78' Malibu Build

[Wraith]

This is my fourth Malibu and "should" be the best as long as I don't sell it like the others or get distracted by another car.


The last one I built was in 02' and was a 1980 267 car that left my hands with a ZZ4/th350 and nearly everything touched/tweaked and it ran high 12's as a daily.

This was the day I sold it.



Fast forward several years and more than a several cars I decided to pick up another G body after building a Volvo 242 dubbed the Flying Moose that was destined for a 5.3/4L60 swap and chickening out as it was too clean to chop up.

Before

After



I have a weird thing for boxy cars. :D


So I set out to find another Malibu which proved to be easier said than done and after looking at several overpriced, no title, and abused Malibus I had friends tell me about a 1978 Malibu that was sitting in the middle of nowhere that could be had for $750 if I didn't want the engine and trans. Beings I kept the drivetrain intended for the Volvo I should be good.


With these two pictures I said sold, despite a rule against buying primer cars plus buying cars without looking at them, triple strike was pictures of a wet car.




Then went to pick it up wondering the 6 hour drive if I had lost my mind, luckily it looked solid all over, not beat or chopped even though it was a "race" car.





I drug it back home and stripped it down to see what I had gotten into. For first time hot rodder's, do not use a grinder to sand down hood, it was junk lol. Along with the bent trunk and the worst parts were the dash and a rusted passenger floor.




Next came the fun of taking the entire car apart and cleaning it up, I may have slight OCD when it comes to this.

Dash did not make it out alive

Pretty sure they only raced this on dirt roads





And then the separation

[Wraith]

The cleaning began using wire brushes and a 4" grinder with a wire brush cup.








And some por15 plus paint




Then to starting mock up for the 2003 5.3/4L60E with a pared down wiring harness extended to put the computer in the car, plus a smoothed truck intake.



I see a lot of swaps done with the truck, CTSV, or MAST pans but one thing they are lacking is appreciable baffling for the oil pickup, I went with the Autokraft pan.



Can't find my pic of the baffles but they look like this


For good or bad I decided to fab my own mounts so the body goes back on.

[Wraith]

Next up, try to fit my exhaust manifold collection before breaking down and ordering headers. I have the stock truck manifolds along with a pair of 2010 Camaro manifolds I picked up but with matched pairs they don't work, mis-matched, maybe.
Camaro driver's side


Truck passenger side


Should work okay, really don't want to pop for headers as I plan to go turbo down the road.

More parts came in too! Bel-Tech drop spindles, new rotors, calipers, bearings, seals, ARP 3" studs, and UB Machine A-arms for taller C10 upper ball joints plus tall lower ball joints




Few parts back from the sandblasters/painters and ready to drop off at machine shop to get tall ball joints and Global West bushings pressed in



And picked up a pair of Centerline's for the front, not really the direction I was planning on going but they have the look, may make a good extra set of wheels.....



All of the hardware back from the plater's, fresh silver cad plating

[Wraith]

After sizing up what should work if I keep the factory AC box the frame came back out for final fitment

May try to market my crossmember


Started with the brake lines


But ran into a problem with the front to rear line from the stainless set I bought from Inlinetube.com, something may be amiss.

Rear


Front


Just a bit too long, think I'll splice in a distribution valve where I have to cut and shorten the lines, they have been sitting a while and internet chatter says they are not A+ on customer service after the sale.

[daveybtv]

Cool. another G-body on board, nice work man What do have planed for Rims and Tires?

[srh3trinity]

Not sure if your crossmember will catch on. I was at Home Depot the other day and they had piles of them laying around for cheap. Different sizes too.

[Wraith]

Cool. another G-body on board, nice work man What do have planed for Rims and Tires?

Rims are really up in the air right now, there just aren't a lot out there that trip my trigger although they will most probably be 17" for daily and a set of 15" drag wheels too.

Not sure if your crossmember will catch on. I was at Home Depot the other day and they had piles of them laying around for cheap. Different sizes too.

Well dang, thats just my luck, somebody always beats me to the good ideas.

[Tig]

Damn dude, you dont mess around. Great job, its coming along and fas to, hah.
Keep it up man, lookin forward to your updates.



subd

[Wraith]

Damn dude, you dont mess around. Great job, its coming along and fas to, hah.
Keep it up man, lookin forward to your updates.



subd

I have slight ADD and if I don't keep moving something else will catch my eye, was shopping for a late 80's Mercedes coupe earlier.....

