68' Chevy II build thread
 

Hello all,
My name is Nick Evdos, and as my sig says, I work at Brian Tooley Racing.
I wanted to share the Stock Appearing build up of the car. I know some folks will inevitably see something's that aren't correct per say, but the wasn't intended as a premier restoration, but rather something that looked original to most onlookers. The colrs, finishes on certain parts may not be exactly correct for the year or model , but I took some liberties on things for the sake of contrast and or function . Now with that said I'm open to input and criticism and time permitting I would like to go back and fix certain things in the future to help with authenticity and aesthetics..

I came across this car following a link someone posted on this site showing a Craigslist ad. It came out of Southern California.
Car was originally a 6cyl with a 3speed manual trans on the column .
It was a pretty plain jane optioned piece, with factory radio delete, manual brakes and steering .
I corresponded with the seller and he sent over pics and some video.
I decided to go ahead and buy it sight unseen , and for the record had never before, nor would never again buy something without inspecting it in person.
Luckily the vehicle was rust free as described, but was missing certain hard to find 68 only pieces as well as the body and paint were quite a bit worse than portrayed.

It was delivered in Feb of 2016 to our home in Colorado. It was, also during a bad snow storm, and we ultimately had to help the car hauler get out of the neighborhood as he ended up getting stuck in the snow.
Here are some pics of the day it arrived in the hauler.

February 2016

In the pics you can see the paint had quite a bit of orange peel and there were some pretty good dents in the body panels, a lot of waves as well as sub par trim and chrome pieces .
The hood hinges were bad, muffler was lying in the trunk , and it ran very poorly. It was sort of odd that the quarters, and roof had what appeared to be a much glossier finish than the rest of the car . The reasoning would soon manifest itself once disassembly started.
Also as previously mentioned , the car was missing some important 68' only pieces ,such as the A Pillar interior moldings, interior door handles, dash pad and emblem, and a few knobs. Luckily the ash tray was there !!

Looking forward to this.

Yes! Looking forward to this as well!!

Me too!

Me three!

Me neither !

'

Me also!
:beers:
~ Pete

.

I’ve restored a couple of 68s. Looks like a good start.

I like the '68s Chevy IIs the best, especially with the extra chrome trim like yours has. Thanks for posting about your car and I hope you have a lot of fun with it.

Good afternoon everyone
Haven't been on here much lately with it being summer and all .
Wanted t slowly start adding some updates, etc
The car was originally shipped from Cali to Colorado as stated before in early 2016.
The car sat around untouched until early 2018 when i started working on it .

During that time we moved from Colorado to Kentucky for a career change as I went to work with a long time acquaintance in the aftermarket performance industry.
I work at Brian Tooley racing, a late model LS/LT engine specialty company that most LS guys have heard of .

I've been here 5 years now. I originally was in sales for 2 years ,then I went over to product development and ran our Superflow engine dyno and Spintron for 2-1/2 years.
I then transitioned back over to lead tech adviser for our sales staff as well specing out the more serious max effort type combos for our customers.
I also do all the custom cam work here at BTR.

Getting back to the current project, I started disassembly in spring of 2018.
I started by removing the original engine and trans and the front clip assy .
Then I had the suspension components and a 12 bolt rear end housing sand blasted .

Subframe and misc front end parts being sand blasted .

Parts back from blasters.

BTR started in Bowling Green KY. He is related to a friend of mine, Samuel Vincent. I took my 077 big block aluminum heads to them for some repairs. I went back several weeks later to find out what was being done, and when I pulled up in front of the shop it was completely empty. I started to panic wondering where my heads were. I asked around and found out that they had moved to Dayton Ohio. I got a phone number and called them. They still had my heads and were going to ship them to me when they were finished with them, but they sure gave me a scare. Is BTR still in Dayton or have they moved again?

This will be fun to watch

Following this one! Keen to know what was going on with the paint as you described in your initial post.

BTR is in Bardstown Ky sir , since it's inception in 2012- ish.
When he was in Bowling Green he owned Total Engine Airflow which was eventually sold to Summit racing which is when Brian moved to Tallmadge Ohio to go to work for them.
Thanks :)

I find it interesting that you mention "luckily the ash tray was there".

I had a '70 Nova SS several years ago (I bought it as a tubbed roller and installed a mild small block/T10 but it was purportedly an original 396/375 auto car). I was parked at a local outdoor show for several hours (windows down) and when I returned to the car, I realized someone ahhh-swipe had stolen my ash tray insert.

Is there something special about these ash trays?

That's right, it was Total Engine Airflow. I had forgot about that.

Is there something special about these ash trays?[/QUOTE]

Yes one year only and fetch 200-300 dollars.

Yes one year only and fetch 200-300 dollars.[/QUOTE]


And two different versions for 1968 alone !

Yup, plethora of one year only parts on a 68 Chevy II
I have both ashtray versions and fiber optic lighting for both as well .
Rare breed for sure .

And two different versions for 1968 alone ![/QUOTE]

I thought there was 3 versions?

Good evening all. Been bust lately with work and family but am going to try and get some updates posted on the project.
I've actually made a lot of headway so some of these posts will have happened months ago
I apologize for the delays lol.
So to back up here are a few more shots of the car prior to disassembly .

In the meanwhile once we moved to Kentucky I went ahead and had a new shop built.
It is 28W x 30 deep.
I did the electrical and insulation work and had someone drywall it for me . Then my son and I added the mini split heater and AC unit ourselves .
Some pics below..

Concrete day.. getting excited .

Floor painted and the NOVA getting comfy in it's new home ...

Drywall and paint time , and even added some cabinets....

Now that the shop was pretty much complete and getting full of things ( looked bigger empty lol) Before I actually started disassembly and took the car apart, I took the car to work and used a lift to get the bottom of floor pans clean and some paint added.
Being a California car meant wonderful rust free floorboards inside and out ..
I just pressure washed them and scuffed them as at this point I Was just planning on tidying up the underneath floor pan and subframe and adding a drivetrain. Well things escalated as they do ,so more on that later on ...

So here is the frame being etch primed,epoxy primed and then painted and control arms getting cleaned up as well .

I added new control arm bushings and ball joint
I was initially going to use the rivet looking ball joint bolts ,but they looked weak so i went to Fastenal and found some grade 8 button head bolts and used a hex nut underneath .
Added some JB weld,some sanding and paint and they sort of pass OK for rivets to most ..
Control arms with ball joints and bushings added and ready to install...

Then came the restoration of as much of the front end steering components as possible
Luckily most of it was usable so it was cleaned, paint markings were noted and parts then restored as best as possible ...
Here is everything clean and inspected before rebuilding.

Looking great!!

Finishing the front end and brake components and rebuilt the calipers.
I have the correct 68' dual piston calipers but the 2 piece rotors were too thin for use ,and they are heavy compared to the single pistons, so those were used .

Then I rebuilt the 68' Manual steering box with new bushings,etc.

Tie rod adjusting sleeves and rear end frame bump stops cleaned up and refinished.

Cleaned up some low mileage rotors and drums from another car . The drums still have the adjusting knock out plugs and rotors have ink stamps.

Painting the 12 bolt assy . Cant find the assembly pics but it consists of the following..
68 12 bolt housing
Detroit True Trac Posi unit
4.10 Richmond gears
Strange Axles

Rear backing plates and rear brake assemblies rebuilt. Also detailed the rear brake hose bracket and the original hose retaining clip as the aftermarket clips are incorrect.