Hey Everyone,

What started as just a simple replacing of the radiator turned into a much bigger project. Three months later, my suspension job on my 70'Chevelle is completed. I had the great chance to rent a space out from a local machine shop to use the facilities/lift, where I stayed till just recently due to the deal turning sour.. (more on that later). Three months later, broke as a joke, the beast aka my big black eye has returned home.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, I don't have the best camera.
Also, sorry if this is posting to many photos etc...


http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/1.jpg
At the garage cleaning and stripping the car. At the time
I wasn't sure how far I was going to go.. but after the
thought of taking off the body seemed a really good idea!
From there I was able to rent a spot out of a job new by.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/2.jpg
Up up and away!

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/3.jpg
Had to get that body outa the way.. Very rusty frame
with two cracks, getting it off the frame was actually pretty
easy. You can see the front black area where I was testing
some spray paint.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/4.jpg
Frame outside to begin the long process of stripping the frame
down to bare metal. Most of the frame was done by a hand
drill and wire brush, later on near the end I started using
a grinder with a wirebrush. WOW! Talk about easier...
Having the car sandblasted and powercoated was gonna
cost $800, which I deemed to rich for my blood. I later kicked
myself for not saving and doing it that way...

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/5.jpg
Looks like chrome doesn't it? Ha, A couple days and long
nights and this thing looks brand new!

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/6.jpg
- Frame getting everything rewelded / fixed. Some horrible
uncompleted welds.

I could never fully stress how much my good friend has
helped me with this car! Without him spending countless
lunch breaks and evenings helping me with this car, it
would have never left the shop as soon as it did, if at all.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/7.jpg
Frame getting its first coating! This frame was fully done
in POR-15. A great product which I would use again, but
not in this application. More on that later...

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/8.jpg
Nasty'o 12-bolt needing some love!

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/9.jpg
A couple hours of grinding and cleaning... Yep, Thats Por-15!

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/10.jpg
A Mock setup of the rear end.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/11.jpg
12bolt was fully rebuilt, and upgraded with disc from drum

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/12.jpg
Rear reassembled / tires added.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/13.jpg
Hmm.. Nasty looking! Something needs to be done here...

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/14.jpg
Whole underbody fully stripped and brought down to bare metal.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/15.jpg
Re-coated with a nice undercoating.


http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/16.jpg
Front end being up off the ground! Looking good...

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/18.jpg
Front suspension being completed and ready to be put back
on the ground.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/19.jpg
Figured it has been grounded enough, so we let it out to play
with the other cars! Ugh, look.. already hanging with the wrong
crowd!


http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/20.jpg
Time to put the two back togeather... This turned into a LONG
project! Super big thanks to my now friend for helping with
this! He cracks me up, what ever problem he encountered
this dude had the tool / knowledge for it. If he didn't have
the tool he made it. Oddly, he seemed to want to use
a crowbar every chance he could on my car. Hmm...


http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/21.jpg
Car waiting to be picked up the next day.

http://www.theargon.com/teamchevelle/22.jpg
Sitting back home, waiting for the next project...




This was a big undertaking that I'm happy is over! I met alot of great people along the way, but its nice to have the beast back at home where I know its safe, my pocket book is happy too!

Everything except the undercoating of the body is POR15. POR15 is a great product but a bit expensive. Sadly, I would never use POR15 on a frame
again. If anyone else tries POR15 for a frame, consider using a MIN of 5coats. I think if I had a chance to redo this id spend the extra money
to have it sandblasted and powercoated. The POR15 isn't as strong as
Id had hoped or even wanted... in assembling the suspension I noticed
the frame coating could be cracked easy and if cracked enough peeled
right off. Shocking? Uh... Yea, I spent alot of work on this! So this is
something I'm going to have to give alot of thought on what I'm going
to do, actually.. its depressing to think all that work of cleaning the
frame is in trouble. Ugh, Ok next subject.