Today I cleaned the garage and all the tools laying around, then got a few back out to eliminate the spare tire well and also hole sawed over the top of the two body bolts that broke so I could get some more heat and penetrating oil on them. I ran a tap through them just for good measure after I was done


Also finished the rear end brake lines


Next is off to the internet to order a few more parts

[Wraith]

Whipped up a cheap body cart so I can drag it outside to start wire brushing all the seam sealer out of the car, I can't take credit though, I saw this in IMPALA MAN's build thread but I used four of my handy Harbor Freight furniture dollies. So far it's easy to move around the garage with one person.




Ordered up fittings and wilwood proportioning valve to finish off the brake system plus a pair of Holley cast exhaust manifolds as I don't think my OCD will allow me to live with modified stock manifolds.

Any suggestions to clean this mess up?


All the nooks and crannies are filled with dirt dust, from I would guess drag racing this down a quarter mile dirt track somewhere, and I would like to clean it all up before painting/coating. Ultimately I will be resealing all sheet metal cracks/gaps with seam sealer and high pressure cleaning the under side I'm not sure cleaning these areas will result in good things for the future. Any ideas?

[Wraith]

Couldn't cope with the factory exhaust manifolds so these came in today.




PLENTY of room now......

[Wraith]

Small update but the el cheapo body cart was a success and the car moves in and out of the garage with one person so out it went to start stripping all of the seam sealer for replacement, went through a knotted wire wheel in about an hour and it still isn't finished.



Found a little bit of rust near the quarter windows but nothing major and I'm still ahead of the game on the rust monster for this project. Also ordered up a new full length passenger floor pan which should be in by this weekend to start cutting and welding.

[Tig]

I have slight ADD and if I don't keep moving something else will catch my eye, was shopping for a late 80's Mercedes coupe earlier.....

Today I cleaned the garage and all the tools laying around, then got a few back out to eliminate the spare tire well and also hole sawed over the top of the two body bolts that broke so I could get some more heat and penetrating oil on them. I ran a tap through them just for good measure after I was done


Also finished the rear end brake lines


Next is off to the internet to order a few more parts

Haha, thats awesome. I'm the same way.
What model Benz? I love the style of the 80/90s Benz coupes, very cool

Everything looks great with the Bu, awesome job.
I'm only a weeee bit jealous.
Keep it up man, lookin forward to your updates.

[Wraith]

Wow, funny how two months slip away with no work. Did get a floor pan ordered, for the wrong Malibu, ordered a right side for 66 Chevelle, that's what I get for having 12 tabs open while shopping for parts. New pan on order and hopefully will have in hand week after next which I have taken off and should have a little time to work on the car. Plans are to get more wire wheels, get it blocked up in the air, and remove every bit of seam sealer and grease from the underside. If that goes well I'm hoping to get it all seam sealed and painted underneath. The best part of the degreasing effort is a new product I have been playing around with made by my employer which could be the best degreaser I have ever used, spray on for 15 minutes while keeping it covered with the product, then rinse away all grease with a garden hose.

[Wraith]

Haha, thats awesome. I'm the same way.
What model Benz? I love the style of the 80/90s Benz coupes, very cool

Everything looks great with the Bu, awesome job.
I'm only a weeee bit jealous.
Keep it up man, lookin forward to your updates.

I was looking for an 80's 300CE and it still may be in the cards for the next project if I don't decide to do the MGB-GT with a VW turbo VR6 swap.

[SSLance]

I like your choice for exhaust manifolds, if I was to ever swap an LS into my car I'd go that route as well. Nice project, you are making excellent progress on it.

[Wraith]

Spent twelve hours in the last two days scraping and degreasing, luckily I had some magical stuff from work, probably shaved several hours off my time.

Transmission tunnel was the worst of it, that isn't rust, it's good old red dirt and grease.


Yep, entire underside looked like this.




After





And the trunk


All done with degreaser, putty knife, scotch brite pads, and a garden hose. My OCD has been appeased.

[Wraith]

Got it back inside and got the entire floor wire brushed and covered with Eastwood Corroless, well, except where I need to weld.


And cut a big hole in anticipation for the floor pan that is in transit.






Question I do have is, do I seam seal the entire bottom of the car? Looks like they didn't from the factory and it has held up fine, would I be creating any problems down the road?

[carguykeith]

Sorry I can't offer any advice on the seam seller, but I have a huge favor to ask. Could you see if it's possible to flip those manifolds forward and upside down for a possible turbo application? You said you were going turbo in the future so maybe you were thinking about it anyways...

[Wraith]

Sorry I can't offer any advice on the seam seller, but I have a huge favor to ask. Could you see if it's possible to flip those manifolds forward and upside down for a possible turbo application? You said you were going turbo in the future so maybe you were thinking about it anyways...

I actually have a set of 2010 Camaro manifolds that I was going to use for turbo, I think the Hookers may tuck too close to the accessories but I'll give it a shot and take a picture.