Car finally about to go "pro-touring", need help and advice!

[64Chevelle]

Hi,

I've been surfing this site for a while and have been wanting to improve my car for years but getting married, buying a house and having a family has really stopped my progress. But I finally feel the time has come to start the project.

I live in Norway in a small town that has the largest AmCar club in the country My car is a 1964 Chevelle, original 6 cyl SS.

I'm about to start tearing my car down for a major pro-touring upgrade.

Please check this link out for pictures, buildplan and shopping list. (Still under construction )

Any suggestions and comments will be most welcome, this is my first time doing this so I'm gonna need some help Also, if some of you reading this has any parts for sale, please contact me!

[64Chevelle]

Just fixed a new html page (linked in the first post). Hope this helps with readability and perhaps I'll even get a reply this time

[elcamino80]

First of all welcome to the site!

The car looks good and now would be the time to order those parts as long as the dollar is low

[jonnyc]

25% sales tax?ouch!
i thought california was bad at 8.25%

sounds like you have some great ideas for the car.should turn out very nice.good luck.

[ProdigyCustoms]

Welcome, another from Norway!

We send quite a lot of parts accross the pond. Seems to be a strong Hot Rod presence in Norway. We have some really good shipping deals on parts to norway. We have access to a container that ships over there every couple months and can add some stuff to that shipment for a percentage of what it normally cost, and that saves on shipping a lot.

So what do you have in mind for your project? What kind of budget do you have? Whats are your goals? What is a MUST HAVE requirments? And what are WOULD LIKE TO HAVE requirments.

Looks like you are addressing those questions and doing some good planning. Project planning is the most important part of a build. It is nice to see it early on. Knowing what your doing before you start. Knowing what you want, and knowing what you need. Those are two different things. Knowing when your over spending in one area, and lacking in another, before you start. Knowing the parts you purchase will work well together and fit, before you start. Knowing you can do it within your budget, before you start. these are all critical decisions.

Knowing the brakes you are buying will fit and work well the Suspension you are using. Knowing the brake master will work with the brake kits. Knowing the wheels will clear the brakes. Knowing the wheels and tires will clear the body. All examples of concerns and only a few of the many concerns in doing a big project. There are many members here on this forum that have bought parts 2 or 3 times changing along the way because the original plan was not a good one. And it is even more important when someone is on the other side of the earth and cannot return parts very easy, makes for very expensive mistakes. Nothing sucks more then buying a bunch of parts and them not working well together

You will get a lot of great advice here on the forums, it will probably get to be a bit confusing as al the different opinions come in, but you will have plenty of information to sort through.

[neki67]

Welcome, that has the potential to become a real great PT car! And like's been said before; get it now the dollar is still (very low)

We have some really good shipping deals on parts to norway. We have access to a container that ships over there every couple months and can add some stuff to that shipment for a percentage of what it normally cost, and that saves on shipping a lot.

Sorry to go offtopic. Frank is there a similar deal possible for the Netherlands?

René

[ProdigyCustoms]

Rene, the container deal is unique to Norway. I have not found a deal for the Netherlands yet. But I have been getting some "decent' deals through normal channels since were shipping a bit more now.

Now back to the thread

[64Chevelle]

We send quite a lot of parts accross the pond. Seems to be a strong Hot Rod presence in Norway. We have some really good shipping deals on parts to norway. We have access to a container that ships over there every couple months and can add some stuff to that shipment for a percentage of what it normally cost, and that saves on shipping a lot.

There is indeed a large Hot Rod community in Norway, but at least where I live, the pro-touring scene is not really big. Many guys here is only talking about matching numbers and get everything as original as possible.

The container deal sounds excellent, I will have to contact you about that later.

So what do you have in mind for your project? What kind of budget do you have? Whats are your goals? What is a MUST HAVE requirments? And what are WOULD LIKE TO HAVE requirments.

