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Hey everyone I figured I myswell start a thread here to document my progress and keep me motivated. Hopefully some of you enjoy reading it.
Background on the car is that it is a 1970 442 Post coupe that my dad bought in 89. He drove the car for a few years and it was eventually parked for good in 93 or so and has been sitting since. I remember growing up and every time I would go to the farm I'd go look at the car and replace the mouse feed and for years I kept asking my dad to restore it. Long story short due to money and how busy we were as a family that never was able to happen. Fast forward to a few years ago when my dad bought a 72 Dodge Challenger project and are restoring that, (still in the process actually but a lot closer then the 442). This fall I finally convinced my dad to sell me the 442 so he could buy some parts for the challenger. So now I am taking on the task of restoring the car.
My goal for the car is it to be a nice driver that I can enjoy. The future plan is too go more pro touring with fully updated suspension but that is not in the budget at the moment.
Couple pics only the car when I brought it home and 1 from way back when my dad had it
So to update where we are today,
-The car needs a complete engine and tranny, had a Olds 350 and th350 that got thrown in before my dad purchased it. Motor is seized, and after a lot of debate between the sacreligious yet cheap Chevy route I decided to put in a Olds 455. I got a solid complete engine from a 71 with G heads to pstart the rebuild.
-Transmission on is still up in the air, debating between building up the th350 proper, getting a 400 or possible the overdrive 200R4 route.
-as far as body work it needs quarters, passenger side floorboard in front of the seat and some patch panels On each fender behind the wheel and the lower doors as well. So a lot of body work, luckily my dad does body work for a living and I'm gonna learn so that should be interesting.
-interior wise the rear seat is in great shape and all the door panels, dashpad, console should all be able to be cleaned up. Does need new carpet, front seat covers and headliner.
-suspension wise I plan on taking everything apart and replacing all the bushings, ball joints and steering components because the rubber has seen better days.
-it is a complete car with everything there, just a matter now of deciding what can be reused and what needs to be replaced.
So far the entire front clip has been pulled off the car and engine and transmission pulled. And thanks to
Our lovely Canadian winters that's how she's gonna sit till spring. I am working on whatever I can now with whatever garage space I have.
old engine and trans pulled from the car. Engine is seized so basically gonna get used for brackets and such. Still debating getting the trans rebuilt to simplify things compared to changing to a 400. I know a guy in town who rebuilds a lot of 350s for chevies that put out quite a bit out power that seem to hold up.
The 455 I'm putting in is back in town and on the engine stand. Was rebuilt recently and looks very clean, hopefully that cuts down a bit on the rebuild cost. Some info on the engine
71 Block .030" over with G heads, big valves.
stock crank and rods, speed pro forged pistons.
compression estimated at 9.5. Has the exhaust crossovers filled in the heads, some minor port work too.
Comp cams 280 magnum with lifters and double roller timing chain. Looks like stock stamped steel rocker arms but I'm not an olds guy yet so I'm not sure the differences between stock and repops.
Hooker 1 7/8" headers, edelbrock performer intake and I have a Holley HP 750 vac secondaries from the challenger I'll probably throw on top. Also came with an MSD ready to run distributor and msd wires I'll use instead of the HEI. Crank is also drilled for a 4 speed so that's a bonus if I decide to go that route sometime in the future.
Looks pretty good so far so it'll probably just get a refresh for the time being so the budget can be spent on other more pressing areas of the build. Anybody running a similar setup or have an idea of the power it will make so I have that information when deciding/building a tranny.
So here comes another update, got some good and some bad. Start of with the good, engine got a mild refresh and is getting reassembled and painted. Should suffice for a little while until I do a full rebuild. I also sourced a short tail TH400 with a fresh rebuild. Got a pretty good deal on it so that helps the budget. Now i need to source a th400 yoke and shorter driveshaft. If anyone in the Alberta area has one let me know. I also took some time this week to dive into the forward wiring harness and go thru it. Had some
pretty old and brittle wires and a few amateur splices. Next up is to take the entire dash harness out and go through it wire by wire to make sure it is all working. Kinda a painful job but it's easier to do now on a bench then on my back in the car when I realize something isn't working right.
as for the bad, finally got out to look at the car again this week and realized I got a 8.2" Chevy rear in it, it's the series three carrier with 3.73 gear posi. Unsure if it's worth spending any money trying to rebuild this rear end or if I should bite the bullet and look for something a little more stout. Opinions welcome on this one.
January 9th, 2018, 10:32 AM
