My '69 Chevelle/Winston cup car

[383Ram]

This is one of the coolest projects I have seen in a long time. Keep it up!!

[chrisestes]

that is gonna be 1 bad@$$ car when you are done with it

[RenoKeene]

Great work! I'll be referencing your build if/when we get around to re-skinning this cat. 1999 Port City chassis , 9-1 Emerald Coast Bush Cup 358, Jerico, Quick Change 3rd member, etc.

[884x4Sub]

Thanks for the props guys.

RenoKeene - Do It!

[884x4Sub]

Some updates, the next big thing is wiring while Im getting my ducks in a row and figuring out what exactly I want to have in the car electrically and then exactly how Im going to accomplish that Ive been working out some smaller details that have to be done at some point

I found when I dropped the engine in the oil pan sat below the front suspension cross member. If I ever had an off road excursion or even a run in with a speed bump I could clean the pan off the engine so I used some heavy washers as spacers on the solid motor mounts to raise the engine up . Plans call for a heavy plate steel skid plate to be fabbed and installed from the c member and fully underneath the oil pan

[884x4Sub]

Came up with a location for the oil filter that would be accessible to service, out of the direct path of crap thrown up by the tires and out of the way of future brake cooling ducts and made a bracket and installed the oil filter

[884x4Sub]

Had been trying to figure out what to do with the inside of the roof for sometime. As it sat it was incredibly crude looking especially by the sail panels at the back, it looked like h ell. So I went to the local auto upholstery shop and picked up a big roll of foam backed headliner he had lying around from an 80s Chevy for $60. I glued the headliner directly to the inside bare metal of the roof with spray on adhesive. I made some rear sail panel covers out of heavy cardboard and covered them. The wrinkly bad looking stuff on the far side of the roll cage will be covered by the roll bar padding, you wont see it.You didnt know I was an upholsterer too did you? hahaha not!

The braces used to be the inside windshield braces from the race car. I fabbed up the mounts and installed them. As all the inside bracing from the roof was removed to make way for the roll cage I needed something to hold up the roof. Before the braces if you were to pound on the top of the roof with your hand you could put a permanent dent in it pretty easy and after all that work installing the new roof Im not going to let that happen. It is solid now. I like it looks pretty racy to me.

[884x4Sub]

My friends race car has no way of telling exactly how much oil is in the thing as there is no dipstick. Theres an oil cooler and all the lines and an Accusump and its line. They know how much the oil pan and filter holds and "guesstimate" how much oil to add to the engine for the rest. This is not acceptable to me eff that. So I got a twist lock racing dipstick from Moroso to go in the Moroso pan. This block has no provisions for a dipstick like a GM block so this is the only option. No instructions at all with this kit, nothing.. You get this plastic bag of hardware with all these little fittings and you have to figure out for yourself a combination of them that will work for you. I threw away the bracket that was supposed to hold the top of the dipstick tube to the valve cover and fabbed my own. Figured out I had to cut the tube to length and the dipstick to length to get it to work and a compression fitting holds the tube into the pan. Turned into an ordeal but I got it done but Im happy with it.

[884x4Sub]

Got the cowl induction finished. Had to cut out the brace in the back of the hood for a hole and make up a "bracket" to hold a piece of screen on the top of the hood. Then make an extension on the back of the carbon fiber Cup air cleaner to match up with the hole and rivet it on and seal it. Went with hood props as opposed to a lift off hood as that offers one man operation.

[884x4Sub]

Got the hood pins on and my cool rear licence plate that after at least a half dozen different ideas I finally settled on. That is a sticker over an old decorative licence plate that I had lying around. I had my buddy who owns a sign shop make it up for me the gray on the plate matches the gray on the bumper exactly. Some of the other colors/things I was going to do stuck out too much back there. I like this.

