A little progress on my Chevelle

[7TSS]

Originally Posted by tom_a

Thanks. Yes it is welded to frame with about 7" of plate at each point where the frame is C sectioned. I have seen where some guy's have plated top and bottom of floor pan which I considered but since we welded it will have to be painted together. This car is going to be a beater anyway so will just mask the frame. How is your car? Is it back from paint and black?

I wish. Painter just recently came by to look at what needs to be done. Hopefully he'll start by the end of August. Been working on stripping it down again. Work is going slowly this time around. Seeing your car gives me inspiration though.

[Tom.A]

I got some time to hang the front sheet metal. It's along ways away, but for me it feels like progress after seeing parts laying around

[Tom.A]

[Jr]

That looks good. Is this your brothers shop?

[Tom.A]

Originally Posted by DJW32

That looks good. Is this your brothers shop?

Thanks, The cage work was done by a company called Top of the line Fab.The pictures above are at my brother's shop..but he does not own it. He is employed by a Family that owns about twelve tire stores here in the area. My brother has always been paint and body and builder guy by trade. The tire store family are a bunch of gear heads and all my brother does is work on their private stuff. They have several dozen cars from C6Z06 vettes, LSX desert cars and a bunch of hot rods. He turns out some cool cars but no pt stuff. Some of the cars they just fix up and turn. For the most it's a cool job because he does not deal with any customers..just the family. It's a great deal for the guy's to have him on the payroll when you factor what a paint job or fab cost these days. When you have hundreds of people on staff it seems like easy to bury the cost of one guy spread out. Plus if the tire store mechanics wreck customer's cars (which they do) my brother can fix at a better rate. I am just stoked that they let me store and work on my car there.

[Tom.A]

I fitted the hood Today. The whole front group fenders, hood, core support is all the Dynacorn Taiwan reproduction pieces. I have heard many horror stories with things not fitting. I took a chance as I did not want to spend the money for Nos sheet metal (I have also seen where Nos does not fit so great either). We just spent a little time so far working on gaps and I must say things are fitting much better than I expected.



One area I am a little concerned is the passenger fender where it meets the header panel is angled (see picture below the gray primer to the black panel above where the headlights go). You can see that it slopes where the driver side is more level. I need to get the grill and headlight eyebrows bought so I can see how much of an issue that is. Overall I am happy the way it is fitting as this car it just a driver anyway.

[Tom.A]

Not much of an update but I got the Hydraulic kit from Classic Motorsports (AKA Classic Chevy 5 Speed). I knew Jeff and the guy's had been working on the Chevelle application for a while so I waited. Finally last week they were finished up with first production pieces. The guy's over there are great and they won't hurry any products until they are totally happy with fitment and function. I was very pleased with their design of the bracket (Note: There are no current plans for them to sell as a stand alone item. It is only available when buying a full 5 speed conversion kit from them). The bracket mounts on the four brake booster stud and is nice and Strong. It comes into the left side of the clutch pedal unlike others that go between the brake and clutch pedals. Here is a few pictures. Sorry crummy cell phone pics as I did not have my camera.



My roll cage was close but cleared fine. This won't be an issue on most other Chevelles without a cage. It comes with remote reservoir and a direct mount. It appears the direct would fit if I did not have the bar through fire wall. I am using the remote. I not sure if I will leave it mounted like this or I may even use another type of remote. The hood does clear with plenty of room



A little wider shot prior to adding remote. The bracket while hard to see in this picture comes way out to the left.





I have a few more things to fit and then I will be taking the front clip and engine out for some paint. Were going to add a crossbar to tie the two engine compartment bars together with a dimple die cover. I also think I am gonna add down bars that drop between the UCA and fire wall. I am thinking of adding tabs to the engine bars so we can make some kind of fender wells as the stock ones are not going to fit right

[XcYZ]

Tom, the car is looking awesome.

[tones2SS]

She's coming along nicely.

[Ricochet]

Thanks for the updates!! Nice cage work!

Brent