'79 Chevy Caprice 2-door then and now...

Bearing/rod damage and bare block:

















I had my fingers crossed for a 4-bolt main and when I removed the oil pan, the dream was shattered. Oh well, still a nice 350. Should be an easy rebuild for the most part. I'm not looking for high performance on this one, just simply a nice stock or maybe a little better than stock build for a cruiser car.

The cam is in excellent condition and since it's an older hardened cam, I'm reusing it with some new lifters. The heads looked ok, but I'm going to go ahead and have a valve job done while it's apart. This engine has clearly been rebuilt once since the bearings were all .10 and someone decided 2-barrel intake and carb was the way to go then. Not for me. I'll be upgrading to a 4 barrel carb and intake. Looking to spend no more than 1,500.00 on this rebuild and I think I can pull that off pretty easily.

A little off topic, but here is the last engine I built that now resides in the KITT car:





What it looks like in KITT:





The 350 I'm building for the Caprice will look similar to this in that it will be bright orange, but I may do chrome valve covers on this one along with a little more chrome here and there. Not sure yet, but to me, a small block Chevy has to be orange. Other colors just won't do for me.

Oh yeah thats right they were 2 bolt mains back then, they werent making enough power to break anything inside them lol. But it looks very very clean. My original 350 with 101k on it wasnt that clean. That 327 looks absolutely amazing!

Small update, but hey, progress is progress. Finally got a decently cool day to work on it this past Sunday. The gas tank is now out. Tank is in great shape! A little scrubbing, sanding and a nice coat of POR-15 and I'll reuse this tank after I have it thoroughly cleaned inside by a shop here that does that sort of thing. It's actually very clean inside surprisingly. I need to find a sending unit that includes a return. This only has a vent and the main line. I don't like not having a return. Surely, there's a sending unit out there this design with 3 tubes on it right? The fuel gauge didn't work on this car, so I suspect it's bad anyway and while it's out, might as well replace it.

Pics:





Next will be exhaust and then the hard lines and everything else attached to the frame and body underneath. I'm leaving the axle and front suspension on it right now as there is a chance I may be taking this on a trailer over to a buddy's house to fix the floor pans and rear package shelf since he has a nice welding setup ready to go. Then, I'll bring it back and pull the body off the frame and begin the sanding and coating of it all. Should be fun this Fall!

I didn't check out this whole thread till just now. I see what you mean the rust in the rear thankfully nothing quite that

bad in mine. BTW though great work, when you start taking everything off and then putting it all back together it can be

tough, but sure is a good bit of fun!
1

solo79 wrote:Finally got another one!!!  This is going to be my new project.  A quick little back story.  When I was 16, my dad bought me a 79 Chevy Caprice Classic 2-door for my first car and gave 750.00 for it in 1994.  I drove/babied that car, and eventually turned it into a lowrider show car around 1999-2002 and won tons of awards with it.  I have over 70 trophies from that car.  It was shown in lowrider magazine a couple times and was named "Solo79."  Unfortunately, due to financial circumstances in 2004, I was forced to sell it and hated every minute of it.  I was the third owner of it and since 2004, it's had 14 owners and now resides somewhere in Detroit, Mi.  I tried to buy it back in the last 2 years with no luck so I gave up on it and decided to buy another one.  Here are some pictures of my former car.  I know the lowriding hobby isn't for everyone and some frown upon it, but it's what I like to do and they way I do it, doesn't tear up the car since I'm an "easy on the equipment kind of guy."  Anywhere here are the pics of my first car:

Hi! I just found this thread here while browsing through the web and I am stoked! My current project is a 1986 Chevy Caprice Station which came from California in 2009 and is in my hands here in Germany since March this year. So it's quite a long travel

I'm fixing a lot and there will for sure be some questions, but my first one is the following regarding your first Caprice:
where did you get all the nice blue hoses (and vacuum hoses,too?) and the chromed radiator housing and connection pieces for the hoses? My caprice will get kind of the same color as yours, so this pieces would be just perfect for it to look good again

have a look at (though it's in german) my blog

cheers!

