1969 Chevelle "Cone Smasher"

[CampbellshotrodsAZ]

It's been a while since I've made a post, Thermodynamics completely consumed my life for the past couple of months. But I'm happy to announce that my hard work paid off and I passed on my first try!

Ah, Thermodynamics. One of the few glasses that gave me vivid nightmares at ASU, haha. Good job on the first try though. Thermo I took me two times. Thermo II luckily only once.

[WallaceMFG]

Here's the pictures I promised a few days ago.

Here's how the Hydroboost looks on the firewall. We made the bracket to mount the proportioning valve under the master cylinder. The reservoir above the boost unit is for the clutch, I'm waiting on the stainless line for it. The blue lines are for mockup, we're probably gonna get them made out of stainless.



It's a tight fit for the clutch master cylinder.



This is the adapter piece my friend made for me to allow us to use a stainless line for our clutch reservoir. We were surprised that Wilwood would sell that reservoir with no way to connect a stainless line to the reservoir.



Here's a few pictures of the RAB Performance serpentine kit we ordered. It's good quality chrome and fits nice, hopefully it works as good as it looks!





Dad told me he ordered an Afco radiator for the car, it will probably be here after the holidays. It's good to know our cooling system will be up to the job.

During my break from school I'm going to work on our door handles, and some special touches we're going to do to the front brakes. Hopefully soon we will be able to start on body work.

[pist0lpete]

Looking good going to need sunglasses when you open the hood. That RAB stuff looks great in there.

[70TWO NOVA]

Sweet build, I'm in AZ too. When you get it done pm me. We should all get our pt musclecars together and do some scca solo auto x down at Bondurant.

[WallaceMFG]

Sweet build, I'm in AZ too. When you get it done pm me. We should all get our pt musclecars together and do some scca solo auto x down at Bondurant.

I remember seeing your car at one of the events they had on the road course, I was diving a Miata at the time haha. I'm ready to take the Chevelle racing though!

[70TWO NOVA]

I remember seeing your car at one of the events they had on the road course, I was diving a Miata at the time haha. I'm ready to take the Chevelle racing though!

Cool,it will be nice to see other musclecars racing with the newer stuff

[Motown 454]

Serpentine kit looks sweet!

[WallaceMFG]

I've been on winter break for the past few weeks, so progress has been made on the car. I worked on our car as well as helping a friend get a 68 Camaro on the road that he's building for some people. It's a awesome car, 630 hp 7.0 liter LS3, Hurst T56, and full Heidts suspension with IRS,

I got the pedals in the car, got them adjusted, and got a limiter in place on the clutch side. The clutch is ready to be bled, the front brakes need to be finished then we can bleed them as well.

We finished the mounting system for the Afco radiator. We basically scrapped the old GM mounting system and started over. I'd like to claim the beautiful welds, but I can't weld near that good hahaha




We also got the overflow bottle mounted to it. We have the lower coolant line fabricated, were waiting on tubing to finish the top line.




We got the Hydroboost and steering system all plumbed together. I'd like to get stainless lines, but they'll have to wait. We also got the metal inner fenders from a local shop.




I got the fuel pump mocked into place down on the frame, but the lines still need to be finished. The tank had to be dropped down because we forgot to put the fuel sender wire on, and while it was down I replaced the vent in the rear end, so for now the rear end is done until we can get a posi.




A lot needs to be done, but we started throwing parts on the car to see how things were fitting together. Unless somebody would like to donate a nicer carb or some EFI, that's the carb we're gonna run for now hahaha



I've still got a week before school starts, so I would like to get more done before them, but I'm happy with the progress we've made.

[pist0lpete]

Like how the radiator mounting came out. Looks like you were able ttonics the rad forward a decent amount.

[WallaceMFG]

Like how the radiator mounting came out. Looks like you were able ttonics the rad forward a decent amount.

Hey Neal,

That was the plan. The guy building the Camaro is the one who helped us, we wanted to keep as much room in the engine bay as possible hopefully for turbos in the future. Dad wants to start building the shroud for the fans soon, so we'll see if we get to it soon or not haha

[JustJohn]

Did you hard-mount the radiator? I couldn't spot any vibration dampers in the pics.

