My '63 Unibody (Integral Cab)

Whizzer said:
Funny how styles change isn't it? The cars of a bygone era were tutoned in various shades of coordinating colors like the one in the above photo of the old Chevvy. My 1955 Ford Faitlane Club Sedan was Seafoam Green on the bottom and Forest Green on top. It was the prettiest car I ever owned. At the time it was popular to have a doll dressed in a Civil War era dress, the floor length gowns that spread out in a wide circle at the feet, narrowing to the waist, and in a compatible color to the car. I had one of them on the rear window shelf in that car.
Then cars were lowered in the rear, then in both front and rear, changes that took place over several years, and today, cars painted in a tutone color are rare and when seen, almost look ........old?!
Styles among the those liked cars lowered to the ground, a trend popular in years past, went in the other direction and began raising them until they look like a pickup body on an elevated chassis and sorta stupid going down the highway. Meantime the old guard is going back to the lowered vehicles. Sorta like clothing and how what matter of dress for both male and female, was popular at one time became old school and now is coming back into fashion.
I wonder .............will cars ever become as popular as they were and will youngsters ever again know the thrill of being one of the first to ever see the new model body style changes for the upcoming model year before they are officially released ? Most likely not but I think more than anything, the young people of today have no idea what they are missing. So many of the simple things that made the life a pre-teen interesting have gone by the wayside.

Forgive the old man who rambles. It is almost as if one of the few things is to remind those who choose to read my drivel might long for a different time when the things experienced by a lad growing up in the post war days and following decade considered enjoyable in recollection.
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This is exactly why I go to car shows every week. Paul and I were walking around that 50 Olds, pointing out all of the coolness; the stainless side trim, the taillight bezels, the grille and headlight bezels, the dash, etc.
You don’t see that styling on cars anymore.
Occasionally, there will be youngsters at the car shows. For the most part they are interested in the BMWs, Nissans, Hondas, etc.
There were a couple of young girls at Bobs Big Boy on Friday night that seemed to be only interested in the vintage cars. They came with their father, who owned a big block El Camino.
 
I know of the three grandsons, they have little interest in older cars/trucks. More into the BMWs and Toyotas. One grandson has a Toyota Supra. Took me for a ride last visit and impressed me with the acceleration and handling and he's sensible. Not a hotrod or idiot with fast wheels. Other grandson, the youngest one, came for a visit a couple of years ago and we asked him if there was anything special he wanted to do while he was here and he said, "I want to go to the Lamborghini dealer in Sarasota," so that's where we went. While he looked - and all he could do was look as they didn't allow clients to sit in the cars unless they were serious buyers, a category we definitely acted, and looked, like we were not a part of - over the Lambos, I drooled over a used Aston Martin with a 100K price tag. Stuck my head in the window and the leather still smelled as if were just put in the car yesterday.
 
I’m helping Paul out on this 65 (real) SS Chevelle.
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Some knucklehead got ahold of this car. The original owner let a girl drive it for a while, then they broke up and her new boyfriend took the car. The guy was a hack. The original owner finally got it back. Soooo much butchery on this car. We’re just trying to get back to a turn key driver for the owner. The engine is solid mounted, we’re going to install stock rubber engine mounts. Apparently there was an engine bay fire. Core support mounts are gone, core support is about an inch lower, throwing off the front fender and hood alignment as well as creating crazy vibration and rattle. Body to frame mounts are also disintegrated. Solid mounted engine has oil pan and headers hitting the frame in multiple places. Silly cheap chrome and aluminum engine brackets, pulleys, t-stat housing,etc. The butcher also removed the power steering pump and brackets and just looped the p/s pressure hose. Doug’s headers going into garbage Flowmaster mufflers, exhaust pipes held up with baling wire, cut short before the diff with buzzy turndowns. The motor is strong, high compression with aluminum heads and an obvious solid lifter cam. I haven’t had the valve covers off yet.
Goofy butchered brake lines from the combo valve to the calipers. The brake hardline is actually touching the headers. The caliper hoses are cheap braided line that don’t even attach to the factory caliper hose brackets. I made some brake hardline today to try and get everything away from the header heat. The more we look at this car the more we see that needs attention. I removed the rear brake hardline, too, because it was rusted, dangling in places and hitting the exhaust. I’m going to rebuild the calipers, install new rotors, new rear wheel cylinders, spring kit, shoes, drums, etc. I just want to make the brakes safe.
Look at these hacked brake lines and hose.
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  • Wow
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I got the correct caliper hose brackets and made some new hardline. Only got a couple of lines made today. Spent most of the morning taking off the hood, fenders, core support, radiator, etc.
Made and mocked up hardline, relocated the front junction block away from the headers. Using NiCopp nickel copper line, stainless inverted flare nuts and stainless gravel guard spring cover in the wheel areas.

