1967 Chevelle

[jmking9]

I managed to make some progress this weekend in spite of being busy with quite a few other things. I got the rear end under the car, and the rear suspension in, along with the Detroit Speed frame braces. I left the rear sway bar off for now, I may or may not even run it. The rear of the car is sitting about .75" higher than final ride height will be. I stuck the rear tire in there to see how it's going to look, and I really think I'm going to like the way it sits. I'm going to rent the wheel fitment tool tomorrow and hopefully have wheels ordered by the end of the week. With my shop being on the small side, I really need to get the car off blocks so I can move it around.
Here's a picture of the 9" and the Ridetech rear suspension. I'll get a few more later.

[mongocanfly]

nice.....
and diesel...they do make wheels in the black chrome...I saw them on some wheel site ...and theres a new red chevy crewcab, thats lowered, here local that has a set of black chrome wheels...it looks killer...

[jmking9]

A few more

[Dieselwrencher]

That suspension is killer! If places start doing black chrome on their wheels, my 71 Camaro and 40 Ford would be getting some. Your rear end came from not all that far from me.

[jmking9]

Thanks Ryan! You should check out the black chrome and black pearl finish that Forgeline has.

[jmking9]

Small update, I got wheels ordered and they should be done in 5 or 6 weeks. In the meantime I'm going to tackle a few small projects that I've been putting off. First is replacing the steering column with a tilt. Im learning that 67's have quite a few 1 year only parts on them. One of them is the steering column. So after looking for an oem tilt for a few months, I ended up just ordering an Ididit column. I think putting the original style levers on it, and painting it to match the dash will hide some of the aftermarket look. I ordered an installation kit for a power steering box with a 13/16" 36 spline input shaft. But of course it doesn't fit. Having the Jeep Grand Cherokee box requires ordering the kit for a .75" 30 spline input that is the same as the factory manual steering box. Oh the joys of car building Here's a picture of the column (still needs painted)

[jmking9]

One of the other projects I've been dreading was figuring out a clutch pedal and the hydraulic setup to make it all work. The best thing I found as far as fool proof alignment of the pedal and master cylinder was this kit from Mcleod. It includes the firewall bracket, and a new clutch pedal that is designed just for their bracket to keep everything in line. It also comes with the master cylinder, braided line, and the reservoir. I was pretty disappointed when I opened the box and seen the parts didn't look quite like they did in the picture. Much more plastic.
I mocked it up and got the firewall cut to allow the master to pass through. I also mocked up the new clutch pedal and everything looks like it lines up perfectly. So I guess I'm going to just live with the plastic master cylinder since this kit really seems to take the guess work out of the part of equation. I was also wrong in thinking that I could just modify the original auto brake pedal to work. So I need a pedal out of a manual transmission car, which is also hard to find. The only thing I can find is a repop kit that has a brake and clutch pedal. So it looks like I will have to buy the kit just to get the brake pedal.
The other problem I've ran into is that the top studs on the pedal box are too short now that I have the added brackets from the clutch master, and the brake prop valve that bolt on using the studs. But that shouldn't be too difficult to solve. Here are a few pictures from trial fitting the brake and clutch masters. I was worried that the clutch master might interfere with where the brake lines need to run into the prop valve, but it looks like it will be fine

[jmking9]

I got the upper studs taken care of, and cleaned up the pedal box. I also had to modify the spacer in the McLeod clutch linkage to line up perfectly with the master. To stay on par with every other part that goes on this car that needs modified, the pushrod for the brake master had to be lengthened. So I now have all of the pedals and steering column figured out and mounted in the car. Next will be building some brake lines to got from the prop valve to the frame.

[greystoke]

Nice!!

[mongocanfly]

Very nice....those should look killer on the velle...

[jmking9]

Tires mounted and wheels on. Rolled it out of the shop for the first time in a while. It felt good to get it on wheels again.

[thelonerife]

Beautiful car!! Great job!!

[Dieselwrencher]

Killer work and great job! Those wheels look sweet. Boy those babies aren't cheap are they? I was looking at that Mcloud kit for my Camaro and if I go with a 5 or 6 speed later on I might get it.

[jmking9]

Originally Posted by thelonerife

Beautiful car!! Great job!!

Thank you! I appreciate it

Originally Posted by Dieselwrencher

Killer work and great job! Those wheels look sweet. Boy those babies aren't cheap are they? I was looking at that Mcloud kit for my Camaro and if I go with a 5 or 6 speed later on I might get it.

Thanks Ryan. They are definitely not cheap. But I have to say, the quality and attention to detail on them is first class. But at their pricepoint, they should be.

[jmking9]

I took a couple weeks off working on the car to do a project on the house. Once that was out of the way, I went to work building the brake hard lines and getting flex lines. I got those wrapped up last weekend. I pushed the car out to clean the shop and took what I thought was a cool picture of my truck with the Chevelle in the background.

[jmking9]

Space is limited in my small shop, so I put the hood on just to lower the chances of it being damaged while sitting on the fender stand. It makes it look so close, but I know it's sooo far away

[jmking9]

Haven't posted anything here in a while, but i'm still slowly working on the Chevelle. I've been working on few house remodeling projects that has taken up my spare time. But I have still managed to get a few things here and there done to the car.

[tune_1]

Looks great

Dwight

[jmking9]

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this thread. For a variety of reasons that I won't bore any of you with, I haven't been working on the car much over the last several months. But I'm getting back on it. Last week I got the transmission In from Silver Sport. It's a tko600 with the .64 OD. A friend of mine had a 454 long block laying around and let me borrow it for mock up. Im going to instal all of it in the car so I'll know where, and how much of the transmission tunnel to cut. I'll post updates as I move along

[MP&C]

Looking good, keep plugging away at it....

[jmking9]

I installed the engine and transmission and cut the tunnel to clear the tko600. I broke a piece of 18 gauge into a 2'x3' rectangle and bent it around an electrical pole to get the basic shape I needed. From there, I just slowly cut, and formed it into exactly what I needed. It's worth mentioning that while I was building the tunnel, the trans tail shaft about 2 or 3 degrees higher than where it should be. I did this just to make certain I had plenty of clearance.

[jmking9]

I wanted to be able to remove the shifter without removing the trans from the car. To accomplish this, I cut the hole big enough to get it out and built a removable cover. There are four nuts welded to the underside of the tunnel that ar used to attach the cover. The welded in nuts, along with short pan head bolts, makes for very little intrusion into the tunnel.
Since this style of transmission was in Mustangs for several years, I figured the best place to find a shifter seal would be in the Mustang world. And I just happened to be right. This one is for fox bodys and worked really well for my application. All I had to do was grind the lip of of it so that I could form it to fit my tunnel.

[jmking9]

With all of the fab work done, I pulled the engine and transmission back out of the car for final welding. Once the welding was finished, I sprayed some etching primer on all of it and seam sealed everything. Next up will be shooting the Lizard skin sound/heat insulation on the new tunnel and floor. Here's a few pictures as it sits now.

[jmking9]

I need to catch this thread up to date. I finished the transmission tunnel

[jmking9]

I got the wiring harness about 95% installed. I just a have a few terminations to make once the engine is sitting in the car. I finished my 3 knob Vintage Air controller piece that uses a modified stock Chevelle heat/air bracket. I modifed the original automatic console to work with the manual transmission. It sounds much simpler than it turned out being. I went through a couple different shift boots looking for something that fit the opening well, and looked like it could have been original. The winner ended up being for a 1970 Mopar B-body. The clock was also removed and the console was made to house the 2 3/4" tach. My goal for all of these little things was for them to blend in with the rest of the mostly stock appearance of the car.