What suspension componets was used:
Rear:
- Hotchkis 1' lowering springs
- Hotchkis rear sway
- Edelbrock upper adjustable arms (yep, need to figure pinion angle later)
- Edelbrock lower arms
- Edelbrock Tubular Braces.
- Edelbrock IAS shocks.
- Edelbrock should pay me money, I'm a walking advertisement.
- Stock GM rear disc breaks.
- Rims: 17x9.5 TT's - rear lip and centers powercoated black with front lip
left polished.

Front:
- Hotchkis 1' lowering springs
- Hotchkis front sway
- Edelbrock IAS shocks
- Globalwest Del-a-Lum Upper/Lower Arms.
- AGR 12.1 Steering box.
- 2' drop spindles.
- GM 12' front disc
- Rims: 17x8 TT's - rear lip and centers powercoated black with front lip left polished. Proably should have done 16's but...



Another BIG thanks to Dennis for helping me with this Combo, saved me some headaches of figuring this out.

Still pending for the frame:
Break/gas/exhaust still needs to be completed. Which will have to happen sadly at the house. The reason for not taking care of this stuff at the shop happened because... The guy who ran the shop where I was working on my car was also re-machining my 454. What was supposed to be a quick job turned into a 4 months ordeal where he did jack but used my money to fund other adventures. At the moment I'm still short $2660 for parts and labor. I'll have to deal with this on Monday. Ok, not to cut him short, he did start working on my block the other day(4 months later!!!), after I was pulling my chevelle out and yelling at him to get my stuff togeather as I'm out and I'm not renewing my rent/stay. Just as I was pulling out he gets a call from the DA with a case number for a suit, lol, glad I'm getting out. Sadly, if Monday doesn't yeild results with my money / block I'm going to have to see about taking him to small claims and settle it there.

You know your the center of attention when traffic slows down around you,
your family is on the steps watching and your neighbors are on the balconies (both sides) to watch the car being lowered into the drive way / garage.

And I'm sure their all thinking, "Shoot, its back...".



Future projects:
- Get my block and money back.
- Finish fuel/gas/exhaust piping.
- Rebuild 454 / Possibly stroke / with AFR Alum heads / F.A.S.T. EFI System
- Replace T400 with a 700R - which will proably blowup.
- Replace rear body with full Qrtrs.
- Body work


Ok, anyway... thats pretty much the deal, feel free to post any questions!

Have to say that you really did a thorough radiator swap! :D Regarding the problem you had with the paint: It could possibly be due to the fact that you sanded the frame. It leaves the metal nice and smooth, but if it's not perfectly clean, the paint might peel off. Don't know if that's a typical POR problem, but sand blasting leaves a surface that gives the paint much better adhesion. Some people here have galvanized their frames, and it's actually cheaper and way better than sand blasting. Last price I heard was $250 for a frame complete with all suspension parts. That's peanuts considering how good it is, and how much work you save.

theres a place in richmond called Poly engineering that probably would of charged you $500 to blast and powdercoat your frame. If that is dennis68 that helped you, then he should of known better

Hey All,


Olle: Man, talk about an expensive radiator job too! Yea, that likely is the reason why the por15 is peeling, everything is smooth and clean. I also did the marine clean and Metal Ready, which I'm sure helped to a degree.

Cody: Dennis just helped with the planning of the suspension, nothing else. Frame work / ideas were mine.
I'm kicking myself now for not doing the powercoating, but nothing I can do about it now, and I'm not even gonna attempt to redo the work.

So for people who are considering doing what I did, Id suggest save the extra $ and have it blasted / coated.

I need to change the fan clutch on my car. Since your project started out as a radiator swap, I'm wondering where I'll end up (already been through the suspension - whew!)...

That looks really nice, man!

I did my frame with a PPG non-sandable epoxy primer after sandblasting it myself. So far it hasn't started peeling or cracking. I have put a few scratches in it, but no big chunks so far. Just another idea for those out there...

Ryan

Wow, that started as a radiator swap. Wait until something major breaks... :D

Looks good, I'm sure you can't wait to get it back together and road test.

Last price I heard was $250 for a frame complete with all suspension parts.
Bah! cost me $12 for the sand, $15 worth of paint, $10 worth of electricity to run the air compressor, and one Saturday afternoon ;)

Looks great! I'm doing something very similar :thumbsup: