bcubed's 1978 Malibu

[bcubed]

Since I was a teenager my late Uncle Dan had always had Malibu's. He bought his first one on here from Mike Nutt on this board. I spent a lot of my youth working on that car and cleaning it up for shows. I went the college route and had a vehicle that was transportation and nothing more. Don't have many pictures of it, but a few do exist.





And unfortunately that car met it's demise at the hands of my cousin. (The T-bird next to it was my transportation back in those days).



Everything salvageable was pulled off that car and put onto a different Malibu. The engine and transmission was freshened up and cleaned up and the car was painted and interior done (The ground effects and turquoise paint, it was the 90s)



We showed it for many years, but eventually my uncle's health started to fail and the car was parked and not driven. Eventually my uncle gave the car to me as he knew I had spent more time on it than anyone. I did a few things but it didn't get the care it deserved. Sadly about 3 years ago my uncle passed away and I started restoring the car in his memory. I did this while going back to Grad school and I did get some done but not complete. I just graduated in December and my hope is to get the car back on the road this summer. So with that said I post some pics of the progress so far.

When we started the car pretty much looked like this, it looks a lot better in pictures than it did in person. The engine was tired and the paint was dull.



We took the car to my brother's house, bud1300. First order of business was to pull the 350 out and to put in a 327 that Mike Nutt had built for me years before and had sat ready to go into my '55 Truck, that never happened so I had decided to put it into the Malibu. It's a pretty nicely built engine, nothing crazy but not stock either.





The car was somewhat driveable again, but it needed new brakes and suspension and the dash was ruined, and only half the dakota digital gauges worked anymore. So it sat around again for a little while.

In the meantime I had built myself a garage and moved the car over to my house. bud1300 gave me some nice tires, but they wouldn't fit the rims. So for now I picked up some 16x7 Cragar Soft 8's in black and wrapped them in the tires. Also at this time I pulled off the ground effects, which were pretty rough and the fiberglass hood which was cracked.









Before the 16x7's I tried a set of 16x8 but they rubbed on the rear frame and in the front they barely cleared.




My hope is it to soon look similar to this one.

[bcubed]

Next order was to freshen up the suspension. I was going to pull everything off and paint the frame, put in new bushings and joints and paint and put everything back together. It was well tired and worn out.



With it up in the air started dissembling the suspension.



Wasn't long before the frame rails were bare and I was left with a big pile of old parts.





I started cleaning of the frame, so here's a before, cleaned up, primed and then finally painted









The bushings probably hadn't been changed, EVER .. so I took upon disassembling them, got to use my nifty new tool from harbor Freight, but as those of you who have had to do this know it still is a pain in the a**.





Luckily most of the dirty work was behind me for now.

[bcubed]

After they were all disassembled I cleaned them up and painted them as well.









And with new ball joints and energy suspension bushing installed they were ready. Even cleaned up the factory coil springs for now.





New drop spindles were purchased and I would run the aforementioned springs until I see how much more drop I need.





As you could see above, the Summit Headers were looking pretty rusty so a set of ceramic coated headers was purchased.

[bcubed]

And now it needed to stop better. So I found a good deal on some Baer Rotors, $80 for the pair.





Also wanted to spruce up the engine as the cheap chrome had rusted over the years. So I decided to go black and some new valve covers and air cleaner were purchased.



With them in place, the engine was looking more presentable.

[bcubed]

Once again I lost motivation and the car has sat for many months waiting for the front suspension to get put back on.

As the dash had deteriorated, I had to look for another one. After searching for a while I finally found a decent Monte Carlo dash and picked it up. It will need a few repairs and need to be dyed gray to match the interior.





I wanted to go with something similar to this for gauges. But at about $900 for that package I looked for something else.



I ended up with some New Vintage gauges from Summit and a custom insert for the dash for the aftermarket gauges.





Should look similar to this when it's done.

[bcubed]

Found some old pictures from back in the day. I have some more putting the engine in and such that I will add as soon as I scan them.

Mike Nutt, Uncle Dan and myself working on the Malibu back in the day in Mike's old shop.



Myself and Dan prepping the car for paint.



After a car show, Mike and I with Dan and another passed friend who tragically was killed several years later in a car accident. In front of the Malibu and Mike's Mazda Dually.

[Bud1300]

We did a lot of work in that old shop, the roof leaked and it was not the best location in town as we later witness when the tires and rims came up missing on the old bu....

[bcubed]

Tonight I decided to spray a piece off my dash to see how the SEM dye was going to work. The interior is a couple tones of gray, so I decided to go with the Warm Gray color.





The new piece against the drivers seat and it's trim. I knew the old stuff was darker, but it's going to all be dyed again as well .. as well the carpet is toast and will be replaced.



The seats aren't that bad considering it's a custom interior job from 20 years ago. It looks worse than it is, just needs some vacuuming and cleaning. The front seats are early 90s Cutlass and the rear stock.