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Awesome double flares 😎
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I have to make the crossover front line and the rear hardline tomorrow.
Calipers will get removed, bead blasted and painted, new rotors and pads and then I’ll move onto the rear brakes.
 
You read something like this and wonder how many vehicles are on the road with jury-rigged brakes, gas lines, etc., that are extremely dangerous. Looks like you've got a lot of work ahead of you and it sounds as if you are going to enjoy every minute of time spent on making this project right. Have at it!! 👍
 
BobbyFord said:
I’m helping Paul out on this 65 (real) SS Chevelle.View attachment 71657
Some knucklehead got ahold of this car. The original owner let a girl drive it for a while, then they broke up and her new boyfriend took the car. The guy was a hack. The original owner finally got it back. Soooo much butchery on this car. We’re just trying to get back to a turn key driver for the owner. The engine is solid mounted, we’re going to install stock rubber engine mounts. Apparently there was an engine bay fire. Core support mounts are gone, core support is about an inch lower, throwing off the front fender and hood alignment as well as creating crazy vibration and rattle. Body to frame mounts are also disintegrated. Solid mounted engine has oil pan and headers hitting the frame in multiple places. Silly cheap chrome and aluminum engine brackets, pulleys, t-stat housing,etc. The butcher also removed the power steering pump and brackets and just looped the p/s pressure hose. Doug’s headers going into garbage Flowmaster mufflers, exhaust pipes held up with baling wire, cut short before the diff with buzzy turndowns. The motor is strong, high compression with aluminum heads and an obvious solid lifter cam. I haven’t had the valve covers off yet.
Goofy butchered brake lines from the combo valve to the calipers. The brake hardline is actually touching the headers. The caliper hoses are cheap braided line that don’t even attach to the factory caliper hose brackets. I made some brake hardline today to try and get everything away from the header heat. The more we look at this car the more we see that needs attention. I removed the rear brake hardline, too, because it was rusted, dangling in places and hitting the exhaust. I’m going to rebuild the calipers, install new rotors, new rear wheel cylinders, spring kit, shoes, drums, etc. I just want to make the brakes safe.
Look at these hacked brake lines and hose.
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What you got hiding under that Boat Cover behind the SS Chevelle?
 
Got a little more done today.
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Removed all the lines after these pics to prep the frame for cleaning and sealing. Not sure where this car owner wants to quit.
Removed the solid engine mounts and installed factory rubber engine mounts.
Everywhere I look needs money. He needs a different radiator and some transmission cooler hardline, the car currently has rubber hose and an auxiliary transmission cooler.
 
I replaced the solid engine mounts with stock mounts. Gained 1/4” clearance between the left header and the engine cradle. The left header was touching the frame. There were absolutely NO rubber core support mounts. The core support was bouncing on the frame horns. Can’t imagine what this thing was like to drive. Got the green light today to spend some money.
The car has an automatic transmission but has an aluminum 4-speed radiator with no trans cooler and an auxiliary cooler mounted to the radiator with the cheap plastic through-core zip tie fasteners. Owner said make it drivable. The car currently has a PS box but no PS pump.
It does have a lot of goodies; 12 bolt posi with Tom’s axles, aluminum rear drums, high compression motor, ported aluminum heads, solid lifter cam…
The rubber mounts relieved the header/frame interference but Paul wants to replace them with Sanderson block hugger headers. He’s the boss. I’m just the grunt. Owner also said replace the exhaust pipes and mufflers.
Prolly gonna replace the Blowmasters with Magnaflows.
We’re going to clean and paint the front frame section because most of it is bare metal from the engine bay fire. The core support rubbers are cooked and gone. The frame to body mounts will get replaced.
We pulled the heater box and vacuumed out the vent wells because they were filled with ash and extinguisher dust.
Hopefully get this thing turn key in a week or so.
 
This car was originally Cypress Green with black interior. We saw the real color when we pulled the fenders. Checked the vin tag.
Way better IMO than this crap ice blue.
 
