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35 YEARS off the Road - Classic Chevelle's First Passes are INCREDIBLE!

Mar 23, 2024
A guy recently put my 71 Chevelle, which was converted into a drag car in the early '80s, on the dyno, and many of you were impressed with the results, but what a guy really needs is a seat test. pants and a piece of paper. That's right, we're going to load the Chevelle into the ramp truck, head to the local track and do some banging, but

first

this has to get through Tack and I've also identified some issues that need to be addressed

first

, let's dive in, thanks. Now make sure they stay here until we have run this team on the track.
35 years off the road   classic chevelle s first passes are incredible
I was able to contact the original owner and the Feller who built this car and we had some really great conversations and I have the full story. on this platform, everything from bumpers to bumpers, and I want to let you know, but right now we need to focus on getting this ready and, at the track, this morning, over coffee, we decided to go to this test and tune the track. It's hot at noon. We have a long way to go to get there so we ran this on the dyno and it was much lower than many of you thought it should be, yeah maybe they are small block Chevrolets, typical, the biggest problem was how it looked or sounded. like it was going through the converter or the power was not being transferred to the wheels.
35 years off the road   classic chevelle s first passes are incredible

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35 years off the road classic chevelle s first passes are incredible...

I realized we had a little bit of power too. Now as for power, that night I went back and turned it on again. It's a good time to try. for lightning leaks, indeed I found one, look at this now as far as the torque converter is concerned. I know what's here, it shouldn't be stuck that high, it could be the converter or the transmission slipping or a combination of both, but I drove this thing hundreds and hundreds of miles and hours and hours and hours on end trusting it not to slip. I think it's just the converter.
35 years off the road   classic chevelle s first passes are incredible
Well, we have to get it on track. We really turn that slush box around and see what happens in there. Then we can. make some adjustments or figure out what to do biggest concerns today we have to fix that ray leak we have to change the seat and we have to update the belts to make this happen Tech I think everything else is here we have a rad overflow the battery is exhausted, we've got all the nuts and bolts, you know, basic stuff, we're not going to be racing in any fast class, so the technology is pretty, you know, thin, I'm just going to push this car forward so we can get the door open let's get started first on the inside, the difficult part.
35 years off the road   classic chevelle s first passes are incredible
The tire is still flat, the wind won't stay here. We should fix it someday. No, probably not, so the first thing a man should address is the seat here. I can't do it safely. fit I have a funny story about the height of the original owner. I'll tell you a little later, but this is too high. My head is in the ceiling hooves above the bar. Big No-No, look, it has to go down a little bit and I also have to get one, you know, for some Shakira hips. I'm not a skinny Feller and I say your belt has to come out, we have to update them too.
Remember I found the SFI tag here, here, it's here. August 1988, expired. Oh. Okay, okay, sixteenths looks like oh, this one didn't even have a nut, okay, you don't need belts. Okay, the seat is out. You know, in general, the apartment is in good condition. It has had some rearrangements. We'll put it that way. there is some tanning, I don't know if it was to fix the rust or partially for the cage because we also have some patches here, but the seat was moved a couple of 15 times, it actually looks like this once probably forward and that's why that we have all these holes I hope my new seat has the same extension and we can use the existing holes, it will just be a lot lower, let's leave the seat and the belts and everything alone, well, eventually, you know, fix that or do it. a match, but we're trying to get to the court today and get some shots in, so we're not going to worry about that.
I might vacuum here real quick so I don't have wood chips exploding. my nose, you know what I mean, that would be nice, yeah, and have a guy come to the other side, maybe we'll see, oh yeah, wood chips and zip ties, sounds like what I'd call my band if I had a zip tie on Wood chips, Woody and zip ties, what do you want from me? Well, here's the guy in the old seat. You would think he would choose something nice and comfortable for a new seat. No, we'll keep his old school style slightly different because I'm a lot taller.
I need my belts up here, eventually we'll have to change the cage in the car, so I'm planning on that. I don't want to buy seats twice, unfortunately the mounting pads don't line up, so we're going to be drilling another 58 holes in the floor, maybe we can line up three of them, but the other side isn't as good, but that's it. what are we going to do. I think I may have bought pads for these. I'll have to check it out. Can't. I remember at this point, but let's put this in and screw it up quickly.
