Out with the Old.......

Father's Day weekend was awesome! Not only did I get some thoughtful cards and gifts; but I got to put in some really productive work on my chevelle. It was, like, 9000 degrees... but I was determined to get it done. Especially since I've been wanting to get that engine and tranny out for about a month but haven't had time. I did learn one important thing, though: NO CHEAP HAND TOOLS! I broke a crescent wrench while working on the car and it generated an epiphany. In my moment of clarity, I realized that I have been buying these cheapo (i.e. GreatNeck) hand tools for years. Normally I wind up replacing wrenches and sockets every few months but it wasn't until this project that I've finally seen the light. From now on, it's only Snap On and Craftsman for me. But getting the engine out, wasn't that bad. The only real problem was that I wanted to pull out the engine and the tranny at the same time. So I first had to remove the drive shaft and set it aside. Then I took loose the transmission mounts. After that it took me a few tries to get the engine mounts loose. Me and T had to wrestle with that joker to get it outbecause of the way the header piped was curled under. After a bunch of pushing and pulling, I broke out the sledge hammer and just broke the header pipes loose. After we did that, the engine and the tranny slid out the car like an old man in a warm bath. It was an awesome feeling! After we got it out, we strung it up like a giant whale on a fishing expedition to take some trophy shots. Check it out. 305V8, 350 Turbo Hydramatic transmission.

Spring Car Cleaning Season!

Well, now that old man winter is finally dead; I can get some work done on the car and not freeze my fingertips off! This weekend was bright, sunny, and hot enough to make a camel sweat. I'm not complaining though. I did enough of that during winter. So, the first item on the agenda for this year's spring cleaning is to try to make some room! I may have mentioned here before that the garage is quickly becoming quite cluttered. I've got a nice little pile of car doors, fenders, and support brackets going. This is a good thing, because everything is in pretty good shape; and after I sand, prime, and paint them, they will be just like new. That's a weekend for another blog; but for now, I need to make room. This was also a good time to inspect some of the stuff a little better as well. So after handling the business of taming the lawn( #1 on my 'honey do' list), I enlisted the aide of an 'assistant' and we proceeded to cart everything outside and sort through it on the lawn. After my assistant (aka Skyler) and I got it all sorted, we boxed up the trim that was re-usable and stripped the ratty old door vinyl off. I've got this stuff tied down under a tarp in the back yard because I need the space in the garage. Now it was time to put together my shiny new engine hoist! For anyone who has never put one together, it is definitely a two-man job. It wasn't difficult, per se, you just have to have another set of hand to get all this stuff bolted together (...man hands though, not a set of girly hands). So after 4 water breaks, a couple of intermissions to chase Jr. around/out of the garage or change diapers, and a few minutes of headscratchin' when the support braces didn't line up; we got it done! The funny thing is...now that it's GO TIME with the hoist; I'm too tired to try and pull the engine or tranny. Feels like 'Miller time' to me (...more accurately Budweiser time) so I'm counting this as a weekend well spent.

That dang left fender...

Well, I'm still stripping her down. It went a lot better this go around since I got the PB Blaster. You just spray that stuff on there, have a soda, and come back; then those stuck nuts come right off. I got two more doors off but that left fender did not want to come off.
I took loose all the bolts I saw on the left inner fender. I got the one on the inside of the door jam, but still nothing. There must be one under the front left headlight bezel that I missed, though. The weather was crappy and drab. Glad the car is in the garage.




The doors and fenders are in really good shape too. All the glass is intact and looks new. I think eventually I will have to remove the windows when the time comes. That is still a few weeks away. There was a lot going on this weekend, so it was hard to squeeze in time to work on the car. After a while, the frustration of that left fender started to set in as the day went on; and I decided to take a step back. I'll jump back on it again later, but I needed to spend some quality time with my little buddy, Clarence Jr.

UNDER THE HOOD

Well... this weekend kicked off my initiation into the resto world; and hopefully I'm on my way to becoming a torch wielding, body working, engine re-building, gear-head. I decided not to go frame-off for this resto, but it was simply because I'm not sure it's even possible in my garage at home without a lift. Plus this car is not really going to be a show car. I plan on driving it once or twice a week, so I don't see a reason to go through all the trouble of separating the body from the frame.

I've started the process of stripping the car down to do a rust assessment. My brother came over and we removed the hood and fenders. Forgive the picture quality because I used Stormy's fancy digital camera and couldn't figure out how to turn off the night vision setting. (Yes...I know I'm an engineer but the camera design is flawed). Anyways, there wasn't as much rust as I thought but a heck of a lot of old leaves. Go figure.
It wasn't as easy as I thought to begin the process of dissassembling the car. A lot of the bolts were pretty rusty and stuck. I have to get a can of PB blaster or something for those stuck nuts. Another problem was that the nuts came loose from their welds and I will have to fix that before I can reassemble. I don't know if I mentioned this but the car was a roller when I got it; and it had an engine and tranny. After running the engine codes, I found that it was a '78 V8 305 from a Pontiac LeMans. It wasn't the 350 or 454 I'd like, so I'm going to have to pull it and sell or barter for the engine I want. The good thing is that the engine has a chrome Edelbrock 600cfm carb on it and an Edelbrock performer intake. Not bad! Should help out my resto fund when I flip it. I got to get an engine stand, though. I figure I can rent a hoist. The biggest obstacle though, is the garage itself. I got a bunch of crap in there I have to clear out. Old christmas crap...Old boxes of books...my olympic class, cast iron, rubber coated weight bench and rack set... 2 lawn mowers...2 bikes...2 dressers...a file cabinet...a bed...a lazy boy...a coffee table...and 3 tvs. Needless to say, the garage is cramped; but that's a minor hurdle. I can't wait to finish stripping this old girl down, so I can clean her up. (no pun intended)

WHERE DO I START...?

Well, this is my first post to kick things off. I bought myself a 1972 Chevelle Malibu as a project car. It's gonna be a doozy; but I'm looking forward to it. I figure it will take me close to two years but I'm gonna love every minute of it and the first time I crank up and drive my SS clone...oooh it's gonna be sweet. Check out the before picks. I'll try to post pics as I go through this process. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm not letting that scare me. After all, I haven't met a problem that a good toolbox, shop rags, elbow grease, and budweiser couldn't fix.