Here are some pictures of my recently finished (Do you ever really get finished?)'65 Malibu SS painted with PPG polyurethane paint. Thanks to harleighguy for the inspiration to install the AutoMeter gauge setup. Except in direct sunlight, the color of the car appears to be midnight blue or black, but is really midnight purple pearl as can be seen from the side view.

http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/hotrod65sssideview.jpg
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/hotrod65ss.jpg
http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/hotrod65ssdash.jpg

Rod

Nice car.
Colors that appear in different shades depending on how it's viewed are too cool. I've never cared much for hanging gauges but, the dash looks great. I have a knee knocker on my 67 and hate it. There are too many other $200 items I need before I buy a blinker tach. A buddy of mine did the same thing with the Auto meter gauges in his 57 belair dash 57 SUV (http://www.geocities.com/bertmac1111/SUV-4.html).

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Rusty
"God, give me patience...and please hurry"
67 Chevelle SS396
Big Block Bliss (http://www.geocities.com/rusted11/Gallery1.html)
TC# 1139

[This message has been edited by rusted11 (edited 09-30-2001).]

REALY Nice. luv them early Chevlles. got a quick question for you Rod. The auto meter gages.
you just put them in the old dash pod holes?
All in All a COOL looking ride.
anther ????? what's the running gear ?
A TPI'ed 502 with a 4-80le and Currie 9in?

Wayne
ACES 1556
TCG 186

Rusty, I agree with you about the hanging gauges. Normally, I would have tried to put them in the dash panel but my car has a/c and I really didn't want to hack up the dash. That's why I spent the extra $$ and went with an original-fit AutoSound stereo unit with a 6-stack CD instead of just cutting out the dash and installing a DIN-sized stereo unit. Your friend's '57 dash looks great, I also like the gauge treatment.

Wayne, thanks for the nice comments about my car. I didn't modify the dash panel in any way. The gauge bodies are undersized for the stock gauge pods, so I wrapped the gauges with 3/8"-1/2" foam rubber to make up the difference and slid in the gauges. The gauges are firm in the gauge pods but I could pull out them out if I had to replace or work on them. A small portion of the black gauge body behind the bezel is too big to fit into the pod, so I put shiny aluminum metal tape (Home Depot) around it to make the gauge blend in better with the chrome dash.

My'65 has a about 10,000 miles on a completely rebuilt and modified drive train, but nothing exotic. It has a 400-hp 327 (10.25 c.r., Crower solid-lifter cam, 670-cfm Holly Street Avenger, Hooker Super Comp headers, Edelbrock RPM, modified '65 Vette heads, etc.), Ram clutch, Muncie M-21 close ratio 4-spd, Inland Driveline driveshaft, 12-bolt Eaton-posi rear with 3.55 Richmond gears, power 11-inch front disc brakes and larger 11-inch rear brake drums. The car also has cold stock a/c, power steering and cruise control. I thought about eventually going with a more exotic engine-drivetrain combination (I just love high-revving 327's), but this is my daily driver and I want to cruise the country in it and want something dependable. My wife would like me to install a 5-sp Tremec in order to get better gas mileage while cruising. Something to think about.

Rod

got too love a wife like that... You should tell her a 6 speed tremec would get even BETTER gas milage http://www.chevelles.com/forum/biggrin.gif