razzbury_shark wrote:

solo79 wrote:Finally got another one!!!  This is going to be my new project.  A quick little back story.  When I was 16, my dad bought me a 79 Chevy Caprice Classic 2-door for my first car and gave 750.00 for it in 1994.  I drove/babied that car, and eventually turned it into a lowrider show car around 1999-2002 and won tons of awards with it.  I have over 70 trophies from that car.  It was shown in lowrider magazine a couple times and was named "Solo79."  Unfortunately, due to financial circumstances in 2004, I was forced to sell it and hated every minute of it.  I was the third owner of it and since 2004, it's had 14 owners and now resides somewhere in Detroit, Mi.  I tried to buy it back in the last 2 years with no luck so I gave up on it and decided to buy another one.  Here are some pictures of my former car.  I know the lowriding hobby isn't for everyone and some frown upon it, but it's what I like to do and they way I do it, doesn't tear up the car since I'm an "easy on the equipment kind of guy."  Anywhere here are the pics of my first car:

Hi! I just found this thread here while browsing through the web and I am stoked! My current project is a 1986 Chevy Caprice Station which came from California in 2009 and is in my hands here in Germany since March this year. So it's quite a long travel

I'm fixing a lot and there will for sure be some questions, but my first one is the following regarding your first Caprice:
where did you get all the nice blue hoses (and vacuum hoses,too?) and the chromed radiator housing and connection pieces for the hoses? My caprice will get kind of the same color as yours, so this pieces would be just perfect for it to look good again

have a look at (though it's in german) my blog

cheers!

Hi and welcome to the forum!! Glad to have you.

Most of the blue stuff and hose connections I bought off Ebay years ago. I'm not even sure it's still available for sure. I did find a link to some blue vacuum hose:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-ID-3mm-1-8-Silicone-Vacuum-Hose-Pipe-High-Performance-Tubing-10-feet-/251177345499?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item3a7b5621db&vxp=mtr

That is similar to what I used and if you search around on ebay, you'll find several different sizes of that in blue.

I also used blue wire loom which I had to replace about every year because it just didn't hold up well to heat in the engine bay. Here is a link to something similar:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BLUE-WIRE-COVERING-LOOM-CONVOLUTED-TUBING-SPLIT-LOOM-OVER-25-FEET-LOT-/171362086928?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27e5f9f010&vxp=mtr

The chrome half shroud and radiator support was an original aftermarket product made for different vehicles and I made it fit. It is not designed for the Caprice, but with a little work, it can be made to fit. Here are some links to pretty much the same thing I used:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-Chrome-5-1-2-Wide-Radiator-Fan-Shroud-Chevy-Ford-Dodge-Street-Hot-Rod-/161350520607?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item25913d8f1f&vxp=mtr

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chrome-Radiator-Cover-Support-Panel-Chevelle-68-69-70-72-73-77-Truck-67-72-/151340111251?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item233c92d593&vxp=mtr

I can't remember if I had a 3" or 5.5" shroud though (the first link). They have both. You'll have to measure to see if a 5.5" will work.

Here is a link to what you see on my hoses, radiator hose and heater hoses:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-Stainless-Steel-Braide-Hose-and-End-Sleeve-Kit-Chrome-/171375280034?pt=Race_Car_Parts&hash=item27e6c33fa2&vxp=mtr

Hope this helps you.

Nice links btw I wouldn't mind some the silicone vacuum hose. Although many don't seem

to care for the silicone radiator hose I never tried them though. I also read few articles

like this one http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/1246/Silicone-Radiator-Hoses-Not-for-the-Street.aspx.

You ever try silicone radiator hose?

Anyhow thanks I like that shroud too might consider one of them.

Myloth wrote:Nice links btw I wouldn't mind some the silicone vacuum hose. Although many don't seem

to care for the silicone radiator hose I never tried them though. I also read few articles

like this one http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticles/ID/1246/Silicone-Radiator-Hoses-Not-for-the-Street.aspx.

You ever try silicone radiator hose?

Anyhow thanks I like that shroud too might consider one of them.

All 9c1's came with silicon hoses.  Look for the green ones.  They handle high temps and don't blow out like regular ones.  They're pretty much indestructible and last forever.  

wow thanks a LOT! that's great work and links! Unfortunately I didn't get a notification mail about your reply, so please don't mind about my ate reply

i'll give it try, thx!
Max

Hey solo, on that chrome radiator support, did you have to drill new holes to make that work, because i just ordered one, and the holes dont line up.

GM B-Body Forum wrote:Hey solo, on that chrome radiator support, did you have to drill new holes to make that work, because i just ordered one, and the holes dont line up.

Yes sir, had to drill 4 new holes. Mine didn't line up either. I remember thinking when I first got it back then how it would be so cool if they did line up when I first sat it on there, but they didn't. I just centered the radiator first, then centered the chrome support with the radiator, pulled it forward a little to just cover the original holes and marked the new holes.

