Project '64 Cheapskate

[ChuckDriver]

Vey clean!

[likaroc13]

Originally Posted by ChuckDriver

Vey clean!

X2! Great work!

[rusty76]

Thank you for the updates. Every thing looks great.

[chevyrestoguy]

With a couple of days off in a row, I decided to check a few more items off of the To Do List.

I never liked the look of battery cables running over the top of everything, so I got couple of 72" positive and negative cables and routed them the way I wanted. I routed them tightly off of the battery and brought them toward the radiator. I reinforced the shroud with 1x1 inch steel squares and bonded on 3 ClickBond nutplates on the inside. I butterflied the positive and negative cables and ran them down towards the frame. About 10" down, I routed the negative cable to the A/C mount and continued the positive cable through the frame using a thick grommet. At that point, I routed the cable inside the passenger frame rail to the starter. It's clamped in two additional locations in the frame rail. I trimmed the excess length and crimped on a new lug for the starter stud.



Please disregard the look of the fan shroud. It will be painted in the next few weeks!

[chevyrestoguy]

Another item: the coolant overflow
My radiator is an aftermarket unit from a small custom shop in San Dimas, California, and they welded on the neck and clocked on the overflow fitting to point at the passenger side. Well, my passenger side engine compartment is already cluttered with the battery and all of the A/C components, so I had to think of a way to route the line to the driver's side. I decided to use a factory windshield washer bottle as the overflow bottle because I really didn't like the look of the aftermarket tanks and also for the fact that I already had a new bottle and a bracket. I got a 48" piece of 5/16 steel line and bent it to where it runs inside the core support over to the tank. I wound up lowering the tank from it's factory mounts. I shifted it to where the lower bolt hole in the core support is now the upper bolt in the bracket. I wanted a nice, gradual gravity feed from the radiator to the tank.




The bottle bracket will be painted black when I'm done

[chevyrestoguy]

Another item: Upper radiator hose
I like the look of rubber hoses, and as cool as I think they look, I didn't want the hard pipe that came from the factory on the V8 models. I wanted to find an off-the-shelf hose that I could source from any parts store. After a bunch of research, I found one. It's a Gates hose, part# 20676, and it's for a 1970-1972 Monte Carlo. I'm using a swivel water neck, but if you cut 15.25" from the long end and .25" from the radiator end, this hose fits perfectly if you're using a factory serpentine belt set-up.

[chevyrestoguy]

Here's a post if what Not To Do:
After I bent my brake lines at the master cylinder, a Scotchbrited them to give a brushed aluminum look, and I then I sprayed them with a satin clear to preserve the look. WRONG! It turned them a nasty dove gray, and they looked awful. So, I tore everything back apart, got the clear coat off with an aerosal paint stripper and re- Scotchbrited them. While I was at it, I resprayed the booster with some SEM satin black. I love SEM products. Now, I can look at the booster and not get spun out about the look of the brake lines. Muuuch better!

[likaroc13]

Nice, clean work as usual!

[oldman3]

Nice job on all your items...Jim

[kustombrad]

AND it's still just low budget coolness! Just a little extra time on the details and being a little (or lot!) OCD. Looks awesome dude!!

[chevyrestoguy]

Originally Posted by 65Gregg

Dayum, this is some clean work.

Thanks, Gregg!

Originally Posted by likaroc13

Nice, clean work as usual!

Yeah, I had a pretty good weekend. I was in the zone, so to speak.

Originally Posted by oldman3

Nice job on all your items...Jim

Thank You, Sir!

Originally Posted by kustombrad

AND it's still just low budget coolness! Just a little extra time on the details and being a little (or lot!) OCD. Looks awesome dude!!

I look at the low-budget theme as a challenge. Sure, I love the high-end stuff, but I make it a goal to have something that looks nice, is easy to work on, and has readily available parts from any local parts store. I only crack open a catalog when I feel that I have no other viable option. I have a tendency to be a bit OCD because of my many years in aerospace. I am around incredible stuff everyday, and I couldn't slap something together without doing it the "aerospace way". It's fun when it turns out the way you envisioned it.

[rusty76]

It all looks great. And your attention to detail is wonderful. Keep on keeping.

[azdude1964]

Super clean work

[ChuckDriver]

Nice and clean!

[chevyrestoguy]

Spent the day making plug wires, and I àlso have been itching to try these really cool wire looms that Doug Jerger (Squeeg's Hot Rods) makes. The only problem is, they are not designed for centerbolt heads (Vortec). So that meant that I had to figure out how to make them work. It wound up being very simple. The factory Vortec heads have two 1/4-20 threaded holes that I can only assume are for the factory wire looms. I was able to use a 1.75" long 1/4-20 bolt and a 1" spacer and I orientated the loom in a vertical position. It worked great.


Disregard the nasty mockup spark plugs. The wires are MSD, 8mm.

[kustombrad]

Those look badass! I had no idea what the plan was, but your idea worked out great! Of course you're screwed now 'cuz I'll badger you to put "matching" 12 point bolts on! Lol I have some extra 1/4" stainless AN washers you need for those...

[chevyrestoguy]

Yep, I'm screwed. Pretty soon, I'll be swapping all of my 6 points for 12 points because of my header bolts. Hahahaha.

[Jason's '72]

Damn, that looks sweet, Alex!

[Low Elco]

Good lookin' stuff, Alex! Can't wait to hear it makin' noise!

[chevyrestoguy]

I didn't post this earlier, but when I was making my spark plug wires, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't use my Sanderson blockhugger eaders because the #5 and #6 sparkplug boots touched the header tubes. I discovered that GM moved the sparkplugs closer to the exhaust valves on the Vortec heads, and some headers will not work because of that. I called all of my buddies and looked through all of the headers that I had, and I test-fit four different sets and each one of them required modification of some kind. I finally decided that an old pair of Thorley Tri-Ys I had in my parts pile seemed to fit the best. I had to cut and shorten the #1 primary tube and reclock the #1/#5 cylinder collector to clear the driver's side motor mount.

The headers were going to be used on another project a long time ago, and the collectors had been cut and removed.

Because of the 2" primary diameter and the small 2.5" outlet, I had a tough time finding a merge collector, but I found a company called Vibrant Technologies that made a very nice stainless collector for a great price ($79 each).



Now that I had the parts, I took them over a buddy's shop (Rob Lindsay at RJ Fabrication in Hesperia, California) to have them make new 2" primary tubes, weld on the merge collectors, and weld on V-band flanges at the end. They did an amazing job. The TIG welds are beautiful and the tubing fit is perfect. After they finished, they dropped them off at Young Gun Performance Coatings in Rancho Cucamonga for ceramic coating. They turned out amazing.




I can't wait to bolt these up!

[rusty76]

The work you do is just radical!

[likaroc13]

Nice! Those look great.

[ChuckDriver]

Headers look outstanding!

[kustombrad]

I finally saw them a few days ago and the pictures don't do them justice! Alex did a great job of making those happen!!

[TJ's Chevy]

Nice headers!