70 Chevelle "Not a Space Shuttle"

[Deserttaco]

I normally post over on the Chevelle forums, but figured that much of my car was actually inspired by a lot of the builds on here...

So I finally got some motivation after not really touching my project car for almost 6 years. I bought this car in 2008 with the intention of it being a 8-10 year project for me. It was a relatively clean 70 with a few minor spots of rust, but was in fairly good condition, and had most of the bits and pieces that I needed. During this build, I am somewhat of a perfectionist, and it can bog me down quite a bit at times if I'm not sure how to tackle something, or something doesn't quite work the way that I thought it should. It's happened a few times over the last 8 years and I always think back to a friend of mine when I was building my rock crawler. Anytime I'd get worried about details, or get hung up on something that didn't matter, he'd always tell me, "Look man, we're not building a space shuttle here. It's good enough!" Over the course of this build I have to tell myself that over and over. Anyway enjoy the pictures, I'll do my best to keep updating this tread as the build progresses.



My preliminary vision for the car was an image that I saw online, and although over time my vision has changed a bit, this is what my goals were...


My story starts off like many others. a 70 Chevelle has been my dream car since I was about 10 years old. I loved the look of the car, the sound of the car, but wanted many of the modern conveniences that we all take for granted in todays modern cars. Effectively I wanted something that looked the part of a 70 Chevelle, but that was reliable, comfortable, and powerful. So I bought this shell of a car.









After I got it home I started to work on stuff that I could manage in my garage without spending a bunch of cash on. My plans for the car was LS7 (yeah right)... T-56, Nice smooth lowered suspension, Great AC (a must in Arizona), The car itself smelled like rat turds, so I tore everything out of the inside and pressure washed the whole thing. After it was clean of the dirt, grime, and turds, I smelled a lot better, and it also allowed me to evaluate fully what I'd brought home.


Progress on this build will be painfully slow. Although I've gotten the urge to get this thing back on track, I have a VERY full time job, my wife is in grad school, and I have 3 kids at home. I am working on some innovative (cheap) stuff here in an effort to achieve my goals without breaking the bank. So far ALL of the work has been done by myself, and the either my dad or my son. The only outside assistance has been the custom engine mounts that I had made at a friends machine shop.