[adamalexander2000]

i recently bought a 1972 chevelle malibu, ss clone
im in afghanistan so i had my father in law look at it
he said it needs new quarters, which is fine
i also want to upgrde to dic brakes all round, and revamp the suspension starting first with tubular control arms and maybe lower spindles,
but where do i start
should i do the body first or all the other stuff?
would would you guys do?

 

[bulletpruf]

Greetings from Iraq and welcome to the site.

As for what to do first, it kind of depends on what kind of shape the car is in now, what your budget is, and what you're going to use the car for.

Hard to give more specific advice w/o more details, but...

If it's going to be a daily driver, I'd recommend starting off with safety - lights, horn, seat belts, brakes, tires with some tread, etc. If you need a brake job anyway, and can afford to upgrade the brakes up front, that's probably a good place to start.

Once the safety issues are addressed, then work on reliability - belts, hoses, battery, radiator, etc.

I'd go from there to performance - suspension mods first, followed by engine mods.

Final stop would be paint and interior.

My $.02.

Good luck with it.

Scott

 

[figbash]

It all depends entirely on how much time and money you are willing to devote to the project. Do you want to do a frame off restoration or are you content with leaving the car as is underneath and concentrating on your suspension and brake upgrades? I also have a '72 and took the frame off route. The car was disassembled down to the last nut and bolt, and rebuilt with all new hardware and parts. The advantage of doing it this way is that chassis is very easy to work on without the body in the way. The disadvantage is that it takes a LOT of time and money.

You can see what it takes to go this route by looking through my profile. Pay particular attention to the dates. There were some years that I didn't work too hard on it and I never did anything on it during the winter months, but most years were fairly productive. The car is on the road as of this fall, eight years after I first bought it and I still have a solid year of bodywork left to go.

If you leave the body on, I would recommend saving the body work for last. Do all of your mechanical work and get it running the way you like, then hang your quarters and do the paint. That way you don't need to worry about screwing up your nice new paint job while wrenching on the car.

Tom

 

[iowacar]

Adam-
I am in the same situation you are in so I don't have much advice to contribute. I just wanted to say thank you for your service. Although the media doesn't portray it very well (if at all), we are very proud of you guys (and gals)!!
Ben

 

[MrBill66Malibu]

I agree with bulletproof, start with the safety first and paint last. It sucks to wreck a paint job because the brakes were no good!! LOL Gee..... I wonder how I know that?????

 

[glennslanaker]

i would discourage you from doing a frame off unless you have a lot of car experience. if you're a novice, you'll probably never get it done because you'll get discouraged and quit and have to sell it in pieces.
i would start with suspension, brakes, front end (ball joint, tie rods, bushings, etc.) then i would do the engine/ trans. a lot of the time the rear end can be left alone if it's not making noise or leaking. then i would do the paint and body and interior. tom is right, you can and usually will nick and ding your car if you do major mechanical after the cosmetics. i've done it more than once.
good luck to you.

 

[adamalexander2000]

it has a new motor 350 motor from jegs and a new tci th350, also the 12 bolt has been rebuilt, interior is not bad at all, just those quarters , so ill do the suspension, sway bars and brakes first then body