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72 4 door restoration

873 views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Freddy Mercado 
#1 ·
Hi everyone, long time lurker here. I bought a 4-door '72 Chevelle a few years ago that needs a fairly light amount of restoration. The body is in pretty good shape, only a little bit of bondo over the rear passenger wheel, but the engine is wrecked.

About the car: It was originally a basic 4-door Lime-Yellow car with an inline-6 engine and TH350 tranny. The guy I bought it from and his buddies had began cutting holes in the interior for speakers, and rewiring the electronics... wrongly I might add. They also replaced the I-6 with a 350 that threw piston rods within 35 miles of me getting the car.

I'm a poor college student, but this summer looks to be the first summer that I'll actually have money to throw into the car, so I'm looking for a lot of advice because I'm not a mechanic. The goal is to pro-street the car on a budget. Bring the suspension and brakes up to modern standards, and drop a big block in that big front end. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do engine wise. I've fallen in love with some 496s, and having a nice mild build of around ~500hp and a little more torque is the idea.

I'm hoping for this year to replace the 8.2 with an 8.5 posi, switch the 4 drums to at least front discs, and replacing the rears and get a decent suspension kit put on. Then next year hoping to do Engine/Transmission/gauges. Then interior/exterior.
 
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#2 ·
do not expect to recoup money spent on things like big blocks and such in a 4 door. I have a 4 door sport sedan as you can see in my tagline. I have redone the suspension with all new springs front end redone with disc brakes, added tubular control arms and a rear sway bar. We like our 4 door though, would not trade it for a 2 door!
 
#3 ·
Yeah, I'm not building it to sell it. Not for a long time, at least. This is my toy, my project, more than anything else.

Besides, the only real money in restoration is if the car itself is worth a lot because of what it originally was. It's a 4 door with a straight 6. Not really worth a lot, so it makes a great platform to build something special.

And restoring cars for money isn't very easy anyway.
 
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