1964 Rusty Bucket transformation

[Crumley]

I have a engine question? Or maybe this should be posted on the engine section? This old Belvedere has the original poly 318 engine, would it be better to make a stroked poly 318 to save weight or run a stroked 440? The plan right now is to have the car spend most of its time on the street and a little time on the drag strip. Just looking at options.....

 

[Crumley]

A little update on the 64....it is now a shell sitting in the shop.
And now the fun begins, I have started the removal of the floor boards, see pictures:

 

[Riverdawg]

Looking good, your making great progress. Wish I had the space and money to restore my 65 Coronet. Someday after the kids are out of college and I retire maybe. LOL

 

[Crumley]

Well I had time today to work on the 64 today....after drilling out a bunch of tack welds and using a wore out screw driver, hammer and chisel the front and back floor boards are now history, they are now just a pile of scrap metal in the shop floor.

The torque boxes on this car are in excellent shape to be 51 years old ....I have some extra 2" x 3" x .125 wall rectangular tubing laying around in the shop and before the new floors go in, I am getting the itch to make/ install some sub frame connectors while there is nothing in the way.....this should stiff-in up the body some...still clean up and metal prep to do before final installation the floors..see pictures.

 

[Crumley]

For those that are interested here is a little update on the 64 Belvedere: Finally got all of the cut tack welds ground down flush....did the 1st install of the AMD floor boards, it is very close, but no cookie, it will need a little tweaking...it is almost there but it will need a little persuasion as in (BFH)..lol. Lots of POR 15 has been applied for any rust proofing. I am trying to duplicated the tack welds that came from the factory but with a tack weld cutting bit this is a bit hard to do..I got so happy drilling holes and didn't realize I had cut holes in the wrong place....so there is welding repairs that had to be done before the floor gets installed. Which means lots of re-welding and grinding (oh joy). Currently there is nothing tacked down, the tacking process will start tomorrow morning..Hopefully buy lunch time tomorrow the front floor boards will be installed. See pictures:

 

[Superfreak]

Looking good.

 

[Crumley]

The front and back floor boards are now in. The AMD floor pans required a little and I mean very little tweeking to get them to work. Currently they are ramdomly tacked in case any adjustments where needed at final fit up...next week a lot of welding.

The next project will be doing the trunk and trunk extensions.

 

[desotoman]

looking good ! putting a trunk pan in my ralley green road runner fun,fun !lol

 

[Superfreak]

It is looking good.
Go with a stroked 440 or a 400 and have the blocks sonic checked before you start the engine build.

 

[Crumley]

Thanks guy's. Superfreak I am currently going back and forth on the engine. The car will spend most of its time being driven on the street, so the engine will need to be reliable. I have the original 318 poly engine and transmission for the car. Stroker kits and after market parts are being made for poly engine. They are getting good HP and torque numbers from them. But a rompin stompin stroked 440 would be awesome. The car isn't ready for the engine yet, so that gives me a little time to consider which route to take. I will contact the engine builder Joe Suchy gave me and discuss my options with him.

Not much to add for this week. The floor boards are now installed. I have been scrapping under coating off the bottom of the car. Not complaining due to it probably helped save the steel but their must be 100lbs of undercoating on the old Belvedere. While scraping the under coating I was planning my move on the trunk pans. The entire pan doesn't need to be removed, more good metal in the critical areas then bad.

I did pick up some 15" x 10" American Torque Thrust D wheels for the build. I guess there will be mini tubs in the future so I can get 295/ 50R15 tires on the back. See pictures:

 

[Crumley]

For those that are interested, a little Sunday afternoon update on the build. The badly rusted portions of the trunk floor have been removed. While the trunk sections are out, I will be removing undercoating with a hand scraper....all tho it isn't that bad....I have good tunes playing, the shop fan blowing. Under coat removal (by hand scraping) doesn't require any major brain power, so it is time to drink beer and scrap...lol. See Pictures:

 

[mr. b]

looking good keep up the great work

 

[Crumley]

A little update on the Belvedere:

Still scraping off the old under coating. My poor old hands are so sore. Painted POR15 on the inside of the frame rails and started cutting down the new trunk pan to fit. See pictures.



I have a question, while browsing this web site, I read, that when installing 1/4 panels the car needs to be sitting on all 4 wheels? Is this correct? The posting I am referring too, the 1/4 panels where being installed on a convertible. Is it the same for a hardtop? Did I read the posting correctly? What is the correct method for installing the 1/4 panels on a hardtop? Can they be installed and welded while the car is on jack stands? Or does the car need to be sitting on all four wheels?

 

[Superfreak]

Jack stands preferably.

 

[Crumley]

Here is a update for this week. The trunk pan is now installed, but I ran out of mixed gas and welding wire. So before I can finish, a visit will be made to welding supply house. See pictures:



During this past winter I fabricated this awesome tubing bender...It has been taking up space on the fabrication table and needed painting. So it got painted this weekend....it currently has 1 3/4" OD round tubing dies.....maybe roll bars in the Belvedere's future? I am itching to do bend some tubing and give new bender a workout?





- - - Updated - - -

An addition to the above update, please don't zoom in on the welds in the trunk pan......the burrs will cut the computer screen and cause damage.....lol.

 

[69roadr]

that's going to be one solid car. you are really doing a thorough job on it. love the wheels too. think i'm gonna go that route on my 69 RR

 

[Crumley]

For those that are interested here is an update:

The trunk pan is completely welded except the far right hand side where the trunk pan extension meets the new floor pan. A new right side trunk extension will be installed while the 1/4 panel is off.



I have installed bracing to help hold the inner panels in place along with bracing at the firewall to help support the door posts while the doors are on. See pictures:



Doors have been installed for 1/4 panel fitment. They open and close with a nice click sound like car doors are suppose too. Pictures:



I begun the process of drilling out the tack welds on the right side 1/4 panel. Currently I have stopped at the center of the fender opening. It is beginning to look like the the outer fender well will need some work or possibly replacing....we will see.

 

[Superfreak]

Looking good Crumley.

 

[Crumley]

For those that are following this build, here is an update:

RH 1/4 panel removed.


The manual window mechanism removed and soaking in the parts cleaner.


A little wire brushing on the inner structure:



The outer fender well needs work, so I went by Joe Sushy's and picked up a new outer fender well. The door closure has also been removed. Now it time for a lot of cleaning and POR15'ing on the inner structure.

 

[Crumley]

POR15 has been applied to the inner structure. The passenger side window mechanisem has been soaking in the parts washer and is currently drying. Will continue next weekend...