68 Chevelle LQ4 W/4L80E Build

[spitfire980]

Well, here it goes...

Im mostly a euro car guy (92 Mercedes SL300-24 Brabus, 98 BMW 750 and a 83 BMW 633) but had a 76 vette that i used to drive from time to time before i sold it and i wanted to get my hands on a chevelle, camaro or a nova. Spent months on ebay looking for a project and got this, 68 Chevelle. Its perfect candidate for an LS swap. Got it for 1k and another 1800 shipping it to my part of the world and here she is

Ebay Auction pics




30 days later, arriving at 3am and seeing it for the first time




Lifted it up and thankfully its a clean frame with a bad floor panel

Ordered P-S-T body mounts and new hardware and while i wait, separated the body and sent the frame to the sandblaster

A quick grind to the frame to see what im dealing with

The resting place of the body till i locate fenders, rad support, hood and other bits and pieces and ship them out to my part of the world


Fast forward a couple of months, i gathered parts and shipped them. Frame got sand blasted and blistein shocks installed that i picked up cheap off ebay

Before and after:


After that, i installed the full UMI package which included front and rear sway bar, upper and lower control arms, frame braces and Polyurethrane differential bushing. Not bad for a first timer working on muscle cars and finishing in 5 hours.



Im also going to install the front end rebuild kit from P-S-T along with the body mounts. In the mean time, i have managed to get my hands on a donor truck. LQ4 with 4L80E. The plan is L92 or LS3 heads and Holley Hi-ram along with autokraft oil pan and dirty dingo motor mounts.

The block in question

The donor truck


Fast forward a couple of more months:
good news and bad news

Bad news: the shop where the car is getting the work done hasn't been paying salaries for the past 4 months so all work has halted to a screeching stop and I need to start hunting for a competent shop that knows what they are doing.

Good news: I started paying the body guy on the side to get some tasks done so I got him to install the AMD front floor panels, patched the rear floor panels and installed a dynacorn front lower cowl panel so officially the car is major rust free!

Now, im lost what my next plan of attack should be?

Option 1: Paint the bottom of the car, spray primer on the body and interior quickly to avoid any more rust and install dynamat on the interior and install a Auto American Wire update kit (basically get the car ready body wise until final paint)

Option 2: Mate the frame to the body and start installing the LQ4 and 4L80E, install the fuel tank and plumbing and all that's required to get the car running (get the car turn key ready but the body is still bare)



Or what you have done or will you do if you were in my shoes?

Also, mounts should i get? im guessing tall and narrow?



This one is the correct one?
http://www.energysuspensionparts.com...sp?prod=3.1117

also, for tranny crossmember, since my car didnt come with one, im thinking of going with this one
http://www.summitracing.com/int/part...elle/year/1968