[WallaceMFG]

Did you hard-mount the radiator? I couldn't spot any vibration dampers in the pics.

They're kinda hard to see, but there's a rubber isolator in between the core support and the mounting blocks on the radiator. The bottom of the radiator has support plates with rubber pads as well.

[WallaceMFG]

Time for an update! Due to some side work we suddenly had money for parts, so quite a bit has been done to the car.

Upper and lower radiator lines have been fabricated, we just need to decide what sort of finish we want on them.






All the power steering/Hydroboost lines have been finished.




One rear axle needed a stud replaced, so we did that and gave them some paint.



Got a starter, Powermaster gear reduction type.


We bought a full MSD ignition system with a magnetic pickup and mechanical advance distributor along with a 6AL-2 spark box which has a 2-step limiter. I started running the plug wires, but we need shorter spark plugs first to clear headers.






I called Tobin at Kore3 and got the parts I needed for the front brakes. C6 Corvette setup, all of the Kore3 parts look really nice and Tobin's customer service is some of the best around.




These aren't quite done, but hopefully you can tell what it's going to say ;)




Still waiting on the rotors, but it will look nice when it's done.




Now, the best part. I finally downloaded Digital Paint booth so I could get a rendering. It's not exact, some of the details aren't right but I can't change them in that program, like my car is a post body not a coupe. Also, these aren't the wheels I'm going to run either, but they're pretty close.

(Rendering pictures were lost in PhotoF***it storm, skip to later pages for actual pictures of paint)

[pist0lpete]

I really dig the paint scheme. I think if you go with a darker grey on the side stripes and paint match the bumpers the same grey it will look sharp. Similar effect as brushed nickel but much cheaper.

[andrewb70]

Nice build, but those long aluminum sections of radiator hose are a disaster waiting to happen. There needs to be longer hose in place to allow for engine movement, otherwise the hard aluminum lines will eventually crack.

Andrew

[WallaceMFG]

I really dig the paint scheme. I think if you go with a darker grey on the side stripes and paint match the bumpers the same grey it will look sharp. Similar effect as brushed nickel but much cheaper.

Yeah the stripes will be darker, that's just the closest color the software had in it. Its a House of Kolor program, and they don't have the same colors as the PPG ones we picked out. Painting the bumpers too will let us work on them to fit the car better, should look cleaner in the end.

Nice build, but those long aluminum sections of radiator hose are a disaster waiting to happen. There needs to be longer hose in place to allow for engine movement, otherwise the hard aluminum lines will eventually crack.

Andrew

I'll keep that in mind! This is the same way the shop techs build the lines where my dad works, and those vehicles go hundreds of thousands of miles without any problems, so we should be ok. At they sit right now there's plenty of room for movement in the lines.

[Justin@EntropyRad]

fast build!

[pist0lpete]

Nice build, but those long aluminum sections of radiator hose are a disaster waiting to happen. There needs to be longer hose in place to allow for engine movement, otherwise the hard aluminum lines will eventually crack.

Andrew

Andrew I am curious about this comment, thinking about all the charge air cooler pipes I see on big rigs to subarus that are a similar arrangement. Is there something about the fluid flow I'm not taking into account?

[andrewb70]

Andrew I am curious about this comment, thinking about all the charge air cooler pipes I see on big rigs to subarus that are a similar arrangement. Is there something about the fluid flow I'm not taking into account?

It all just depends on how much the engine moves around. I was reading somewhere that if there isn't enough flex in the rubber couplers, then it stresses the pipe and eventually it will crack. Who knows, maybe it is just internet lore.

Andrew

[WallaceMFG]

It all just depends on how much the engine moves around. I was reading somewhere that if there isn't enough flex in the rubber couplers, then it stresses the pipe and eventually it will crack. Who knows, maybe it is just internet lore.

Andrew

The engine and trans are on poly mounts, so hopefully they won't be doing too much moving. Otherwise, I'll have another under hood coolant disaster like when the upper hose popped off the other car haha