I don't even want to think about what I would LIKE TO HAVE THAT would get expensive

Looks like you are addressing those questions and doing some good planning. Project planning is the most important part of a build. It is nice to see it early on. Knowing what your doing before you start. Knowing what you want, and knowing what you need. Those are two different things. Knowing when your over spending in one area, and lacking in another, before you start. Knowing the parts you purchase will work well together and fit, before you start. Knowing you can do it within your budget, before you start. these are all critical decisions.

That's my thought exactly. I'm a kind of guy who don't like surprises and always plan things out well ahead. But as mentioned by some others here, now is the time to buy, the dollar hasn't been this low in years

You will get a lot of great advice here on the forums, it will probably get to be a bit confusing as al the different opinions come in, but you will have plenty of information to sort through.

I have been reading these forums for a while and there really are a lot of helpful guys and a wealth of information in here!

[64Chevelle]

By the way, any thoughts on my plans? I am looking for used C5 brakes to save some bucks, but I feel safer buying everything new since I know it will work together. Guess I would need a new master cylinder and/or booster?, abutments/brackets, pads, rotors and discs, anything else? It's probably best to buy all the parts from the same car and not split from different models?

PM me if you got any parts

[Marcus SC&C]

Welcome aboard! I always amazes me how many hardcore hotrodders with American cars are all over Europe! You`ve made a very well thought out list for your car. The SC-AFX package and SPC lower A arms will take care of the front geometry,performance alignment and make it cheap and easy to upgrade to 13"/dual piston brakes. The Currectrac arms will locate the rear better laterally,eliminate wheel hop and allow free articulation with a minimum for binding. The Lee 670 box is the best of the best,I honestly think they have better feedback and road feel than the steering in our C5. The Edelbrock springs (Eibach) will work great and the Edelbrock shocks will work fine until they give out (they don`t seem to last very long) so run em until they do then replace them with Bilsteins or Varishock adj. shocks.
My only recomendations are to watch the back spacing on your rear wheels,it sounds like it may be just a tiny bit too much and consider at least a rotor upgrade for the C5 brakes (BTW if you need a list of the part numbers e mail me and I`ll send you one). C5 rotors are very thin to keep them light but our cars are much heavier than C5s and have much more weight transfer under hard braking so the C5 rotors really take a beating and tend to warp and or crack pretty rapidly. Baer`s Eradispeed HD rotors hold up very well but for the price of the rotors you may as well get the whole GT-AFX brake package and get the high performance pads,braided stainless hoses etc. too. Mark SC&C

[64Chevelle]

25% sales tax?ouch!
i thought california was bad at 8.25%

sounds like you have some great ideas for the car.should turn out very nice.good luck.

Thank you very much! Good planning is the key to a good result. I might change a few bits and pieces (depends on how much bonus I get at work ), but I think most parts are pretty well matched.

About the sales tax, yes, it sucks, we're bordering to russia and the old socialis/communist thoughts are strong here. It's great to have free healthcare and good public services though... And... we've got oil, lots of it, that helps too Makes me wonder why gas is $9 a gallon though..., well, actually it's 60-70% tax on gas here.

[64Chevelle]

My only recomendations are to watch the back spacing on your rear wheels,it sounds like it may be just a tiny bit too much and consider at least a rotor upgrade for the C5 brakes (BTW if you need a list of the part numbers e mail me and I`ll send you one). C5 rotors are very thin to keep them light but our cars are much heavier than C5s and have much more weight transfer under hard braking so the C5 rotors really take a beating and tend to warp and or crack pretty rapidly. Baer`s Eradispeed HD rotors hold up very well but for the price of the rotors you may as well get the whole GT-AFX brake package and get the high performance pads,braided stainless hoses etc. too. Mark SC&C

My car really isn't that much heavier than a C5 (3256 lbs, 100lbs more at the most) and I plan to make it lighter, but you're probably right about having much more weight transfer so I guess the rotors still take a harder beating than in a C5.

But the rotors you are offering for the SC-AFX package are better than the stock C5 rotors, right? The GT-Plus System in my case? It's not really clear to me whether this kit include Eradispeed HD rotors or not.