We test fit the Sanderson headers today and they won’t fit because Paul ordered them for the application of a stock small block car. This car has aluminum angle plug heads and the headers won’t clear the plugs. No worries, we’ll put the old headers back on, they won’t hit the frame anymore because we installed OEM engine mounts and the engine sits higher. Also, the headers won’t be touching the brake hardline because it has been relocated.
Most of the paint on the frame near the engine compartment was cooked off from the previous engine fire. Paul took the liberty of cleaning and resealing the frame while it was apart.
It’s very tedious to replace brake hardline on an assembled car. Much easier to do on a frame-off. I’m a novice and haven’t been doing hardline very long. It shows. My friend, Mark Bohlen, is a master. He works on some of Kevin Hart’s cars. I’ve seen his work and I know what it’s supposed to look like.
I’m happy with the way these lines came out. Although, lots of room for improvement.
Before…
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After…
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The rear line is one piece. Hard to accomplish on an assembled car.
We replaced the radiator and added dual electric cooling fans. I need to order a fan controller.
We removed the exterior trans cooler and rubber hoses. I’m going to make trans cooler lines tomorrow.
I’m off work this week, enrolled in an online class, supposed to be doing math formulas that I’ll never need.
I don’t have time for these cars…🙂
 
Man, what a day. I got to Paul’s at 8am on my day off, left at 7pm.
The more I f with this little 65 SS, the more I like it. So happy to get this car away from the butcher that owned it, before he wrecked it. He did spend some money on this car but everything he bought was installed my Mickey Mouse.
From what I can tell these are GM aluminum, angle plug heads. Compression has to be at least 11:1. It bucks the gear reduction mini starter like the timing is high but it isn’t. Definitely roller rockers and solid cam. Built later model 400 trans, 12 bolt posi with Tom’s axles, adjustable QA coil-overs, aluminum brake drums, etc.
I could easily spend $5k of this guy’s dollars getting things straight but we’re trying to spend money on what is needed, rather than what we’d do if it was ours.
The body is straight, the paint is decent and the interior is decent.
Just trying to get this car to a more pleasant streetable driver.
Worked on the front brakes today, I don’t think the front brakes were functioning. I believe the combo valve eliminated the fronts at some point. The owner said the brakes were scary.
I bead blasted, ceramic painted and rebuilt one caliper today. Installed new bearings and rotor. Before and after…

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Worked on the power steering today too. The knucklehead that had this car removed the P/S pump and just looped the line on the pump with some braided garbage and Russell AN fittings. There’s no steering pump, no brackets, no lines. The water pump and crank pulleys are aftermarket billet aluminum and the alternator brackets are Chinese chrome scrap.
I searched eBay and marketplace to find OEM brackets and pulleys to save this guy some money. Nobody wanted to respond to inquiries.
I’m just trying to get the power steering functional.
Searched Paul’s inventory of miscellaneous parts and came up with some brackets, spacers, bolts, pumps and pulleys. I modified some brackets and mocked up a pump. The pump required a press-on pulley, we didn’t have that. Wound up buying an earlier pump and installed a chrome, slip-fit, keyed pulley. Ordered a pressure hose for a later model Chevelle and I fabricated a return line out of 3/8” steel line. Took the 3/8” AN braided nut, cut in in half, drilled it out and made it into a 3/8” inverted flare nut. Good times. The dark colored steel return line is mine.
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The ends line up nicely. Just a small section of rubber return line needed…

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Coming along nicely. It really makes me wonder what the monkeys that worked on this earlier were thinking. Or maybe that should be worded, we're not thinking. At all. Sounds as if will be a whole lot safer and more pleasurable to drive. I can appreciate what you are trying to accomplish for the owner.
 
I stopped by Paul’s today at lunch, just to see what was going on. A picture is worth 1000 words.
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All of the pushrods look like this. So many mishmash parts. No telling what is in this small block Chevy. The heads appear to be generic Chinese aluminum heads. The pushrods are ate up by the guides. Are they not hardened pushrods? There are definitely geometry issues in the valvetrain. Roller rockers are hitting the spring retainers, pushrods are hitting the guides. Turns out this is a hydraulic cam, now I know why it sounded like solid lifters. I need to dig into this tomorrow and determine if the pushrods are correct length, if the roller rockers are compatible with the spring/retainer diameter and if I need to get a set of adjustable guideplates. We need pushrods and lifters, at minimum. Intake is still on but I peeked in and saw a damaged lifter on the cylinder with the broken pushrod. Need to get the lifters out and assess the camshaft.
Also need to find the broken bits 😳
We should probably drain the oil and check for metallic…
 
It’s a roller motor. The valvetrain was SO noisy that I thought it was a solid flat cam. Only heard it run cold for about 2 minutes. Cheap Chinese rockers were hitting the valve covers…
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Guide plates are pushing the pushrods out, causing alignment problems with the rockers on the valves. Pushrods are Chinese tin, getting ate up by the hardened guide plates. Plates were just bolted on, no attention to alignment.
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One lifter popped the keeper out and spit its guts. We’re going to order new roller rockers, lifters, pushrods, guideplates. schit that matches, not Chinese garage. Gonna scuff the headers and paint with 2000 degree ceramic paint, they’re already in good condition but could look better. We’re trying to save this guy some money and get his car drivable fun and reliable.
 
Was this thing running when it came to Paul? Sounds like an honest to goodness Rube Goldberg arrangement but without forethought. Any idea what theca looks like? Seeing all this other crap makes me wonder if the cam is okay or also inferior material.
 
Whizzer said:
Was this thing running when it came to Paul? Sounds like an honest to goodness Rube Goldberg arrangement but without forethought. Any idea what theca looks like? Seeing all this other crap makes me wonder if the cam is okay or also inferior material.
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The guy drove it there 😳
The cam should be ok, it’s a roller. I’m going to pull the lifters out later today to get a peek.
 
11 hours today on the Chevelle. Got my butt kicked on the fuel hardline. I burned through 3’ of mild steel hardline to make two pieces about a foot long. ☹️ I just couldn’t get the double flares right. Seems like my first step die is not right. I wound up using my 45 degree first step die and then my 37 degree second step die to complete the flares. Lines came out decent but if it were my car I’d have used stainless steel line (only requires single flare.) All Paul had was mild steel line. We’re already spending an additional $1500 for the valvetrain issues. I made do with what we had.
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Stainless fittings at least. The car came in with goofy oversized braided stainless hose and red and blue Russell line fittings. I used the same aluminum fuel filter.
 
Nothing on this car bolts up. The alternator was mounted high, we changed it to low mount. Mismatched pulleys. I made the lower bracket out of three pieces. Welded it together. Mocked up. Just need to bead blast and paint.
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You could spend $10K in parts alone on this car to get everything corrected. Trying to do this on a budget for the guy. A pulley kit would be the way to go.
 
If I ever get time, I’d like to take a basic welding class. My dad taught me to OA weld when I was about 8 years old. I can OA weld as good as anyone. I bought a MIG welder and started practicing with zero guidance. I experimented with temp and feed speed. I usually bevel mild steel structural set-up and then stitch, weave or push, depending on thickness. I don’t have a 220 welder. I’ve tried stick arc (220) with no instruction and limited success.
I have access to some incredible welders…Scott Dinger is a master, his protégé is Steve Spindler, half brother to Larry Dixon (NHRA.)
I don’t think I want to bother those guys. Maybe the local tech college. 🤔
 
Takes a lot of patience to do what you are. Especially working on someone else's car and seeing all the mis-matched and crazy things they did to this car. Guys is gonna think he has a new ride when you and Paul get finished. I doubt you'll be satisfied though in knowing there were things you could have made better but being on a budget prevents making it perfect. Or close to perfect.
Keep the pictures and commentary coming. Enjoy seeing work by someone who wants to do it right.
 
Whizzer said:
Takes a lot of patience to do what you are. Especially working on someone else's car and seeing all the mis-matched and crazy things they did to this car. Guys is gonna think he has a new ride when you and Paul get finished. I doubt you'll be satisfied though in knowing there were things you could have made better but being on a budget prevents making it perfect. Or close to perfect.
Keep the pictures and commentary coming. Enjoy seeing work by someone who wants to do it right.
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Thanks, Whizz…🙂
 
Having watched, and sort of "helped", my hubby and his brother build dirt cars, I really admire all the work you and Paul are doing.
And trying to do it as inexpensively as humanly possible. We also built on a tight budget.
Keep up the great work. Love the updates.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
Having watched, and sort of "helped", my hubby and his brother build dirt cars, I really admire all the work you and Paul are doing.
And trying to do it as inexpensively as humanly possible. We also built on a tight budget.
Keep up the great work. Love the updates.
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Thank you, TRL. 🙂
 
What kind of business does Paul have? Is it a garage, gas station kind of thing, or a body shop? Or strictly "works outa the garage at home operation. Seems like he gets some interesting jobs that are definitely not run of the mill repairs but more in depth stuff like the one you are helping with now. All very interesting in how he gets business and what his operation is like. Whatever it is, it sounds like the kind of place I would want to take my car.
 
Whizzer said:
What kind of business does Paul have? Is it a garage, gas station kind of thing, or a body shop? Or strictly "works outa the garage at home operation. Seems like he gets some interesting jobs that are definitely not run of the mill repairs but more in depth stuff like the one you are helping with now. All very interesting in how he gets business and what his operation is like. Whatever it is, it sounds like the kind of place I would want to take my car.
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He has a large garage at his house. He's owned several body shops, but now just works at home. Paul is a body/paint guy but does some mechanical repairs. I can do everything except bodywork, I'm just not good at getting a panel flat. Paul usually won't take in jobs that require a lot of engine, electrical or interior work unless I'm available to help or sometimes a guy named Robert.
 
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