All I'm going to do is try to line up as many existing bolt holes as I can probably to the side of the bar and then we'll have to figure it out. how to mark the other side write them drill some holes I'm going to use new grade 8 hardware instead of that stuff that was there with some nice big washers and serrated nuts to make it a little more secure. I love it when something you don't plan comes together as a plan, write it down, look how high that seat is and forward and then look at this one, it's exactly what a guy needed to control my melon here and then we have a little bit too. a little more backwards a little thinner seat a little different style doesn't have that cup those are more like Baja sand buggy type seats so we're going to have to drill a lot of holes Looks like here maybe I can use just one , but I can use it as a reference point if I could slide a bolt in there and we'll start simulating everything else.
I might jump in and see because it actually looks a little better. there I want it centered on the Wheel, let me play with this space a little too tight, I couldn't even fit a scribe in there, so what I did was, you know, get something. Keep going and it will be close. I'm going to end up loosening the brackets by dropping the bolts first and then we'll drop the bolts to the floor and screw them in from the bottom basically, but I hope this gives us some indication of where we need to drill those holes which actually worked a lot better than I thought.
I was thinking, pull it out, there's the other one, here we are using that one and the piece of cake looks a little crooked compared to the previous one, but the seam is what ruins it. Well, now you have more holes in Independence for the Titanic. We'll come back and have to fix this after we redo the bar. At some point we'll have to put another skin here and try to maintain this a little bit. More weather resistant, not that this is going to see weather, but we just don't want this to start rusting and turning into, you know, Bagel floor cancer instead of trying to fight under the car and hold this up and try tighten nuts here and deal with it and then you have to get a precise bolt so it doesn't go into the seat.
I loosen the bracket and we'll put the bolts in like this, tightening this again and then we just have to line them up with the floor and put nuts in from the bottom and it should make the job a lot easier. The six bolts slid down into place. I think I'm going to use these big heavy duty washers, but I'm going to look for some flat serrated nuts with like a flange on them, so bite these nice steps underneath, tighten them up, see, it's done, that's what I'm talking about here, these are grade eight flange lock nuts, so they should grab those washers pretty well, so when setting up the straps, make sure you follow them. the manufacturer's instructions specifically and you know, sometimes I joke about safety and all that.
I'm not very good at using PPE, but man, I'm telling you with belts, if you don't use them correctly, they're actually more dangerous than good, that's one. One of the other reasons we had to change the seat is that the orientation of the belt over the shoulder was incorrect. There is a sweet spot here. Actually, it's in this one. Look here. It's excessive in any direction. We were going down too far to go over my shoulders. It's bad for your spine, so also how you wrap them if you're doing it over the bar or if you're doing a straight pin to the bar, pay attention to that, now I like to do one, sit in the car, get it close.
Throw it on the ground like this, stretch them the same way and then finish them so I like to put them back through the buckle like this and then I'll roll this up and then I'll put a zip tie through it down here. So it's going to be two types of rolls, we're going to slide them through the seat bolt onto the bar and then the lap belts are going to be easy on the sub strap because it has these nice adapter runes which is the factory position for the old seat belt, so it's very nice and safe and it's in a very good position, actually still with the seat, so that's good, so that one up there we're in Uptown.
I ordered some well, first I ordered by cheapest price and there we go. It came with some buttons here and I guess we have to snap them together or something to make this click. It comes with like six, we'll probably do two. You know, you just have to make this strap. Lap belts. Pop. A couple of screws done, this should. let's get a good sweaty back in the summer seat, the belts are ready, now let's get this hit and the eight hoses here, the lightning hoses are dripping lightning, specifically this one here, you can see it's been modified lately to deal Preventing that from happening in the past hasn't worked, so let me think we'll go ahead and invent one.
I could make some up and replace this with a new boot. We know we have new oil in this fill pan, all the juices. they are full. I'm going to have to drain this and just fill it with water before I hit the trail. I have to change some tires and wheels, but we are getting there, maybe we will make it today. I just finished putting this out. check this out yeah no wonder he was missing a lightning bolt we're going to have to go back and check all this at this point in fact i think he was the only one who ever had an elbow in fact that guy was already replaced, but this one.
I replaced it on a

