My 64 Build and work in progress...

[PatJ]

One of the things Ive struggled with on this project was what engine to go with. Everyone is going LS and I really debated going that route and often still regret not doing it, in the end but I really hate the way LS engines look especially in an old traditional car. They are great but to me the are really ugly. I really love the look of the stock 327 and seeing what Delmo did with new LS engines is really cool but pricing that out is way out of my budget. I really wanted to go with a new motor rather than a junkyard rebuild so I decided a new crate 350 with EFI was going to be more in budget and get the look and dependability I wanted.

The engine is a Chevy Performance 390hp crate 350 from Pace Performance.
Holley Sniper EFI.
The plan was to dress it out similar to a stock 327.

[PatJ]

Probably my favorite time of the build, seeing the suspension all done and the chassis all cleaned. Bags and engine and trans installed. At this point I felt like I was over the hump and even tho there is a ton of work left to do the project now was transformed from a dirty crusty mess into a nice clean vehicle that Im proud of.

Seeing so many builds on here with shots like these are great inspiration to get out in the garage and grind it out each night even when your not super motivated.

[The Rocknrod]

Looks awesome. Is that a long water pump?

[PatJ]

Yes it is, I run a mechanical fan.

[rudyyloverboiii]

man that looks clean!

[PatJ]

Jumping a little out of order here to post the things I did this weekend.

The doors were driving me nuts. You have to slam them ridiculously hard over and over to get them to shut. I just couldnt take it anymore so I started on the path for some door improvement solutions.

I knew that my pins and bushings were worn so they were first up to bat. I had read and heard that first you want to drill some holes in your hinges to help you align things back to factory when you go to reinstall the doors and that seemed like a great idea. With holes drilled I began to remove the hinge bolts. This is where the nightmare started.

The top hinge came out pretty easy with no real issue but as I removed the bolt for the bottom hinge I noticed that they bolt into a late behind the body that sorts floats around a bit. It seemed a little looser than it should be and as I took out the last bolt that sucker fell right into the body. FUDGE.

I looked online and couldnt really find any info on this ever happening to anyone or what to do about it. The only option I could think of was to cut a hole to access the plate that fell and deal with the aftermath later.

With the hole cut I could get the plate and also hold it in place to reinstall the doors. Both driver side and passenger side lower hinge plates fell so I had to cut a hole on both sides of my inner panels. If the top plates would have fallen that would of been much harder to get to and hold back in place.

With that done I had a pretty tough time getting the pins out of every hinge. None of them would come out and I had to heat then all with a torch and beat them out carefully. Only of them broke in 2 places and I had to spend a lot of time drilling that pin out of both parts of the hinge.

With that all done they went back on the trick pretty well but driver side door closed even worse after the new bushings and pins.

[PatJ]

With the new pins and bushing I was pretty disappointed that my doors still fit and closed like crap. Looking for solutions I had seen a few nice trucks with Altman Easy Latch setups. I didnt really want to break off 375 for new latches but I was really desperate to fix these terrible doors.

I posted in another thread on the main board but here is the same info for the build thread.

I was really skeptical about the latches solving my issues. I didnt find a lot of info on them really and only a few videos online. Turns out, for me anyway these things are pretty awesome. The install went smooth and the finished result is pretty unbelievable. They shut easy and nice and tight. Even my driver side door which was horrible before shuts nice and easy.