Technically it is a Chevelle

[Damon23]

So last year I got on ebay and thumbed around for a new car to have a love/hate relationship with. And I found it in my favorite color, well minus the top but all the ones I looked at had vinyl tops. No biggie.



So I put in all I want to spend and a couple days later I get the congratulations email from ebay. I contact the seller, wire the money and arrange transport. That story will come later. But I'm pumped about it. I finally get the oddball car I have always wanted. It gets here and I throw a set of wheels on it cause sawblades were never cool to me at anytime. So on with the US Mags 18in ramblers.

Yeah, NO!!!!!! Kind of made it look like a donk to me and it did not ride very well at all along with the offset not being right I had to play with spacers so off they went in favor of 1980 Kelsey
Hayes Corvette wheels. Mucho better.

So now I can move on. Dinked around with it, full tune up, replaced the battery cables, ground straps, sending unit in the tank, brakes, you know all the little stupid nickel and dime things that nag you about a car you are not familiar with. Then on to the personal touches. I tucked both bumpers, rear by drilling the bumper shocks and the front by getting tuck brackets made by a guy in Canada. I painted the rear tail panel and restored the tail lights.







And now I have a car to cruise around in and take down to the Turkey Rod Run.

[Damon23]

I have to say I had a blast down there. Cruising around made me remember riding in my grandmothers malibu wagons and in my two friends in high school that had these cars. When I took it down there I figured it would blend in and no one would really notice it. I was wrong. It got pretty good reactions from people. Lots of "I used to have one of those" or "My parents had one" and so on. I was getting down on the car cause there were a bunch of little things still that needed to be done but I really liked the car. Over Christmas I sat down and watched some videos. I saw the bank robber special video a few times before but really thought to myself I can do this. It would be somewhat unique and blend that cruiser/boulevard bruiser/autocross/protour kind of thing. After really thinking about it and getting out of my comfort zone I dug in. Pulled the trim, top, emblems, moldings to see what I would be getting into. No surprise really, a southwestern car all its life and the car is pretty much rust free.




I worked on the top and some parts started coming in. I was able to secure a front lower spoiler from spoilersbyrandy. He is pretty known and is on facebook and does some great work.



Next was the wheels. Following the bank robber special I chose 17x9 soft 8's. But I stepped it up a notch and had a inch added to rears. The tires are Mickey Thompsons street comps 275/40 up front and 315/35 out back. Funny thing is I can run another inch wider in the rear and do 335's if I wanted to. With all that meat I added a 78 Trans Am WS6 big front sway bar and a Caprice 9C1 cop car rear sway bar. It all works on these. Along with new front end parts I got 2in lower springs from OPGI to get the car down. Now it does not feel like you are driving your living room sofa around. It reminds me a lot of the 78 Trans AM Y88 I had. The belltech street performance shocks keep the ride firm and the sway bars keep it planted. I'm very happy. Coil overs and tubulars up front will come next year.

[corvettedad]

Very cool Damon, very cool!

[Damon23]

[Damon23]

After completing this I had to fix the nasty package try. Pretty easy to do with some thin foam and material. Looks much better.
Lilly approves.

[Russell]

Looks like a lot of fun! I like the corvette wheels. The saw blades should be on an early 90's S10!

[Damon23]

Now that the car is getting there I needed a solution for the rear spoiler. The bank robber special used 2 1969 Camaro spoilers. I checked out the spoiler on the PHR Laguna and that was a little involved. So scrolling around facebook I found a guy that replicated the Hawaiian Tropic Laguna from Cannonball Run. He made his own so off to the metal shop I went. Picked up a piece of aluminum, took it up to a fab shop and they bent it for me. I drilled holes in the metal and lined everything up on the trunk. I used rivnuts on it with some fancy ace hardware fastners. I need to have the split welded up and then I'll polish it up but I think it came out alright. Next I want to do those blow out straps that they used to run on Nascar cars back in the day. A couple weeks ago I finally got the exhaust done. Manifold back duals with hooker areochamber mufflers. It makes a real nice sound. Especially for a stock small block. I'm happy. Headers, 4bbl swap and a cam are on the wish list. Oh, and these cars had that huge catalytic converter on it so I had to get a double hump cross memeber from a 73.

[Damon23]

After one of my kids knocked off the standard chrome mirrors it gave me a excuse to get the sport bullet mirrors. Cleaned them and hit them with satin black. They'll be painted body color eventually. Oh, and I found the build sheet behind the passenger side door panel, weird.


