Yup, I dig it. Very sleek!
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Yup, I dig it. Very sleek!
As you can see, there's quite a difference in size with the passenger side mirror glass. The best difference is the convex glass as it provides a much wider field of view. Both mirrors are installed now but I need to get some better pictures.
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While I was figuring out how to route the wires for the mirror, I decided it would be a good time to wire for power locks as well. I went to the local Pick-n-Pull and pulled some lock solenoids from the back doors of a 91 Suburban. I liked the shape of the rear solenoids' mounting brackets more than the ones on the front doors. While I was there, I spent a long time looking at door jamb wiring boots on cars all over the yard. I eventually settled on boots from the rear doors of about a 2000 Blazer. The front boots on most modern cars are way too large for the Chevelle's door jamb. The last thing I got at the salvage yard was a mirror adjuster switch from around a 2002 Focus. Here's my solution for mounting the lock solenoids:
I extended the lever that connects to the knob that comes out the top of the door panel. This gave me room to drill a second hole and add a link bar from the solenoid. The solenoids are mounted below the end of that lever. This was one of the few areas that didn't interfere with the movement of the window.
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Very cool, its nice to use newer parts and make them work with a little imagination.
Continuing the trend of adapting newer parts, I picked up a set of headlights off an older 7-series BMW. They're the same diameter as the original headlights but use 9005/9006 bulbs. The low beams use a projector lens which gives them much better light distribution. There's a good writeup that I followed for mounting the high beams but I went a different route for mounting the projectors. I ditched the headlight bucket completely and used the mounting tabs that were molded into the housing.
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I used a nut-sert tool to install the headlight adjusters that snap into the housing. These replaced the nylon bushings that twisted into the BMW plastic headlight bracket.
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I also installed switchback LEDs in the front parking lights. These are designed to light up white when the parking lights are on and blink amber with the turn signals. I rewired the front parking lights to act as daytime running lights instead by adding an ignition hot wire. The lights look great through the clear lenses and I think it's a good safety improvement on a matte black car.
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Credit goes to this thread for the idea:
http://www.chevelles.com/forums/27-e...long-read.html
Oh yea... that's slick. I love that.
MUCH MUCH better than the modern LED aftermarket lights with the goofy ring of light around the outer diameter.
Those just don't look right on an old car. This is perfect.
Much cheaper too. I got the set of four for about $70
Oh wow, that's perfect. Ya can't beat that.
Kudos on the headlight upgrades, it was a bit of work, but quality lighting is far worth it IMO.
There is a bulb upgrade you can make for
The low-beam 9006 bulb, you can swap in a 9012 IR (infra-red) bulb, it will fit perfectly after trimming slightly on one of the 3 prongs.
These bulbs will also fit Trailblazer, Silverado, etc, and are rated 1,000 hours, producing 1,890 lumens.
http://store.candlepower.com/ph3rdge90h.html
Here's a pic of the mod, you can do by hand or with a dremel.
http://store.candlepower.com/mohirbuba.html
I'm not sure what bulb your high beams use, but if it's a 9005, there is also a 9011 IR bulb that can replace a 9005 hi-beam with a similar mod to one tab.
Specs are 2,350 lumens, avg life 400 hrs.
http://store.candlepower.com/hirlighting.html
HTH
Nice job they look good in there.
I would do a mitered 3.5" tipsQuote:
Originally Posted by
I also notched the rear valance panel to fit the tailpipes. I'm trying to decide between making a miter cut on the tailpipes, leaving them like they are, or getting some 3.5" tips
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Alright, I've got lots of updates but I've been terrible about taking pictures so I'll try and get caught up. I've swapped front seats, finished the center console, and installed power windows/trunk latch.
I build a set of 2x4 stands to help with setting the pinion angle. I had been chasing a pretty bad vibration and found the slip yoke bushing on the T-56 was badly worn, causing the driveshaft to wobble. It's quite a bit better now but the car still shakes more than I think it should.
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I ended up swapping out the GTO front seats for a set out of a Hyundai Tiburon. Despite cutting down the tracks on the GTO seats, they still sat too high for me and there was no room to wear a helmet. They were also a bit too wide for the big driveshaft tunnel and console. The Tiburon seats are manual so they sit lower and are simply less bulky overall. They seem to proportionally fit the Chevelle's interior better. Nothing will beat the GTO seats in terms of comfort, but the new seats aren't too bad. I'll take some more pictures of the complete interior later.
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I started the center console four years ago but never made any progress after the initial build. I was getting tired of the surface rust and decided to finish it. I built a storage compartment with an armrest and a quickly removable panel behind it to get access to the fuse panel. Eventually the black side panels will be leather wrapped and the center will be painted the same gunmetal as the SS stripes and outside trim.
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I've tried to every bit of work on the car myself and hopefully the upholstery will be no exception. The console lid was a good place to start as it's a pretty simple design. I used 3/16" closed cell foam which is very firm (I despise extra squishy car upholstery) and Madrid grain vinyl. If you're in the DFW area, the Larry Dennis Company has an amazing selection of upholstery materials and supplies. The rear GTO seats were too tall so I cut the tops of the seats above the headrests and they fit much better. Cutting the foam left lots of extra material so I used my new sewing skills (I use that word loosely) and redid the seams to tighten up the seat cover. It isn't too bad for my first attempt! I'll be dying the leather black to match the front seats.
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I've seen lots of "1970 Chevelle" power trunk release kits for sale even though the latch doesn't look like the factory power unit. I figured that newer latch must have come from from some sort of donor (rather than being a strictly aftermarket item) so I did a reverse image search on Google and found the latch was used on late 70s Lincoln Continentals. The local salvage yard happened to have the right donor so I grabbed the latch and harness from the Lincoln, and a button from some early 2000s Buick. $17 for the latch sure beats the $100+ they want for the kit! I powered the latch with a relay so I can use the keyless entry system to pop the trunk.
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Awesome job on the center console and upholstering! It practically looks OEM!
Nice work!
what a nice built !
Great build. Impressed with your abilities
The next step was building the rear part of the console. It follows the same pattern with the 1" think side rails with an inset center panel and houses a third brake light. I looked for a while to try and find a light that would work and stumbled across one from a Jaguar that was the perfect width.
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I also built panels for the rear package tray using waterproof door panel board wrapped in vinyl. There's an extra flap of material in front that tucks in behind the back of the seats.
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The blue GTO seats were painted black with SEM Color Coat to match the rest of the interior. I was really impressed with how well they turned out.
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I painted an extra set of headlight bezels gunmetal to see if I want to paint all of the trim but I'm not sure how I feel about it. It seems like painting the bezels on 1970 Chevelles sometimes makes the headlights look disproportioned to the rest of the front end. Thoughts? (The last picture shows the painted bezels.)
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After that, I moved on to installing the headliner and fixing the leaking windows. I'm sure y'all have seen plenty of headliner installs but this one is a little different because I am using a Subaru dome light (because I wanted a switch and I didn't want chrome) and a mirror from a 2002 Silverado.
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I used urethane for the windshield and back window so I blacked out the edge of the glass with the urethane primer to hide the beads. I also used this primer to black out the windshield where the mirror mounts.
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The roof mounts for the seatbelts were improved as well. I used 1/8" plate that is held in place with the two stock mounting bolts with a 1/2" nut welded on the back to hold the GTO shoulder bracket. I'll paint the metal black but I'm not really sure what to do to make this blend in better.
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The rear window has 20% tint because Texas only limits the front side windows. Tinting the sides with 30% will be the next project (the legal limit is 25%).
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