[884x4Sub]

And here is the wiring kit I bought American Autowire Hwy 15 kit. The kit is a bit of overkill for the car at this point but it was only a few bucks more than the lesser kits in the line and it can easily handle anything I could ever want to do with the car as you can see. The fuse panel itself is only slightly larger than their lesser kits so theres virtually no weight penalty. Im starting from scratch with the wiring as there is no wiring whatsoever in the car at this time. By all accounts the American Autowire kits have better quality hardware and fuse panels than their competitors so I went with them. So this is he next big thing. Thats it for now thanks for stopping by D

[884x4Sub]

The car will require a switch box mounted between the seats for all switches as when belted in I cannot reach the dash. I dug around all over the net at pics of vintage race cars looking for something cool in this regard but came up empty. A box is a box no two ways about it. Do more pondering than working. In the end I cut the bottom out of a 50cal ammo box I had lying around. It has a nice hinge on it and is very sturdy. At one time I thought of plastic but then thought if a short and a fire developed the box would melt The key start is there along with the master elect cut off. The box is big but potentially I'll be putting headlight, wiper and brake fan switches there also.

I also bought my new Superlight rear brake calipers to replace my old mismatched ones before our dollar sinks out of sight Wilwood said my old pads would fit, they wont. But hey isnt it just a great day when you go pick up something as cool as a new set of brake calipers? Gearhead heaven, love it!

[884x4Sub]

Ok, have the collector extensions welded on the headers, the one piece twin 3.5" tailpipe/muffler section mounted in four places and the tailpipe exits trimmed so the exhaust is finished. Yes!

[884x4Sub]

The 3.25 Tru Track is in. Calipers mounted, plumbed and pads installed. Diff filled with 75W 140 Royal Purple diff fluid. Rear Penske's filled to 90 psi nitrogen and mounted with the Watkins Glen set up left in them. I got the Mark Williams billet yoke with the pulley on it so I can run an old school belt driven rear end cooler pump which I have but it's not necessary for the car to run so I'll leave it off for now. Im done out here.

I cut the bottom half of the rear drive shaft loop off and fabbed a removable replacement. The drive shaft was a pain to stick through the loop and get it on when on the lift . I couldn't imagine doing it at the track on jack stands so that's what I came up with. Drive shaft that came with the car slipped right in and is the proper length, no mods required. Love it

So now I can get the car off the lift and down onto jack stands, fully open the doors and get going on the final phase, mucking around with the pedals and wiring. I started doing the wiring earlier but on the lift I could only open the doors about a foot so it just wasn't working for all the wiring that goes on inside the car. The lift is old school and the car is so low you have to jack the car up and crawl around on your hands and knees to get it on there, not something you want to do repeatedly.

[884x4Sub]

Done messing around under the car. Put nylocks, lock washers and loctite everywhere. Finished the grille off while still on the lift. In every pic I've posted so far the grille has been just sitting there. The dummy headlights were painted pieces of cardboard held in with masking tape lol. Two hundred bucks at Ground Up got me the necessary hardware and trim pieces to install it all properly. Everything is locked down tight and is not going to blow off at 130.

So it's FINALLY off the lift and on to the final phase of wiring, playing with the pedals then a fire up. A pretty big day in the shop really.

[383Ram]

Great updates and glad to see it's going to be running soon. Thanks for posting.

[brn agn]

Great progress! You will have a finished product soon. Keep up the momentum.

[6BT 56]

Man this thing is so cool i make a mess in the front of my pants every time I see it . Nice to see this has been a productive winter for you . Keep up the good work .

[jb1016]

Looking good!!

[884x4Sub]

Rear spoiler

[884x4Sub]

It runs!....Its pickled so it smokes a bit but thats 700hp turn the volume way up its LOUD! This is literally the first time the car has ever moved under its own power.

[flashed]

Wow ,that sounds BadA$$ .

[Bishops Trucks]

Originally Posted by 884x4Sub

I had a 68 too!.....agree def the meanest era....followed by the 66'.....but I do love em' all

I have to agree with you on that. 68 & 69 are my favorites. They look great in just about every configuration out there. My favorite look for those is a nice fat tired pro street car.

That is a very cool build your doing. Can't wait to see the finished project. It will really turn some heads when your run that down the street.

[884x4Sub]

Sheesh. wouldnt let me edit my post. Click on the pic for the vid.

[Dieselwrencher]

Congrats it sounds awesome! You're doing great work on it too!