Gotcha, im just using the two center holes as those lined up but the outer two didnt, its strong with just the two bolts so im going to leave it at that. I was just curious how you did yours.

Update: I finally scored a very nice rust free floor pan for my car out of a 94 Buick Roadmaster in the junkyard. Here are some photos of the pan:













I cut out quite a bit more than I really needed, but it was just easier and quicker using battery powered tools. Now, I can carefully remove most of my floor and graft this one in hopefully by the fall.

Those floors look really nice, bet you cant wait to get those in there!

I don't envy the work involved but that is a nice pan!

Myloth wrote:I don't envy the work involved but that is a nice pan!

Thanks!  I don't envy it either.lol  It was a TON of work by myself and even though I had 10 batteries and 4 chargers it still took almost 2 days to get it out.  There's a lot of thinking that goes into it and figuring out where to cut it and then fighting dead batteries that won't charge because they are too hot.  After the first day, I took all of the batteries home and put them in the refrigerator for about 2 hours then began charging them all back up.  This allowed me to finish the next day in less than 3 hours.  Fortunately, the car was up high enough that I was able to tilt the floor at an angle, slide it down under and out from the car.  Otherwise, I would have had to take the doors off one side and cut the door pillar out which would have been a major job and probably another day since by the time I was finished cutting the floor out, I was down to my last 2 batteries.

I used a combination of a dewalt grinder with a 6" cutting wheel and a dewalt sawzall with short and long metal cutting blades. The yards don't allow generators and don't allow torches or plasma cutters for insurance reasons, so battery power is all you're allowed. They do let you charge your batteries in their office though.

GM B-Body Forum wrote:Those floors look really nice, bet you cant wait to get those in there!

Yep and the underside looks just as nice with only tiny specs of surface rust here and there which I will be getting rid of this weekend so they don't get worse while it's waiting to go in the car. If I decide to graft in the entire pan, I may go ahead and flip it upside down and POR-15 the bottom of it while it's easy to do. My buddy wants to look at it first before I decide to do that due to how we might cut/weld it in, but I think I could go ahead and coat most of it.

My idea is to carefully drill out all of the spot welds in my floor that holds it to the rear brace between body mounts (right where those back seat bottom press-in mounts are on top, drill out all the spot welds and remove all of my seat mounting braces, then cut out only enough so that the new pan will overlap the sides, front, and back and sit on my rear brace, then weld it all up both sides. I'll have to remove the rear brace off the 94 pan since it's cut anyway. Sounds good in theory, but we have to look at it some more and come up with a good game plan.

It's good you can weld it yourself the cost of labor and\or even finding a willing body is getting hard. Looking at the sheetmetal

brings thoughts of a roll cage to mind to stiffen it all up. I have been contemplating it but have always found a full cage

annoying in a street car. Are you modifying your frame at all?

Myloth wrote:It's good you can weld it yourself the cost of labor and\or even finding a willing body is getting hard. Looking at the sheetmetal

brings thoughts of a roll cage to mind to stiffen it all  up.  I have been contemplating it but have always found a full cage

annoying in a street car. Are you modifying your frame at all?

I'm still thinking about reinforcing the frame. I'll probably plate both sides of the rear axle arches with 3/16" steel and box it in under the doors. The frame sections under the doors are very week c-channel. I think it would go a along way boxing that in to stiffen and strengthen the car up. If you look at wagons, the frames are boxed under the doors instead of open on one side. I can get all of the pre-cut/shaped metal for the rear arches and under the doors for around 500.00 from one of those shops that specialize in lowriders. I think that's a good price for not having to cut, shape your own and it all comes pre-drilled with the original factory hole locations and openings. Then comes the task of welding it all on and grinding it all nice and smooth for a nice strong finish. I've got so much to do before I even think about getting to that though.

I would definitely box the frame in, its a fairly easy task, and the extra rigidity will be good. That would be a neat thing to post in the performance section, those precut plates, if whoever sells them has a website or whatever. These cars would benefit from some more strength even if its not a lowrider or going to be one.

Another thing to consider with my engine\transmission swap for strength. Time to buy a welder.

I just found this thread and you are doing great! I will be following the rest of the build.



Geno

bgkid2966 wrote:I just found this thread and you are doing great! I will be following the rest of the build.



Geno

Welcome to the forum!