it. Coating it black when done will help, too


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