Project '64 Cheapskate

[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!

[Low Elco]

Man, those look good on the big screen. Nice stuff. Brum, brum, brum,.......

[Johnny_Lamebridge]

Nice job! Those tri-y's look great.

[chevyrestoguy]

I had a couple of days off during the holidays, so I stayed busy cleaning and prepping body parts. I want to start getting all of the body parts ready to install for the final time, and with my OCD, that's easier said than done.
Driver's fender, scraped out mud and grease and after an hour, it looked like this


I painted the white areas back to white, shot bedliner on the inside of the fender, and touched up the remaining areas with chassis black

Cleaned and prepped the bracketry and installed a new splash shield.



Next step, hang the fender and cowl extension, then move to the grille surround.

[likaroc13]

Looks good. Nice to see some more progress.

[Low Elco]

Oooo purdy. Yaay progress! Gonna be tearin' up the desert in 2016!

[kustombrad]

Yep it's getting closer! 2023 is going to be a great year when he FINALLY wraps it up! Sheesh dude, hope you color sanded and rubbed out the bed liner stuff...

[chevyrestoguy]

Of course I rubbed it out.....After I color sanded it with 1000, 1200, 1600, 1800, and 2000 grit paper. Once the bedliner spray is fully cured, I'll spray it with 6 coats of Glasurit 22 Line clear and re-perform the color sanding process.

Haha, you funny......

[Bomp]

Nice detail work. Glad to see Im not the only one with OCD.

[rusty76]

That looks killer dude.

[tune_1]

Just read through your thread and all of the work that you have done. Thanks for posting, it is a great example of what attention to detail can do.

Dwight

[chevyrestoguy]

The wife had to work on New Years Day, so I stayed out in the garage all day and worked on the grille surround. I had a full day in just cleaning and prepping the backside, and yesterday, I shot some Rust Reformer on the back, and acid washed the front to get rid of the surface rust.. After that was done, I shot the backside in chassis black. The black paint on the frontside was looking shabby as well, so I gave it a light coat of SEM black. I had to paint this area because the core support shows through the grille, and the black paint will now match up. I plan to install this piece permanently today.

[Palf70Step]

Very nice!

[Low Elco]

oh, oh... using big words like "permanently." This reeks of progress.

[chevyrestoguy]

It's funny, I keep going out to the garage and walking up to the truck and shaking the front clip. It was always loose and floppy from the first day I got it. Now, it's tighter and gapped better than it was from the factory, and I get all geeked every time I give it a shake. Progress feels GOOD.......

[kustombrad]

You know what they say though if you shake it more than twice...

[Low Elco]

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

It's funny, I keep going out to the garage and walking up to the truck and shaking the front clip. It was always loose and floppy from the first day I got it. Now, it's tighter and gapped better than it was from the factory, and I get all geeked every time I give it a shake. Progress feels GOOD.......

Wait a minute- did he say that Whitey's in the GARAGE? The Kid is serious!!

Gotta say- that "This F-er is FIXED" feeling is always pretty good. Go fix something else, we're dyin' over here! I wanna see this thing shovin' a Fueler!

[chevyrestoguy]

Yep, it's in the garage. It needed to happen, and things are getting done at a much more rapid pace because of it.