And here is the ugly about auto transport. I brokered Montway to deliver the car. I've used them before but this time it was a disaster. They transposed the phone number so it missed it original load. Then once we figured that out, they picked it up but was then delayed due to "truck problems". When the car finally arrived I noticed some spots on the vinyl roof and where the driver wiped off the hood and trunk lid. Well, look what happened a week later when I washed the car. I even requested top load. And forget about filing a claim. In the end, the car will be repainted cause of the roof and trim removal. I've shipped several cars and I guess I was due a bad one.

[Damon23]

So that is it so far. I still need to get the roof in epoxy, change the oil and get a alignment. I'm going to take it to Cruisin the Coast in October and then back to Daytona for the Rod Run. I'm having fun building this car and will update when I do things. I've removed the black paint from the exhaust (I don't know what the exhaust guy was thinking), fixed all the dash lights and finally painted and installed the new dash bezel. My plan is to repaint the car the same color and hopefully that will come next year. For right now, it's just blasting up and down the back roads having fun.

[Dan Barlow]

Man , can you keep a secret ! Of course there is a price to pay for it . I have a set of those mirrors that I would have given to someone that needs them.....but your past that . When you started saying you bought wheels, man I was havong to bite my tongue but yes those vette wheels looked great . I also like the black wheels too . Did you take them somewhere to get them widened or did the retailer or manufacturer do it ? I peronally like it better without the wing . ( to me it needs to be wider ......not saying I'm right . It's your car make it like you want it ) And i would stay away fron the window retention straps . Again not my car . I love the tucked bumpers . Love the color , hood ornament . If your going to put buckets in it I would try to find a pair of the swivel buckets . One of my 74 Montes had them and they were so cool . ( the other had a 6 way power bench ) I' try to find a factory console too unless your going to a manual . .

[RustyRodder]

Man, that thing is COOL! Makes me rethink one of these years! I will agree with dan on the wing, but its all up to you.

[Tubbed Pacecar]

Damon: Well, never being a fan of that particular series of Chevelles, I started off going "Oh boy, here we go".....but you have converted me!! That thing is going to be Kool,(well, with your mods, actually already is!) and any show & shine/cruise night etc you attend, there won't be TEN others there (like if'n you had a Camaro/Mustang/Etc)

Anyways, when I saw you peeling the vinyl roof, and noticed some surface rust starting, I thought this link might be helpful.....

http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2257

Cheers!
James

[Barry Donovan]

that is a dream.

anyone mention, it looks like 200mph sitting still..with a 100mph to go?


my four door looked monstrous. just one 350 gave the weak 4 link stretch on the wheelbase (I kill those links slowly)
made it look even bigger.

I used to judge speed by the whistling wind. 120mph was like 55 in a subaru...the scale of it.
I will always miss my 74..

[Damon23]

Thank you all for the kind words. I've gotten to the point now with these cars that I'm building it for me not the internet and if people happen to like it then all the better. I'm going to have the spoiler cut down about a inch when I have the split welded up but the spoiler ties in the look I'm going for along with the retaining straps. I'm no nascar fan but I do like the looks of the 70's cars. There is a Monte Carlo on powertour that is kick ass and each year I see it I get more impressed. Check out this car. The spoiler ideas was taken from him but his car is amazing pushing north of 850hp and he uses it.

https://www.facebook.com/Big-Burgundy-Laguna-Chevrolet-Laguna-S3-Super-Speedway-Special-313825658753360/

Dan Barlow- Their is a guy up in Calhoun, GA that does them. He does a lot of stuff for Jeeps and offroad stuff that I found. His name is Jerry Robbins (706-280-0453) and he does good work. I may take the rears and put them up front and have the fronts widened one inch in the front and one in the back and put 335's on them for the rears. I'm not sure the 315's will clear up front with the inner fenders but really those can go. The swivel seats are cool but I think a set of high back procar seats are more economical but who knows. As far as transmission I'd love to throw in a 5 or 6 speed but the TH350 is rebuilt so I'll rock that until I have to change it.

Tubbed Pacecar- Being different is what I like. I've only seen two others in my area and they have fallen victim to lift kits and big wheels. Thank you for the link.

[DirtyWhiteBoy]

Cool ride! I'm digging the 70's "stock car" look.