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1965 Chevelle Malibu - The new "family" hot rod.

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Nope! Keep following along for all the triumphs and fails.

Bunch of parts showed up over the last couple days. Doing a "budget" handling upgrade. Front shocks are still on backorder. Probably wait till everything is in hand before I tear it apart.

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I took care of one small annoyance today. The turn signal cancel cam was inop. Initially I bought the Dorman cancel cam. That was a big fail. Did NOT fit. So I ended up buying the entire turn signal switch. That worked much better. Now I don't do that old man thing where you drive for 5 miles with your blinker on... Took it out for a test drive to make sure everything was good. Pulled back in the garage and found this.

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Yay! So the plan is to just throw in a cheap eBay aluminum radiator to get me by until I do the LS swap. Then I will spend the long dollar on a quality piece.
 


new shiny parts. so nice to have.

bet you could clean them two fins up and solder that and save the money for a real rad for the ls.
 
Scottydoggs said:
bet you could clean them two fins up and solder that and save the money for a real rad for the ls.
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Hmm. Maybe, but there's been a change of plans. Guy I bought the car from managed to track down an original radiator. He's got connections all over for old GM stuff. Especially A body parts. This one cost me exactly $0. He even delivered it.

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According to the sticker, it got a re-core in '94, could be '97. Regardless, it should last a little while.

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I'm going to flush it out and hit it with some paint. Call that good for now.
 
Yeah, it's nice having connected friends.

"New" radiator is in. Ran the car around the block a couple times. Should be good for another 25 years. Honestly, I probably only need it for maybe one or two. Turns out it wasn't exactly free. I had to buy some fittings. Old rad had inverted flare for the trans cooler, but oddly enough, the new one was pipe thread. Some 1/4" NPT to 5/16" inverted flare adapters and I was in business. I gotta admit, I'm pretty happy with my Rustoleum rebuilt radiator!

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Also installed the glove box trim. It was gone when I bought the car. I can handle old, dirty and tarnished parts. That doesn't bother me. But I don't like it when things are just plain missing.

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Front end is done. Upper and lower tubular control arms. Moog upper and lower ball joints. Moog inner/outer tie rods and adjusters. Gabriel shocks and Moog (stock) sway bar bushings. I did a quick string alignment. I still have a small coolant leak from the lower hose, so I only took it around the block a few times, but what a difference. The old stuff was so clapped out, I could move the upper arms back and forth by hand. The front end would "pop" when I backed out of the driveway. Not anymore. Everything is good and tight now. I must have done something right. The car tracks straight with the steering wheel on center. I know I'll eventually need a "professional" alignment, but that probably won't be till after the swap. I'm not in love with the wheel/tire combo and I may end up cutting the springs. Time will tell the whole story, but I'm pretty happy with the China arms for what I paid.

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I made an internal spring compressor out of junk 60e parts. Maybe brilliant, maybe stupid but it worked. Took just enough tension off the spring to pop it into the cup without a fight. I didn't get summer teeth, so I'm happy.

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New lower radiator hose is on the way. Hopefully that fixes the leak.
 
Well shoot. My freebie radiator turned out to be no good. That coolant leak at the lower hose was the seam between the outlet and lower tank. Back to plan "A." Here's the $150 ebay special. Not bad for the price. Hopefully it lasts till the LS goes in.




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SgtMarshal said:
that's a big radiator and it looks real nice. is it like a universal radiator?
Click to expand...

It's a "direct fit" more or less. Thanks to GM's parts bin engineering, this same radiator fits a crap ton of cars. I had to add some spacers and move some things around, but it fits without modifying anything per se.

Scottydoggs said:
thats to shinny lol
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's a nice piece, but it's out of place in this car. Next one will probably get a scuff and shoot.
 


Time for an update I suppose. Rear suspension stuff is in, eBay radiator is doing work. Been working on moving the battery to the trunk. That was a process, but it's all done now. I went ahead and got it set up for the future with a power distribution block. 2 circuits are SSR's so I can PWM a pair of big fuel pumps. I'll probably use another circuit for Methanol injection and the other 3 will be open for something else. Also ran a constant power wire for the radio so I don't lose my presets when I throw the kill switch. :cool:

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While I was running wire for all the trunk stuff, I went ahead and ran some speaker wire. I have a pair of 6"x9" Kenwoods in the package tray now.

Most recently, I swapped rear ends. It's just another 10 bolt but with a posi and 3.55 gears. I wasn't ready to swap rears just yet, but it was a deal too good to pass. It probably won't hold up to the power I plan to make eventually, but it should be good for a while. I'm told the rear cover with the cap supports makes a big difference.

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Next on the list? Who knows. Maybe I start the rebuild/refresh on the donor motor.
 
Through a bit of negotiating and trade, I got my hands on a LQ4. I'm in the process of refreshing that now.

Dingle ball hone
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Run EVERYTHING through the parts washer
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Paint the block
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Check bearing clearance and crank endplay. Assemble with new main, rod and cam bearings.
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Rings are gapped at 0.024"/0.026". They should handle a fair bit of boost. Especially if I run on E85 or spray methanol on pump gas.
 


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