66 Chevelle - basket case

[wyattroa]

Well I went out and bought a 1966 Chevelle. The car is a rolling shell as of right now, but Ill update the pictures of what has been done so far.

My goals for this car are pro-touring, street, and cruising. I plan to yank a LS motor from a junk yard and throw it in there. I am not sure yet on a transmission. Really leaning towards a t-56, but I know the wife would probably want to drive the car too since she will be helping me wrench on it. So it might end up with a 4L80e in it. I am going to be buying parts a little at a time and building this car. I know I won't be finishing this car in a year, or even 2 for that matter, but it will be mine and something I hope my kids, wife, and myself will enjoy.

My plan for suspension is to do coil overs all the way around, upgrade the steering box to a jeep grand cherokee, and to fit 295's on the ass end of it. I was thinking of doing the mini tub, but 335 tires are more expensive and I have a feeling I would be going through them fast. I know 335's look amazing from the back. Maybe that will change, who knows.. It currently has a 10 bolt in it, but unfortunately it the weak 8.2". So I will be on the hunt for a used 12bolt or ford 9".

I had planned on buying a car to do a ton of work on, but everything in my area, Chicago, is just horrible. The cars around here are literally falling apart from rust and their prices are too high. I went to see a 66 chevelle that had the suspension collapsed on it, no trunk floor, no floors inside, rust everywhere and they wanted $4,500 for it. No thanks.

I also plan on doing the body work and paint. It will be a big job as I have never done this before, either way, I plan on doing everything I can.

I found this on the west coast, all original body panels on it. The frame had been taken to a shop and it was confirmed to be straight and true. I had it shipped back to me.

There are so many nice 66 chevelles on here. I have read through there threads and am blown away. They are the reason I have started this. I feel there is a wealth of knowledge on this site and from what I have seen the other chevelle build threads do, I think I will be in good hands for help.

Going to have some posts in a row updating everything I have done, which isn't much.

Here are some pictures to get started. The first car is a mustang I built when I was 18, I am now 32. That car is long gone, but damn it was fun. It had a 347 stroker with a BDS 8-71 blower on it. It turned a few heads..lol
















Here is how it sat when I got it.

[wyattroa]

Picked up a front since I was missing one.

[wyattroa]

I ordered the ABC Smoothie kits yesterday around noon. I had it in hand in under 24 hours..That is awesome. Want to smooth it out.

[wyattroa]

We took the body off the frame last night, a bigger job then I had anticipated. One jack could go high enough, no engine hoist, pretty sure my rafters wouldn't support the body either. Took some time but we got there. Still working on the firewall..Slow but sure, been sick a bunch.

[wyattroa]

Well, picked up the hellwig frame FX kit. I started taking down all suspension components. We were able to get them all off yesterday. This way when I finish putting the kit on I can send it off to be powder coated. My welder is 110/220v welder, I don't have 220 in my garage so I will be borrowing my neighbors portable generator to do the welding with 220v. My youngest son who is 3 asks me to work on the chevelle with him all the time. Here are some pictures from yesterday, he even has his own tool box. I have to check it every time we leave the garage since I know he will put my tools in his tool box.

Not sure I will get much done as its currently feels like -8 outside. I need to live where its warmer.

[wyattroa]

Side note, this thing must have been blasted through a field or something. The amount of crap I found inside the front crossmember is insane. I had to use a hammer and chisel to knock it all out, also used my drill with a foot long bit on it. Here is a picture of the crap that fell out, not even all of it.

Beer can for reference.

[wyattroa]

This is also my first time doing any welding. Please don't judge...

Its around 70 degrees here in Chicago, which is absolutely crazy for February. Figured I would give the garage a little clean too. I made an adapter for my welder, this way I can plug my 3 prong into the 4 prong generator I am running for the 220V.

The driver side ABC frame boxing kit was too long towards the front. I cut a bit off the front and welded it onto the rear of the piece. I then was able to get some tack welds down to hold the piece in place. Mind you, I just started welding this past fall, so they are not the greatest looking welds.

Also got some new parts in the mail. My wife ended up getting me Ridetech upper and lower control arms for my birthday and Christmas.

[wyattroa]

Well, this is a big update for me. When I got my chevelle, it was just a shell with no interior, pretty much nothing. Back on October 19th a member contacted me regarding some parts he had. This member was on the chevelle forum. For the past 5 months we have been in contact and often talked about our build and anything else on our minds. He informed me he had a great deal of parts he no longer had use for and was willing to let me have them. My first thought was, whats the catch, this has to be too good to be true, does the guy want to kill me or something? Turns out there was no catch and he didn't want to kill me..lol...

This past weekend my wife and I made the drive down to his town, which is about a 6.5 hour drive from our house. Turns out he is every bit as great as I had anticipated from talking with him online. He showed me courtesy while I was there and gave me a personal tour of his Chevelle, which I must say is amazing.

I am still in shock that I was able to come across such a good guy, not to mention a guy who was willing to let me just have his old parts. These parts range from, front bucket seats, rear seat, center console, front grille, glass, window assemblies, UMI suspension parts new in the box, new g-force crossmember, and much more. I haven't had a chance to inventory all the parts yet. Either way, it puts me in a much better position for my chevelle. Here are some pictures from when I arrived back home. We were too tired from driving so we parked the car in our backyard and went to bed. Also, forgot to mention, he is letting me use his rotisserie which will make things much easier for me.

[wyattroa]

A small, very small update, but an update none the less. I have been crazy busy with school and kids. I only get out to the garage every blue moon right now. I finish school this coming WED so I hope to have some more time. I just need to find a powder coater near me that won't bend me over on price. I have finished boxing in the frame rails front and back. I also replaced the body mounts on the front of the frame as you could tell they were thin. Figured I have access to it, I might as well do it. Here are some pictures of how its going.

[wyattroa]

finished all the welding on the frame for now, will just have to weld the new trans crossmember in next spring. Frame is off being blasted and then it will be put in epoxy primer.

This gave me sometime to start prepping to get other stuff in order for the suspension to start going on when it comes back. I had three great helpers today. Felt good working with new parts.