[bradhankins]

help i am building a 64 impala ss and whant to know what to use to convert to front and rear disc brakes also doing on a budget so what ever help i can get in the ? department will be great

 

[Bill in oz]

mate you going well good progress you will be cruising before you know it

 

[Dommers]

68 Caprice

Hey I got a question about removing the body off the frame. I have 2 holes in my front passenger and driver side floor. otherwise they need to be replaced. Should I fix the floor before I take it off the frame? I'm worried about when i lift if off before i fix the floors will it twist and not line up right when i go to put it back down on the frame??

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

help i am building a 64 impala ss and whant to know what to use to convert to front and rear disc brakes also doing on a budget so what ever help i can get in the ? department will be great

I actually bought a basic kit which was imported to Australia out of the states by a company here. The kit was the smaller power front disc kit, inc... booster, master cyl, proportioning valve, flexible lines, calipers , pads, rotors, bearings and drop stubs.... with all the fitting gear to go with it. This kit in my opinion offered very good value for money & would be cheaper over in the states - no freight to Aust. I bought the small kit cause i want to run the 14" wheels for a while. They only just clear some rims.

later i will probably use a complete diff assembly out of a later car that already has discs so that i get discs, LSD & a ratio of my choosing.

Thats the way i have done it.

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

Hey I got a question about removing the body off the frame. I have 2 holes in my front passenger and driver side floor. otherwise they need to be replaced. Should I fix the floor before I take it off the frame? I'm worried about when i lift if off before i fix the floors will it twist and not line up right when i go to put it back down on the frame??

Hey there

From my experience the body seems fairly ridgid even when off the chassis.... if you are only patching the holes you will probably get away with it off the frame.... if you are doing floor pans, you might want to support both the frame & the body to eliminate movement. I didn't have to do any of this kind of stuff, cause all the floor & rear quaters were already done when i got my car.

Not much help... sorry..

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

So..... once i had decided to paint it myself, it was time to rip into it. with some help from a mate of mine, we ripped the car to bits (again!) and wet rubbed & then painted the fire wall, door jambs, boot jamb, inside of all the removable panels, hinges, etc... etc.... this process had its high & low points with a few stuff ups made along the way. Being the first car i have painted i have learned a few hard leassons along the way. oh, and repainted a few things too!

Here are a couple of pics of the progress.....

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

So that i didn't have to paint all my bolts (which would mean cleaning em all first) i sent them away to get black zinc coated. The idea being it is easy to just brush touch them up later. The job done was not quite as good as i had hoped... the bloke said it was cause the bolts were old & some were a bit rust or had paint on them... but the new stuff i sent with them looked worse again i reckon. It will do the job i wanted however.

The next job was to wert rub the outside of all the panels & the body of the car. I envited a couple of mates over with a beer bribe to help get this done quickly. Once i got the bolts back we assembled the car (again!). we lined the panels up only sort of close as the body was still on my spare chassis at this stage.

With the stage set i masked the car & painted the outside the following Friday... all in all it worked quite well. being that i am painting in the garage there was some crap in the paint.... but i can live with that! As the car is painted Satain black there is no polishing.... so what i got is what i live with. its a fairly reasonable 2 meter job.... if i say so myself.

let me know what you think!

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

Ok.... so those last couple of pics are straight off the gun... while the paint was still wet!

here is what it looked like a day or so later, once the paint had flattened off......

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

The next stage of the process was to lift the body off the spare chassis.... clean, seal & paint the under side and then fit the body onto the correct chassis.....

Even though i had put the car on a hoist & pressure washed the whole under side when i first got it, this was a very dirty job! I used a brush on seam sealer then painted over the lot with stone guard.

I refitted the body to the chassis with a new body mount kit.

Now its starting to look like a car! Whooooo hoooo!

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

So the last thing to do before assembly continues is to paint the roof..... i wanted to get the car down low so the roof was easy to reach. Turns out i didn't even have to take the springs out!

I have painted the roof House of kolor, candy apple red. As this requires a little more finesse to get a good result i had my painter friend come over and lay the paint on at my place.

I am very happy with the results!

 

[Bill in oz]

Mate that is going to look sweet love the red on black

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

Thanks Bill

I finally got the car out in some sunlight the other week & got a few new pics. the Red roof really comes alive in the sun, here are some updated pictures.....

Seems most of my pics that i took are too big to post..... any hints on resizing them would be great......

Cheers

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

So its on to the slow, tedius & booring stuff now - assembly. I have spent hours & hours in the garage, and have very little to show for it! Most of the time is spent cleaning, painting, rebuilding & modifying..... just to fit up some small part that no one will even notice!

I rebuilt the steering column, new bearing in the bottom (also have on for the top too) modified to fit around the booster which i also modified slightly so that it can sit flat on the firewall. Painted my master cylinder & started bending up & flaring some brake lines. Started making a new fuel line too.... not real happy with what i have got at the moment..... see how it goes?!?

