I have another friend that never seams to post and since I spend as much time wrenching on his projects as my own (the frame smoothed, painted in my garage) I figured I'd post. The car is a 1969 Chevelle SS 396. The car was originally brown, pearl interior, white vinyl top, 4-speed car. It was found in the NC/TN area sitting under a tree. I actually got to see it when it was first "saved" still had the original paint, emblems, interior, disc brakes, wheels, even old 70's biased tires (90% of it needed replaced-after the restoration got started $$$$$). The engine was gone but the Munci was in the trunk. The transmission and rear and frame all had the vin stamped in them (as you know mfgs didn't stamp consistently so this was a neat situation). We've done the interior and paint/body was done by a professional shop (will get at least the finished pictures posted). The body got all new full panels (hood, front, rear, floor, trunk) and the same approach was done with the interior (100% new). The final area was/is the frame and engine.

The car has been changed to a black with black vinyl top, the interior has been kept white/pearl. The Munci has been put in storage and may get sold (M22 - I'm trying to talk him out of it) and a Tremec 5-speed will replace it (Lakewood bell houseing, Ceterforce clutch). The engine is a 496 which posted over 600HP/TQ on the dyno. Since he likes Corvette Rallyes he's kept the brake system for the most part (Changing out the MC/booster from CPP - old stuff to storage). All of the front and rear ARMs have been changed out with stuff from CPP (it had the rear boxed arms - there headed to storage). Edelbrock no-hop bars added, QA-1 front/coil and rear shocks, Hotchkis rear springs and upper frame braces, Right-stuff detailing SS gas/break lines, Lees quick ratio steering box, New Moog front steering linkage round out what you see in the pictures.

Mark Jones out of Colorado is the engine builder. I think if you do a search in this forum you'll find other hits. Should driving it down the road in a month so I'll comment further. 719-650-1609 was his number - he moved to a new shop so it may have changed

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS007.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS008.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS014.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS015.jpg

Looks good so far!

Who built the motor?

Damnnnnnnn.......that sure is nice ! ! ! Good job. WOW ! !

damn... gonna be so good looking that he won't want to drive it

Nice! What kind of shifter is that on the tremec?

Looks very nice. :)

FYI, if the car is going to be lowered at all in the rear, those no-hops will probably contact the trunk floor pan.

In the process of smoothing the welds on the front myself. How far back did you smooth them? Also, did you use filler at all or is it all metal?

Look great cannot wate until my frame looks that good.

..... if the car is going to be lowered at all in the rear, those no-hops will probably contact the trunk floor pan.
Definately a subject that came up ... I'm already running a similar set up with a 2 inch drop and don't have any issues and my trunk pan is original .. so far things have been fine. His car will have a 2 inch drop as well - we still feel we are extra safe because his floor pan was replaced completely - most of the reproduction aftermarket upper trunk valances have a rectangular raised hump ; out of the factory it only has a slight rounded hump. I don't have pictures handy which would help show the added clearance. I'll try to circle back and post.

x2 on the smoothing. how did you do it? welded mine, reground and then filled with rage. i just hope it holds up with the frame twisting.

Looks great.

x2 on the smoothing. how did you do it? welded mine, reground and then filled with rage. i just hope it holds up with the frame twisting.

How thick is the filler in the lowest spots? When I do a frame off I would like to smooth the frame from firewall forward, at least the top.

i did the top from the front to under the door and the entire bottom i dont know for sure how thick it is, but its pretty flat from one side of the rail to the other. if you lay a straight edge across, youll get a pretty good idea. i would say its not over an 1/8th anywhere, and an average of a 1/16th.

Tim

:thumbsup::cool::yes:

Nice! What kind of shifter is that on the tremec?

Appears to be a Pro 5.0

I just put one in my car and it's a GREAT shifter. Super short throws and a very positive feeling.

However, these are supposed to be the new hot ticket, even better feeling... although adapting the shift lever to a non-mustang application is more difficult as it doesn't use a standard bolt-on shift lever:

http://www.mgwltd.com/mustang_shifter.shtml

How much time do you guys have in smoothing the frame and how exactly did you do it. Just a grinder and elbow grease, or is there filling and some body work before paint? I have my frame off and am making repairs right now. I love the look both of your frames have and would love for mine to look like that!

One week in my garage - about 12 hours over the course of a week. Went over the frame with a grinder to remove weld slop. Ideally you'd want to then TIG weld the joints to get a nice clean weld (factory is kind of sloppy). We didn't do this but it would have cut down on the amount of metal filler used. I'll have to double check but think we used a product from EVERCOAT that was silver and tough as nails. Also used a high-strength epoxy primer before the filler was put down. The filler wasn't your ordinary glaze or body filler. Then it was an air-disk sander and hand sanding. Another coat of epoxy primer over every thing. Some traditional EVERCOAT glaze was used for some small pin holes and minor dips. This was hand sanded then primered. Another light sanding and a single stage paint was used. This weekend I think we are going to put the body back on the frame .. I'll try and remember to get the exact products.

Didn't get as much done over the weekend on my friends car. Here's an update of the Chassis - we did roll it under the car and at least get the body back on the frame (will post pictures soon).
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS021.jpg

I grabbed a quick picture with my cell-phone - car needs a good cleaning and a lot of small touches/items left. Finally got the body back on the chassis and front clip back on. Not the best picture but it should give you and idea of what the overall car looks like. With March Madness and a few auto swap meets we haven't had much time to work on it. Should be running with the interior back in a week or two.

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS022.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd233/dlharrod/PATSS023.jpg

Car looks great! Keep the pictures coming!