As you can see the dash is no existent, hence needing a new dash. I also have a brand new wiring harness to go in.



I disassembled the gauge cluster to get it ready to clean up to spray. Decided to stick in my new gauges to see how they would look. Gonna need some trimming to make them fit right.

[WIDESIDE72]

I have a soft spot or 78-82 Malibus as well. I have a 79 'bu that I have owned since 95 or so. It was my daily driver til around 04 or so. I was getting it on the road again and hoping to get it painted when I had trouble with the 383. I think the cam went flat before Christmas...even though I am running ZDDP in the oil. I think that the valvesprings on the second hand Brodix heads must have been for a roller cam or something... I haven't had time to look into it yet, as we just moved and kept the old place as a rental, so I had to work on it and unpack at the new place... I picked up the MB Motorsport 17's for $250 (!) the other day. My wife thought I was crazy to buy wheels for a car that isn't running. Maybe she is right! They will need tires soon, though

[bcubed]

Nice! I love old Malibus, El Caminos & Malibu Wagons. Mine is a 78 but the front end is 80, think it looks better. It's a Landau right now, but I have an article on how to switch it out to a hardtop and plan to look into it more.

You got yourself a nice car there, looks like it has plenty of go power, so I hope you get it straightened out. Feel free to post more pics of it if you get time to work on it again!

[WIDESIDE72]

I have a ways to go still, but you give me inspiration! I also have a 10 1/2 month old baby, so I try to spend as much time as I can with her and my wife. The car will always be there (it is in my barn), but kids grow up too fast.

I am running a 8.5" posi out of a Hurst Olds that I bought for $250 (!). It had 3.73's but no posi. The P.O. had a posi but hadn't installed it yet. I installed it before swapping out the 7.5". I also have a 2004r trans wih a 2800 rpm stall. It was running sweet til it quit on me. I also have a wrecked 94 Caprice 9C1 that I bought from my brother for the rebuilt LT1/ 4L60E to swap into a 91 Olds Custom Cruiser wagon (a whole other can of worms). I think I can use the spindles and calipers along with Camaro 1LE rotors (for 5 x 4.75 bolt pattern) on the 'bu for a brake upgrade. (It needs one badly, as even with all new brakes, the stock 10.5" brakes have a hard time slowing that 383 down!) Like you, I swapped in a Monte Carlo dash, as well as the front buckets and rear seat, along with the lower door panels. I picked it all up years ago for $100 (!)
I also swapped on F41 front and rear sway bars and frame braces. With these pieces and the fact that the 383 has alumnum heads, intake and water pump, along with a fiberglass hood and electric fan for less weight over the nose, it handled really well with the 15" tires. It should be even better with the 17's

[WIDESIDE72]

I didn't mean to highjack you thread, BTW. It's just that you don't see many folks working on 'bus... The main hold up pn the big brakes is trying to find affordable A arms for the swap. Hotchkis wants around $800 for the pair (!) You can tell from my previous posts that I don't roll like that!

[bcubed]

No problem! I like those MB Motorsports wheels, can't go wrong with a 5 spoke. Eventually I want to run some along these liners in 17" or 18"

[Jonboy]

I love the G bodies also. I had an '81 El Camino all through college I went through and put a TPI 305 in. I sold and bought back that one twice. If I found in now, I would buy it back in a heartbeat. My buddy and I also part out quite a few of these, mostly turbo Regals.

[WIDESIDE72]

What did you use for the gauge panel? I wouldbe glad to see how you did yours, as I too can't see dropping nearly $1k on gauges!

[bcubed]

Originally Posted by WIDESIDE72

What did you use for the gauge panel? I wouldbe glad to see how you did yours, as I too can't see dropping nearly $1k on gauges!

The gauge shadow box was $75. The New Vintage gauges $390. The rest is parts from the factory cluster.
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[BMERDOC]

I love a Malibu!! Some of my best memories were in a 79 with my buddy Buck. His parents bought it, redid the interior and threw some wheels on it. They passed it to him when he got his license. I dont have any pics but that car is burnd into my memory.

[SCOTI]

Too funny.... I just read through your thread over on MR . I've owned 3x 2drs & 2x Camino g-bodies. I still have a fairly clean 79 tucked away in the depths of darkness.

I'm digging the backround history fueling the build.

[bcubed]

Originally Posted by SCOTI

Too funny.... I just read through your thread over on MR . I've owned 3x 2drs & 2x Camino g-bodies. I still have a fairly clean 79 tucked away in the depths of darkness.

I'm digging the backround history fueling the build.

Haha .. yeah, I'm on there as well as here. I'm working on getting the wires I will need for the dash pulled together on my new wiring harness. Also have to cutout my 2 new holes for the lower gauges on my dash panel this weekend. Then I should be close to getting the Dash in the car.

[Warrens69GMC]

You can run TransAm/Camaro springs FCS5662? for the front with drop spindles, and don't forget to upgrade the front sway bar to a 34mm (from a camaro/firebird).