road

trip home if you remember, but let's check again. The rest is probably fine. I went to the parts store and bought an ACA sale. I don't know what had 90 degree boots that hit these the hardest. The days will come with two bags, one will be for points or a performance coil type application and one bag will be HEI, any you don't use, throw them on the shelf, we've never gone over this before so I'm going to quickly show you how to make cables if you haven't done it before. It looks and sounds super intimidating, but it's actually extremely easy.
All you need, obviously, are your cables. You need a tool, this is for making sockets. cables, but you don't need to have this like a pocket knife and some kits like the MSDS will have a little clamp here that you can put in a vise to crimp them. You just need this part here. I'm going to put the Plug-in boot protectors need a little silicone or some kind of lubricant and that's it guys, go measure the old one, cut the new one to size or if you want to do something, you know a little more trick what they can do. get extra length from them, for example on some older engines like 283s 307s the spark plug wires go around the bottom of the engine and then back up and around, this is a mess because of the way we go to simply copy them. what we have now for now and I don't know one day we will change the headers we can change it.
I'm just trying to get it on track, well we need tuning and safe starting, starter protector tool, new arrester hose, let me go. a little more time right there, cut this cut, you know, then I'm going to put on the boot protector, that's for boot protection, a little juice down here, slide this up, everyone does this a little differently, but in the end I think they all end up with the same result. You have to lighten that hose. Sure now I trimmed just the end where I was messing it up with my player. Take out the center electrode like this.
I like to pinch my connector a little. So I always come in a little bag, you know, fold this back, slide your accessory, bring your tool here, something like that, squeeze it, don't go crazy with the squeezes, you can actually do the opposite and hurt yourself, slide your accessory . back over the boom, a custom length lightning hose, we can put this on and we'll go check a couple more to make sure they're okay, it's going to look ridiculous. I just don't know if I have time to sit here and review. all this maybe I don't know well before I put this back up.
I thought this had already been licensed but probably not enough and I watched an episode of Engine Masters,driver here is the most important thing, so now we know we need a radiator and the Liberty Chevelle, we'll put it on the list, you should probably move on to the digital fans anyway, here's the fantastic news. We just hit our new personal best in Liberty 8.10 in 8th. Now there are a lot of calculators out there that will probably tell you different things, the most accurate one I could find that tells you the weight and everything else to convert it to a 12 6 or a 12 6 and change twelve six four twelve six five the old timer said which about 12 38 was the best of his career and that was with a 488 gear.
He was also a much smaller guy so we're making a good three, you know what that is? 0.3 there isn't much air pressure sync mod for the driver, certainly gear 488, so the car still runs the way it runs. I will confidently say decades after being built in the 80's, it was honestly a blast, the family had a lot of fun. Go back to the shop, load this up, take it back to the shop. I'm going to sit down with you, it's been a few minutes and let's talk about the history of this car. I have everything since it came out of the car.
I really think you are going to enjoy it. I know I did it right, as you can see we got home safely and successfully with the 71 Chevelle. Now it was Liberty who put her to bed for now, safe and secure the way we have a round. of applause for the ramp truck, another smooth ride, it's still just me, thanks for the four that applauded Jeremy, you think you're cut off, Feller, best to rest for the night anyway, let's talk about the Chevelle here for a minute , what a successful day, so I had a conversation. Many of you were probably waiting for this.
I had a conversation with the previous owner and his name is Ed, what a super nice guy. He now he bought exactly this car. I remember I'm the second owner bought this car new when I was a senior in high school, he doesn't remember exactly how much but he thinks it was around three thousand dollars, it's not a heavy Chevy, that's one of the first things I bought . I asked him because to be honest the value of the car he knew would be through the roof and he said no it was just a basic Malibu Plain Jane Blue so it was originally blue and was painted however it was painted in 1999. 24

years

ago, I think according to the math and look how beautiful it is still one of the reasons why you think and I agree that it was like last year that you could use lead-based paint, some paint from the old school, it's thick, it's hard. holds up to everything better than most doesn't chip easily and hence the beautiful Chevelle here still looks very very good now he told me he started with a 307 started jumping around and got a little bored and moved on to a 350 started to really get into it in racing and stuff like that and then he tore up the interior and did some other things and tried to make it faster and finally ended up with this 400 here and it's a 406 so it's boring. flat top pistons, they have standard camel hump heads that have been, you know, 49 angle valve work and all this and that, but they are standard double hump heads, they have what's called a Crane Commander cam, which back in the day was the Remember this was built in the mid 80's so the performance options weren't like today where you could go on the internet and get whatever you wanted and then all the other parts and make a profit rapid.
Another question I asked him was: you? Actually just take it to the track with a hitch and then run and he said yes absolutely there should be some missing hardware and some marks on the bumper which I was able to confirm on both sides and that is due to a tongue hitch that shot. this on the track, I just couldn't get a tow, you know, that's how it was, one guy wanted the race, so I thought it was really cool and he also mentioned to me that it's mainly around 411, which is what the car does . has right now and I'll come back to that in a second.
He ran 488 for a short period of time and that's when he ran his best quarter mile ever in 12 38 with us back in the day he said this was a 60 foot monster those were his words he said he would win 10 seconds to the 60-foot cars and then they would have to chase me down the track and we ran like it was one, six, one, seven, 60 feet today. really respectable when you look at turbo cars and things like that racing one two you know a teenager maybe some on the 130 whatever that's huge if you think about it I'm gutted to put up with this thing racing that one time and so is he so that's really cool, it currently has a 411, so when you think about running an A10 in the eight today with the 411 gear, you know that decades later the car is in good shape and when I do the theoretical math work, I call this backwards a 3,300 pound car. just from experience running the Eighth Mile, which is what I used to do when I was a kid, you know, a grasshopper, what not, this is 315 to 325 horses all day behind the wheel, which brings us very close to that power for cubic inch in an engine.
Dyno and I have done that many times, you've seen me with basic GM stuff and a cam like that 307 we built and so on, so it's a really good car overall. He put coins in it once when he had it. painted but said otherwise it has never seen rain it has never seen snow it has never been in storage Outside it has been waxed more times than you can count it has simply been cared for its entire life and clearly we could see that and we are going to continue to do so What are you going to see? this car on the canal quite often.
It's obviously our nice car in the barn. We weren't nervous about this thing. I don't know how, do you know how to work on it without scratching it? It's where We're still trying to figure out that we have big plans for this, at least our idea of ​​big plans we'd still love to hear yours. 80th Street Machine was absolutely viable, it still works great today, but what's the next phase? We have to call it Liberty 2.0, so I look forward to seeing the guys' comments on it, thanks for watching, as always, I really appreciate it and we'll see. you very soon

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