Just another headache, Chevy style...

[Ranchero50]

Been thrashing on this guy for the past two weeks to get it road worthy for my buddy's daughter's prom tonight. It's a '68 Chevelle Nomad wagon with a 427 topped with a Weiand 6-71 and dual Demon's and backed by a Saginaw 4 speed setup, manual steering and manual disc brakes. I'm not a Chevy guy which may have been a blessing because when I found something that didn't make sense I researched it and sorted it out. The engine has a Miloden deep sump pan and the tie rods were denting the side of it an inch above where the pan was dimpled to clear them. Google 'tie rod hit oil pan Chevy' and @ 10k threads pop up. I ended up making some 3/8" aluminum spacer for the block mounts. Due to the angles involved that picked the engine up @ 1". Trans shifted horribly. Found there was a bolt on hump from a Camaro tack welded over two layers of floor that were rubbing hard on the shifter and linkage. Got the floor sorted out but noticed that the console was sitting at a goofy angle because Muncie's used an offset shifter handle to put the shifter in the center of the console and the Sag didn't. I had a salvaged Hurst Indy 3 speed handle and it got repurposed and offset along with the shifter getting a bath in solvent and oil so it shifts smoothly.

Other oddball things include the secondary's on the carbs being open enough that it wouldn't idle below 1800 rpm and the timing was way too advanced. The only big thing I wasn't able to fix before this evening's big trip was to get it to cool correctly. I only had a couple hours and we went from a 180 t stat to a 160 and it still wanted to run @ 210`. It's coming back in a couple weeks to get that sorted out. One nice thing about him being with me every evening as we redid the poor prior work was that he's more appreciative of how much time and effort it takes to sort out 'little' problems. This car has been in process for the past 10 years and today was the first time the engine really got any miles put on it.


This thing handles like a fat girl on roller skates. Cheesy Centerlines are going back to 1985 and a nice set of rally wheels are getting installed. Bigs and little were cool with the 396 but the 427 has 150 lbs of extra weight above the fenders


This is how today's test runs were done. I actually like it a lot better than with the big cowl hood. With the hood on it just looks like a tunnel ram setup until you hear the belt screaming above 2000 rpm. With 3.73's in the back it lacks no torque.

[Manny]

That's a crazy wagon. Looks like its good straight on the road. yeah curves sketchy at best with that much weight out front. But totally 80's retro i dig it.

[67mann]

Prom Night in a souped up station wagon

[sargentrs]

Even though it's a Chevy, the kid has some class. My kids/grandkids want fancy limos for prom.

[Ranchero50]

Yeah, wagon to the prom. His daughter did a 50's theme black and red dress and even though the wagon is a generation too new, it worked out well. She had two girlfriends along and my buddy drove. I took the XKR out to the cruise in at the mall, he showed up in it and got a lot of cool attention. basically it's a pretty cool ride that needs the details sorted out.

He also has a 4 door 57 Chevy that's getting a 2 door conversion that will show up when it's time to finish it out. Most of what we fixed on this car was stuff that I would have stopped installs for. No gaskets for the front turn lamps so they were sealed with windshield rope tar, dumb stuff like that. A lot of fit and finish issues.

[Manny]

Most of what we fixed on this car was stuff that I would have stopped installs for. No gaskets for the front turn lamps so they were sealed with windshield rope tar, dumb stuff like that. A lot of fit and finish issues.

Devils always in the details right?

[DuckRyder]

That hood...

The Rallys on it yet?