Mom's '66 Chevelle Malibu

[WildCherry66]

Happy 2017 Pro-Touring.com members/subscribers! Over the holidays I was able to get started on stockpiling some parts and beginning some disassembly on our '66 Chevelle Malibu "Wild Cherry" that was purchased by my late mom who passed away from cancer just over 5 years ago at age 49. She was a very cool mom who liked cars as well as me and I am excited to do some work to this one to get it back on the road.

[wyattroa]

Great to see you are carrying on with the car. Sounds like your mom raised you well. Look forward to updates!

[WildCherry66]

My dad and I got started on preparing for the project by installing a 2 post lift in my shop late last winter after seeing how nice that tool could be to have from reading other build threads. I went with the Bendpak XPR-10A, and it was well worth it. It has saved a lot of time and frustration, and also been nice to have for oil changes, brake work, and seasonal tire swaps on my daily driver (yes, North Dakota can have some weather swings).

[WildCherry66]

Now we have gotten started on the car itself. Briefly summed up, the way it sits now from work of previous owners is a mild street/strip set up. 454 BBC,Holley 850cfm double pumper, Magnum Comp Cam, forged pistons and crank, Edelbrock Z-O intake, Turbo 350 3 spd auto trans and gate shifter. After reading TONS of your awesome build threads on here, I have decided to move down the "Pro-Touring", or at the least "Grand-Touring" path with the car versus being only straight-line oriented. I want it to be a solid, street-driven muscle car with modern brakes, ride, handling, and reliability that I can enjoy with family and friends. Even though I want to throw all of the awesome parts at it that I have seen on builds here, this one will not be my track car. My daily driver is used for that purpose and there is money going to that car payment already. Myself, I just feel more confident with the new car that has modern safety equipment and all fresh parts to be driven at the limits on a high speed road course when my life depends on everything functioning properly on every lap.

[WildCherry66]

Great to see you are carrying on with the car. Sounds like your mom raised you well. Look forward to updates!

Thanks! Will post as much as I can. I know the fun in seeing updates and learning from the community as much as anyone. It got me this far!

[WildCherry66]

I decided to go with the new ridetech street grip kit for suspension. It was either going to be this one or one of the common coilover conversion kits a lot of people have done. Even though the ride height tuning would have been nice, this fit the budget and will still be a MASSIVE improvement over the old junk that is hanging from the chassis now. Looking forward to seeing how it drives!

[WildCherry66]

Also had been drooling over the Baer brake kits, but in order to get as much as I could for the car to get it back on the road this year I ended up going with the Right Stuff 4 wheel disc conversion. Isn't the lightest or the prettiest, but it will get the job done for a street-driven car and for a lot less money. Thanks to Matt and the crew at Matt's Classic Bowties for helping me out on getting my brake and suspension parts! Awesome prices and customer service!!!

[rchaskin]

Nice Car!!

I just put a SG kit on a pals 1979 Z28.
It makes a huge improvement. You will love it!!

[1989GTA]

I currently have that brake kit on the front of my 1965 Skylark. I can tell you that the brake pads can make all the difference in the world for stopping power. I also have the Right Stuff rear disc brake kit on the rear. I think they use something like off a 1978 Eldorado. Nice project that I will be following along.

[Shawn01754]

Very nice, great story. Looks Awsome. Keep us posted!

[WildCherry66]

I currently have that brake kit on the front of my 1965 Skylark. I can tell you that the brake pads can make all the difference in the world for stopping power. I also have the Right Stuff rear disc brake kit on the rear. I think they use something like off a 1978 Eldorado. Nice project that I will be following along.

What have you been able to find for pad choices on the brake kit? I think you are correct on the Eldorado rear calipers and I think the fronts are from 69 Chevelle. I would like to find a good middle of the road pad similar to the Stoptech Sport (also called Street Performance) pad. Have used this one on the street and track days and it does a great job of cleaning the rotors of built up pad deposits (which I had problems with using soft OEM pads on my daily) without being too aggressive that rotors are getting eaten up fast. Not too much dust and only a little bit of squeak when cold. Haven't had any luck finding pads for this brake kit yet though with the mismatched calipers.

[Yelcamino]

It's nice to see another A-body getting some love!

[WildCherry66]

Got some time over the Christmas break to start disassembly process! Lots of greasy old parts and rotted-out bushings. Everything came apart pretty nicely though with the right tools. Re-using the OEM front upper and lower arms and the rear lower arms. Getting blasted and powder coated at a local shop this week. Should look pretty awesome after the new Delrin bushings from the street grip kit get installed in them. Drilled holes for the lower rear arms for the new Street Grip sway bar (didn't have a sway bar originally) and sent them for blast and powder as well. Rear upper arms had worn out mounting holes so those are getting replaced by ridetech adjustable Strong Arms through MCB. I'm glad those were the ones that were worn out, because I was leaning towards getting adjustable rear uppers anyways to set the pinion angle on the 12 bolt rear end. I'm not sure if it was correct before, being a different engine/tranny, rear end, and now springs than stock. Will be nice to be able to get that dialed in now so I know it is correct. Using OEM replacement rubber bushings for the 6 in the rear to allow for flex since I will still be using fixed-end control arms. Rotary-end arms would be nice - maybe an upgrade down the road when I do bigger wheels and tires and need to control more of the lateral axle housing movement for clearance. ;-) The 12 bolt rear is from a 66 car and has a Posi differential with 3.73 gear set. Getting a Yukon master overhaul kit put into that after blast and powder this month, as well as new axle bearings and seals. Gears and axles look good so hopefully that is all it needs. Also decided to dress the old girl up in the back a little with a chrome diff housing cover and ARP stainless bolts. Can't wait to start bolting new stuff on!

[focused313]

very nice car

[Shawn01754]

When in doubt, rip it out and rebuild of course. Looking good!

[rixtrix1]

Nice car! I've had my '66 Malibu since 1971, same color as yours, and this thread brings back a lot of memories. It appears you have made some good parts choices for upgrading it! Thanks for sharing!

[WildCherry66]

1st round of parts back from blast and powder coating! I had the original front upper and lower arms, steering arms, and rear lower arms done first. Powder Coat Pros in West Fargo, ND got them done for me. Great guys to work with there and very fair pricing for the high-quality, semi-gloss black finish they were able to achieve on these 50 year old parts. We will be bringing the rear end there next for the same treatment after it is stripped apart. Looking forward to start getting some suspension assembly started tonight!

[Motown 454]

They did a nice job. Looks good!

[WildCherry66]

Assembly has begun with the newly powdercoated OEM front upper control arms, ridetech street grip parts (ProForged .5" taller upper ball joints (bolt-in), 3-piece Delrin bushings) and replacement offset cross shafts. Used Ridetechs's bushing installation/removal tool kit which has been really nice to have for the bushing replacement work.

[WildCherry66]

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