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Project Car Update: The 454 Powered 1970 Caprice Gets Some Tire Fitment Mods, a Clean engine bay, a Tuned Carb, and a Transmission Fix!


Project Car Update: The 454 Powered 1970 Caprice Gets Some Tire Fitment Mods, a Clean engine bay, a Tuned Carb, and a Transmission Fix!

Regular BangShift readers will recognize the name Scott Liggett. He’s our SoCal photo maven who contributes lots of great shots from shows and cruises from the land that rust (kind of) forgot. Perhaps more familiar is his flat black 1965 Impala SS that’s been all over BangShift and shown in multiple magazines. The Impala’s younger, pudgier brother is Scott’s 1970 Chevy Caprice powered by a very tired 454. 

Click here to got to the updated thread: Working on tire fittment, the carb, cleaning the motor, and fixing the trans!

 

Scott bought this car out of a local salvage yard’s used car lot in 2001 for $2,000 and drove it home. It is powered by an LS5 454 which was factory rated at 345hp and a tire shredding 500 ft/lbs of torque. We say was because the car was lumping around with a cam that had one truly flat lobe and a couple of nubs on the train to flatville. Owned by an elderly woman who died, the car sat for a long time and eventually was traded in at the scrapper. Luckily Scott saved it. 

He used it as a work beater and occasional cruiser when he wanted to rest his clutch leg from the Impala. Recently Scott decided that he was going to rectify the power situation in a big way by rebuilding the 454 and perhaps kicking it up a notch or so from the factory ratings. 

He’s a big fan of full sized Chevys and so are we, especially when there is big block umph under our toes. Hit the link below and watch the snowball start rolling down hill. It all starts with a couple small projects, and then by page 10 there is a motor swinging on an engine crane.

With the big-block Chevy’s ability to make power on the cheap and with Scott keeping track and publishing his expenses, it is going to be neat to see what a crafty budget-minded BangShifters can do to keep the cost down and send the power up!

Hit the link below to see Scott tear into his big ol’ Caprice!

Part 1: Scott Liggett’s 1970 Caprice Project 

Part 2: Scott makes progress on the 454 and the exterior of the Caprice 

Part 3: Scott begins assembly of his rompin’ stompin’ 454 

Part 4: Scott completes the motor, fires it up, and takes it for a tire squealing ride!

Part 5: Scott Road Trips the Caprice and has to wrench his way out of a couple jams!

Part 6: The Caprice gets a new rear valance, heater core, a bitchin’ new stance and new tires! 

Part 7: Figuring out tire fittment, keeping the engine bay clean, and fixing the kickdown solenoid in the trans! 

We’ve been asleep at the switch for far too long on this big boy of a car! In this wide ranging update, Scott takes us through getting his new tires to fit, cleaning up the engine bay, tuning the carb, replacing the window seals, and ultimately fixing the kick down solenoid in the TH400 transmission backing up his healthy 454. The car still serves as Scott’s primary mode of transport, which rules. Now that it has a functional kick down, we think he’ll be “testing” it out more! 

 

 Caprice before with skinny shoes

Caprice big tire! 


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8 thoughts on “Project Car Update: The 454 Powered 1970 Caprice Gets Some Tire Fitment Mods, a Clean engine bay, a Tuned Carb, and a Transmission Fix!

  1. Raymond

    This car came from San Jacinto / Hemet, I wanted to buy it when I first saw it but did not have the cash at the time. Happy to see it is still out there and on the road.

  2. Jerry

    Sorry, but I’m not into the rat rod stuff. A rod in primer is one thing. Throwing a pile of dogsh*t together and calling it a hot rod is something different. Also, I don’t need to pay for something I really don’t want to read. Yes, I read more than the captions.
    Last issue I got there was a cool article on Linda but oher than that I haven’t been that impressed with the magazine in the past year.
    As for Car Crap and (un)Popular Hot Rodding, I haven’t seen an issue of them in about 7 years,let alone buy one. They are a far cry of what they once were in the ’60’s and ’70’s.
    I get Drag Racer, Drag Racing Action ,and Area Auto Racing News by subscription. The rest,including National Dragster, I dropped. They only end up in the recycling can anyway. Christ, if I saved every issue of every car rag that came out, my house would look like one of those places on that “Hoarders” show. Grin
    If I see an issue with alot of cool stuff on the stands I’ll buy it. I just am not into all the stuff they do.
    I will definitely check out this new magazine and if it is good I will buy it. And not “Roach Monthly” Haha

  3. Anonymous

    If you look up ” Bangshift” in the dictionary, there is a picture of this car. If Scott ever does anything to iron the dents or paint this car I’m heading to So-Cal with a big Snap-On breaker bar and smack him in the back of the head.

  4. SLOW NEWS DAY

    What’s next? A full report on next time he torques the lug nuts? DAMN SLOW NEWS DAY FOLKS.

    LAMEshift approved!

  5. Anonymous

    Keep at it Scott . These are great cars and deserve all you are giving it. Id drive this over some rattle box Camaro anyday.

  6. Anonymous

    I really can’t see why we can’t just all get along together.
    Whinging threads like this and the Hamb one don’t actually help the cause much at all.
    I enjoy most rodding sites for the info sharing etc.
    Why let personal crap get in the way.
    If you have had your hand slapped, then let it be and move on.
    We are not school kids you know.

    Brad and Chad should really try harder.

  7. Seriously

    lazy attempt at a street machine. how about some elbow grease and a bit of detailing? poor excuse for a proper American car, collector or otherwise.

    Do something with it, make grandma proud.

  8. Mike

    Do you happen to know how many 1970 , 2 door hard top 454 caprice were manufactured for that year? I was told it was around 260?

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