Some pics....

Cheers,
Simon

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

Here are a couple of the car pics that i resized.....

Cheers

 

[joshkovacs]

candy apple red paint

So the last thing to do before assembly continues is to paint the roof..... i wanted to get the car down low so the roof was easy to reach. Turns out i didn't even have to take the springs out!

I have painted the roof House of kolor, candy apple red. As this requires a little more finesse to get a good result i had my painter friend come over and lay the paint on at my place.

I am very happy with the results!

Hey i have been following your posts because you are staying a few steps ahead of me while I'm doing my 63 impala. my frame is completely done and its on wheels with the motor and trans all in. ive recently had the car stripped of its old paint and have began body work on the body itself. i finished smoothing the firewall a few days ago and im about done with the rear quarters (should be finished today) next is the fenders, hood, deck, and a few other pieces. paint is going to sneak up on me really fast and i have had my heart set on a bright red since the day i started this project until a few days ago when i saw what you did with the roof of your. that is the perfect color and i have decided to do the whole car in the candy apple red besides the rood which im thinking about finishing in a pearl white to give a candy effect. what can you tell me about the paint? how much did it cost you for the candy and silver base coats per quart along with the clear?

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

Hey i have been following your posts because you are staying a few steps ahead of me while I'm doing my 63 impala. my frame is completely done and its on wheels with the motor and trans all in. ive recently had the car stripped of its old paint and have began body work on the body itself. i finished smoothing the firewall a few days ago and im about done with the rear quarters (should be finished today) next is the fenders, hood, deck, and a few other pieces. paint is going to sneak up on me really fast and i have had my heart set on a bright red since the day i started this project until a few days ago when i saw what you did with the roof of your. that is the perfect color and i have decided to do the whole car in the candy apple red besides the rood which im thinking about finishing in a pearl white to give a candy effect. what can you tell me about the paint? how much did it cost you for the candy and silver base coats per quart along with the clear?

Hey there

Sorry its taken so long to get back to you.

I think the white pearl roof over Kandy red will look great!

There are two things to know about the Kandy paints-

A. It is essential that a skilled painter apply it so that you dont get streaks in the red bit. If you get a thin patch it is almost imposible to hide.

B. The color does fade faster than conventional paints i am told. So if the car lives out in the weather, esp. lots of direct sunlight, you might be better using a metalic solid red.

On the plus side, the color looks fantastic when applied correctly, and especially in direct sunlight.

The Kandy is sold as a kit & the silver was just a fine metalic two pack. Some people use gold metalic under it to give the color a bit more pop.... i stuck with silver.

As for price, i am in Australia and bought most of my paint localy and all at the same time through a painter friend of mine who only charges me his cost price. So i really have no idea what that part of it cost me, or what it is worth on the retail market.

I would be keen to see a couple of pics of your progress if you have some. Best of luck with the build!

Cheers
Simon.

 

[CHILNLO]

This is really looking NICE It's going to feel good to know you built it the way you wanted to be. Keep up the good work.

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

Hey all

So i have been real busy building and not spent much time on the computer lately..... with an agressive time line, i am tring to spend every waking minute in the garage..... much to my wifes disgust!

i have finished all the brake lines, which came up better than i expected, and fitted up the fuel line (new from tank to carby). We bled up the brakes & only had one small leak where a fitting had not seated properly.... with that fixed i had brakes!

With brakes in place & the engine plumbed, i painted my starter & custom alternator & fitted them up.

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

With that done, i changed track for a bit & trial fitted the side glass & the regulators & stuff..... they were not in the car when i got it, so that was fun!

The rear windows were in good nick, so that went together very easily..... the lower channel on the front windows were rusted badly, so i have ordered new channels & the rubber fitting strip. The front quater windows & front side windows are a bit rough, so i have cleaned them up as best i can & will use them for now. Later i might try to find some clean second hand ones.....

I also cleaned up & fitted out the chomework & switches on the dash, these came up better than expected.

I also fitted up the proper suspension (for registration purposes) so that the car could easily go on & off a trailer........

 

[[ UNEASY ]]

But that is not all.... with this stuff done, i loaded the car onto a trailer & took it to an exhaust place to have an exhaust made for the car. Gary at Trufit did an excellent job, crafting an exhaust that sits up high (for clearance later) but doesn't hit the body! The pipe work is 2&1/4 inch with a resonator up front & muffler up back on each side.

When i got it home i decided to wire the engine bay & fire up the motor for the first time.....

The wiring took a bit more time than i expected, but the result was worth it, i decided to wire the whole car over from scratch.... reusing only the factory switches in the dash. Its still not quite finished, but so far so good! Once its finished & tested, i will bundle up the looms to neaten it all up.

With the engine bay wired (a little temporary in some spots), plumbed & the radiator fitted up, we fired up the motor..... whooo hoooooo.... it sounded sooo good!

With the cam run in & the idle set, it starts & runs like a dream & the exhaust sounds sweet as!